Page 118 of Mama Si's Paradise

He already knew the answer to that, the asshole. I couldn’t saynoif I tried.

From that night on,Valentine came to my door every single night and asked me to play the piano for him while he sat in a red chair in the very middle and watched me, listened intently with Shadow on his shoulder, and he never once looked bored.

Two weeks wentby so fast it felt like I never had time to sit down and justbefor a second, even though I was sleeping every night. But the days were full, and I only went back to my room after dinner now because I had duties, it seemed. Duties that Vera and the other brides had assigned for themselves to make life more interesting, and so now I was to be their latestproject, and each was going to teach me a little bit of what they knew best.

Archery, knitting, singing, baking, drawing, chess—each had something they were so incredibly passionate about, and they all wanted to be the first ones to teach me.

Lucinda was going to teach me how to ride horses,one day soon when the Masters don’t actually drink any living animal around us dry, ha-ha-ha—though I was pretty sure she wasn’t kidding, simply because she would never laugh. The most she ever did was grin.

And when I wasn’t trying to learn how to do a million things at once, I was having meals with the brides or I was invited for teatime in one of their lounging areas full of windows that only they seemed to use because the Evernights didn’t like windows. It was enough that the sound of the outside world distracted them constantly; they didn’t want to alsoseeeverything surrounding the castle as well.

But the truth was that there wasn’t much to see outside. Only dark clouds, trees and that stone wall.

We visited the mirror room a couple of times to see the other Isles, though. And the brides told me all about when they first came here, what it was like for them after the Blood Call, the parties that were thrown for each of them, and the gifts they received from the other Isles.

They told me about the towns in the Woods as well, especially the closest one outside the castle. It was a big town, with thousands of people living in it, all kinds of Enchanted who’d left their homes for one reason or the other and had chosen to start their lives and families away from their Isles. The Evernights welcomed most, so long as they agreed not to hunt the animals and not to hurt others. The punishment for any kind of crime, it seemed, wasdeathhere.

“That’s why bad things don’t happen in the Whispering Woods,” Vera so proudly announced.

Yes, no bad things—exceptme.

I contemplated running away every single night, but even if snakes that could swallow me whole wouldn’t have stopped me, the brothers would.

I was obligated to spend time with them once every three days. I had to sit there with the other brides, usually in Romin’s lounge room—an even bigger area than his office with even more of those stuffed animal heads on the walls, like he was proud to have hunted these poor creatures when they had no chance whatsoever against him. But I sat there and I pretended to drink wine. I smiled when I was spoken to, and I nodded my head at the right times, but it wasn’t as scary when the other brides were there. Not even when I sometimes sat closer to Grey, and I felt the energy of him radiating against my skin.

He never spoke to me, said so little only when his brothers asked him something, and that’s why he made me even more curious. If I wasn’t so scared of him, I’d have found him myself and I’d have questioned him a hundred times by now.

The brides and their Masters were nothing like I imagined them to be, though. I thought they’d be like partners, holding hands and kissing and stuff like that, which was why I’d been so baffled as to how the whole thing would work when Romin alone hadfourbrides. But they never touched each other. The couches were big and wide, all black and lush and fancy, so there was plenty of space for all of us to sit comfortably and with enough distance on either side. They never touched and they never kissed and they acted like friends, telling jokes and having conversations with everyone equally.

That first night I’d been so scared, but now I wasn’t. The brothers laughed and talked and drank sonormally—except Grey—and sometimes I even forgot what they were for minutes at a time. Most of the brides were over the moon each time we hung out like that, and the next day was always aboutwho said what and who got more attention from her Master the most.

Cynthia and Amita were visibly uncomfortable during those conversations, though, because Greyreallyhad a hard time talking to people. He could have been a piece of fucking rock sitting on a couch there, and his poor brides were alwaystryingnot to complain about how he never seemed to even look at them.

Be glad,I wanted to tell them.He’s a monster,I wanted to shout.They all are!

Thankfully, I’d learned to bite my tongue and put a filter to what I said very quickly since I arrived.

Meanwhile Valentine kept his eyes on me most of the time. His brothers teased him about having to see me become one oftheirbrides, and it fucking suffocated me every time they did, but he was always perfectly composed, smiling and nodding along. Each time I’d look at him, he’d wink at me as if to tell me not to worry.

I did, though. I really did.

And I told him that sometimes, when he sat in the theatre to listen to me playing. I’d stop in the middle of a song and I’d tell him—I’m worried. What if it’s Tristian? What if it’s Romin? I can’t accept that, Valentine—Ihaveto get out of here!

He always replied with the same words:“Don’t worry, Sunshine. None of them is going to have you.”

I admired his confidence, I really did. And I wished I could believe him with all my heart, but the truth was all my night terrors starred his brothers, blood dripping down their fangs as they came to drink me dry.

Never with Valentine, though. I would go so far as to say I considered him a friend. Not a close friend, justa friend.At first, I was even a little attracted to him, but if I was being perfectly honest with myself, I was attracted to all of them, no matter what that made me.

How could I not be when they were so damn gorgeous—even Grey.EspeciallyGrey with those light eyes and that hair that stood in all directions like he couldn’t be bothered to even look in the mirror when he rolled out of bed, and those wide shoulders and big hands and pale lips…

Even knowing what they were on the inside, they were beautiful, and I was only a woman.

But Valentine, at least, was also a friend.

It wasn’tuntil the thirteenth day that I began tofeeldifferent.

The change happened in the subtlest ways, though. I could see a bit better in the dark. I could hear Shadow’s wings much more clearly. I could hear whispers behind doors and on the other side of the room. I couldsmellValentine approaching even when he was around the corner, if I focused hard enough.

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