Chapter 7

Seven

I kept looking at her feet, expecting to see blood where she stepped or for her to complain that the rocks of those stairs had too many sharp edges, but she didn't. Reeva continued outside the gate, onto the stone pathways of the town while her black dress floated around her, just like the mess of brown hair on her head. The people stopped and nodded deeply as she passed by, but I didn't think she even noticed.

"Reeva, where are we going?" I asked, a bit panicked now to be following her—she really did not look well.

Maybe I shouldn't have let Amika convince me to see her after her warning. Maybe I should have come back another time.

"Keep going, keep going," she said without even turning to see if I was following. I had no other choice but to rush my steps—she was surprisingly fast for how exhausted she looked.

The people around us watched, curious eyes on Reeva, then me. Nobody stopped us, though. Nobody even asked us where we were headed.

But she didn't take me far at all. Before five minutes had passed, she stopped at the side of the witch hat structure and finally turned to me.

"You're still here. Good," she said, then waved her hand to the side.

"What—"

Doors I hadn't even noticed on the surface of the witch hat pushed open with a weak screech. I stopped speaking, shocked at the sudden movement.

"It is not customary for us to allow other kinds of Enchanted into our most sacred discoveries, but like I said—it does not matter anymore," Reeva said, walking backward into the absolute darkness behind those doors, where the bright morning sunlight somehow failed to reach.

"Are you sure?" I whispered because for some reason the thought of walking into the actual witch hat terrified me. My instincts were on high alert already.

"What does it matter whether I'm sure? Come, young one. Come—let me show you," she said, and she moved slowly, but the darkness swallowed her completely all at once, leaving me to stare with my mouth wide open

Shit.

I looked around me, sure someone would be approaching to tell me that I wasn't supposed to go in there, that I had to wait for Reeva outside or something, but nobody did. The few witches who saw me only watched me curiously as if they were trying to guess what I would do.

" Coming, Autumn?! "

Reeva's voice popped into my head and it was a miracle I didn't scream.

Fuck me, this place was freaking me out worse than I could have imagined—or maybe it was just Reeva and her warnings?

"Here goes nothing," I muttered to myself, and even more afraid than I'd been to climb Mount Agva to find Storm, I held my breath and stepped into the darkness with my heart in my throat.

Light.

Blue and green light popped up in front of me as if turned on by a switch the moment my foot connected with the floor inside those doors.

"Oh, my God…" I whispered, bringing my hands to my chest.

It was a whole different world in there. Crystals full of blue and green light were hovering in the air over my head, brightening the wide space, enabling me to see everything in detail. The sound of the outside world and the sunlight didn't reach here at all. It was just us and those balls of light—and the massive space around me. Every inch of the walls was covered in frames that held either paintings of witches, or documents written by hand in big cursive letters.

I shook my head, not sure if I should believe my eyes at all. Stands and shelves and writing desks took up the space around the spiral stairway in the middle, where Reeva had already started to climb up.

Her laughter echoed in the room.

"There's so much more to the Nella Lexis than this, but I'm afraid I don't have the time nor the patience to show you," she said. "Go ahead and marvel at the work of my ancestors, young one. But you only have a minute before we climb to the top." And she pointed her finger up at the tall ceiling.

A minute.

A minute wasn't even close to long enough to see everything in this room. I wanted to analyze the colors on the paintings, and the letters that were framed—were they in English or Faeish, or maybe another language altogether? I wanted to see exactly what was in those crystal bowls on the shelves and what the stands were displaying—all of it so damn fascinating and magical , the effect twice as potent because of those bright balls of light hovering in the air everywhere, floating as if they were living things and seeming to move about the room on purpose.

"Time's up!"

The echo of her laughter pulled me out of my trance, and Reeva began to run up the stairs.

My legs took me forward and I didn't even need to think about it. I was climbing the spiral stairway, my eyes still stuck on the paintings, on the lights, on the strange things displayed on those stands, covered in glass. And when I no longer saw them anymore, three balls of light seemed to be following me as I went, giving me enough light to see each new step.

