Chapter 16

“The Seven Isleshave been here on Earth since its creation, and the Enchanted have been here as long as humans. The Isles are all part of Ennaris, and like I told you before, they are the most beautiful lands to have ever existed in this or any other world.”

The words hung in the air for a while. Mama Si gave me a good long pause as if she knew that was exactly what I needed—time. Just a little time to process.

We’d come back into the mansion, through the missing glass panel of the triangle room, but Mama Si hadn’t wanted to stay there. She’d insisted she had a better spot right there on the third floor, and she really did. It was a much smaller room, but all the walls were made of glass, and from here we could actually see the ocean. From here, it did look like we were on a cliff, even if Mama Si reassured me that it was only an illusion again when I pointed it out. There was a long red couch with about a thousand cushions on it, and it faced the windows, the moon, and the twinkling stars in the sky. Like watching the perfect scene at the movies—even more so when I knew that it wasn’t real. Just an illusion.

Mama Si then stood up and went to the other side of the room, but I couldn’t look away from that half-moon yet. I couldn’t tear my eyes off the sky, terrified it would fall on us any second and I would miss it. She returned with two glasses of wine, one red and one white, and handed the latter to me.

“I hear you like the taste of this best,” she said with a sorry smile on her beautiful face.

“I do.” If only because it wasn’t as strong as the others. If only because it seemed to put me in a good mood when I got a little tipsy on it during dinner with the girls. So, I held onto the glass and took a little sip.

“The Enchanted,” I said. “What are the Enchanted?”

“That’s me,” Mama Si said without missing a beat. “I am an Enchanted, and so is Assa. So is Mike. So are some of the staff who work in the Paradise, though most are only human.”

Only human.

I turned to look at her to make sure she wasn’t joking—she wasn’t.

Only human. Only an illusion.

“Go on,” I whispered and took a bigger sip of the wine.

“We are the people of the Seven Isles, Fall Doll. We can do magic in various forms. Each kind has its own brand, so to speak, but we’re all connected to this land. We give it and we take from it. We’re basically one.”

“Right. The land that can read your mind and can make pianos sprout out of the ground.”

Should that have sounded funny? Because it didn’t.

“Exactly,” Mama Si said, like she was genuinely glad that I grasped the fucking concept so quickly.

“Magic.” She’d been telling me that all along. She’d been saying that the Paradise was magical—I’d just had no clue that she’d meant it literally.

“Yes. Such wonderful thing.” She raised her palm toward me just as pink petals began to simply appear right there over her glove with such ease. Glittery dust floated in the air around it, then disappeared as soon as the petals were whole, wrapped around one another like a real rose. “It has the power to create anything you want, as long as it exists in your mind first.” She closed her fist for a moment, and when she opened it again, the flower was gone. “It can unmake anything, too, as long as you’ve got the energy it needs.”

“How?” I said, shaking my head, because the more she spoke, the more absurd this whole thing seemed. “How is this possible? How does the world not know?” Why wasn’t everyonetalking about this—how?!

“Don’t be silly, Fall Doll. How would a world full of humans know what to do with magic?” She laughed and laughed, holding her hand to her chest like that really was the silliest thing she’d ever heard in all her life. “No, the world doesn’t know. The world can’t know. The best they would come up with is to try to make us submit to them, and when we refused, they’d open war on the Seven Isles.” She shook her head. “And that would not end well for humanity, I’m afraid.”

“You don’t know that.” Nobody was going to try to get anybody to submit or open war on anything—it was two thousand, twenty-four.

“Oh, but I do,” Mama Si said, her vibrant eyes locked on mine. “These walls have seen some of the most powerful people in the world, doll. These lips have spoken to the most brilliant minds of the last few decades.” She slowly touched the corner of her lips with her fingertips. “I know very well what the world would do if they found out about the Enchanted. That is why we stick to our lands and why keeping our secret is sacredto us.”

It felt like that should have been a threat, but Mama Si’s voice was soft and easy as she said it.

“So, what are you going to do to me, then? Are you gonna wipe my mind or something?” I smiled, shaking my head, because it couldn’t be as bad as she said it was.

I thought for sure she was going to laugh again, but a second passed and Mama Si didn’t move at all. She didn’t laugh. She didn’t smile. She just looked at me like she was sorry for me again.

