Page 90 of Shadow Witch

He plopped down next to her and began to fill his mold with sand. His fleshy eyebrows furrowed as he stared at her. “You have very pretty eyes. I hadn’t noticed last night. They looked black.”

“Black?” Paige asked with a wrinkled nose as she laid the foundation for the apartment building. Was a different eye color a side effect of the drug?

“Yep, black as coal. Other than that, you looked just like you do now. Well, you looked a lot meaner. Especially when you stomped on my house.”

Paige tugged her lips back into a wince. “Oh, man. I’m so sorry. I usually don’t do anything like this. I know it’s no excuse, but…I was on drugs last night. Not by choice. Someone drugged me.”

“Oh,” the little crab said, “well, that’s not an excuse, but at least it explains some of what happened.”

Paige’s mind spun as she laid another brick for the building. She tried to search the depths of her mind for anything that remotely resembled her poor behavior last night, but she found nothing.

She gave up, assuming that she’d never remember anything from her bachelorette party. She’d nearly finished her work on the apartment building when Eyva emerged from the castle with the merman.

She floated toward Drucinda first, who set her shovel down and exchanged a few words with the woman. After a moment, Drucinda shook her head and waved her away.

Eyva moved on, swimming over to Paige. “Almost done with the apartment building.”

“Wonderful. I’m certain the residents will appreciate it, though Thor and I have come to the conclusion that we didn’t, in fact, destroy this town.”

“We didn’t?” Paige asked. “But he said he recognized us.”

“Yes. He recognized us but with black eyes.”

“Oh, yeah,” Paige said with a nod. “The crab said that, too.”

“The crab,” Thor grumbled, “has a name. It’s Sebastian.”

“Right. Sorry. Sebastian said I had black eyes. Is that a side effect of the drugs?”

“No. But it is characteristic of a mimic.”

Paige sat her shovel down as she snapped her gaze to Eyva. “A what?”

“A mimic. A form of mermaid that can change her appearance to mimic others. The only thing that does not change is the eyes. When they mimic, they are black. Even their tails disappear.”

“Evil mermaids?”

Eyva nodded. “Yes. Evil mermaids. Led here by our visit. So, in addition to building back the town, we should also help by seeking them out and destroying them.”

“What? Seriously? We don’t have time–“

“Dut, dut, dut, dut, dut,” Eyva scolded with a wag of her finger. “We have enough time to help these poor people who will be terrorized by these mermaids now that they have been exposed to them.”

Paige heaved a sigh as she nodded. “Fine. We’ll destroy the mermaids, too.”

“I knew you’d agree,” Eyva said with a clap of her hands. “Now, finish up with that building, and let’s seek out these evil mermaids and dispatch them.”

“Dispatch them? Aren’t we going to have to basically…kill them?”

“No,” Thor answered. “I want them brought back here alive. We shall put them on trial for what they’ve done.”

“Oh, just drag them back here. Okay,” Paige said as she laid the final brick. “That should be simple enough. Do you have another one of those pitchforks and maybe a set of handcuffs?”

Thor narrowed his eyes at her as she dusted off her hands.

“Right, of course, you don’t. That’s okay. We’ll just bring them back with our bare hands. How hard can this be?”

“I don’t remember much about last night, but I believe these evil mermaids came from that direction,” Eyva said, pointing through the water.

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