Page 84 of Mama Si's Paradise

It was a castle,all right. A really, really big castle, possibly three times the size of the Paradise, if not more.

Valentine took me down a set of wide wooden stairs, the railing black and decorated with silver, and we went down another three stories before the view around me changed.

The open hall at the bottom was gigantic, with over ten doors on its walls, silver armor pieces by them, and dim yellow lights coming from the flower-shaped lamps every few feet.

Then I looked up at the crystal chandelier, and my hands flew to my mouth before the scream left my lips—the tiny dragon was standing atop it, its long tail swooshing from side to side like a slithering snake.

“He scares you. He shouldn’t,” Valentine said, and I had no idea how he even noticed when he was a step ahead of me.

“He bit me on the neck. He’s an actualdragon.Dragons exist in Game of Thrones, not the real world. And again—hebitme,” I said in a breath.

He turned to look at me. “He bit you because I asked him to. And Game of Thrones is overrated.”

The ah-dacity.“How dare you. That’s one of my favorite shows,” I spit, but he just shrugged his shoulders like he didn’t care. “Do you always send your pet dragon to bite helpless humans, or am I just special?”

He did not get the sarcasm in my voice at all. “You are very special.” I rolled my eyes slowly so he wouldn’t miss it—and so what if it got me killed? “And, no—you’re the first person he’s bitten. He’s actually new. I just got him.”

There went my curiosity—rearing its head like a siren out of water…

Ouch.Too soon, Fall. Way too soon.

I cleared my throat. “What’s his name?” My eyes were on the way that tail kept swooshing from one side to the other, so long.

“I don’t know. I haven’t named him yet,” Valentine said, and that surprised me even more.

“Why not?”

“I don’t know. No name feels right.”

My brows rose. “A name has tofeelright?” I mean, I never really hadpet dragonsto speak of, so I could be mistaken, but…

Again, he gave me that look and said, “Yours did.”

“How do you even know my name?” I hadn’t told him, had I? Had Mama Si spoken to this guy already?

But… “I don’t know yourname. I know the nameIgave you.” Again, he reached out his hand too fast for me to actually see it, and I only noticed when he pushed a strand of my hair behind my shoulder. “You have all the colors of what the sun setting behind a forest looks like in my dreams. It feels exactly right.”

For a moment, I was unable to look away as he analyzed my hair, then lips, then eyes.

For a moment, it was like he wasn’t a stranger at all. He knew all my colors, and I knew his—black.An all-consuming black that devoured you and left nothing behind.

“So, what is it?” he finally said. “What is your name?”

I probably should have kept my mouth shut. “Fall.” I flinched. “It’s Autumn, actually. People just call me Fall.”

“Last name?” I threw him a look. “It’s only fair. You know mine,” he added.

“Hayes,” I spit, because so what if he knew my name? It wasn’t going to make any difference, anyway.

He raised his brows. “Why Fall—because of the season?”

No, actually. Because Missy had started calling me that when I was a toddler, even before my mother died.Herdownfall,she called me, but I wasn’t going to tell him that. “Yep.”

“It’s actually perfect,” he muttered, like he was surprised at his own assessment. I said nothing. “Shall we?”

He waved his hand right, and a set of doors opened even though we were at least twenty feet away, and there was nobody else there that I could see.

I still looked. I still searched, and then my eyes fell back on the nameless dragon, still swooshing his tail like a damn cat.

---