Page 58 of Mama Si's Paradise

“Wouldyouconsider taking me to the Whispering Woods?” I said, and my voice came out different, like I was another person altogether.

“That is a big question,” she told me. “A very big question. I normally would have to be around a human for a longer time, to find their true self. To find out who they really are—a month isn’t going to cut it.”

My stomach fell.

But I am who I say I am. You’ve seen me.

You know me plenty—there’s literally nothing more to me than what meets your eyes!

All of this went through my mind, and the words were at the tip of my tongue, but I couldn’t say them. It wouldn’t be fair—not to her. Mama Si had done nothing but been kind and understanding toward me since I accepted her offer to become one of her dolls. I didn’t want to force her to do something she didn’t want to do, even if I wanted nothing more than to try to convince her.

“I understand,” I said. She had no idea who I was, it was true. But the sad part?

Ihad no idea who I was, either.

“You do?” Mama Si asked with an arched brow.

“Of course. You hardly know me. I wouldn’t have trusted the secret of my world to a stranger, either.” As much as it sucked for me.

And I was sure Mama Si was going to agree with me, but then her eyes lit up and suddenly they were almost glowing, like the fur of the animals when I touched them.

“Precisely, Fall Doll,” she whispered. “Ididn’t trust anything to anyone. The Burrow did.”

“Oh.”

“The Burrow showed you what it could do by itself,” shecontinued, and she seemed absolutely in awe. “So, in a way…I’d say Ennaris trusts you already.” Her smile widened slowly. “And if my Burrow trusts you, how canInot?”

Sweat coated my palms. I was breathing heavier than if I’d been running for hours. “So?” Did that mean that she was going to do it?

Please, please, please say yes…

Mama Si closed her eyes and leaned back in her seat with a deep sigh. “This is all too sudden.”

Fuck.I burst out laughing. “Oh, it is. So,sosudden!”

She smiled again. “You’re so sweet, Fall Doll,” she told me. “And I swear it on my Burrow that I will give this a good thinking.”

“Really?”

“Of course. Being an Enchanted means seeing far beyond what the eye sees. I believe I know your heart. You’re pure still. Whether it’s because you’re young or because your life made you this way—I don’t know. But you’re pure. I feel it.”

And I wanted to bepuremore than anything right now. “Thank you.”

She dragged herself closer to the edge of her seat. “Don’t thank me, but instead promise me one thing: think about this, too,” she told me. “Think about it long and hard. Decide whether you truly want this.”

I smiled. “I get to play the piano in the middle of a woods every single night. I get to play with animals whose fur glows when I touch them. How could Inotwant this?”

“Oh, you’ll get a lot more than that!” And she laughed a little. “You’ll get magic. You’ll be able to alter your reality with your will and mind alone.”

That did sound amazing, but I would rather be hiding in that woods anyway. I said nothing.

“But that’s not all. Understand that if you agree to this,Ennaris will never let you go. You will belong to it. You cannot leave the Seven Isles anymore until the day that you die.”

She said it like she thought it would be a bad thing for me, but…it wasn’t.

I didn’t want to leave. I wanted to stay right there forever.

“I’ll think about it,” I said because even though it sounded better than any dream I’d ever dared to dream, I still wanted to sleep on it. I still wanted to wake up tomorrow and see if this was even real.

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