She didn’t back away from me, didn’t run screaming, but confusion rippled over herfeatures.
“How hard did you bump yourhead?”
“I’ll show you.” Concentrating hard, I lifted my unsteady hands and willed my nails to turn into claws. Nothing happened. I tried again. Still nothing. I tucked both my hands underneath my thighs. “I used to be able to change at will, but beingaway—”
“Oh,sweetheart…”
“Evelyn, please. I’m telling you thetruth.”
She shot me a look filled with such pain and sympathy that I grabbed the phone from my tunic pocket and dialedEverest.
After a couple rings, his sleepy voice came on. “Hello?”
“Come to the kitchen now,” Isaid.
“Ness, it’s not evensix.”
“Please.”
He grumbled. “Fine.”
Silence slipped between Evelyn and me. I could tell a thousand words formed on the tip of her tongue, but she didn’t utter any of them. She just stared, her face stamped with as much worry as the day we’d finally let her into our ground-floorunit.
Five long minutes later, Everest arrived. “What?”
“Show Evelyn,” I askedhim.
“Show herwhat?”
“What weare.”
His eyes widened. “Ness…”
“I can’t keep this a secret from her anylonger.”
He turned his face toward Evelyn. Alarm deepened the little lines around her eyes andmouth.
“Please,” Iwhispered.
“Okay.” He raised his hands. In seconds, his nails lengthened and curled, and then his fingers retracted into hispalms.
Evelyn became as pale as her pancake batter. She crossed herself, and then…and then shefainted.
Everest caught her before her head could knock against the tiles. I scrambled off the stepladder and helped him situate her there. I rushed to the sink, wadded up some paper towels, and wetthem.
“Why did youhaveto tell her?” Everest muttered, his voice still a bitgroggy.
“Because she would’ve found out. It’s not like our existence is that much of a secret in this part of theworld.”
“Just because people suspect we exist, doesn’t mean they all believeit.”
I crouched beside her and moved the damp compress across her forehead. “I needed her to believeit.”
Her eyelids fluttered, and then her mascara-laden eyelashes lifted. She blinked as she came to. And then her black eyes settled on me. An emotion—I couldn’t tell if it was fear or astonishment—flitted throughthem.
“Please, say something, Evelyn.” I dabbed the wet towel along herneck.
“Breakfast,” she murmured. “I need to make breakfast.” She pressed my hand away, latched onto the island for support, and wobbled onto her feet. Everest hadn’t released her, but she brushed his hands off as though they werespiders.