I couldn't see Reeva, though, but I heard her—sometimes laughing and sometimes singing. It was all so strange, and my body was moving so fast—I was running to get to her without really meaning to, and those balls moved with me. How did they know to follow me? How did they know which way I was looking, and where to cast their light for me?

Yes, so strange. So… unrealistic . I'd more readily believe I was in a dream than in the real world, but I kept on climbing those stairs, chasing after Reeva. I wanted to call out to her and tell her to wait, hold on, that I couldn't see her and I needed to know where we were going, but for some reason the words were stuck in my throat and I couldn't say them. All I could do was climb those stairs and chase those lights—until there were no more steps left.

Everything came to a halt suddenly.

"Welcome, Autumn Hayes, to Nella Lexis — the Star Reader," Reeva said, arms spread to the sides to show me the round room we were in.

Star Reader.

Grey had told me once that the witch hat was supposed to be a telescope because witches used to be very good at star reading when they had magic, before Syra cursed the land and destroyed Ennaris. He'd told me that, and I'd been so fascinated. I'd wondered—I'd yearned to know how they did it, what the structure even looked like on the inside.

Now, here I was.

Shelves and baskets full of scrolls. Two long tables on either side of the room. More of those framed letters on the walls, handwritten, all in Faeish.

The room wasn't even half in size of the one downstairs, and the ceiling was made out of the night sky, with blues and purples and whites merging together, and a million stars twinkling on it as if we were really looking at outer space.

But in the middle of it was the strangest thing I'd ever seen—a telescope bigger than my whole body atop a flight of stairs, and up there with it were more baskets filled with scrolls, as well as glass vials full of colorful liquid that glowed just like those balls of light. Pinks and purples and yellows and reds—they had a vial in every single color.

"Come on. Get up here," Reeva said as she climbed the stairs to the telescope—entirely made out of gold and brass, so masterfully carved it looked like a drawing rather than real.

"This is…this is…" I shook my head as I followed her. "Wow." I had no words yet.

Reeva laughed.

"You know what I did the moment I felt the spell unraveling?" She turned to look at me, resting her hip on the wooden table that extended from the railing of the platform atop which was the telescope and all the way to the wall. She crossed her arms in front of her and sighed, like she was finally at peace here in this room with outer space over our heads and glowing liquid trapped in vials by our feet.

"What?" I asked absentmindedly, my eyes moving up to the ceiling again and again—was it real? How had they managed to make it look like that? How were those stars twinkling exactly like real stars did?

"I came in here," Reeva said. "I came in here as soon as I recognized my magic coming back to me. I came in here and I didn't leave for three days."

Finally, I focused on Reeva. Three days? "What did you do for three days?"

I knew what I'd done for three days when Valentine began to undo the spell of the curse—I'd hidden away in a cave with Grey. I'd been with him every second of every day and felt more alive than ever. I'd lived in those three days—and all it had taken was food, water, and Grey.

"I read the stars, young one," said Reeva, and the smile that touched her lips broke my heart, especially when she looked on the verge of tears.

My stomach tied in a million knots. "And what did the stars say?" I asked but my voice was only a whisper because at this point I believed what she said before with all my heart—I didn't want to know whatever she was about to tell me. Despite my curiosity, I really didn't want to know what had put that look in the eyes of a woman as fierce as Reeva Lorein had seemed to me that night.

"Come. Let me show you," she said, waving her hand for me go closer, before she leaned down near one of the four baskets by her feet, and grabbed a scroll. She turned to the table she'd been leaning against, spread the yellowish paper open over it, and then used these pieces of rock that were by the edges to hold the ends. Such strange pieces—like they were carved out of that ceiling over us. Their colors, blacks and blues and indigoes, while the edges shimmered white as if with stars, made you think they were indeed a part of outer space.

"What is this?" I asked as I took in the drawing and the letters on the open scroll. It was a mess of dots and lines, curved and straight, and the paper was separated into two by another line, this one bold and as thick as my finger. Below it were those symbols I'd seen before—Faeish letters I couldn't even begin to understand the meaning of.

