I glared at him. “Sorry isn’t going to cut it, Eric.”

He bit his lower lip. “You are the first person to believe I’m in danger, and I was unkind to you.”

“Unkind,” I drawled the word and he flinched as though I’d hit him.

He clenched his hands together in front of him. “I know better than anyone what it feels like to be put in a box and thought of as useless. Please. I don’t want you to go. If you’re willing to help me still.”

The sound of a motor cut through the air. Feish was quick on the draw, I had to give her that. I stared at Eric. “Convince me before the boat gets here.”

He went to his knees in front of me, adjusting his shirt, then clutched his hands at his chest as if he were begging. “Look, I think something’s happening, and not just with me. Savannah isn’t what it used to be. It used to be safe for us in the shadow world, one of the safest cities, and now it’s not. I think someone wants me dead, maybe as part of a spell? That’s my best guess, but I don’t know. They’ve watched me for almost the whole last year. I had the Hollows help me try to track them down, but there was never anyone there. So, they labeled me as paranoid, and you’re the first person to come out and actually believe me. And I was a jerk to you.”

The motor was getting closer.

“Why do you think it’s a spell?” I asked, choosing to ignore the part where he said he was a jerk. He needed me; he’d say anything. The part that made me sit up and take notice was that he thought it was for a spell. This was Gran’s specialty.

His eyes darted around me as the boat drew closer and he spoke faster. “One day, about six months ago, I woke up in the bush with a dart in my side and a bunch of my fur clipped off.” He cringed. “That’s when I moved into my house on a more permanent basis.”

A lot of spells needed fur, or spit, or just a little blood. “So, if they have your fur, then maybe they don’t need you—”

“The next dart took me out two months later, and that time I had puncture wounds up and down my arms, I looked like a junkie. Whoever they are, they’re progressively getting more aggressive. If my fur and my blood wasn’t enough, there’s only one other thing that they might want for a spell.”

His eyes pleaded with me to understand, and I did. Only too well.