Page 60 of Mama Si's Paradise

I didn’t even get the chance to feel relieved because Hannah looked at me, and in her eyes I could swear I saw colors. I could swear I sawall the colorshidden in blue, just like in Mama Si’s eyes.

Everything came to a halt.

“You’re…you’re…”one of them,I wanted to say. She was an Enchanted.

My God, the eyes gave her away. I couldn’t believe I hadn’t noticed until now!

But before I could utter the words, Hannah grabbed a fistful of my hair, pulling my head back. “I’ll warn you one last time. This isn’t a place for the likes of you, foolish girl. Get out while you still can.”

The footsteps were so close, and I wished whoever was coming would get there already, just as much as I wished they’d disappear so I could ask her more questions.

“What the hell are you—” I started, but Hannah suddenly let go of me and stepped back, fixing her sequin top.

Then she whispered,“Run.”

Marissa turned the corner the next moment.

Hannah was already running down the other side without another look back.

Mama Si joinedus for breakfast the next day, and it was such a shock I lost my appetite at the sight of her. Only five of the other girls were around the table with us. The rest were still sleeping, some having been with their clients the night before, other partying until late.

Mama Si sat at the head of the table with her broad-brimmed hat and her pink gloves and her pink dress hugging her figure like a second skin. The girls were so happy to talk to her, to share with her what they’d done or what they’d learned.

Meanwhile, I was pretending to eat just so I didn’t look suspicious while the wheels in my head turned.

I knew that the Paradise was just a steppingstone. It wasn’t my destination, not even for the next week. I was either walking out of those gates and going back to the real world the same way I’d come—empty-handed—or I was going to be Mama Si’s offering to Ennaris and become an Enchanted.

How fucking ridiculous. The stuff of fantasies, and I’d have been the first to laugh in my own face at the absurdity of those thoughts if I hadn’t seen the magic of the Burrow firsthand.

And I wanted it. My God, I wanted to be part of it so badly that it hurt me physically just to imagine what my life would look like if I could spend all my days in the woods with glowing animals playing the piano.

“Fall Doll, walk with me.”

I blinked the blur away and found I’d been staring at my half-filled plate without eating. Mama Si had already finished her food, and she’d stood up, her eyes on me.

Shivers ran down my back as I followed her outside into the yard. The sun shone brightly, the days getting hotter—so hot, in fact, you’d think it was summer already. Or maybe it was just me.

“Tell me—how are you, doll? You hardly touched your breakfast,” Mama Si said when we were far enough away fromthe mansion and Assa was the only person close enough to hear us. Ahead, there were gardens of roses on either side, a pool on the left and a gorgeous orchard on the right. Mama Si was taking us there.

“I’ve been good,” I whispered, looking down at the ground as I walked. “Confused for the most part, but okay.”

“It’s only natural,” she said with a nod. “And? Have you thought about that night?”

I gave her a quick glance—if she thought there had been anything else in my mind except that night, she was absolutely delusional.

“I have.” Every waking second.

She looked at me, too, that perfect brow raised. “And?”

And I just want to be in that forest playing the piano,I wanted to say. Whatever got me there,that’swhat I wanted.

But I already knew that that wasn’t what she was asking.

“Last night, Hannah found me in the hallway,” I said reluctantly. “She warned me. Told me to run. Told me that I had no idea what price I’d have to pay. I think sheknew.”

I waited a heartbeat, thinking she would be enraged.

Instead, Mama Si burst out laughing.

---