Page 153 of Mama Si's Paradise

Fall of Ennaris.Those words never failed to send shivers down my back.

“You could fly, right?” I’d already asked Valentine about it once, but I guess wanted to hear it from an actual fairy, too. “Before, I mean. Before the Fall.”

“My ancestors could, yes. Our wings were whole then. Our control of the air element was strong. We weren’t tied to the Isle like we are now. We were free before Syra,” she said.

‘“Syra?” I didn’t think I’d heard that name before.

“Syra, the siren who ruined us.” There was a touch ofsadness in her voice and a hint of anger in her strange red eyes. “You’ll see soon. Come, this way.”

With the book in hand, she waved for me to follow her around the glass ball, to the side she’d cleaned, to reveal a set of three steps at the very end, near the wall.

“So how does this work? How will Iseethe?—”

“Be patient, Doll. Take my hand.”

She offered me her hand, and I took it, too curious at this point to even wonder if I was walking into another trap, just like with Mama Si.

“Emerald, are we just going to walk into the glass?” I asked because there was no door on the surface of the ball, just those thin engravings I could barely make out now that the surface was shiny and clean.

“We are, Doll. Close your eyes—and trust me.”

I looked at her, stopping on the first step.Trusther. She wanted me to trust her.

“Go ahead—close them. I promise to show you a world unlike any you’ve ever seen before…”

Her whisper filled my head as if with magic. I must have lost my damned mind because I closed my eyes, and when she pulled me up the steps, I followed, knowing full well I’d slam face first onto glass.

I didn’t.

“Open your eyes.”

Green light in front of me, all around me. I was floating on air, my feet somehow not touching the ground anymore, though I could have sworn I was stepping on wood just a second ago.

Oh, my God,I thought, but no sound came out of me, as if I suddenly had no voice to speak with. No mouth and no lips and no body. I was light as air, and though I heard Emerald’s voice echoing in my head, I couldn’t see her, either. All I could see was that green light getting more intense by the second.

“Once upon a time, the Kingdom of Ennaris was a vast and beautiful land, untouched by time, separate from the rest of the Earth, home to all kinds of magical beings,” Emerald started. “The dragons lay their eggs in the caves of the Fire Mountain, and the faeries flew from their Aerie to spread their colors to those in need, and witches brewed potions and created charms for a better fortune, and Skinwalkers lived in harmony with their animal halves, and the succubi fed off and gave back to the people all the pleasure an Enchanted could need, and sirens lured pirates and fishermen into their borders and ate their flesh and harnessed their magic to give back to our beautiful land…”

The words began to fade away slowly, and the light in front of me was changing shape and color.

“Until Syra, one of the siren sisters, fell in love with the most notorious pirate of his time…”

Colorsexplodedin front of my eyes.

From that moment on, I didn’t hear Emerald’s voice anymore. The light that had been in the middle of the Storyteller was moving, shaping itself into images, and I saw everything like I was right there. I saw everything like I’d traveled back in time, like I’d been picked up from that library and thrown into a whole Ennaris, before the Seven Isles were created.

And the story went like this…

Thirty-Five

How beautiful,the sirens. All ten of them, sisters born out of Ennaris, tied to both land and sea—but they’d always preferred the ocean. They’d always preferred the vast space underneath they could so easily control. They’d always preferred the dark over the light, and the cold over the warm, and the heart over any other part of a man’s body to feast on.

After all, it was the heart that gave them the most power to give back to Ennaris. It was the heart that tasted better than all.

They lived on shores all around the Kingdom, the continent so large I saw a glimpse of it as if from outer space just to get the feel of it. If I had to guess, I’d say it was almost the size of Australia. Some shores were made of white sand, soft and sparkling under sunlight, but the sirens preferred the rocks, ones with sharp edges, for their feet itched when they traded their fins, when they traded water for land, when they sometimes got tired and needed rest—or when they were feasting after their latest hunt.

I saw them, saw all ten sisters in the ocean one twilight,and it wasn’t like watching a movie, no. It was like I was there, in the air somewhere, floating, no body and no voice, but I had eyes to see with, and I saw it all playing in fast forward mode. Words that explained exactly what was happening popped into my mind without me having to even think about it.

A black ship with a black flag atop the sails, a white skull sewn on it, had anchored in the middle of the ocean. Every member of the crew, including the handsome captain with the leather vest and a red handkerchief in the chest pocket, was at the back, leaning against the railing, looking at the sirens playing for them in the water.

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