Page 148 of Mama Si's Paradise

Pulling the shawl around my head tighter, I held onto it and went closer, but nobody was even looking my way. So many people coming and going from all sides that nobody cared about a woman coming up the edge of the cliff on her own, a woman who didn’t have wings. Their eyes skimmed my face as I passed by and entered the crowd, a smile already on my face. Fabrics, jewels, spices, big bowls full of shimmery dust in all colors, glassware and a tattoo parlor right there in the open, where a man with dark blue, half-ruined wings was tattooing on a woman’s arm with his nail. His long blue nail shaped like a claw that released blue ink as he moved it.

Flowers and perfumes, velvet paintings and small sculptures, toys—and even cages full of animals. They had birds with neon-colored feathers, and puppies with blue eyes, and something that looked like a cross between a cat and a rabbit with fluffy white fur that made me wonder if it would glow if I touched it.

The more I walked among these people, the more I saw, and the more I was mesmerized by the entire thing.

When the faeries tending their stands began to notice me, they started offering me whatever they were selling.

“The best fish in all the Isles!”

“You want to glow after your bath, don’t you? Well, this dust will bring out the colors in you!”a woman with pink wings and pink hair insisted as she offered me one of those bowls with orange shimmery dust in them.

“No, thank you, I have no money,” I kept saying as I moved away, elbowing my way through the crowd.

“Everything must be paid,”someone shouted.

“Taste it—it’s the sweetest faerie-bee honey you’ll ever try!”said another man, shoving a wooden spoon right in front of my face with his hand underneath as if to catch any drops.

“Oh!” I stopped walking. The man washuge,his hair white. Not blond—white, snow-white, and he was at least three heads taller than me, a skinny giant with big hands and silver wings on his back. There was something about the faces of faeries, something that made them a tiny bit different, but I couldn’t put my finger on it yet. They looked almost identical, but there was just something about them…

“Come on, out with your tongue. Taste it! My faerie-bees won’t take no for an answer!” he said with a throaty voice, and indeed thefaerie-beesthat were inside a large glass box in the middle of his stand buzzed in unison as if to agree.

Colorful. They werecolorfulbees, not yellow and black, but purple and red and orange and blue, and they were bigger, almost like wasps, but their wings were shaped differently, too.

I stuck out my tongue and licked the normal-looking honey off the man’s wooden spoon.

Holy sweetness—it wasgood!

“Wow,” I breathed, bringing my hands in front of my mouth, eyes wide as the man beamed.

“Told ya. Even dragons lay down their claws for this honey. It’s their favorite taste.” He grinned. “And you can get a full cup for just three silver coins.” And he reached behind me on the table to bring out a small white cup that must have been full of that honey goodness.

“Can I come back later? I’m kind of in a rush right now,” I said and slowly slipped into the crowd as he laughed his heart out, not offended in the least. He just shoved his wooden spoon in the mouth of the next passerby.

My God, the honey was so good I couldn’t stop licking my lips, hoping a little of it remained somewhere on my skin and I could taste it again.

“Faerie-fruit! The sweetest faerie-fruit in the Aerie—come,come!” sang a faerie woman with lime-green wings that were barely there and lime-green hair cut close to her head. She carried a big basket full of fruit that looked like apples, except they were a bit smaller, and they were a deep indigo, a color I’d never seen on a fruit before.

So many things to see, so many people around me. I passed by three witches holding wands in their hands as they went, frowns on their faces, muttering curse words under their breaths every time a faerie popped in front of them demanding they get whatever they were selling.

They were all real. Witches and fire elementals and people who wore fur over their shoulders even in the scorching heat of the sun. Skinwalkers, who used to shift into wolves. Actual werewolves, and I was here among them, all by myself?—

The thought occurred to me and I looked up, eyes searching for Shadow who stood out among even the darkness of the Whispering Woods.

Except he wasn’t there. He wasn’t flying in circles over me like he usually did, and I couldn’t see well enough through the moving crowd, but I couldn’t feel his eyes on me, either.

Shadow was no longer there. He’d left.

I was really, truly alone in a faerie bazaar, surrounded by stands and so many people, while the large trees that served them as homes were farther away. I barely made them out from here.

A long breath left me, and I looked down at my hand, at the amethyst of my ring. It looked so beautiful in the sunlight, twice as bright as it had in the castle.Invisible.It was going to make me invisible to magic, to the curse…or was it just a test?

Was this whole thing just a game to punish me or something?

What would be the point of it, anyway?

“Hello, dear.”

My heart stopped beating for a good second, and I was toostunned to even turn right away when the voice of the woman came from right behind me, way too close. In this place it was impossible to tell who was sneaking up on you with so many people on all sides at the same time, no matter how enhanced my senses now.

---