Veiled in Stars and Silver: A Peter Pan Fairy Tale Romance

Chapter 7

Peter and I flew through the jungle toward Marooners’ Rock. A thickness lingered in the air that clung to my skin.

“It”s probably a trap.” Peter smiled, his blue eyes sparking with excitement as he moved from tree to tree, alighting upon branches before pushing off again. I followed him, flying and weaving between the foliage. The Lost Boys were a short way behind us, spreading out to come at Marooners’ Rock from every angle.

“I don’t care,” I replied. “If any chance exists that my brothers might be alive, that I might save them, then I have to try.” I straightened my shirt, grateful that it was beginning to lose its dampness.

Peter paused on a branch, looking askance. “This isn’t how these games are played.”

“This isn’t a game. Not to me.”

Despite his prudery about how one was supposed to go about such affairs, it had been ridiculously easy to convince Peter to come with me. Marooners’ Rock? A possible rescue, or even better, a trap? I didn’t know what we would find at our destination, but he was sure it involved pirates. The forever boy of Neverland lived for these adventures.

“Of course it isn’t!” he said, now getting into character. “This is serious business. Hook has convinced you your brothers are alive so he can kill us all. But do not fret, Wendy Lady, I shall protect you.” He drew his sword and brandished it.

I held in a growl at his assumption that I needed him to protect me, at the way he acted like this was simply another game for him to show off. Not to mention, the way he held his sword was atrocious.

Tinker Bell flitted up to Peter, tinkling about his head.

“Hey, Tink,” Peter sheathed his blade and puffed out his chest. “We are going to rescue Wendy’s dead brothers.”

I frowned, unsure whether he was being condescending or serious.

Peter nodded. “Thanks.” He turned to me as tink flew off. “She says there are pirates up ahead.”

“Not sure she’s the most reliable scout,” I grumbled under my breath. The fairy’s insistence that everyone on the Jolly Roger was asleep, including its captain, was what had gotten me captured and dumped off the ship.

Peter landed on the ground and motioned for me to join him. He looked at me in all seriousness. “From here on out, we walk. Don’t make a sound.” Creeping forward, he faded into the brush. I hunched down, trying to follow and not lose him as he moved a little too well with the surrounding vegetation. It was disconcerting. Sometimes he acted like an unassuming child, but when he showed such easy skill, I remembered that Peter may be a boy, but he was hundreds of years older than me. Was he also secretly clever enough to manipulate me?

I shook off the thought. Was I really letting Hook, the vilest pirate known to man, get into my head? Peter—an evil tyrant.

Not likely.

He crouched low and snuck up behind a large boulder before turning and motioning for me to approach. I crept up next to him, my hand resting on the pommel of the sword Peter had loaned me that was belted at my waist. Hook had taken most of my throwing knives, so I only had one stashed in the holder that was wrapped around my thigh. I felt strangely bare without the complete set. Leaning forward, I peeked over the rock.

The ground sloped away from us, descending toward the glassy inlet and the large flat stone that jutted out of it known as Marooners’ Rock. Five pirates stood on the shore, not too far from the massive stone, which was already surrounded by water. And tied to the rock, up to their necks in sea water, were two young boys.

My breath caught.

John. Michael. Not a day older than when I last saw them. My shoulders sagged and tears pricked my eyes. There they were, alive.

Peter pointed excitedly. “Hey look, Wendy. Your brothers.”

I pressed my lips. “You said they were dead, remember?”

He quirked his head to the side. “Did I? Well, Hook must have tricked us, ‘cause there they are. Let’s go rescue them. I’ll call the Lost Boys.” His hands cupped around his mouth, and he crowed.

I ground my teeth. All that effort sneaking, and now he’d announced our presence.

The pirates on the beach looked around in alarm. Peter drew his sword. “Wait here. The battle has begun!” And with that, he darted out of the bush and flew off to the shore.

Like hell I was going to be left behind. While Peter engaged the pirates, I would get my brothers. I stepped out from the protection of the bush, dropping into the sand that led to the water.

A hand grabbed me from behind.

