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

Chapter 24

I lay in James’s arms, feeling the heat of his body against mine. We’d moved onto the floor, where there was more room for us to spread out. The rocking of the ship had lulled us into a relaxed state. The lash marks on my back bore testimony to the harsh years I’d endured with no warmth, no gentleness. James had brought those things into my life, at least for a moment, and I would cherish it.

I lazily traced a vein in his arm, nerves gathering in my stomach. I wasn’t sure why I needed to say something, but I took a slow breath. “Thank you, James.” I took another breath. “That may not be what you are used to at Madame Pearl’s—”

“That was nothing like Madame Pearl’s,” he murmured, and my heart sank. He stroked my cheek. “Madame Pearl’s was survival. A reminder that, at least while I was there, I had complete control over my body. But what we just did…” He pulled me closer. “I have never wanted someone so much.”

I ran a hand through his dark hair. “And you are redeemable, James Hook.”

A shadow crossed his eyes, becoming stormy—not violent, but with a heavy bleakness that seemed to weigh him down. “The worst thing about not returning was that they never knew how badly I desired to go back to them. My daughter had no idea she had a father who loved her, who wanted to be part of her life. And my wife—” He swallowed. “I probably destroyed her faith in love.”

“I think the worst thing is that you fight to give others a second chance you won’t allow yourself to take.”

“It”s a chance I don’t deserve.”

“I’ll be your second chance,” I murmured in his ear.

He leaned in, and we kissed. Soft yet firm.

I enjoyed the feel of his lips against mine.

After parting, we lay back to enjoy the rhythmic swaying of the ship. I stared at a coiled rope as it methodically struck a post in time with the boat’s movement. The map of Neverland that James had used to find my brothers bumped my feet along with Stardust’s spellbook. I held up my palm to stare at my four-fingered hand.

“You shouldn’t have done that,” he whispered.

“The Crocodile said we are missing something, and if we don’t figure it out, then we will lose. Tell me about the night you kidnapped my brothers. What was it like being under Peter’s control?”

James gave me an odd look. “Perhaps not the best example,” he grumbled. But his head fell back against the floor. “On the more subtle side, he puts ideas in your mind that you can’t ignore. If you try, it repeats until it consumes you, and no matter how much you don’t want to, you do it anyway.” He gazed at me, brows pulled together. “I fought it, Wendy. I swear. But if you fight too hard, then he simply takes over. Like when he cut off my hand.”

“But when you were in London, you were far away from him, right? You weren’t even in Neverland. How did he control you from such a distance?”

He shook his head. “I don’t know, love. Normally when he leaves Neverland, our minds are freed from his power, until he returns. We can’t leave of our own volition, but on that occasion, he made me abandon Neverland, and he stayed behind. I only had Tinker Bell with me.”

I sat up to get a better view of his face. “Wait, Tink was there?”

He nodded. “Maybe he channeled his power through her so I’d remain under his control.”

My mind spun. “But the Crocodile said that he couldn’t command others in a world he wasn’t in. What if… what if she has been the one controlling you the whole time?”

He scowled. “No, it has always been Pan’s voice in my head.”

“I saw it for myself, James, how their numbers have grown. Their kind is thriving. They’ve taken over a sizeable chunk of the island—”

“The Crocodile hopes to trick you. She wants to divide us. Pan is the one. It’s his land. It’s not like I’m not aware that it”s him. I can tell when he’s in my mind.”

“You’re always aware?”

“Always. All of us are. That’s what makes it so torturous.”

I stood and grabbed a shirt and a pair of James’s trousers that were strewn about the room. James had destroyed my clothes, so I’d have to wear his. I pulled on one of his fancy shirts and rolled the sleeve. Tink had been here this whole time. She’d retrieved me and brought me to Neverland. She’d been at Marooners’ Rock when my brother had disappeared. She’d been there that night at Madame Pearl’s with Peter, hovering over his shoulder.

She’d been there the whole damn time.

“But,” I said, “what does Peter get out of it? And why would so many fairies come here only to be enslaved?”

“Peter gets an island of people to bow to his every whim. And perhaps the fairies were tricked like the rest of us,” James said darkly.

“Whatever we do, we have to be right about this.” I still wasn’t sure how I would save my brothers and James, but I was going to try. But if it came down to it—I trembled—I would put John and Michael first.

“It. Is. Pan.” He rose, grabbing a pair of trousers and shrugging them on.

I pulled on his other pair and looped a belt through it, yanking it tight and shoving a new hole into the leather. I gave him an exasperated look. “I know how long you’ve believed it is him. How long you’ve wanted revenge—”

But James was no longer in a mood to humor me. He stepped forward, anger on his face. “You are still searching for a way to make him innocent.”

“But it’s clear that they are at least working together.”

“We have to go after Pan. I have what I need.” He jerked on his own shirt. “And you will leave Neverland.”

