“Oh, comeon.” Estelle muttered to Finley and Archie. She waved her pickleball paddle at their counselors in frustration. “How can shestillnot realize?”
Across the tennis court, Leonie reclined on a deckchair, her injured foot propped up on an overturned storage crate. As they watched, Shan returned, carefully carrying a tray of snacks. He set it down next to her, then took a pillow out from under his arm, murmuring something in her ear. Leonie rolled her eyes, but lifted her foot, allowing him to slide the pillow underneath.
Finley watched Shan fuss with the position of the sunshade he’d insisted on rigging over Leonie’s chair. “Maybe she thinks he’s just being nice.”
“No one’sthatnice,” Estelle said. “I mean, they had a ten-minute argument about whether he was going to carry her across the field. He’s completely obsessed with her. How could she not have noticed?”
“Yeah, that is kinda weird,” Archie agreed. “Normally, you can’t get anything past her. Remember the frogs in the shower last summer? It was like she just knew it was me.”
“Possibly not a great feat of deduction, in that particular case,” Finley murmured. “But it is odd she seems so oblivious now.”
Archie tossed a pickleball from hand to hand. “Maybe she isn’t. I mean, Leonie’s not stupid. I reckon she must have figured out Shan goes all gooey around her.”
“But if she has, why is she pretending she hasn’t?” Estelle asked.
“Who knows?” Archie flipped the ball into the air, letting it spin before catching it again. “Girls are weird.”
Finley frowned thoughtfully. “That’s a valid theory.”
“Hey!”
Finley ducked Estelle’s paddle, raising his hands in apology. “I meant, perhaps Archie’s right about Leonie. Sheisnormally quite observant. Perhaps she is putting on an act.”
“Butwhy?” Estelle waved her paddle in frustration, making both boys jump back. “That doesn’t make any sense. If she knows he’s her mate, why wouldn’t she do something about it?Iwould.”
Archie shrugged. “Maybe she wants him to make the first move.”
“If she’s waiting for that, they’re never going to be mated.” Estelle slapped her paddle against her palm. “Right. No more playing around. Come on.”
“What do you—” Finley started, but Estelle was already marching across the tennis court. He ran to catch up with her, Archie at his heels. “Estelle! You can’t just go over there and confront them!”
Estelle didn’t pause. “I’m not.”
“Kids?” Leonie called from her deckchair. She made as if to rise, but Shan put a hand on her shoulder. “Everything okay?”
“Yep!” With a cheery wave, Estelle headed straight pasttheir counselors. “Don’t mind us. Just need to talk to someone.”
“We do?” Archie muttered under his breath—and then saw where she was heading. “Ohhh.”
“Estelle, wait,” Finley hissed, grabbing her arm. “Are you sure about this?”
“We’ve given Shan every chance.” Estelle shook him off. “It’s time to break out the big guns.”
Several other packs were taking part in the pickleball tournament. Counselors roamed the edges of the court, refereeing the matches. Estelle approached one of them, stretching up to tap him on the shoulder with her paddle. As he turned, she gave him a big, innocent smile.
“Ragvald,” she said. “We need your help.”
CHAPTER 18
Leonie’s ankle fully healed in a couple of days, just as she’d promised. As far as Shan was concerned, that was the only good news.
Despite repeated visits to the unicorns, Buck failed to uncover any further information. According to him, none of them had any idea about the dead tree, or who might have been living there. And the one unicorn who might have been able to help was nowhere to be found.
“The lead mare says Alder regularly goes off on his own to patrol the wider area,” Buck had reported. “At least, I think that’s what she was trying to say. Kind of hard to tell without Alder around to translate all those pretty telepathic images of wind through leaves and dewdrops on kittens into actual words. Anyway, he should be back within the week. Assuming he hasn’t been possessed by a motherloving ghost, that is.”
That left Shan with precious few ways to advance the investigation. Combing through dead trees and hollow logs near the camp didn’t turn up any more hidden caches. He spent long hours each night hidden in the long grass by thedead tree, motionless and ready, but no one came to collect their possessions. Even the owls seemed to have abandoned the area.
By the fourth day of no results, he was both exhausted and ready to claw the walls in frustration. The campers didn’t seem to notice his increasingly distracted state, but Leonie did.
