Exhaling in relief, Undrea shook her head. “I’m not really sure.” Although she had a rough idea, she just wasn’t sure how to tell him.
“Nina,” he whispered.
“Yes, that’s right. She was here. How do you feel?”
His eyes rolled back in his head for a moment, then he seemed to come to again. He took a breath before answering. “My head is killing me.”
“I bet it is.” There was no way she was going to tell him he had to leave now. Nina had just used witchcraft on him. “We need to get you inside. Do you think you can walk?”
He pushed up with his hands to a sitting position. “Yes. She was arguing about how we weren’t done. Then she said something, Latin maybe, and right after that…everything went black. What did she do?”
“I don’t know for sure. Don’t worry about it right now.” He’d picked up on the Latin, which was no surprise because of how smart he was. And yet, he’d never figured out what Nina really was. Or she had him bespelled not to figure it out.
Either way, he deserved to understand exactly what and who he was dealing with. And that included Undrea coming clean, too. “We need to talk. But first, let’s get you inside.”
“Okay.”
She helped him up and back into the house. She got him into the kitchen and made him sit at the kitchen table. She felt his forehead. He seemed warm. “Do you want something to drink? Or some aspirin or something?”
“Maybe some water.”
She nodded and got him a glass, then came back and sat with him. This wasn’t a conversation she ever imagined she’d have. Not with him. Not with any upright, actually. “I don’t know where to start with this. In fact, I’m not sure there’s a right place. So I’m just going to dive in.”
He sipped his water and nodded. He kept blinking like he was having trouble focusing.
“Nina is a witch.”
He put his glass down. “Yeah, she is. She’s worse than that, if we’re being real, but my mom hates when I use that word so—”
“No, Ethan. I’m not calling her a name. I mean she’s an actual witch. Like a spellcasting, witchcraft using, coven-joining witch.”
He stared at her. And didn’t say a thing.
“She told me so herself. She told me she was a rare witch, and according to a friend of mine who knows about this kind of stuff, that’s not supposed to be a very powerful type of witch, but obviously, Nina lied about that, because whatever spell she threw at you had real power in it.”
He was still staring. And still quiet.
She put her hand on his. He was burning up. “Are you okay? I know this is hard to believe, but I promise it’s completely true.” She took a breath, gathering her courage. “I know because I’m a—”
“Undrea.”
“Yes?” The word mermaid remained on the tip of her tongue, ready for speaking.
“I don’t feel…so…” His eyes rolled back in his head, and he slumped down in the chair. She grabbed him just in time to keep him from hitting the floor.
“Ethan? Ethan!” But he was really out this time.
She bent and hooked her arms under his, clasping her hands together in front of his chest. With her grip secured around him, she dragged him down the hall and hoisted him halfway onto the guest bed. All thanks to her supernatural strength, because without that, she never would have managed it.
He wasn’t a bodybuilder, but he was solid. He was taller than her, too, which didn’t help in maneuvering him.
Bowie stood at the foot of the bed, meowing. Could he sense something was wrong?
Undrea lifted Ethan’s legs onto the bed and straightened him out. “I don’t know, Bowie. I have no idea what just happened. Let’s hope Mattie does, though.”
She grabbed her phone and dialed, speaking as soon as Mattie answered. “I need you. Right now. Witch emergency. Major witch emergency.”
“Back up. What happened?”
“Nina was here. And she cast a spell on Ethan, and he just passed out for a second time. I’ve tried rousing him and no luck. Not even dragging him down the hall woke him.”
“I’m on my way.”
Undrea paced from the guest bedroom to the living-room windows and back again about three hundred times while waiting for Mattie to arrive. Ethan didn’t move once. She checked that he was still breathing about a hundred times. He was. Thankfully.
But her impending sense of doom grew with each passing moment. What had Nina done to him?
Bowie never left Ethan’s side, which Undrea found very sweet. She’d never thought of a cat as being loyal, but he certainly seemed to be concerned about Ethan’s well-being.
By the time Mattie’s car pulled into Undrea’s drive, she was practically vibrating with worry. She opened the front door and stood there, waiting for Mattie to come in.
Mattie got out of her car and started for the house, then stopped, turned and lifted her face into the breeze. After a moment, she came inside.
“What were you doing?” Undrea asked.
Mattie shook her head, looking very solemn. “Investigating. She used serious magic. More serious than she should have been capable of, according to Corette.”
Undrea nodded. “That’s what I thought too. But how did you know?”
“The scent of sulfur. That’s not a good sign. Did she vanish after she cast her spell on him?”
“Yep. She sure did. Right in front of me, too. She was standing over Ethan as I was running out of the house. She had her hand out like she was going to zap him again. I yelled at her and spooked her, I guess. She just vanished in a puff of smoke and rotten egg stench.”
Mattie frowned. “We’re going to have to tell Corette about this. I’m not a member of the coven for my own reasons, but those women are still my sisters in the craft. We can’t have a witch with this kind of power loose in town and keep it a secret. Not when she’s used her magic against a human.”
“I agree. But first, please see if there’s anything you can do for Ethan.”
“Yes, of course. Let’s go.”
“Guest room.” Undrea led her back. He hadn’t budged.
Mattie sucked in air at the sight of him. “I have a bad feeling about this. Tell me again what happened.”
“Nina said something, cast some kind of spell on him. He went stiff, like he’d been shocked, then he fell down. Like I said, she looked like she was going to spell him again but vanished as I was running toward him, leaving just the smoke in the air and the scent of sulfur, like you noticed.”
Mattie nodded. “What happened after you reached him?”
“He came to as I was next to him, and then I helped him into the house. His forehead felt warm. I got him a glass of water, and we sat at the kitchen table, and I was explaining to him what had happened because he had no understanding of it. I was trying to tell him that Nina was an actual witch, and I was about to tell him I knew that because I was a mermaid, but he was just looking at me blankly. Then his eyes rolled back in his head and he passed out. He’s been like this ever since.”
Mattie took a deep breath, exhaling it slowly as she looked him over. She put her hand on his head. “Still warm.” She dug into her purse, pulling out a small pot of something.