Page 164 of Mama Si's Paradise

As I looked up at him now, breathing heavily still from allthat running, I realized I’d made the right call. There was no way I could live with myself knowing the price for my freedom was his death.Anybody’sdeath.

“What are you doing here, Sunshine?” Valentine said, and it was all I could do not to burst out in tears. Instead I jumped him and wrapped my arms around his waist tightly, needing to feel grounded for a moment.

It was over. Nobody was chasing me anymore. I was perfectly safe here.

Strong arms wrapped around me. “What happened?” he whispered, lips pressed to the top of my head. “Are you okay, Sunshine? What happened?”

I leaned back to look at him. “I went to Faeries’ Aerie, and then I met this woman. Her name is Emerald even though she’s a red faerie, and—and—and she has a library and her Storyteller and I helped her clean it, s-s-so she took me inside it with a book and—and?—”

“Stop.”

The words died on my tongue and I realized what I sounded like. The words leaving my mouth were slurred together and I was stuttering and I was a mess.

Fuck, I needed to stop and breathe for a moment.

Closing my eyes, I lowered my head and did just that.

“Why are you back, Sunshine? Why didn’t you leave?” Valentine said. “You still have the ring, don’t you?” And he raised my hand where the amethyst hid under my finger. Yes, it was still there, and he saw it. “Why didn’t you go back home?!”

Just like I suspected,he knew. Valentine knew exactly what the ring was, and he was indeed the one to tell Genevieve to give it to me. He’d really let me leave the Whispering Woods knowing what it would cost him.

“Silly vampire,” I muttered, touching his cheek gently. Was he out of his damned mind?!

“What did you do, Sunshine? What happened?” he whispered, still as confused as I had been when I first found out.

“I was going to leave, and then the faerie I met told me that you’d be banished from the Whispering Woods and die if I did. So, I wanted to return here to make sure you knew. To make sure you had a plan,” I admitted. “But when I returned to her library…” Squeezing my eyes shut for a second, I shook my head. “Valentine, they’re planning something. I don’t know who that faerie was, but two men were with her, one a Skinwalker, I think, and they knew about me. They wanted me gone. They said that it had finally begun, and that…” My voice trailed off and I saw the whole scene in my head exactly as I had what could have been just a couple hours ago.

“They said what?” Valentine said, eyes wide and dark, hanging onto the next words coming out of my lips.

“They said that the Evernight brothers would never see it coming.” Those had been Emerald’s words. “You have to tell Romin, Valentine. You have to tell the others. They?—”

“Sunshine,” he cut me off. His hands were on my face. “Someone’s coming. I need you to stop talking about this. I need you to keep this to yourself until we know more.”

“What?” Was he serious? “I’m telling you what I heard, Valentine—they’re planning something. The others have to know, they have—” But he wouldn’t let me speak.

“Trust me, Sunshine, you don’t want to tell my brothers something like that without being certain of it first. Keep it to yourself. Let me handle it, okay? I’ll find out if it’s true.” With each word, his voice became lower and lower, and even Shadow came and sat on his shoulder with that squeaking sound—like a warning.

“But it is,” I told him, holding onto his arms. “It’s true—I heard them. Isawthem!” Why would he assume I was lying?

“I know that,” Valentine whispered. “But people plan rebellions all the time, and before I let my brothers knowabout this, I have to make sure they’re a real threat, okay?” He held my face so tightly it hurt. “I’ll handle this. Just don’t talk about it to anyone, do you understand me?” Fuck, he sounded desperate. “Keep it to yourself.”

“But—”

“If they find out you left the castle, Sunshine, they’ll be merciless.”

My mouth clamped shut instantly and my heart fell all the way to my heels. “Shit.”

Valentine let me go and I instantly breathed easier. “No word about it to anyone. Nobody can find out you were gone, okay? Nobody.”

Of course not. If they did, I was as good as dead already, and if I went and told Romin about what I heard and saw, he’d know.

“I won’t say a word,” I said reluctantly, and Valentine nodded.

“You’ll be just fine,” he mouthed, and I barely read the words on his lips, but before I could ask him again who was coming, the heavy door to the mirror room opened.

My hands were dirty from the fall, and I was a sweaty mess from all that running, but I smoothed my hair behind my ears quickly and covered my hands with the sleeves of my shirt as best as I could, hoping it would be a bride coming to the mirror room to see the other Isles. I even turned to Witches’ Wing to pretend I’d been looking at it all along, and I casually turned my head back when I heard the footsteps approaching.

My breath caught in my throat and my heart skipped one too many beats. It was Grey.

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