Page 63 of Mama Si's Paradise

That meant I’d have to do exactly what Hannah did.

The image of her being fucked on the dining table by two of the most beautiful men I’d ever seen took over my mind. The way they’d looked at her like she was a damn miracle. The way they’d worshipped her…

“Youwillbe chosen this time, though. I know it,” Mama Si whispered, inviting my eyes to hers again. “I can feel it. Remember what I told you, Fall Doll. Even if you don’t, you’llhave so much more power than you ever will as a human. You can use that. You can make yourself into something anyway. You can be your own woman.”

“My own woman. I like that.” In fact, it just might be the best thing I’d ever heard in my life.

Mama Si smiled. “As well you should.”

I nodded. This was a good thing. Thisfeltlike a good thing—and she said it herself, it wasn’t about thoughts. This was about how I’d feel for the rest of my life.

“When?” I asked halfheartedly.

“This Sunday. The ritual will take place this Sunday.”

My heart skipped a beat. “That’s three days away.”

She raised her brows. “And I wish we’d had more time to prepare, but the truth is, Fall Doll, I’m glad we don’t. We have a way of robbing ourselves of our own opportunities when we’re left to ponder for long.”

“But…but it’s just three days. It’s way too soon. I have to?—”

“What?” she cut me off. “Do you want to talk to someone? Do you need to make a call? Or maybe go see someone in person?Hugthem? I can fly you to wherever you need today.”

My heart broke and broke and broke, the echo of the shattering pieces filling my head.

“No.” I had nobody to call. Nobody to go see. Nobody to hug.

“I understand if you want to wait until next year, though,” she said.

A year.

A year wastoo long! But three days was too soon.

There went my thoughts, spiraling downward again. “Is there a way to postpone the ritual?”

Throwing her head back, Mama Si laughed. “Oh, doll, of course not. I don’t think you understand the magnitude of theevent. All the Isles will be there. They’ve been waiting for this day all year.”

I narrowed my brows. “Really? They’rethatinvested in turning humans into Enchanted?” Because…whywould they be?

“There’s so much you don’t know about Ennaris, Fall Doll. And I’ll tell you when the time is right, but what I will tell you right now is that a curse has been cast upon our lands, and because of it we reproduce so, so rarely. It’s very important to us to welcome humans into our world regularly.”

“What kind of a curse?” I wondered, my mind going back to that night, to the fountain of the sirens with the purple water that Amber had showed me.

Now I knew for a fact that it wasn’t a chemical concoction, just magic. Real magic.

“An old one,” Mama Si said with a sigh. “So, what will it be, Fall Doll? Give me your word now—will you sail with me to the Whispering Woods on Sunday and become my offering for this year?”

Sail,she said. We’d be sailing onSunday.

God, there were still so many things to think about—but wouldn’t there always be more things to think about? What had I done for the whole week while she’d stayed away?

I’d thought and thought and thought—and nearly drove myself insane with indecision.

So, I straightened my shoulders and I looked Mama Si in the eye, and I said with all my heart: “I will. You have my word.”

She smiled like the whole world suddenly became hers.

Eighteen

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