I struggled, slamming my elbow into whoever held me. A large grunt sounded, and he flung me onto the sandy ground. I flipped onto my back to see my attackers.

Three men loomed over me. One of them, a thin, tall man, pressed his foot onto my hair, pinning my head to the sand.

“Ah, there she is.” A man with a scruffy beard and huge shoulders glared down at me. “Just like the captain said. All gift wrapped and delivered.”

My heart sank and my hands curled into the sand, something ugly snaking inside my veins.

Hook.

I drew my knife and rammed it into the shoe of the man standing on my hair. He let out a wild howl, his face contorted in agony. I yanked the blade free and moved to my feet, drawing my sword.

The two other men roared with laughter. “She get you, Gray?” They guffawed as the other man rolled in pain.

I looked toward my brothers, and my heart rose into my throat. The water was up to their chins. I met their eyes and relief flooded my veins. I tried to send them a message through my gaze. I’ve got you. I’m coming. Filling my head with thoughts of being reunited with them, I lifted into the air.

“Ah, no ye don’t.” Broad Shoulders grabbed my ankle and whipped me back onto the ground. Sand filled my mouth.

My hands tightened on my weapons. Fine then, if they insisted, I’d deal with these men first. I got up, spitting grainy particles, and faced them.

“Look at her, acting like she can fight,” Bulging Eyes said.

Rage boiled in my blood. I stood, my blade at the ready. “I’ll give you one chance to turn around and leave. Let me rescue my brothers.”

“Come, girlie, put the weapons down,” Broad Shoulders said.

I could try flying off again, but I needed to get my brothers off the rock, and that would take some time. In the water, I’d be much more vulnerable. I couldn’t have these men trying to stop me.

The bulging eyed pirate took a step toward me. I dove for him, dropping to my knees, and dug my blade across his thigh in one powerful slice. Then severed the tendon behind his ankle with my knife. He gasped, gripping his leg and raging.

“Bitch! You bitch!” he spat.

I came to my feet behind him and shoved him into the sand. Then danced out of reach. “Stay down.”

The man with the injured foot hopped over to his fallen comrade, both looking at me with fear and anger.

These pirates didn’t understand. I’d been trained by a man ten times more skilled and cruel than any of them.

The last man snarled at me, drawing his sword. He was bulkier than the other two, and from his stance, he might’ve had some training. He came at me, and I jerked out of reach, blade in hand, watching for an opening. I needed to end this quickly.

He came again, and I didn’t move in time. The man’s sword sliced through my shirt, barely missing my skin along my stomach. I spun, coming around on his backside. I pressed the blade of my saber against the side of his throat. Shifting, I turned my head to check on my brothers.

“Drop—”

But the man roared, jerking my attention back to him, his sword about to ram into my abdomen. I reacted. My blade dug into his throat, tearing a clean, deep line into his skin. Blood flowed over my blade.

The sword slipped from his grasp.

The man dropped to the sand. A shocked expression etched onto his weathered face. His lips moved silently, and something human and fearful entered his gaze. I didn’t want to feel pity for him. Still, the blood on my blade, the agony in his eyes. I bent to see what he was mouthing. He reached up with sudden strength and grasped my neck, forcing me down over him. I bared my teeth, and my fist tightened on my knife, but his grip relaxed as his eyes pleaded with me to understand… something.

And even though he couldn’t speak, the movement of his lips became distinctly clear.

Pan.

I jerked out of his grasp as his hand fell away, motionless for the last time. Dead. The man was dead.

I’d killed him.

Pan. The name reverberated inside my head. What did it mean? Why was Peter’s name the last on this man’s lips? Like he was identifying his murderer. But it wasn’t Peter. I had done the deed.

I looked toward Marooners’ Rock, and every thought fled from my mind. The water was covering my brothers’ heads. I gripped the knife, throwing the bloody sword away from me, and raced for the water, diving into it.

The world beneath the surface was a murky green. The cloudiness of the deep ate what little light existed. I swam, my eyes stinging.

I took to the surface, making the last few strokes to Marooners’ Rock before taking a breath and dunking under to free my brothers.

My fingers scraped across the stone where they should have been.

