That picture—her one true possession—she kept in a drawer, buried beneath her new clothes. She’d left it in the frame, hoping that would protect it when she carried it in her book bag through the ocean, and it had, some, but the picture was all warped and wrinkled.

As she pulled out her clothes, she looked at it for a second, missing a family she knew she’d probably never see again, then hurried to cover it back up with clean panties and slammed the drawer shut.

“Did you want something?” Gemma asked. “Because I need to get changed.”

“So change,” Thea said, and didn’t move from her spot in the doorway.

“Can I get a little privacy?” Gemma asked.

Thea rolled her eyes. “You need to get over it. We’re all girls here.”

“Isn’t Sawyer running around?” Gemma asked.

“He’s somewhere,” Thea admitted, and looked away. She didn’t leave the room, exactly, but turned her back to Gemma. “I think Penn gave him some kind of task before she left.”

Gemma knew this was the best she could hope for, so she hurried to change into a clean dress and underwear.

“Penn left?” Gemma asked, not hiding the surprise in her voice.

“Yeah, Penn and Lexi went shopping,” Thea explained. “New house, new clothes. That’s their motto.”

“Why didn’t you go with them?” Gemma asked.

“I had to stay and babysit you and Sawyer.” Thea glanced over her shoulder, and when she saw that Gemma was dressed, she turned back around.

“I don’t need a babysitter,” Gemma said.

“Yeah, you do,” Thea said flatly. “You look like shit.”

“Thanks,” Gemma muttered.

She brushed past Thea and walked down the hall to the bathroom. Thea followed her, but Gemma hadn’t expected any different.

When she looked in the mirror above the vanity, Gemma realized that Thea hadn’t completely told the truth. While Gemma did look worse than she had the day before, and even worse than she had the day before that, she was still remarkably beautiful.

Her brown hair had golden highlights and soft waves, and even though she’d just woken up from a fitful sleep, it actually looked pretty good. She’d always been pretty, but since turning into a siren, she’d become radiantly gorgeous.

As a siren, she should’ve been a deep tan color that almost glowed. That glow was missing, and her skin had a weird ashen quality to it, yet even that managed to look lovely on her.

She grabbed a hair tie and pulled her hair back into a ponytail. Her hair was damp from sweat, and she didn’t like how it felt hanging around her face.

“You must feel like hell,” Thea commented.