My breath caught in my throat. “Are…are you serious?” She was going to wipe my mind?!

“We really are very strict about keeping ourselves hidden,” Mama Si said, a bit breathless. “I mean, technically speaking, nobody told you, so nobody can be charged with treason.” She took a sip of her drink, her eyes on the floor but she didn’t really see anything, deep in thought. “Technically speaking, it was the Blood Burrow that revealed itself to you. The animals came to you of their own free will, so…”

Her voice trailed off and my heart was beating so fast I could barely hear my own whisper when I said, “So?”

She looked up at me, brows slightly narrowed. “So…I don’t know. I’ve never actually been in such a position before. I don’t know, Fall Doll.” And she sounded even more worried with every word.

I turned to her with my whole body. “Mama Si, I’m not going to tell anyone.” It was a promise, even if I didn’t say it in so many words. If keeping their secret was such a big deal, I’d take it to my grave. I’d never speak a single word about what I’d seen to anyone, ever.

“Oh, Fall Doll. I do believe you, but others don’t know you well enough to trust your word. They’re going to want to make sure that this doesn’t get out of hand,” Mama Si said.

“You…you can’t,” I ended up whispering. “Mama Si, that forest is the best thing that has ever happened to me in my whole life. You can’t just take it away from me.” She couldn’t let the Burrow show me a magical world—a real magical world where pianos sprouted from the ground—then take it all away by erasing my memories of it.

“Oh, doll, I’m so sorry,” she whispered, reaching out to grab my hand. “There isn’t much I can do about it, I’m afraid. These are the rules?—”

“Then just don’t tell anyone you saw me there today. Don’t tell anyone and I won’t go back. I promise I’ll stay away. Please.” I tightened my grip around her hand with all my strength, and she looked even worse.

“I can’t do that, I’m afraid.”

“Why not?” She could keep tonight to herself. Nobody had to know about any of this.

And I’d be back to my ordinary life, where animal fur didn’t glow at the touch of my hand and the ground didn’t give me pianos to play all night.

Fuck.

“Because we both know you’re not going to stay here, Fall Doll,” Mama Si said. “You can’t do a doll’s job. You’re not cut out for it, I’m afraid, and I can’t keep you here for free. I hope you understand.”

“No…no, of course you can’t.” And I would never ask that of her, either, but there had to be another way.

“So, you see, I can’t lie to my people like that. I’d be labeled a traitor if I did,” Mama Si continued. “And you’re human, doll.”

I closed my eyes, willing my heart to slow down the beating. Willing my mind to clear. Willing my hands to stop shaking, but it was so hard. It hurt—it hurt so fucking much. More than Missy. More than Brandon. So much more than anything because I’d had so much hope. I’d unlocked something wonderful, something that made life infinitely better, and now I was going to have to go back to a black and white world again.

No colors. No music. Just me and my train money.

Tears pricked the back of my eyes. I bit my tongue harder.

“Humans will never really understand our connection with Ennaris, and we’ve never expected them to, but I can’t just let you go out there knowing what you know. Seeing what you’ve seen—I can’t, Fall Doll.”

“There were surely others before me. There were others who knew. Others who saw,” I said through gritted teeth. I couldn’t have been the only one in this fucking mansion who had ever seen the Burrow!

“Of course, there were. Back in the day, we weren’t so strict with our rules. Plenty of people knew—how do you think all the fairytales of the world were created? They’re all based on the Enchanted, but back then, people could only put their stories in books. There was no technology, no nothing. Today’s world is very, very different.”

I dug my fingernails in my palms and tried to quiet my buzzing mind, tried to think about something else for a moment—about the fairytales of the world, about the idea that they were real. That they were based on something real, something like this place.

“And things change as one grows, Fall Doll. Minds change about what’s important and what isn’t. Promises are easily forgotten,” Mama Si continued.

“I won’t—” I started, but she wouldn’t hear it.

“You’re only human,” she insisted. “You’re only human and I’ve been here long enough to know exactly what that means. There’s just no way. No way this could work.” She stood up from her chair and my heart tripped all over itself, but I refused to open my eyes still because if I did, I’d cry. If I did, I’d probably start begging her, and I had some semblance of dignity left, at least. Just a little bit, so I stayed put.