They were gone.

No. They were right here, I thought. My heart thudded in my ears as I desperately searched the murky water for any sign of them. Squinting, I saw a graceful scaled fin disappearing into the haze. A mermaid.

Mermaids were drowning my brothers.

I squeezed the hilt of the knife in my hand and kicked off the rock. Whether or not I found my brothers alive, I was going to skewer some mermaids. The burning in my throat and chest was merely my anger fueling me onward. I dove deeper.

Something broadsided me. Strong arms wrapped around my body and jerked me toward the surface. I twisted and tried to get my knife into whatever had me, but a sharp metal object met my arm and yanked it to the side. Damn it. Hook. We broke the water’s surface, and I gasped for air, the burning in my chest receding, but not my fury.

“Mermaids have my brothers. Let me go, you foul, black-hearted git.”

He dragged my struggling body up onto the shore and straddled me, pinning my hands into the sand. The cold metal of his hook trapped my left wrist, the tip buried into the ground. “Unless a mermaid has kissed you, you’ll drown long before you catch them.”

“I don’t believe a damn word you say. These pirates who attacked me are your men. You—”

He pressed his face so close to mine, I saw the outline of a small scar along his jaw. “I swear to you, no matter what anyone has said, this wasn’t me. Now, either I can hold you here and argue, or I can go try to discover what is happening to your brothers.”

He wanted to help? No, this had to be a trick. But the look in his eyes…there was worry there.

“Wait here.” He released me and rushed for the water.

I went for my knife and sat up, catching his back in my sights. I lifted the weapon, ready to bury it between his shoulder blades.

I hesitated, and he disappeared under the waves.

I let out a hiss and rammed the knife into the wet sand. Why had I stopped? I didn’t believe him. I didn’t. And what if, on the off chance, the mermaids were saving my brothers? I had just sent an enemy after them.

“Wendy?” Peter appeared from the trees, sword in hand, dripping with blood, a dejected look on his face. He came and sat next to me, his shoulders hunched and leaned on his knees. “I couldn’t save your brothers. I couldn’t—”

“Mermaids took them, Peter.” I motioned toward the water. “Hook has gone in...” I paused, realizing too late that maybe I shouldn’t finish.

His brow furrowed. “Hook? But it was his men who put them on the rock.”

I groaned and pressed sand-covered hands to my face. What had I done? “I don’t know. Nothing makes sense anymore.”

Peter gazed up at me, the same boy who had brought me to Neverland so long ago on the back of the wind. “He must be trying to get on your good side. He wants something from you. But what?”

My eyes narrowed. That was shrewd, even calculating of him. I wasn’t used to him being either.

I thought of the jeweled dagger and shrugged.

“I’ll go in after your brothers.” He stood and laid a hand on my shoulder. “Don’t worry, Wendy. We’ll find them. Which way did they go?”

I pointed out over the water. Peter took off and flew in that direction for a little way before diving in. Apparently, everyone here had been kissed by a mermaid except me. I only hoped that my brothers were also counted in that number.

So close. I’d come so close to reuniting with them, and now they were gone. Again. Sand scratched against my skin and clung to my soaking clothes. After sheathing my throwing knife, I tried to brush myself off, but eventually gave up.

The beach was eerily clear of any pirates or Lost Boys. The two men I had wounded were also gone, though they must have taken my sword with them, because it wasn’t lying where I’d left it. I unbuckled the casing and dropped it into the sand.

With nothing to do but wait, I settled for pacing across the shore. I should have told Peter about the dagger. Hook hadn’t come until after my brothers had conveniently been taken, and then he’d stopped me from rescuing them—admittedly saving my life. But why lure me into a trap when he’d had complete access to me on board the Jolly Roger? Why the schemes?

And Peter—his story kept changing. But perhaps that was to be expected from the boy who thought the rules constantly shifted according to his whims. Was that the genius behind his act? Or was he simply a child trying to keep up in an adult’s game?

Pan. The last name on the dying man’s lips. I looked up the hill to see his dead body still laying in the sand. He could have been saying anything. I was mistaken. Hook had gotten into my head more than I wanted to admit. I trembled at the sight of his corpse but pushed the regret and shock aside. There was nothing I could have done.

