Page 221 of Mama Si's Paradise

“So, what are you gonna do about it?” Lucinda asked.

Her question surprised me.

What am I gonna do?WhatcouldI do?

I’d begged Valentine. I’d begged Grey. Neither of them had listened. I couldn’t physically stop them, but…

What if I could direct their attention elsewhere? What if I could talk to Romin, right now, about Valentine and Emerald and those men, and show them why they had much more important things to deal with than this stupid challenge?

“Fall?” Lucinda said, but I couldn’t even look at her again.

I couldn’t stand by and do nothing without trying one more time, either.

“Please excuse me.” And before I could give myself the chance to change my mind, I strode over to the Evernights as fast as my legs could carry me.

“What the hell are you doing?!” Lucinda whisper-yelled at me, but she didn’t follow.

Instead, the brothers realized I was on my way to them a second later, and suddenly they all turned to me, including Grey.

The words exploded out of me and I didn’t hold back.

“This is insane!” I started, stopping just a couple feet away, pretending I wasn’t afraid of five big vampires who could kill me without effort. My body was still shaking, and they could still hear the way my heart was beating, but I said what I had to say anyway.

“You’rebrothers. I don’t care what the rules or the laws are—you all share the same blood. Stop this madness before it goes too far! Nobody here wants the consequences of this challenge.”

The brothers looked at me likeIwas the mad one here. I could have sworn that Grey was trying to stifle a smile, the asshole, but I wasn’t backing down.

Then Romin said, “We have laws for a reason.”

“Thenchangeyour laws for better reasons,” I said. “You can do that. You are the ruler here, are you not?”

His eyes widened like such an absurd thing had never even crossed his mind.

And I knew deep in my heart that he wasn’t going to listen to me. So, I turned to Valentine next.

“Valentine, please withdraw that challenge. You can’t honestly go through with this when there are so much more important things to deal with. Have you told them about Emerald and those men? Have you told them?”

Valentine was always pale, but right now he seemed even paler than usual. “Please back away, Fall. Dawn is minutes away,” he had the audacity to tell me.

“No! I won’t?—”

“What about Emerald and those men?” Grey said. “Who’s Emerald?”

“Nobody,” Valentine spit, but Romin was interested, too.

“What’s she talking about, brother?”

“No—”

“I’m talking about Faeries’ Aerie. I was there two days ago, and I heard a red faerie named Emerald talking to two men about ithaving started. I was?—”

“Fall, slow down,” Grey said, and he was right by my side now.

“I can’t slow down—you’rereallygoing to go through with this stupid challenge!” And they still didn’t see how perfectly absurd it was.

“So, let me get this straight—you think you were in Faeries’ Aerie,” Tristian said, and he at least no longer looked at Grey like he wanted to murder him, but instead looked at me like I really was delusional.

“I don’t think—Iwasin Faeries’ Aerie,” I spit.

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