Mama Si walked ahead a few feet, going closer to the windows that showed us the ocean and the sky above. I felt her presence even though I couldn’t see her.

Now that I thought about it, she did really feel just like the forest. Just like the animals. Just like that piano I was never going to play again.

“I can’t hide you. I can’t keep you here indefinitely—human. You’re human. You’re not going to become Enchanted. You’re not going to die anytime soon, I assume, either—you’re so young…”

My eyes popped open.

Stars in my vision, even though it was pretty dark in the room. I looked at Mama Si’s back as she stood there in the middle of the room, arms wrapped around herself, staring out the window.

No thoughts in my head all of a sudden—except one. No noise. No buzzing, just that one thought. I released my numb fists slowly.

“Say that again?” I said, standing up to go closer.

Mama Si turned around, surprised. “What?”

“Can you say what you just said again?”

“I can’t hide you, I can’t keep you here indefinitely, you’re human, you’re too young to die soon, you’re not going to become Enchan?—”

“That.” I stopped in front of her, turning my back to the windows. “Become Enchanted. How does one do that?”

She blinked, raising her brows in surprise, like she just realized what she said.

“Oh,” Mama Si whispered. “You’d have to be brought in front of our people and proposed as a suitable candidate. You’d have to willingly allow Ennaris to test you, to see if you are worthy. To see if it will accept you in its embrace—it’s a whole process, Fall Doll.” She suddenly looked distressed.

“But it has been done before,” I said, just to make sure I was hearing right.

“Yes, of course. It’s actually done every year,” said Mama Si.

Every year. “And you’ve done it before. Personally.”

She raised her chin like my statement offended her. “Fall Doll, you have no idea whom you’re talking to, so I’ll forgive your ignorance, but yes, I have. Plenty of times.”

“And did it work?”

“Sometimes it does, and sometimes it doesn’t,” Mama Si said. “I wouldn’t take justanyone to the rituals, of course, so the Whispering Woods hasn’t rejected my offerings often.” She closed her eyes and drew in a deep breath. “But it has. Very recently, in fact.”

“What’s the Whispering Woods?” Was that the name of the forest I’d spent almost every night in?

“It’s an Isle, just like my Burrow,” Mama Si said. “Far away from here.”

I shook my head, trying not to be so damn in awe of the fact that there were more places like the Blood Burrow. More places where the trees were alive and the ground knew your deepest desires. More of this magic.

“So, what’s it like? How does it even work? What…what does it mean?”

Mama Si must have understood how overwhelming this whole thing was for me, which is why she grabbed my hand in hers, her skin warm, her glove gone. I didn’t bother to check or to wonder when she’d taken it off—magic. She could literally do magic, and I’d witnessed it firsthand.

So, I let her guide me back to the armchairs, and when we sat down, she didn’t let go of me. I was glad for it.

“Ennaris will allow us to sort of invite people from the outside world into ours, if we find them worthy. There’s a ritual that’s held in the waters of the Whispering Woods, one of the Seven Isles, and they decide whether what we, leaders of the other Isles, are offering are fit to become part of it. Part of the magic. Part of the network. It’s not complicated—but the leader must truly feel that the candidate is worthy, and the candidate must agree to be subjected to the test willingly. One hundred percent willingly for it to work.”

“And?” I said, holding onto her hand so tightly it was a miracle she wasn’t jerking it away.

But Mama Si only smiled. “And if you’re found worthy, Ennaris gives you the gift of magic. Makes you an Enchanted,” she explained. “Once you are an Enchanted, you are tied to the Seven Isles, not the outside world anymore.” She leaned in closer, her eyes full of colors, full of life, and she whispered, “Once you are an Enchanted, you belong to Ennaris forever.”

Not tied to the outside world.

Funny how that was the one thing I’d wanted before I ever set foot in the Paradise.

My eyes closed and I stood perfectly still as I tried to process her words for a moment.

“Fall Doll,” Mama Si called my name again.

She still sat across from me, her hand in mine, warm and comforting and possibly the realest thing I’d ever experienced in my life so far.

“Sorry,” I muttered and let go of her, leaning back in the armchair. “There’s just a lot on my mind.”

