Page 17 of Forget Me Not
Did her dad accept the knowledge so easily because he was into that kind of thing too? But wait, could a gene even affect that?
Syve blinked away her rapidly spiraling thoughts and turned back to the open book, running her fingers through her braid again to prop her head on her hand.
Gods, why was it so much harder to write than to say out loud to your father?
I am a shifter.
Okay, way easier the second time.
Your Nan—your entire family on my side—are all (or were all) deer shifters. Like shapeshifters, but we only turn into deer.
Oh! Your school bus just pulled up—I’ll explain more later!
More than all the stars in the sky,
Mom
Syve’s hand slid from under her head, causing her to fall forward with her mouth agape. She stared at the paper, reading the entry, over and over while replaying her dreams in her mind.
Suppose they were not dreams after all?
Suppose that made everything worse?
She shot up from her chair so quickly she sent the poor thing tumbling, clanking loudly across the floor. Her heartwas thundering in her chest; she couldn’t catch her breath and the temperature in the room dropped.
Deer.
Shifter.
Deer shifter.
She backed into the wall with her hand clutched to her chest, afraid her heart would beat straight out of her ribs.
“Deer,” she whispered, before the world spun.
“Syve! Syve, are you up here? Bitch, you’d better have a good reason for making me worry!” Aimi’s voice echoed up the stairs. “You didn’t show up for coffee, you’re not answering your phone, and yourworstcrime?! Making me use my spare key on that dicked-up front door of yours! Let’s be real, I wasn’t going to walk all the way around the back when I was already at the front…” her rambling trailed off when she came out of the laundry room that sat at the top of the landing.
The loft was a disaster.
It looked exactly like someone let a wild animal loose. The entirety of Syve’s DVD collection was strewn from the kitchen to the bathroom down the hall, couch cushions flipped off the couch, the curtains were barely hanging abovethe window, and the TV was lying face down on the floor with a nice hole in the middle.
Aimi stood in the center of the living room with her mouth—all but literally—on the floor. Syve took that moment to make the smallest sound, calling out to her best friend because what the fuck else was she going to do? The damned mirror in the kitchen, which was also a catastrophic mess, already confirmed what had happened, but she was still in firm denial.
When her friend heard the soft bleat, she spun on her heel.
“HOLY SHIT!” She jumped back, tripped over the coffee table and landed solidly on her ass. “HOLY FUCK! SYVE?!” she screeched, glancing over her shoulder toward the bedroom, obviously looking for herhumanfriend.
When her eyes locked back onto the deer in front of her, she scrambled back to her feet—equipping herself with the TV remote that had conveniently toppled off the table when she did. Syve repeated her small, panicked sound, flinching and retreating a step when her best friend raised her arm in preparation to throw said remote ather.
Aimi’s head jerked back in surprise, and she began blinking rapidly.
Syve’s teeth were softly clicking as her body was wracked with shivers from the adrenaline flooding her veins.
Slowly, Aimi lowered her arm, dropping the remote to thefloor.
They stared at each other a moment more before Aimi pointed at the door. Syve took a tentative step, then another.
“I’ve officially gone and lost my damn mind,” Aimi finally mumbled to herself, as she reached for the door.
