Page 76 of Mama Si's Paradise

It didn’t. And the small dragon didn’t comenear me at all.

Another did.

I felt it when he was right over my head, roaring a heart-wrenching sound, taking away the sun and the sky completely. It washim,that SUV-sized dragon that had come for me first, before the small one snuck up under his talons and bit me.

No more fishtail wrapped around my legs. I raised my head with my mouth wide open, planning to scream, until I saw the grey belly of the giant.

Talons around my arms, and before I could blink, I was no longer in the water, but up there in the sky, going higher while the smaller dragon flew next to me. My voice came back, and I screamed at the top of my lungs. I screamed and the view in front of me changed so fast, becoming darker and darker until I couldn’t see anything anymore.

The realization cut my voice off instantly. The Whispering Woods. The dragon had taken me right into the Whispering Woods.

And two seconds later, he let me go.

The fall was brutal. I hit my head and my back and my arms and my legs in way too many places to count, and not a sound left my lips. It all happened so damn fast. Branches and leaves against my body, which meant I was surrounded by trees. That’s the only thing I knew as I fell and fell and fell, just like I’d been doing most of my life.

Then I hit the ground on my side and my body gave up on me. My mind gave up on me.

The only thing I remembered before I passed out was the sound of the small dragon flying over my head.

My eyes openedand I heard the whispers as if someone was right beside me.

But unless these trees could talk, nobody else was moving around me in the woods.

Images flashed before my eyes—of sirens and dragons and bites on the side of my neck, and ten seconds after coming to, my heart was already hammering in my ribcage because it knew how screwed I was.

Mama Si had tricked me. Mama Si had lied to me. Mama Si had manipulated me so masterfully, and I’d been too broken, too naive, too blind to see it.

Now a dragon had thrown me somewhere in the Whispering Woods, and I was all alone.

Tears in my eyes. I pushed myself up with all my strength to find that everything in my body hurt all the way to my bones. The back of my head was throbbing, and it took me a few blinks to clear the view of my surroundings, though it was really dark and there was very little to see.

Almost black trees with thin naked branches closest to the trunk, while the ones higher up were thicker and full of leaves. Through the canopy I could barely make out the darkness over us. So deep. Exactly like the dark cloud that had hidden away the Whispering Woods.

My God, I was really here.

Biting my tongue, I suppressed the urge to cry, leaning against the tree closest to me as I tried to assess my situation.

My dress was still a bit wet, the cape Mike had put on my shoulders gone, as well as that orange ribbon he’d tied around my wrist. My shoes were still on that boat with Mama Si. The dragon bite on my neck was no longer bleeding, but the spot was very tender to the touch.

Bitten by a dragon.What a fucking disaster, but at least he wasn’t here with me right now. I was alone. The shore couldn’t be too far away—the big dragon had dropped me seconds after we slipped into the darkness of the Whispering Woods.

Carried over the ocean by a dragon—yes, definitely a disaster.

I looked at my arms, expecting to find my skin a bloody mess where those curved talons had grabbed me, but they weren’t. My arms looked as pale as ever, skin unbroken, despite having fallen against these trees, too.

“Doesn’t matter,” I whispered to myself. The shore—that’s what I needed to find.

Light was coming from somewhere south. It must have still been daylight outside, so that was going to be my destination. As soon as I found the shore, I could swim away from here. I could use the branches of these trees to help me. I would figure something out just as soon as I saw the sky again. Thebluesky.

Taking in a deep breath, I prayed with all my being that my body was strong enough, that my legs would be able to carry me until the end.

Then I turned south and I started to run.

My feet hurt like hell. Pieces of wood and little rocks cut my skin with each new step. There was so little light, and I went slower than I’d have liked, but my legs kept moving. Even though every part of my body hurt, I kept moving.

So dark. So fucking cold, and if I stopped to listen just for a second, I could actually hear the sound of leaves brushing against one another, as if there was wind but it only blew higher off the ground. It sounded exactly like fuckingwhispers, which was almost funny considering the name of this place.

Had these people named all the Isles literally?

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