Peter came back first, flying over the inlet. A small glow floated next to him. Tink. Suddenly, she zipped off into the afternoon light. The boy touched down on the bank and I rushed up to him. “What did you find?”

Water dripped from his soaked golden locks. “These.” He grinned, holding up my five other throwing knives and a saber. “Found them in an abandoned rowboat.”

I gasped and took them from him, fitting them into the sheaths on my thigh. I strapped the saber to my waist. “Thank you, but I meant about my brothers.”

“Ah, yes. Hook and the mermaids are working together. They delivered them to pirates waiting on the shore along Princess Tiger Lily’s borders. I saw Hook. He told his men to keep them away from you.”

“That makes little sense,” I said. “If he did that, he wouldn’t get his…” I stopped too late, glancing at Peter.

He watched me carefully. “Hook said he could get what he wanted from you without them.”

I threw my hands up, releasing a frustrated cry. “Why does he even want them? What are they to him?”

Peter shrugged. “He’s Hook.” As if that were the definitive explanation for everything to do with the elusive captain.

I drew my hands into fists. “He wants a dagger. A jeweled dagger with a skull on the hilt. I used to have it until recently.”

Peter’s eyes grew wide. “You mean the Dagger of Forgotten Souls? That is the artifact needed to destroy all of Neverland.” He flew right up to me. “Tell me where it is. I will get it.”

“I thought it was the spellbook that could destroy Neverland?”

“You need both. They go together. Where can I find it?” There was an eagerness in his expression.

Perhaps too eager? “It was taken from me. I’m not sure where it is.” True enough. Even though I had a sneaking suspicion of where Uncle kept it.

His shoulders slumped and his head bowed.

“But I may know how to get it,” I said.

Peter looked up, hopeful.

“I’ll distract Hook while you retrieve my brothers. Then, when we return to London together, I will procure the dagger for you.”

“Why not kill Hook when he surfaces?”

I shook my head. “If he has my brothers and I kill him, what’s stopping his crew from killing them in retaliation?”

He scrunched up his face and nodded. “Good point.” He drew his sword and flailed it through the air. “I like this. The game is on, Wendy!” He took off flying into the sky until the clouds obscured him from sight.

Mere moments later, Hook broke the surface, sputtering and cursing mermaids to high heaven. Water dripped from his black hair and off his stubbled chin. His shirt clung to his chest, revealing the outline of his tattoos. I hated the warmth that pooled in my stomach watching him. He wiped water from his face and took me in with his forget-me-not eyes as he stood on the shore. “Are you all right, lass?”

So far from it.

“My brothers?”

He turned and pointed out to the sea. “Taken toward the shores to the east. That’s Princess Tiger Lily’s land.”

“What took you so long?”

“Well, that’s rather rude, considering the distance I swam on your behalf.” He swiped a lock of hair out of his face. “But if you must know, mermaids attempted to stop my progression—”

“No. You said that you’d rescue my brothers. You should have been here way before now. And your men were—”

“Those men were not under my orders.” His gaze traveled past me to the dead man on the hill. He paled, and something dangerous swirled in his eyes. “And I tried to get here to retrieve your brothers, but again, mermaids blocked the inlet. Tied up our rudder and wouldn’t let us through. I managed to lower a dinghy and paddle partway, but the mermaids, again, stopped me. So I dove in and swam the rest of the way.”

I snorted. What a load of rubbish. “If they were so determined to stop you, why didn’t they kill you once you were in the water?”

“They couldn’t.” He reached into his shirt and jerked out a silver stone held within a golden casing attached to a chain around his neck. His breaths came fast, and he glared at me. His voice sounded rough. “This is more than a pretty bauble. It affords me protection from anyone that is under Pan’s power.”

I tensed at the darkness gathered in his expression. “What do you mean?”

A coldness raged in his eyes, something wild and verging on violence. I felt for my knives. But he turned to the east and stalked for the woods. “Come. This day is far from over.”

“Where are we going?”

“To discover where Pan took your brothers.”