Sea Witch(27)

“Do you like?” she asks. “Hopefully they will do the trick.”

I nod eagerly. “What trick?”

“Allowing me to stay,” she says, clutching a Havnestad-blue dress with mother-of-pearl inlay. “Don’t you want me to stay?”

“Of course I do, Mette,” I say, trying out the nickname for the first time. And I realize I mean it. Not only so she can save Nik from his mother’s misguided intentions, but to have a friend who knows magic, who knows the real me. I didn’t know how much I wanted that until I met her. “How long do you have?” I ask, hoping she’ll give me a real answer this time. “I want to help.”

“The magic lasts four full days,” she replies. “I have three left.”

My face falls. “That’s it?”

“But three days becomes forever if, before midnight on the final day, my true love has fallen for me, too.”

Too.

Nik.

Forever.

“I love him, Evie. I really do.” Annemette flops on the bed, no longer the shifty girl holding everything back. More like the girl I used to talk with about boys and gossip in her own grand room. “He’s why I came back. I know he can love me. Didn’t you see us last night?”

“But what if he doesn’t?” I ask. She turns and stares out the window, out at the sea far below.

“What is it?” I come to her and sit on her bed. “Tell me, Mette.”

She shakes her head and buries her face in her hands. When she responds, it’s as if she’s repeating something she read in a book—and maybe she is.

“To come to land in human form a mermaid must complete a magical contract—her life as a mermaid for four days on land.” She pauses and shudders, her chest heaving slightly. “She may not return to the sea after those four days, for she can never again be a mermaid.”

My stomach practically tumbles to my feet. “Wait . . . you die?” What kind of dark magic did she do? Nik is wonderful, amazing, the best guy I know—but to risk her life for someone she barely knows?

She sits up and nods. “I know. It’s crazy. But you don’t get it. He’s what I’ve been missing. I knew he was mine when he fell into the sea. Into my arms. And to be human? Evie, you don’t know how lucky you are.”

I don’t even know what to think. Of course I want her to live, and I want them both to be happy, but how can this work? Falling in love in four days seems . . . unrealistic, to say the least.

I temper my words carefully. “How can you tell when he truly loves you?”

Annemette’s face goes dreamy again. “True love’s kiss is all I need.”

I almost laugh. Now it’s unrealistic and ridiculous. So much so, I’m completely incredulous. “A kiss, really? Your life for a kiss? That’s it? That’s some magic.”

“It’s the feeling in the kiss. I’ll know. The magic will know.”

I think of Nik on the steps—enchanted, yes, but in love? No. Not yet, anyway.

I walk back to the window seat. I need space to breathe, to think. If Annemette hadn’t risked her life on this, I don’t know how I’d feel if Nik really did fall in love in three days. The whole thing just feels wrong—her life depending on Nik somehow awakening powerful magic, simply by having enough love in his heart for a girl he’s only just met. One I like, one he likes, one I’m forever grateful to. But I just don’t know . . . there has to be another way to keep her alive without forcing Nik to love her.

When I look up, Annemette is rushing toward me. She squeezes onto the window seat beside me and takes my hands. The color has drained from her face.

“Evie . . . I’m not encroaching, am I?” Worry furrows her brow. “You were searching for him that night . . . he was waiting for you at the palace last evening. He isn’t . . . ? You don’t . . . ?”

“I’m not in love with Nik, and he’s definitely not in love with me.” I’ve had to say this exact phrase many times, most recently to Malvina. “We’re just best friends.”

She breathes out a sigh, hands fluttering as she smooths her hair. “You seem so close, and I didn’t even question . . . you must think I’m horrible.”

“Not at all! Nik and I have been inseparable for years.” I struggle to make eye contact here, her closeness again overwhelming. “It’s a common mistake.”

Relief washes over her, and she sinks back against the window seat cushions. “Do you have someone, then? Someone who makes your heart beat so hard you think it’ll pound itself out?”

Iker’s face flashes in my memory, a wide smile reaching the ice of his eyes. I bite my lip. “I do—I did. I don’t know.” Annemette is staring at me for more, so I reluctantly go on. “You saw him—the other boy on the beach that night.” She nods in recognition. “Well, he’s Nik’s cousin, the crown prince of Rigeby Bay. But it doesn’t matter, Mette. He’s away at sea, and we have more pressing things to consider. Three days . . .”

“Oh, Evie, you’re such a good friend,” Annemette says, pulling me into an embrace.

Three days to fall in love. Three days to live. Three days until the ball every noble lady in the ?resund Kingdoms will attend. I shake my head. Finding true love is hard enough without the competition.