Page 139 of Scars Like Wings

“Present!” Maisie emerged with her own bag on a bed of magic and a wave of her hand to close the door behind her with the same magic.

“What took you so long?” Simone asked.

“Do you really want to know?” Maisie asked with a raised eyebrow and cleaning one corner of her mouth.

“No,” Simone and I said at the same time. Maisie laughed.

After sifting through our bags and finding our swimsuits, Simone and Maisie started to get undressed. But I hesitated. I had always been comfortable being naked in front of my friends. They had never made me feel insecure about my body. In fact, they had always made me feel beautiful in my own skin, teaching me to love my stretch marks and curves. They uplifted me. So, I had never felt self-conscious or insecure about my body. Maybe at worst, when I was on my period, I only wanted to wear oversized clothes all day.

But things weren’t how they always had been for me.

Seeing my friends start to put on their swimsuits, I decided to bite the bullet and get things over with. I took off my shirt and pants and hurried to put on the black two-piece bikini I had been so excited to wear. With it on, I went over to the standing full-length mirror. When I had tried it on in Torrid, the two-piece had been too fucking sexy for me not to buy. The high-waisted bottom had hung on my hips in just the right places to show them off along with being flattering on my apron belly and making my ass gorgeously fat. The strappy bikini top made my boobs lookstunning, bringing out the best of my cleavage. It was the perfect swimsuit for me, but the suit wasn’t so much the problem as the parts of my skin it didn’t hide.

Since the first time we saw Talli, my skin had started to peel. It began as skin tags on my fingers that would come away in long strips up my hands and wrists. However, it grew to massive patches the size of a textbook on my legs, arms, and stomach. Picking it away revealed patches of strange new skin. At first, I couldn’t place them, but then I realized they looked just like the purple and yellow patches on Simone’s knees, ankles, and feet.

Scales.

They were scales.

Scales that were growing not just on my thighs, knees, ankles, and feet, but also on my hands, wrists, elbows, arms, stomach, and neck. They were holographic. With a white base, they shimmered pastel purples, pinks, and blues even without direct light on them. They were so pretty along with my light brown skin and especially with my black swimsuit. I couldn’t deny it. When I felt them, they were so soft and smooth just like my skin. Touching them though sent a buzz through me. How could I have scales? What was everyone else going to think and say when they saw me?

Yet again, I found myself asking:what was happening to me?

I was about to grab my coverup when Simone noticed me as she adjusted the straps of her beautiful teal swim top beside me. Her eyes widened. “Oh, my gods! First of all, I’mobsessedwith that swimsuit. But are those scales? Likeyourscales?”

I resisted the urge to try to cover up my scales with my hands. Instead, I wrapped my arms around myself, and I nodded.

Simone’s eyebrows furrowed as she came up beside me. “When did you get these? Was it recently, like, in the past couple of weeks?”

I nodded again. My throat was clogged as I was overwhelmed with so many emotions.

“Oh, Bee, are you okay?” Simone placed a hand on my arm as a sign of reassurance. It was the same spot where my tattoo of a doe and her baby fawn for my mother was, but also where a new patch of scales was. Her touch made me pull back. A shiver passed through me, and I felt overstimulated all the sudden.What had just happened?

Simone immediately pulled her hand back. Somehow, her eyes found a way to widen even more. “Holy fuck, they are sensitive, aren’t they? Oh, my gods, you really do have scales then!”

“Wait, what do you mean by sensitive?” I was finally able to ask through my growing anxiety.

“Well… if your scales are anything like mine—which they seem to be—they are very responsive to touch. If the wrong person touches them, it’s like your space has been invaded, even if they mean well. But if therightperson touches them—say, your partner—they are a ridiculous erogenous zone.”

“Woah, so Byrd grew a few new horny spots that you have actually always had?!” Maisie asked, approaching us as she tied her swimsuit top around her.

“Maisie!” Simone and I cried out.

“Sorry! What does it mean that Bee has sexy scales now?”

“I literally will drown you in this pool today is what it means,” I said, glaring at Maisie. “Donotcall them that.”

“Well, it certainly narrows down the list of shifters Byrd could be.” Simone answered.

“What does it narrow it down to?”

Simone’s glossy lips set into a straight line in thought at my question. “Given the pattern of your scales growing all over, you aren’t a mermaid. Our scales only grow on our lower limbs. You have never been a strong swimmer, so everything aquatic is actually out. So, the list is actually narrowed down to… Well, I have no idea.”

“Ah, so the starting point?”

“It’s not all hopeless, Bee! This is something I can actually help with!” Simone went to her bag and returned with a bottle of what looked like lotion. When I read the label, I realized it was actually scale moisturizer. “I usually don’t need this for my scales while I’m here, but I always bring some, just in case! You never know when they could dry out, so rather be safe than sorry! All you have to do is rub it on your scales like lotion. Oh, you know what? I bet this was why your skin was so itchyand irritated. Your scales were coming in! Gods, molting is so annoying that way.”

My head was starting to spin. I had molted before? I had scales now? I had no idea how to care for them, and I was still no closer to actually knowing what I was at all.

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