Page 88 of Mama Si's Paradise

His attention might bethe heaviest thing I’d ever carried on my shoulders. He just seemed so damn fascinated to watch me fuckingchew.

I was sweatingby the time I finished eating, and only then did I think to push his jacket off my shoulders.

“It’s rude to watch people when they’re eating,” I said, taking a sip of the coffee, hoping it would give me some energy. Just like the food, it was absolutely delicious.

“Well, then it should be considered rude to look the way you do.”

I gave him a look. Did he read a book on the cheesiest pick-up lines ever?

“You promised me answers.”

“And I’ll give them to you,” he said, slowly putting his cup down on the table and resting his elbows on it. “I’ll give you everything you want, Sunshine. Ask for it and it’s yours.”

“Then I want to leave,” I said without missing a beat.

He flinched. “Everything except that.”

“So, not everything.” Leaning back on the chair, I crossed my arms in front of my chest.

“Everythingelse,” he insisted, already smiling a bit like he was back to being amused.

“Okay, Mr. Evernight. Okay, fine. How about you start by telling me what the hell this whole thing is? Because Mama Si obviously lied to me and Ennaris didn’tchoose me to make me an Enchanted.So, tell me, what is this place, who are you, and what am I doing here?”

“Very well,” Valentine said. “I would rather listen toyoutalking, but I’ll tell you what you want to know.”

“I’m all ears.” The coffee was delicious, and the seat perfectly comfortable. I was ready to find out just how doomed I really was.

Valentine started.

“Not sure how much you know about Ennaris, but it usedto be the eighth continent, one separate from the rest of the world, a land of magic and magical creatures, hidden away from humans. It was just a place like any other, a home, a safe haven for those with magical powers—until it was cursed by very dark, very powerful magic,” he said, looking at me from under his lashes, speaking slowly as if he wanted to see my reaction to each word separately. I gave him none, and I wasn’t going to. Not until I heard all of the story.

“The magic divided the continent into seven parts, known as the Seven Isles,and each kind of Enchanted who survived what we call the Fall of Ennaris made a home out of them,” he continued.

Goose bumps all over me—Fall of Ennaris. A memory flashed before my eyes, of Mama Si and Assa that day I first met them. Was thiswhy Mama Si had thought my name wasfitting?

“The siren who created the curse was powerful, more powerful than her nine sisters, than any other creature in Ennaris. Nobody could kill her, but the sisters were able to stop her. They put her in a dormant state, something like an induced coma, created with a spell using the blood of a mortal man. A human.” At this point I was fifty percent sure he was fucking with me, but I said nothing. “And to keep the spell fueled with enough power to keep her under, that human’s descendants, his blood, must be in the Seven Isles at all times.”

I shook my head, closing my eyes for a moment, thankful that Valentine gave me a little pause.

“Three of the siren sisters died in battle.” Another memory flashed before my eyes—the statue of the fountain on the Paradise balcony that Amber had showed me. The story she’d told me about how they died saving the world….

Bile rose up my throat.

“The other six sisters took that man’s sons from thehuman world, brought them to Ennaris, and tied them to this place—to the Whispering Woods—forever.”

“Oh, my God…” I whispered, both terrified and in awe. The story was starting to actually make sense.

Valentine smiled a bit like that was exactly the reaction he’d expected. “Yes, those would be my ancestors. But in order to tie them to the Whispering Woods, the sirens had to change them. Alter their bodies. They basically played god with dark magic they didn’t fully understand, but it worked. It made us into what we are now.” Another bitter smile. “Unfortunately, it also made reproduction very, very difficult, and only possible with human women.” A lump the size of my fist had formed in my throat. Valentine looked up at me and I saw thesorryin his eyes. Not sure if it was for me or for himself, but it made no difference either way.

“So now every year the Isles offer us human women to choose from, and our dragons decide the most compatible blood with ours, so we can have offspring and continue the bloodline indefinitely because without it…”

“The siren will no longer be dormant,” I finished absentmindedly, eyes on the table though I didn’t really see anything.

“Exactly,” Valentine said. “And if she awakens again, she will destroy Ennaris completely.”

My stomach twisted and turned, and I regretted having eaten that food because it was trying to climb right out of my mouth again. I shook my head, my vision blurry—I must have had tears pooling in my eyes, though I didn’t really feel them.

“Breathe, Sunshine,” said Valentine from my side, but I barely heard him.

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