Page 59 of Mama Si's Paradise

“Good—and I’ll do the same,” Mama Si said and suddenly stood up. “I am tired, Fall Doll. I need rest. I suggest you get some, too. Let’s talk more tomorrow.”

With a warm smile and a squeeze of my arm, she turned around and walked out of the room before I found my voice to thank her again for everything she’d already done for me.

Seventeen

Glowinganimals and tree roots chased me all night in my dreams, but these weren’t friendly and nice. They didn’t want me to pet them, and they didn’t give me pianos in the middle of the forest.

No, these wanted toeatme. These wanted to catch me and cage me and skin me alive.

By the time I woke up before six a.m., I was covered in sweat, my hair sticking to my face, the slightly wet sheets uncomfortable against my back. That’s why the first thing I did was fill up a bath just to get my muscles to relax. They were so stiff, like I’d been bracing myself in the real world the same way I’d done in my dreams.

“Enchanted,” I whispered to the bathroom, raising my hand, and I pretended that the foam on my palm was a pink rose, like the one Mama Si had made the night before. It was magic,mymagic that I did myself.

And as exciting as that was, it was scary as all hell, too.

I pulled my hand down under the water again, my heart skipping a long beat. So much to think about. So much to decide. My whole life, basically. And here I was soaking in abath, smiling and anxious at the same time, thinking about magic. Thinking about it being real.

Considering if maybe I had lost my damned mind since Brandon kicked me out, but then deciding that Mama Si had been there and had seen everything, too. She was part of this magic. Sheruledthis place—the Blood Burrow.

And the Whispering Woods—such strange names. So… “Magical,” I whispered to myself, giggling like a little girl.

What were the names of the other five Isles? I couldn’t wait to find out.

But when Marissa came to wake me up at seven thirty, my mind was still not made up—on the contrary. It seemed the more I thought about it, the more my decision escaped me.

I thought Mama Si was going to come talk to me that very night to tell me hers, but she didn’t.

She didn’t come the next day, either, or the one after that…

For the nextfive days I was a nervous mess, writing down reasons, trying to think up new ones, trying todecidewhat to tell her whenever she decided to come talk to me. And when that didn’t work, I tried to distract myself with the girls, go to the pool and to the dining room and to the movie theatre and to the parties. It was easy—the girls were so much fun, I loved them to death. I dared to say they all liked me, too—except one.

I was returning from a party on the fifth night when she grabbed me by the arm, pulled me and spun me around so masterfully you’d think she did this for a living. Before I knew it, my back was against the wall and she had her other hand around my neck.

The fear and the panic turned the blood in my veins ice-cold instantly, and I was too shocked to make a single sound,until I saw those wide blue eyes in front of mine and I realized who it was.

Then, the anger made me see red.

“Let go of me,” I said through gritted teeth—and I would only warn her once. If she didn’t back the fuck away from me, I was going to slam my forehead to her nose so hard it would break.

But then Hannah smiled, and that smile made me think of snakes and sneaky things and deep, dark secrets, especially when she whispered, “Do you have any idea what you’re getting yourself into?”

“Move back,” I hissed, trying to push her off, but she wouldn’t even budge.

Fuck, I’d forgotten how strong she was. So much stronger than should have been possible with her small frame. I grabbed her forearm to get her hand away from my neck, but it only made her squeeze harder.

“I told you to run, little rabbit, but you didn’t listen. Now the monsters will devour you,” she whispered, and slowly leaned closer and closer until I couldn’t fucking breathe anymore. Not because she was choking me, no. But because those words of hers rang true, and every instinct in my body believed her.

“Let go of me, Hannah,” I said with a weak whisper because I knew that she knew. Somehow, in some way, she fucking knew about the Burrow and about Mama Si being an Enchanted. She knew about everything.

“You’re a pathetic excuse for a doll, you know that?” she told me instead. “You think everything’s easy. You think things come without payment. You think you’reentitled.”

I squeezed my eyes shut and dug my fingernails into her skin, but if she felt the pain, she didn’t even flinch. Instead, she came closer to me and that fucking bite mark I always noticedon her was right there in front of my face. Still as fresh. Still as raw.

“Who bit you?” I said before I could even stop myself, and I didn’t really want to.

Hannah’s head moved back as she laughed.

“Oh, your ignorance is delicious. But remember that everything has a price,” she whispered, just as we heard footsteps coming our way from around the corner.

---