Page 119 of The Secret of Drulea Cottage

Truth be told, she has. And yet, despite the dark circles under her eyes, the messy hair, and the fidgeting hands, she still looks absolutely gorgeous.

Briony clasped her friend’s hand. “Adaira, you can’ know how glad I am to see you!”

She then glanced around the room. “Santiago, is he… Did he leave?”

Adaira nodded. “His ship vanished shortly after the storm. Lucia, the captain, they’re all gone. I’m sorry, Briony.”

“Nay, I have to get to him! How long was I out? When did the ship leave?” Briony tried to bring her body up into a sitting position, but it was too painful.

“Slow down! Yer in no condition to move, let alone get to the ship! Besides, there’s more we need to discuss.”

Briony opened her mouth to argue, but an angry look from Adaira made her think better of it.

Adaira took a deep, calming breath. “After the storm passed, John and I went to look fer you. We…we found Mr. McLaren. Briony, what happened?”

Briony turned away with a grimace, feeling the guilt rise in her stomach like acid.

After a few seconds of silence, Adaira said, “You told me the storm was na natural and that you had to leave or more people would get hurt. As yer friend fer over half yer life, I think I deserve an explanation.”

“I…” Briony didn’t know how to tell her the truth. She’d planned to, after everything was over, but now she couldn’t even bear to look Adaira in the eye.

“Does it have something to do with this?”

Briony looked back and found Adaira holding out a long gray sealskin. Her sealskin. Except—

“Nay, it can’ be!” Briony gasped and grabbed the pelt, inspecting two gaping holes that hadn’t been there before.

When Costa had shot her, she hadn’t been thinking about the fact she was wrapped in her sealskin. The bullet had passed right through the stomach and back of her seal form.

Briony was no expert on what it meant to be a selkie, but the damage was clear: if she transformed into a seal again, it might kill her.

She looked up at her friend and let out a small sob, unable to wrap her mind around all that this meant.

Adaira sighed, her anger seeming to escape with her breath. Her eyes were kind as she reached out a hand and rubbed Briony’s shoulder. “I’m sorry, dearie. I’m so sorry.”

Briony frowned, wondering at Adaira’s words. She gestured to the pelt. “This is—”

“—yers. I know.”

“What? How do you know that?” Briony’s mouth dropped open in shock.

Adaira gave her a small, rueful smile. “You’ve always been a wee bit different, haven’ you? After that day on the beach when I saw yer webbed toes and then the seals came… I started to wonder if calling you a changeling was na that far off. I thought maybe you’d summoned the seals to rescue you, and if I was mean to you again, you might set them on me.” She looked away, her voice low. “That’s the real reason I became yer friend. Na because I felt bad fer what I’d done but because I feared what you might do to me.”

Briony took in a sharp breath at Adaira’s confession. “Are you saying this friendship has been a lie?”

Adaira turned back and raised her hands, panic in her eyes. “Nay! Nay, that’s na it at all! Aye, the friendship started under false pretenses, but it did na take long before I realized how good o’ a person you are. A far better person than I am.”

“Because you thought I would hurt you if we weren’ friends…”

Adaira’s face was as white as a sheet, but she didn’t deny Briony’s words. Instead, she hung her head in shame.

“Adaira, that does na make sense! Think o’ all the times I’ve been bullied, and I’ve never hurt anyone fer it.”

Adaira wrung her hands, a thought clearly on her mind, though she hesitated to voice it. “What o’ Alastair, then?”

Briony shook her head angrily. “You really think I could do something like that?! I had nothing to do with his death!”

“We were only bairns then… I would na blame you fer it. He was horrible to everyone, but he always treated you the worst. If I had that kind o’ power and he’d gone after me, I might have done the same thing just to protect myself.”