Thor's Serpents by K.L. Armstrong, M.A. Marr

had.
    Baldwin’s eyes widened, but Owen nodded.
    “Ragnarök,” her mom said calmly. “Sky darkened, wolves, Brekkes and Thorsens at odds because of their ancestry.”
    Baldwin exchanged another look with Laurie. Then Baldwin prompted, “And do you know about the
wulfenkind
?”
    “Laurie’s father, probably Fen, and”—she folded her hands tightly together—“are you… a wolf, too, Laurie?”
    “Umm, no.” Laurie swallowed and stared at her mother and then at her brother. “You know? You both know?”
    Her mom nodded. “Your father explained it years ago. Why else would I forgive him for coming and going like he does? It’s because he doesn’t want to join the crazier part of his family. I figured Fen would join them, though, and I was afraid he’d talk you into it, too. I worried about his influence.”
    “You thought Fen was a bad influence because he’d persuade me to join one of the family wolf packs?” Laurie asked. “It wasn’t because we got into trouble?”
    Her mother smiled. “Well, there was that, too.”
    Laurie closed her eyes for a moment, pinched her wrist, and then opened her eyes. She was awake. “This is real.”
    Owen nodded.
    “No mara as far as I can tell,” Baldwin murmured. “Plus, this isn’t really a
nightmare
. It’s good, right?” He looked at her mom. “You aren’t going to say Laurie should join the bad guys or something, are you?”
    “No.” Her mother sighed. “I hoped you were making peace with the Thorsens. It is that youngest Thorsen you ran away with, according to the mayor.”
    “It is,” Laurie said quietly. “Him and Fen.”
    Her mother nodded. “Jordie, go get that picture I had you hide.”
    Laurie’s brother squeezed her quickly, and then he ran toward his room. Laurie watched him go. She wasn’t in shock. After everything that she’d experienced lately, shock wasn’t likely. She was, however, more than a bit surprised. “You knew.”
    “I hoped you wouldn’t get swept up in it, but then you turned into a fish—”
    “That was a dream.” She remembered it more like a nightmare, though. She’d woken up to find that she was a salmon and had been terrified that she would suffocate. A few days later, she’d been on the run with Fen, who could become a wolf, and Matt, who could throw people backward with some invisible power. “I overreacted, but—”
    “No, dear, you really were a fish.” Her mother patted her hand. “I thought maybe we could ignore it. I told your father, of course, but he said that fish were rare in the family. There hasn’t been a salmon in generations, apparently. I figured it was better than a wolf, though. Maybe it would mean you wouldn’t get mixed up with that Brekke bunch.”
    “You’re a fish?” Baldwin asked. “How come you’ve never turned into a fish around us?”
    Laurie opened her mouth, realized she had no answer, and closed her mouth.
    Owen looked at her and smiled. Then he walked away to stare out the window.
    Jordie came back carrying a picture and a bag with fish scales. He’d obviously heard the end of the conversation, though, because he said, “I took a picture of it the next night when it happened. She didn’t wake up when it happened; it was just
poof
, my sister was a fish. Maybe she can be both a wolf and a fish someday. Dad says it happens.” He looked at Baldwin hopefully and asked, “No wolf signs when she’s been sleeping?”
    “No, not so far,” Baldwin said very seriously. “She’s always been a girl, no scales or fur, but she does have a bow that shoots invisible arrows.”
    “Cool!” Jordie yelled. He flopped down next to Laurie and asked, “Can I see it?”
    “Not right now.”
    Baldwin started to add, “She can also make—”
    “Stop.” Laurie cut him off. She looked at her mother. “Okay, so you already know most of the stuff I didn’t know how to tell you.”
    Her mother nodded.
    “Here’s the rest: don’t trust any of the Thorsens or the Brekkes.