Page 165 of Mama Si's Paradise

Suddenly, I was grabbed and thrown back into the Storyteller, and I was looking at Hansil Knight on his ship, a smile on his face and a gleaming in his eyes, his handkerchief floating in the air as it slowly landed on Syra’s open hands.

My God, he looked so much like him, my eyes didn’t wantto blink. Grey’s eyes were more…well,grey, and the shape of his brows was a bit different, and his hair was lighter in color than Hansil’s, but Hansil could have been his father. They were so similar I couldn’t look away from his face as he approached, and those strange, beautiful eyes of his were locked on mine, too.

“Fancy seeing you in the mirror room, Grey,” Valentine said, his voice perfectly composed, not a sign of his earlier shock and confusion anywhere on him, though he was afraid. Everyone was afraid of Grey. OnlyIwas fucked up in the head and was curious and intrigued by him, too.

“He wants to see you,” Grey said, never even glancing Valentine’s way.

“Right now?” Valentine said, but Grey didn’t answer him at all. He just moved around the couch and came closer to me from the other side, while I was stuck in place, mesmerized by the sight of him, thrown off by the resemblance to Hansil.Wow.All Evernight brothers were beautiful, but there was something about Grey, about the calm madness hiding in his eyes.

“Of course—words are beneath you,” Valentine muttered, and he sounded so at ease, I envied his control. “Very well. Fall, it was good to see you. Have a good night.”

I gave Valentine a quick look. “You, too,” I barely said, and he turned around to leave me alone with Grey.

Breathe, breathe, breathe,I said to myself in my head, Grey’s eyes on the side of my face while I tried my damn best to control my heartbeat. He didn’t need to know how terrified I was of him finding out what I’d done. Where I’d been.

Funny how it didn’t even occur to me to leave already, too.

“Good evening, Fall,” Grey said, his voice different just now, and he came even closer as Valentine’s footsteps grew more and more distant.

I looked up at him for a second—I couldn’t help it. Helooked so calm, so…unlikehimself all of a sudden, just like he had earlier when he caught me in the hallway.

“Good evening, Grey,” I said, and again, it slipped my mind that they wanted to be calledMasterbefore their name.

But again, Grey didn’t seem to mind.

“Are you feeling better?” he asked instead.

I turned to the mirror of the Witches’ Wing, watching the flames burning on the torches. Most of the witches were already gone, I assumed in their homes, getting ready for bed. It must have been close to midnight already.

“I am, thank you,” I said, holding onto the sleeves of my shirt over my hands so he didn’t see how dirty they were.

“I’m glad,” said Grey, his eyes analyzing the side of my face for a moment longer, and he turned to the mirror, too.

For a little while, we stood there and watched in silence while the last of the witches moved around the large structure shaped like a hat in the middle of their Isle. I was calm, my heartbeat steady, my breathing even. Somehow, I wascomfortablestanding there with Grey, which almost shocked me as much as spying on Emerald and those men.

Before I knew it, I was looking at him again, at the way the little light from the mirrors fell on his profile. His skin looked smooth. His hair looked so soft under those dim lights. And his eyes, they didn’t lookmadnow that I was thinking about it.

No—they just looked…full.

“They actually built the hat as a sort of a telescope. Witches are terribly superstitious, and they claim they can read bad fortune in the stars. When it didn’t work quite like they’d hoped, it became a monument to them,” Grey suddenly said, taking me off guard.

“Really?” I’d never heard that before.

“Yes. They used to be very good at star-reading, according to the books. Not so much anymore.”

Well, fuck. “Wow. I really want to see the inside of that hat.” To find out how they’d planned to actuallyreadbad fortune. “How does one readstars?!” I wondered. I’d really like to understand that, too.

But then Grey said, his voice hushed, “I know what they tell you about me.”

The blood in my veins was suddenly ice-cold. His eyes were stuck on the mirror, but his attention was on me.

I said nothing—didn’t knowwhatto say if I tried.

He closed his eyes for a moment. “And they’re right.”

My heart squeezed and my stomach twisted a million times.

Fuck, that waspainful.

---