Page 66 of Mama Si's Paradise

“A very powerful Enchanted. A siren,” said Mama Si, and again, that fountain statue came before my eyes as clear as the blue sky over us. “She cast a spell, a powerful spell upon the land. An unbreakable spell.”

An actual magic spell. “What does it do besides make it hard for you to reproduce often?”

Mama Si raised her brows in surprise. “Isn’t that bad enough? To be able to have our own children so rarely. To have to rely only on scraps of magic, what is left in the roots of our trees, just to survive. To be constantly deprived of power, when power is what keeps as alive.”

Well, damn.

I shook my head—yes, that did sound pretty fucked up. “But why? Why would she do something like that to her own home?” And also,sirens are real?!

“I’m sure she had her reasons, Fall Doll,” Mama Si said with a shrug of her shoulders that her coat barely showed.

“So, sirens are…bad guys?” Because according to what Amber said about the fountain statue, they were heroes. Theysavedthe world.

Mama Si laughed a bit. “That is a very naive way of looking at life, doll. We’re all villains in someone’s book. We just have to make sure that we’re not in ours.”

Her words weighed heavy on my shoulders because I was learning more every day that that was an absolute truth.

“I’m sorry that it happened.” Nobody deserved to live in starvation mode—even if they were starving for power.

“I believe you,” Mama Si said, like she wasproudof the fact.

“To be honest, I don’t even know what specific questions to ask at this point. I know so little about this whole thing, and I can’t believe I’m just going to dive in headfirst.” I couldn’t believe I was in the middle of the fucking ocean right now, sitting on a boat that moved itself but not like an actual boat. It didn’t rock to the sides at all, just moved slightly with the waves and kept on sailing even though there was no wind and no sail and no rows and no engine to take us forward. I was sitting here with one of the most fascinating people I’d ever met in my life, and I was about to try my luck atbecoming like her.

“How about you relax instead of asking questions, Fall Doll?” Mama Si whispered. “How about you give that mind of yours a break and enjoy the ocean? How about you let Ennaris show you everything you need to know when we get there? You already know our story. You already know so much more than most humans in the world. The rest you have to see for yourself.”

The excitement that rushed through me at the idea of seeingmorelike the Paradise made butterflies erupt in my stomach. What more could I possibly see when I’d already witnessed purple water, animals with glowing fur, and a piano made out of tree roots sprouting in the middle of a forest?

How much more magic and beauty could Ennaris show me?

Turning my eyes to the horizon, I tried to calm my racing heart, tried to breathe in deeply while I smiled like an idiot, but at least Mama Si had turned her back to me again so shedidn’t see me. Fuck, she looked so regal standing there, looking ahead, like a statue. Or a painting. The blue of the sky suited her.

From here, I could see the ocean so much more clearly, so I noticed something in the distance as soon as I allowed myself to focus.

Standing up, I went closer to Mama Si to see it better, and I realized it was the silhouette of an island.

“Do you see that?” I whispered, pointing my finger ahead, slightly to our left.

“Oh, yes. Doyou?” Mama Si said, laughing.

“It’s an island.” I could see it, even though therewasn’t supposed to bean island so close to the Paradise. I’d seen the ocean from all sides, and there was no land anywhere near us. No land on any map, either.

But then I looked back.

I turned to where we came from, and I gasped, my heart skipping a long beat.

An island.

It was a goddamn island that we’d left behind, pretty much the same silhouette as the one ahead, only this one with a wider, shorter structure—the Paradise. It was a fucking island for real, even though I’d lived in the townattachedto it for two whole years!

“That’s my Blood Burrow,” Mama Si proudly said, then pointed ahead. “And the rest of the Seven Isles are ahead of us.”

I could still only make out the one on the left, and my eyes were stuck on it, so when somethingflewover the large pointy shape—possibly a big mountain—I assumed it was a plane. A helicopter, like those that came and went at the Paradise on the daily.

But then there was another that joined the first.

And a third.

And then they spit fire.

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