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"Tamsin, I—"

I started crying so suddenly that I barely had time to put the plate somewhere safe.

Her expression changed immediately. She took the rucksack off my knees and dropped it onto the floor, then wrapped an arm around me and pulled me against her.

I cried into her shoulder.

When I finally managed to breathe normally again, she waited a little longer before speaking.

"Right," she said quietly. "Tell me."

I wiped my face against my sleeve. "Tell you what?"

"Whatever made you pack a bag and sit here looking like you're about to escape through a bathroom window." Despite everything, a tiny laugh caught in my throat. Tamsin squeezed my shoulder. "Come on. All of it."

So I told her.

I told her about the boatman. The mainland. The Council office. The plan to walk inside and give myself up.

I told her that maybe if they had me, they wouldn't need Marion anymore.

That maybe Kaelen and Silas and everyone else could finally stop risking themselves because of me.

Tamsin listened without interrupting. She ate her cake in small bites while I talked, and when I was finished, she rested the fork on the edge of her plate.

"And you kept all of that to yourself?"

"Yeah."

"Why?"

I stared at my hands. "I didn't want you getting into trouble too."

Tamsin was quiet for a moment. "Wren, do you actually think that's how this works? You disappear in the middle of the night so nobody else gets involved, and then the rest of us just wake up tomorrow and go, Oh, well. Guess that's sorted?"

"I don't know."

"Because I wouldn't." She picked at a crumb on her plate. "I'd come after you."

"Tamsin—"

"I would. And so would half of Saltmere. Probably all of Saltmere, actually, once somebody told Nell." Despite myself, I almost smiled, but Tamsin didn't. "You're trying to protect us by making the choice for us. Which is very noble and very stupid."

I looked away. "I don't want anyone else getting hurt because of me."

"I know." Her voice softened. "I know you don't." For a few seconds she stared down at the cake on her plate, turning the fork slowly between her fingers. "Can I tell you something? I've never really told anyone here. Not properly."

I glanced at her and nodded.

"You know how I shifted in the bath at home, right?"

"Yeah."

"Well." She gave a small shrug. "I usually tell that part like it's funny. Because the otter thing is funny, technically. Less funny when you include what happened afterward." She kept her eyes on her plate. "My mother found me and started screaming. My dad came upstairs after her, and he screamed too. Then he went to the cupboard on the landing and came back with a broom."

I didn't say anything.

"I got out through the window and onto the kitchen roof. From there I climbed down the drainpipe and ended up in the garden next door. I spent two days as an otter in the canal at the bottom of our road because I couldn't work out how to change back." She took another bite of cake, chewed it, and swallowed. "When I finally went home, they'd changed the locks. There was a rubbish bag on the front step with my clothes inside." She paused. "They'd kicked me out."