I stared at him. “W-what? The hell I am.”

His annoyance melted a little. “Please, Wendy, you’ve done enough. I promise I’ll save your brothers. I’ll send them home once Pan is defeated.”

“Done enough.” I paused to consider his words. “I’ve done enough and you haven’t?”

He spoke through gritted teeth. “Yes.”

“Because you are a villain and I’m not.”

“I left my family! Abandoned them! How long did you fight to get to your brothers? Did you once even consider giving up? That is the difference between you and me.”

“There is no difference. Since you received the book, how often did you think about giving up?”

“Every damn day.”

I sucked in a breath.

He stood rigid, glaring at me. “Every damn day I considered taking the shitty stone around my neck and running back to your world. I was free, Wendy, I was free from this land, from the cursed Crocodile, from Pan…” His voice dropped to a hoarse whisper. “I wanted to run so badly.”

“But you didn’t,” I said. “You’ve changed, James. And I’m staying.”

“No. I will defeat Pan—”

“If Pan is defeated, and if he is the one behind it. What if you fail?”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence, love, but that’s all the more reason to stay away.”

“And you think I’d stay away with my brothers still trapped here?”

He growled and ran another agitated hand through his tousled hair. “Damn it, Wendy. I wasn’t planning for this.”

“Planning on what? To actually let me help? To actually save my brothers?”

“To have something I care about more than freeing Neverland,” he snapped, then softened. He gazed at me in agony. “Or someone.”

I blinked, startled by his admission. Had James Hook admitted to loving me?

Some of the tenseness leached out of my body. “I’m not leaving. But we need to figure out what our next step is.”

I stepped up to him and laid a hand on his chest. He gripped my fingers and pressed them to his lips, nodding. He gave me a knowing smile. “It was worth a try.”

I knew what it was like, believing a person was guilty and being unwilling to let it go. But I didn’t have time to fully convince James that I was right. That Tinker Bell was really the one behind it all. It made too much sense. The fairies were strong, powerful, having flooded Neverland. And Peter had never seemed calculating enough to pull off all that James and the others claimed. Besides, if Tink possessed the power to put thoughts in others’ minds, wouldn’t she have the power to make them sound like Peter?

I may have wanted revenge on Captain Hook for seven years, but Peter had been the focus of James’s hate and rage so much longer than that. A thousand cuts year after year, that had never healed. He wouldn”t change his mind. Not in two hours or in two days.

In a flash, I grabbed the rope hanging from the post next to the bed and swung it around him. He swore as I rushed past him, using my weight to jerk him against the post. He struggled, but I hastily tied it off before flinging the long rope across him one more time and tying it behind him.

“Wendy, what are you doing?” James growled.

I picked up the map of Neverland and spread it on the desk where we had made love. My teeth sank into my lip in a moment of indecision as I gripped the potion attached to the chain still surrounding my neck.

“He’s too powerful. You can’t do this on your own.”

“Like you were going to do this on your own?” I saw him flinch at my words. “I must do this.” That was what Tink, and even Peter, expected. They wanted me to bring the dagger and the book alone. If I brought James, he was as good as dead. I grabbed the spellbook off the floor and flipped it open. I froze at the handwritten notes on the front page.

Why Wendy? Why her brothers?

Possible explanation: Descendants of Stardust?

I looked at James. “You wrote this?”

“It was the only place I could safely write down my speculations.”

“Who is Stardust?”

“Untie me, and I will explain.”

I pressed my teeth together. I didn’t have time for this. Looking through the table of contents, I found the locator spell and turned to it.

The words of the book poured from my lips as I chanted, as I had seen James do when I first arrived. I dumped the ingredients of the vial out on the page, and when I came to the right part of the chant, I muttered Tinker Bell’s name.

The thin stream of potion pooled out to a small nameless cave on the outskirts of what was now fairy territory.

I pressed my finger to the map. “There you are.”

I turned to the front of the book to find the spell that needed to be used with the dagger. Luckily, James had circled it. I flipped to the page and then folded Neverland’s map and shoved it in that spot to mark it.

“Wendy, let me go. Now,” James demanded as I gathered the spellbook of Stardust into my arms and strapped the Dagger of Forgotten Souls to my hip. Last, I slipped on my boots and stashed my throwing knives beneath my shirt and inside my footwear.

I let myself meet his dark, stormy gaze. “I’m sorry. This is for the best.”

“Don’t waste your one chance to end this. To end him.”

“It”s not him, James.”

He thrashed against his binding. “Goddammit! If you do this, I’ll never forgive you.”

A burning gripped my throat. “I know,” I rasped. “But I have to.”

And with that, I walked across the room, opened the window, and launched out into the daylight air, flying toward Neverland, dagger and book clutched in my arms, James’s shouts following me.