It didn’t surprise her.

“Understandable, and I can’t believe I’m asking you this, but…” She stopped speaking, lips opening and closing a couple of times in silence before she said, “Would you actually consider becoming part of Ennaris, Fall Doll?”

Consider?

I felt like it was the only thing that mattered to me right now. I felt like all my stars had finally aligned. I felt like I was meant to get here all along.

“Yes.” My voice came out so breathless it was impossible to pretend like I wasn’t about to lose my fucking mind over this.

Impossible, my mind whispered. No such thing! Not real!

Except I’d seen all of it with my own eyes already.

“Oh, dear,” Mama Si then said, putting a hand over her chest, her eyes moving to the floor as her smile fell.

“Would you consider taking me to the Whispering Woods?” I said, and my voice came out different, like I was another person altogether.

“That is a big question,” she told me. “A very big question. I normally would have to be around a human for a longer time, to find their true self. To find out who they really are—a month isn’t going to cut it.”

My stomach fell.

But I am who I say I am. You’ve seen me.

You know me plenty—there’s literally nothing more to me than what meets your eyes!

All of this went through my mind, and the words were at the tip of my tongue, but I couldn’t say them. It wouldn’t be fair—not to her. Mama Si had done nothing but been kind and understanding toward me since I accepted her offer to become one of her dolls. I didn’t want to force her to do something she didn’t want to do, even if I wanted nothing more than to try to convince her.

“I understand,” I said. She had no idea who I was, it was true. But the sad part?

I had no idea who I was, either.

“You do?” Mama Si asked with an arched brow.

“Of course. You hardly know me. I wouldn’t have trusted the secret of my world to a stranger, either.” As much as it sucked for me.

And I was sure Mama Si was going to agree with me, but then her eyes lit up and suddenly they were almost glowing, like the fur of the animals when I touched them.

“Precisely, Fall Doll,” she whispered. “I didn’t trust anything to anyone. The Burrow did.”

“Oh.”

“The Burrow showed you what it could do by itself,” she continued, and she seemed absolutely in awe. “So, in a way…I’d say Ennaris trusts you already.” Her smile widened slowly. “And if my Burrow trusts you, how can I not?”

Sweat coated my palms. I was breathing heavier than if I’d been running for hours. “So?” Did that mean that she was going to do it?

Please, please, please say yes…

Mama Si closed her eyes and leaned back in her seat with a deep sigh. “This is all too sudden.”

Fuck. I burst out laughing. “Oh, it is. So, so sudden!”

She smiled again. “You’re so sweet, Fall Doll,” she told me. “And I swear it on my Burrow that I will give this a good thinking.”

“Really?”

“Of course. Being an Enchanted means seeing far beyond what the eye sees. I believe I know your heart. You’re pure still. Whether it’s because you’re young or because your life made you this way—I don’t know. But you’re pure. I feel it.”

And I wanted to be pure more than anything right now. “Thank you.”

She dragged herself closer to the edge of her seat. “Don’t thank me, but instead promise me one thing: think about this, too,” she told me. “Think about it long and hard. Decide whether you truly want this.”

I smiled. “I get to play the piano in the middle of a woods every single night. I get to play with animals whose fur glows when I touch them. How could I not want this?”

“Oh, you’ll get a lot more than that!” And she laughed a little. “You’ll get magic. You’ll be able to alter your reality with your will and mind alone.”

That did sound amazing, but I would rather be hiding in that woods anyway. I said nothing.

“But that’s not all. Understand that if you agree to this, Ennaris will never let you go. You will belong to it. You cannot leave the Seven Isles anymore until the day that you die.”

She said it like she thought it would be a bad thing for me, but…it wasn’t.

I didn’t want to leave. I wanted to stay right there forever.

“I’ll think about it,” I said because even though it sounded better than any dream I’d ever dared to dream, I still wanted to sleep on it. I still wanted to wake up tomorrow and see if this was even real.

“Good—and I’ll do the same,” Mama Si said and suddenly stood up. “I am tired, Fall Doll. I need rest. I suggest you get some, too. Let’s talk more tomorrow.”

With a warm smile and a squeeze of my arm, she turned around and walked out of the room before I found my voice to thank her again for everything she’d already done for me.