Page 54 of Mama Si's Paradise

“So? How did you find the Burrow? Who let you through?” she asked. “Don’t tell me it was Mike. He’s completely smitten by you, but I specifically told him not to distract you. Was it him?”

I shook my head, Mike’s colorful eyes coming in front of me instantly. “No. No, I…no, it wasn’t Mike. It wasn’t anyone.”

She arched a thin brow. “How so?”

“Amber showed me the triangle room. Then she was called away and I stayed behind, and then…then a piece of the glass wall just wasn’t there, and I came out here. And…and I touched the animals.”

“Oooh,”Mama Si whispered, bringing a hand to her chest as she looked around curiously. “They let you touch them?”

“Well, yes.” Yes, they had. I’d touched the animals every single night.

Mama Si laughed and the sound warmed me to my bones.

God, she wasglowing.Not with actual light, not like the animals. She was just open, like a veil had been lifted off her and she could finally be who she trulywas around me.

“Oh, my dearest Fall Doll! That’s a wonderful thing. Awonderfulthing!” she told me.

“It is?”

“The animals don’t let anyone touch them. They run from me—and I’m the Mistress of the Burrow. See?” And she waved her hand around the clearing, to the trees and the tiny eyes I could barely make out as the animals hid and watched us.

“Right,” I said with a nod, as if any of this made any sense to me. “Right, so, I touched the animals, and then I kept walking because I could have sworn I heard the ocean close by, and then I found the clearing. It gave me the piano without my even asking it.”

“Oh, wow,” she said, leaning closer to me, her smile wide, her eyes sparkling. She looked at least a decade younger like this. “So, the Burrow invited you itself. That has never happened before, Fall Doll. Not ever since I’ve ruled this Isle.”

“What…what’s the Burrow?” I’d read that name before—in the library, in that journal.

“My Isle,” she told me. “It’s one of the Seven Isles, called the Blood Burrow.This.” And she spread her arms to the sides again.

“Except we’re not on an isle. We’re on a cliff.” I’d seen it with my own eyes. I’d lived in this town for two years—I’dseenit.

“Oh, that’s just an old illusion I’ve put on my Paradise. The ocean is indeed right there, on the other side, if you want to see it.” She pointed to her right, toward the trees on the other side of the clearing. “But we’re not on a cliff. Of course not—my Paradise is on Burrow grounds.”

I closed my eyes and forced myself to take in a deep breath. Funny, how different it had been when it was just me in this place. When this was just as much a dream as it was reality,when the chance that it was a fantasy was just as high as the chance that it existed in the real world.

So fucking different and so much less scary. So much lessabsurd.

“Fall Doll.”

The name echoed in my head and my eyes popped open. Mama Si was looking at me like she expected me to collapse any second—and I just might.

“It’s okay. You’ve seen this already, haven’t you? You’ve done more than any of the Enchanted are able to in the Paradise. Breathe. You’re no stranger to the Burrow, and the Burrow is no stranger to you. It invited you here itself. That means a great, great deal,” she said calmly.

“Can you explain this to me, Mama Si? Can you make any of this make sense?” Because right now her words were just white noise in my ears, and I couldn’t make anything add up to anything else.

Mama Si smiled. “On one condition, Doll.” I swallowed hard, expecting her to tell me to go to Johnny in that room, tomy job.Instead, she said, “Play that song for me again, and I will tell you everything you want to know.”

Two minutes later, Mama Si’s bench disappeared, only to reappear at the side of the piano. I was sitting on mine, my hands on the keys, the animals slowly approaching to hear better, but still keeping a good distance from Mama Si.

Then, I played her my favorite song with my eyes closed and my heart in my throat, praying to God that I didn’t wake up to find all of this had been just a dream.

Sixteen

“The Seven Isleshave been here on Earth since its creation, and the Enchanted have been here as long as humans. The Isles are all part of Ennaris, and like I told you before, they are the most beautiful lands to have ever existed in this or any other world.”

The words hung in the air for a while. Mama Si gave me a good long pause as if she knew that was exactly what I needed—time. Just a little time to process.

We’d come back into the mansion, through the missing glass panel of the triangle room, but Mama Si hadn’t wanted to stay there. She’d insisted she had a better spot right there on the third floor, and she really did. It was a much smaller room, but all the walls were made of glass, and from here we could actually see the ocean. From here, it did look like we were on a cliff, even if Mama Si reassured me that it wasonly an illusionagain when I pointed it out. There was a long red couch with about a thousand cushions on it, and it faced the windows, the moon, and the twinkling stars in the sky. Like watching the perfect scene at the movies—even more so when I knew thatit wasn’t real.Just an illusion.

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