Page 88 of Shadow Witch

“Of course, you can,” Drucinda answered. “It’s an underwater realm. Quite safe for humans.”

Paige breathed a sigh of relief as she swished the water around her and scanned the underwater kingdom. “This is nice.”

Sandcastles and colorful fish dotted the new landscape. “Where would Dewey be?”

Eyva fluttered past, her dress splayed out in the water. “Probably the castle. That’s where we went last night.”

“Let’s check there,” Paige answered as she kicked her feet, sending her floating toward the sand structure.

Paige barrel-rolled through the water with a grin, pleased at her newfound freedom in the sea. She floated above the grand castle for a moment before she dove toward it as Drucinda passed her.

“It’s fun here,” she said with a grin, sliding through the opening and into the castle’s main chamber.

Drucinda screwed up her face at the words. A second later, Paige discovered the reason.

A large merman floated toward them, a trident in one hand. He jabbed a finger at them with a scowl on his face. “You again?”

“Oops,” Eyva said. “Sorry, just passing through in search of a friend.”

“Your friend isn’t here. And if he was, I’d have put him in the dungeon. Like I’m about to do to you.”

“What?” Paige exclaimed. “There must be some sort of mistake. We’re really nice people.”

“Oh, are you?” The merman floated closer, his eyes narrowing. “You weren’t last night.”

“Yeah, about that…” Paige winced as she shrugged. “Really funny story. We were sort of high. Someone drugged us. So, if we were behaving oddly, that’s why.”

He glared at her. “Behaving oddly? Is that what you’d call it.”

“Isn’t that what happened?”

“No!” The merman raised his pitchfork in the air.

“O-okay, what happened then?”

He gritted his teeth as he snarled at her. “You came here and knocked down our entire town. We’re still rebuilding. You humans and your amusement with smashing sandcastles.”

He rocked back, grabbing his belly as he faked a laugh. “Oh, hahaha, look I kicked another one down. Hohoho, so funny.”

“That doesn’t sound like us,” Paige said.

“Doesn’t it? Well, it was. You and her.” He poked a finger at Drucinda.

“I’m not human, so I’m allowed to be mean.”

He grimaced at her. “I don’t care what you are. You have no right to destroy a civilization and laugh about it.”

Paige curled her fingers into fists. “Look, I don’t believe we did that.”

“Don’t you? Well, here’s some proof.” He grabbed what looked like a phone and twisted it toward them.

Paige tugged a corner of her lips back as she watched herself knock over a small building before she covered her lips with laughter. “Oh man. I really never should get high.”

“No, you shouldn’t. Now that I’ve proven it. You’re going to the dungeon.” He poked the trident at them.

“Okay, umm, I think we can work something out here. Maybe some community service.”

“Or maybe you can be eaten by a shark.”

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