Page 64 of Mama Si's Paradise

PART II:THE EVERNIGHT COURT

The morning sunfell on the side of my face and the smell of the ocean filled my nostrils. My eyes eventually adjusted to the sudden bright light and allowed me to see the shore.

Small rocks in all shades of grey underneath my feet.

I looked behind me at the mansion, and it was there, the white wall three stories tall, no windows or any other door in sight as far as I could see.

“Good morning, Fall Doll.”

Chills ran down my back as I turned again, to the ocean—right here, barely twenty feet away!—to Marissa and Mike and Assa standing to my right with their hands folded in front of them, watching me, smiling.

To Mama Si wearing a dark red coat with no arms, like a cape that covered her completely from the middle of her neck down to her feet, standing in front to what looked like a boat—a sailboat without a sail.

It was small, so small.

Was she hoping to get us to where we were going onthatlittle thing?

“Good morning,” I forced myself to say, and then Mike was coming toward me, and in his hands was an actual cape. A brown cape made out of the same material as my dress—theexactsame color.

Where the hell did he even get that—and where did he pull it from just now?!

Magic,a voice whispered in my ear. It was magic—and by the end of this, I might be able to do the same things, too.

I’d be a liar if I said that didn’t sound like a goddamn miracle.

“Come, doll. We leave immediately. It’s the day of the ritual and we do not want to be late,” said Mama Si.

She was right. Three days since we last spoke, and I’d hardly felt the time passing by.

Mama Si was smiling and her voice was as warm as ever, but my nerves had already gotten the best of me. I flinched when Mike put the cape around my shoulders and stepped in front of me to tie the ends. Then he produced an orange tie with a small ribbon on it out of thin air and tied that around my wrist. The way he looked down at me made me so damn uncomfortable.

“I’ll be praying for your return,” he whispered before he stepped away, so low I considered I might have imagined it.

“Good luck, Fall. Make us proud,” Marissa said, hands to her chest as she smiled ear to ear, eyes a bit glossy with unshed tears.

She most definitely knew about the Enchanted. She most probably was one herself.

I moved forward and hardly felt the rocks underneath my shoes. Marissa had given me flat ones, for which I was thankful, but my feet were still numb. And my legs. Even my hands, now that I thought about it.

Mama Si wore a broad-brimmed hat with a bit of mesh hanging on one side, the color a deep red, just like the coat that covered her completely. She looked as stunning as ever, and it was probably my nerves, but she also looked fuckingterrifyingdipped in sunlight with the blue background behind her.

“You are absolutely divine, my doll,” she said, reaching out a hand through a cut on her coat that I could have sworn wasn’t there a second ago to help me get on the boat.

Again,magic.This was what these people did.

“Are you sure this is safe?” The light-colored wood, the single bench in the middle, the narrow space—it seemed more like a toy rather than a real boat.

“It is. Don’t you worry your pretty head about a thing, Fall Doll. Nothing and nobody touches what’s mine—not even the ocean.”

As if on cue, a small wave foamed and came closer and closer to the shore, but it never actually touched the boat that was somehow not moving a single inch, even though it wasn’t docked.

Taking in a deep breath, I climbed onto it and moved to the middle, then turned around to look at the shore.

Fuck, the mansion lookedmassivefrom here. Large white walls, and towers and trees barely visible over the roof, so wide I couldn’t see the ends of it. It was built right there on the shore like it wasn’t afraid to stand in front of the water in the least. Like it wasn’t terrified of crashing waves when the ocean was angry.

No,I thought to myself,because it belongs to Mama Si.And apparently, the ocean didn’t touch what was hers.

When I looked at the others, my heart fell. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but I think it was the expression on their faces. I wasn’t sure whether theypitiedme or thought I was their salvation—or both.

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