"This is a reading of the stars my ancestors did back in the day, before the end came upon us," Reeva said, her voice small now, a whisper. She touched the drawings of what I assumed were stars, the lines, the symbols underneath, as if with longing. "Before Syra ruined everything."

My hand shook as I reached for it, completely hypnotized, this need to touch that piece of paper so strong it surprised me. It was smooth against my fingertips. Warm.

And real—very, very real.

"They had simple telescopes then. They didn't need fancy potions or rituals to enhance their magic like we did—they had plenty of it in their blood, as it should be," said Reeva, waving her hand at the vials on the floor, attached with small tubes to the large golden telescope. "Even this didn't work for us, though. Not until the spell was broken."

"What does it say?" I wondered because whoever had read those stars back in the day had translated them into symbols. In Faeish—and I had no doubt that Reeva could read them.

Another deep sigh left her lips, this one not in relief at all, and she closed her eyes for a moment. "This reading was done three weeks before Syra," she said, touching her fingertips to the drawings of the stars. "It says, Fall of Ennaris. "

Shivers ran up and down my body, raising every hair on my skin at attention. "They foresaw it."

"They did," Reeva said without hesitation. "They foresaw the end three weeks before it happened, and they didn't believe their own selves, their own skills. Look at these—" She grabbed more scrolls and unrolled them on the table to show me the same drawings and symbols in different handwritings. "They called for witches all over the continent to do readings—back then everyone lived where they wanted. We weren't divided into Isles," Reeva said. "But all who came to read with Maydana, the witch who first saw the end, read the same thing. The stars said it loudly. They said it clearly—and they were right."

My heart beat so loudly in my ears I could hardly hear myself thinking.

"I need you to turn around now, Autumn, and I need you to look into this glass."

Suddenly, Reeva was by the telescope, waving her hand toward the eyepiece. Every thought in my head came to a halt— no.

No, I did not want to look into that eyepiece. I did not want to see the stars.

I just wanted to run out of this hat and out of Witches' Wing as fast as my legs could carry me.

"Come, young one. Don't be afraid," said Reeva, and she came to grab my hand gently, and pull me to the telescope.

I didn't have it in me to say no or to take my hand back, and before I knew it, I was standing in front of the telescope, feeling tiny . Feeling like I might collapse any second now, but I didn't. A hum in the air, and the magic that came alive around me startled me, but I couldn't move a single inch.

" Breathe," Reeva whispered, as the colorful liquids in the vials around my feet began to boil with her magic. The sound of it filled my head instantly.

"And watch." Pulling the eyepiece down in front of me, Reeva put her hand on the back of my neck and pushed me toward it because I was incapable of moving myself.

Then, I saw.

Videos and images of outer space were all over the internet and I'd seen plenty. None of it came close to this, though. None—not even the clearest pictures could compare to what my eye was telling me, what that telescope said was out there beyond the blue of the sky and the clouds and the world as we knew it.

A galaxy so full of life. Full of colors. Full of stars.

"Do you see?" Reeva's voice came as if from a world away.

"Yes," I breathed, surprised that I was even able to produce enough voice.

"Good," she said. "Now, watch this."

Her magic charged the air once more, and the gadgets in the telescope moved—I could hear them, could feel them vibrating against my cheek where the eye piece rested on my skin. Then the view of the sky zoomed in more and more and more, until it felt like I was thrown among those stars, and I was right in the middle of them.

I was in the middle of a constellation with three stars to the east, two to the south, and four others spread around the west—so similar to the stars drawn on those scrolls that Reeva had showed me just now.

So, so similar…

I moved, pushed myself back on instinct, air refusing to fill my lungs still. I blinked and blinked the image of the stars away until I saw Reeva's face, the look in her glossy eyes, the sad smile on her dry lips.

"You saw," she concluded.

I shook my head. "It's…it was…it was…" I couldn't even find words to speak with.

Then she went back to the other side of the telescope, to the table and the scrolls she'd opened for me, and I had no choice but to follow. No choice but to keep moving; otherwise, the magic that was burning in my chest might explode and take everything down with it.

