Page 71 of Mama Si's Paradise

Oh, God, I shouldn’t have been here at all.

I just want to go home!said a voice in my head.

Too late.

“Wh-wh-what now?” I asked, shivering, though the water was warm, and it moved around me like it was trying to comfort me.

“Now, silly human, you get to give your blood to Ennaris,” Sedelis said, and she was coming closer.

Fuck, she was coming closer.

She wasglidingin the water so smoothly, causing no bubbles or ripples or anything at all on the surface.

“Mama Si,” I whispered, trying to instinctively get back on the boat, but I couldn’t.

That same water that was trying to comfort me? Now it was holding me down.

I wanted to scream from frustration, but I was too stunned, too afraid to make all that sound.

“It’s okay, Fall Doll. You’re just afraid, but you don’t have to be. You’re okay,” Mama Si chanted from the edge of the boat, and the words helped. It helped even more when her hands closed over mine—naked, without the gloves, and her warmth slipped into me.

That’s the moment I realized—it was magic.

The warmth that always seemed to slip into my body at the touch of her bare hands, it was magic. It calmed down my racing heart within seconds, and Ifeltit if I paid attention. I felt the foreign body underneath my skin just fine, and I raised my head to look at Mama Si.

She’d been using her magic on me since that very first day we met. I’d just been too distracted by everything else to notice it.

Then… “They’re here,” Sedelis said, and her voice came from much,muchcloser than I realized.

I lowered my head to find her right in front of me.

Her fishtail pressed to my legs. I felt her fucking scales against my knees and my mind went blank.

Nowhere to go. The boat was right at my back and the siren with the gorgeous blue eyes and skin that looked radiant while she was looking at me was right there.

There wasn’t enough air in any real or fantasy world to fill my lungs.

Sedelis moved to the side quickly, and her hand wrapped around my arm. The scream got stuck in my throat. I looked up at Mama Si to ask for help, but she was smiling. She didn’t seem concerned in the least.

Instead, she mouthed,you got this.

I didn’t have shit—but the ritual began anyway.

“I am here with an offering for the rulers of the Evernight Court on behalf of Dragons’ Den!”

The voice was crystal clear, inviting my eyes to the boat in the middle. I realized there were sirens in front of all of them. All the human women were in the water, too, just like me, and the sirens were holding them by the arms.

They were okay. They were all alive, and this was all just part of the plan—and who cared that Sedelis’s fins were still touching my legs?

It doesn’t matter, it doesn’t matter, it doesn’t matter…

“I am here with an offering for the rulers of the Evernight Court on behalf of Faeries’ Aerie!” said the woman with the pink wings from her boat. God, I wanted to be closer so I could see her face so badly. I could swear her hair was the same color as those torn wings, but it was short and she was too far away so I couldn’t be sure.

“I am here with an offering for the rulers of the Evernight Court on behalf of Skinwalker Soil,” called the man standingalone on his boat, with what looked like black and brown fur on his shoulders, and a hood over his head.

“I am here with an offering for the rulers of the Evernight Court on behalf of Witches’ Wing,” said the witch on the boat closest to us.

Then they all turned their eyes our way for a moment, all the sirens in the water and the humans and the Enchanted…

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