"It's different." My voice echoed in the tall ceiling, and I was relieved for a moment because it really was different. What I saw through that telescope and what her ancestors had drawn on these scrolls weren't identical—the four stars around the west were positioned very differently.

Then Reeva produced another scroll, this one smaller, and put it next to the old one.

The small one was an exact drawing of the stars I saw, and below them were the same symbols in Faeish, like she'd translated them.

"I've read them over and over, and they always say the same thing," Reeva said.

My hand shook as I reached to touch these new symbols she'd written, the ink darker, much more precise. Fresh .

"What's that? What does this mean?" Because it was different. The stars—and the symbols—were slightly different from the ones her ancestors had recorded on the scrolls.

And Reeva said, "It means, Fall of the Seven Isles. "

Words she said before came crashing down on me, all at once.

Ever since I'd laid eyes on her today I knew that I should have run, but I didn't. I stayed. And just like Reeva said, I wished I hadn't.

"I need to…I need to sit…"

Before I knew it, I was sitting on the wooden floor of the platform, back against the railings, looking up at the telescope like it was the devil itself. And all those vials with the potions that were no longer boiling. And the air, light now without Reeva's magic infusing it.

She came to sit beside me.

"That'll get ya," she said, and her sigh was relieved again, like she was glad to have finally gotten that off her chest.

For a little while, I was unable to say anything. All those thoughts in my head were spiraling and I couldn't even begin to understand anything at all.

But then it settled.

Then it made sense.

" No. " It couldn't be. It simply couldn't—I just found Grey. I hadn't even had him for myself a full week—just no . I wouldn't accept it.

"Oh, yes, young one," said Reeva in a defeated whisper. "The stars never lie."

"But they can be wrong." She could be wrong. Maybe she read it all wrong—the stars were a little different now than they had been then.

"The stars are never wrong, either. Witches have been reading them since creation, and they've never once led us astray. Five hundred years ago they foresaw the ruin of Ennaris, and it came to be three weeks later. Now, they are foreseeing the ruin of the Seven Isles, and there is no doubt in my mind that it shall come to pass, too."

Tears in my eyes. My magic was all over me, but right now it didn't feel like it wanted to burst out.

It just wanted to hurt me .

"But…but it can't be." The end of the Seven Isles— now, just when I came into it? Now, the stars decided that everything was going to end?

"That's what I thought, too, at first. It couldn't possibly be," Reeva said, resting her head against the railing. "How could it— what could possibly have enough power to wipe all the Isles off the face of the earth like the stars claim?" Laughter, cold and heartless. "Then I heard she had awakened."

"Syra." The only person strong enough to ruin all the Isles the same way she'd ruined the continent half a century ago.

"Yes—Syra the evil siren who once got her heart broken and decided that was worth the end of the world," Reeva said. "I doubted the stars. I doubted myself. I doubted the Nella Lexis—I doubted a great deal of things until I found out she was awake. Alive and aware once more."

I shook my head, more at myself. "It's…over." It was already as good as over, wasn't it?

"Exactly," Reeva said without missing a beat. "Which is why I told you, Autumn, that it's not worth the bother. We're all going to die in a matter of weeks, anyway. So, let's just"—she raised her hands in front of her while she searched for the words she needed—" stop trying ."

It seemed logical, didn't it? It seemed perfectly logical to stop trying, just like she said. After all, the stars had apparently said it themselves. It was over for real.

Yet a part of me still rebelled against the idea. A silly, silly part of me still refused to believe.

Taking off the necklace she gave me, I put it in her hand. Gift or not, I didn't want it anymore. "Thank you for this and for showing me the stars, Reeva." I stood up.

The telescope, the ceiling made out of outer space, the scrolls—all of it was magnificent, and the reasonable part of me didn't doubt any of it for a second.

But reason had escaped me when I fell for Grey, so now I deliberately blinded myself—and I wouldn't have it any other way.

"It's not going to make a difference, is it," Reeva said, and it wasn't even a question. She laughed a bit as she stood up, too, but this time her laughter was heartfelt.

"No, it's not. I'm going after him anyway," I whispered, and it really wasn't that much of a surprise, not even to my own self.

Yes, I was in the Star Reader. Yes, I'd seen those stars and those drawings, and I'd heard every word coming out of Reeva's mouth. But just like she said, none of it really made a difference at this point.

"I know," she said with a nod. "And I shall help you if I can—why ever not?"

"Thank you," I said, though I really didn't see how she could.

"So, what's the plan?" Reeva asked, and I flinched before I could help it.

"I don't know yet." And unfortunately for me, there was one other person I had to go talk to before I convinced myself that I'd done everything I could do to help Grey. Before going to him on my own—to my death.

"Join me for breakfast, then, Autumn. And when you know your plan, share it with me," she said, waving for the stairs.

My stomach twisted and turned, and my instinct was to tell her no, that I couldn't eat, that I'd just throw all of it back out again, but I couldn't. She'd been nice enough to bring me here, had respected me enough to show me this place, to show me the stars and the prophecy of her ancestors. A prophecy that had come true.

A prophecy that had returned.

So, I said yes, and I followed Reeva out of the Nella Lexis, all the way back to her house. She had no servants, nobody to bring her food, but instead used her magic to produce a bigger table right there on the porch where we could eat. She claimed that it was her own privilege to feed herself only the best from her land and hens, so she was going to cook us breakfast while I waited and stared at the ocean.

I did.

And while I waited, I cried in silence, if only to cleanse away all those bad feelings, all that desperation. All that fear. It didn't work, not nearly as well as I hoped it would, but I managed to put some food in me, at least.

In the end, I thanked Reeva, and Amika was right there by the gates to show me to the boat again, all around the witch hat and through the small forest on the other side.

I left Witches' Wing with my heart twice as heavy, yet my hope had still somehow survived.

What a curious thing she is, hope, I thought. Because even though the end of this whole magical world was literally written in the stars, I wasn't going to stop until I was with Grey again.

There was nothing in the world quite like Mama Si and her Paradise.

Maybe it was because I'd been basically made by her. Maybe it was because that's where it all began for me. She was the reason I was where I was today—on a boat that sailed by magic, without me moving a single inch—something I'd found so awe-inspiring just months ago. She was the reason I'd been thrust into this magical world, why I'd become a prisoner of the Evernights, why I'd met Grey.

I guess she had meant what she said to me that day we first met: I'm going to give you the opportunity to change your life today, Fall Doll. An opportunity that will change the whole world to your eyes.

My life had changed so drastically, and I did see the world differently as well. I saw so much more of what was there and felt all of it on a much deeper level.

All thanks to Mama Si.

Tears in my eyes as I approached the Blood Burrow and I saw the smile on her face in my mind's eye, though she was still too far away. Too far away, and I hadn't told a single soul that I was coming to see her, yet she was there with Assa on that rocky beach, waiting for me because she knew I'd be here. She always knew.

For the life of me I couldn't decide whether I regretted meeting her. Whether I hated her or was thankful for her.

If it wasn't for her, I'd be out there living my life—but what kind of a life?

One without the Isles.

One without Grey.

But I'd never know the pain of missing him if I never had him in the first place, would I?

Something told me that I would, though. That I did. Even before, when I was just surviving. When I was running all the damn time without direction—just running from myself. Even then I'd felt it.

Or, at least, I'd felt that I wasn't in the right place.

Right now, I knew for a fact that I was in the wrong place, though. The Blood Burrow, Mama Si's Isle—and I'd come to ask her for help.

The idea alone seemed ridiculous—how could I even assume that she'd care enough to hear me out, let alone help me? She cared about nobody but herself. Her Isle and her people—that's all that concerned her, and that's exactly what had convinced me to force myself to come here today.

She thought I was hers still, didn't she? She thought I was her doll, and I'd take it if it meant she'd help me. I'd take it if it meant I wouldn't be completely alone when I went for Grey.

My God, what a fucking disaster, I thought to myself when my boat was close enough to the shore that I could see every line of her face with clarity. Every curl of her blonde hair, tighter around her face, looser around the back, like always.

I could see every color she wore, too—the dark red of her dress and the rich pink that painted her lips, a galaxy hidden away in her eyes, so big and sparkly and filled with excitement you'd think she was looking at the love of her life as she took me in.

And Assa was smiling, too, as she held up the umbrella so the sun didn't touch Mama Si's face at all.

Exactly like always, and I was willing to bet that nothing had changed since she was created.

Shivers ran down my spine when my boat began to slow down, and I pulled my magic inside me. The outer wall of the Paradise was a crisp white, with only one door at the back through which I'd come the last time I'd been here. The same door that opened now, too. Out came Mike with a huge smile on his face, and behind him Marissa, the woman who'd tended to my every need while I'd lived here. A woman I'd considered a friend.

It was like I'd gone back in time, and I didn't like it. I hated it, and my instincts were at it again, demanding I turn back.

"Fall Doll, you made it!"

Deja vu. I was in her office, helpless, completely vulnerable again—and she was promising to make all my dreams come true.

But now things were different. Everything was different.

"Hello, Mamayka," I said, deliberately using her full name just to remind her, too, how much it all had changed.

Her smile didn't falter. "You honor us with your presence. The Burrow welcomes you," she solemnly said, and I'd have rolled my eyes had she not surprised me with how authentic she sounded.

But then again, this was Mama Si. I'd be a fool to trust a word that came out of those lips.

"I need to talk to you," I said when the boat stopped on the shore. I remained standing at the head of it, begging my legs to just take me forward, but they refused still.

"My, my, doll. Look at you," she said, her sparkling eyes admiring me, like she was looking at the sun rising, not me.

Move!

I forced myself to jump off the boat and raised my chin again. She might still make me uncomfortable with the way she looked at me, but I was not the lost, helpless girl I used to be when she first found me—far from it. I could feel her magic in the air. It was about her like an aura, and it shocked me to see that I had more of it—much more than she did. I hadn't at the party, but being with Grey had changed that. Being with Grey had made my magic so strong I could hardly believe it myself.

And Mama Si could feel it, too, but it didn't bother her. She smiled wider instead.

"You're just in time, Fall Doll," she said, as the others, Assa and Mike and Marissa, bowed their heads to me like I was fucking royalty.

I couldn't stand it, but I didn't dare say a single word. It was easier to pretend I couldn't see them at all.

"How did you know?" I asked Mama Si and flinched when she put her hand on my back to guide me toward the door.

"Of course, I knew. Syra has awakened—and it's your birthday, too. I always knew you'd find your way back before you were officially of drinking age," she said, laughing like it was the best thing she'd ever said.

Goose bumps on my arms. Yes, it was my birthday today, ironically. I turned twenty-one. Not that it mattered—of course it didn't. And it meant nothing that she had remembered. It was all a game to her still. She was forever trying to get under my skin.

"I'm sure you did," I said, and the energy in the air here was so different. The magic in the Paradise was unlike any other I'd felt so far, so…seductive. Calming. Relaxing—which was fitting, considering succubi lived here. But it was all an illusion, just a trap to get to you faster, and I saw through it now. Thank God, because I was still tempted to let go. I was still tempted to ask Mama Si to hold my hand so her calm could slip in my pores and stop my heart from racing and my thoughts from trying to split my head wide open.

I was still tempted.

"You look divine, Fall. You are more beautiful than the sun," Mike whispered as I passed him by, and Marissa chuckled.

"Such a charmer," Mama Si said, grinning.

"Well, he lives with you," I said. "Thanks, Mike. Same as always, I see."

"Yes—always," he said with a nod.

"It's so good to see you again, Fall. You looked beautiful," said Marissa, and despite having always liked her, I barely forced a smile. She'd known what this was since the get-go and she hadn't warned me. None of them had.

"Thank you, Marissa," I said, then turned to Mama Si. "We really do need to talk—right now."

Her lips curled up again and she looked more like a snake than a woman. "Of course, my dearest Fall Doll. We will talk for as long as you like."