Chapter 25
I dropped onto the sandy beach and turned back to stare at the Jolly Roger in the distance. I’d had to push my feelings aside so I could stay in the air, thinking about being reunited with John and Michael. But suddenly, the weight of what I had done, and what I still must choose, came crashing down on me.
I’d betrayed James. Left him tied on his ship, raging at me.
And now I had to decide: Risk my brothers’ lives by attempting to save them and Neverland? Or sell out Neverland altogether to ensure John and Michael”s safety?
I sat in the sand and opened Stardust’s book, reading over the spell that should transfer the power out of Tink and into the dagger, and tried to memorize the first few lines, stumbling over the unfamiliar verbiage. Damn it. If I couldn’t remember the words, I might as well give up and go get my brothers.
If Tink would actually turn them over.
Perhaps James was right. Changing was too much. I desperately wanted to have the correct answer. For everything to be simple. Black and white, like it had been in childhood. And yet, that childhood was lost.
Neverland wasn’t the same.
And neither was I.
And did that make me a better person? I had no idea, but I wouldn’t give up what I’d learned with James, and what I had experienced with him, for the world.
So where did that leave me? And what should I choose?
“Hello, Wendy,” Peter’s voice sounded behind me.
I jumped to my feet, drawing one of my throwing knives and holding it at the ready. It was too early for our scheduled rendezvous. Even though I no longer believed he was the mastermind behind everything, it didn’t mean he hadn’t been working for Tink all this time.
The book scratched against my chest as I clutched it with one arm, my throwing knife prepared to launch from my other.
“Stay back, Peter.”
“Why are you doing this, Wendy? I don’t understand why you would align yourself with him.”
“Why have you been plotting with Tinker Bell to keep my brothers from me?”
His eyebrows shot up in surprise, but then a grin split across his face. “I knew you’d figure it out.”
I let out a long breath. So he confirmed it. “But why, Peter? She holds all of Neverland in her power, controls them. Even Hook.”
His brow scrunched. “What are you talking about?”
I paused, caught off guard. “Has—has she never controlled you?”
“Control me? Tink never controls me. We play games. It”s tiresome, coming up with new ones all the time. So sometimes she comes up with the rules, and I play them.”
I glared at him, flinging out a hand. “And my brothers? They were just part of some—some game to you?”
“Everything is a game. You know that.”
“No, it”s not, Peter. The inhabitants of Neverland aren’t playing. She controls them.”
“Why would she do that?”
“Perhaps to give you cheap thrills?” I looked down at the book in my hand. “Who was Stardust?”
“Stardust was a traitor,” he snarled. “He abandoned us. Then he created the spellbook and dagger that could destroy Neverland.”
“But he was your friend first? Why did he do that?”
“He and Tink were the fairies that first formed Neverland, but after a bit, they had a falling out.”
I blinked, curiosity growing in me. If Stardust had created Neverland with Tinker Bell, I thought Peter might have forgotten. He tended to have a hard time remembering. “How do you recall that? It was so long ago.”
“Why wouldn’t I?” Peter looked mildly offended.
I raised an eyebrow.
“Fine.” He sighed. “I have this dream sometimes that Stardust casts a spell in my sleep. I think it was something about remembering.”
So Neverland must have been affecting Peter’s memory even back then.
“What was the falling out between Tinker Bell and Stardust about?” I asked.
“How should I know?” He shrugged, raising his eyes to the sky, avoiding my gaze.
“Peter.” I sheathed my knife, then stepped up to him, laying a hand on his shoulder. “It”s me. You can tell me.”
He pressed his lips, but then nodded. “He didn’t like that she stopped time. And then she started bringing more people to Neverland.”
“People like Hook.”
“And the Lost Boys.”
“Maybe Stardust didn’t like that she enslaved people’s minds.”
“Tink can’t do that. She would never do that.” But at that moment, he didn’t appear so sure.
“And now Neverland is overflowing with fairies.”
“Because they’d die in your world. People don’t believe anymore, there isn’t as much wonder.”
I stared at him as the pieces fell into place. “But here there is belief. And wonder. You, the Lost Boys, and my brothers provide the belief and wonder.” My eyes widened. “And Tink uses everyone else to entertain you, to keep the wonder alive.”
Peter placed his hands on his hip, his face scrunched in confusion. He shook his head. “But Hook—”
“If you believe Hook being evil is an eternal truth, it”s not. I believed that too. I thought that my memories, my beliefs from my childhood, couldn’t be wrong. But they were, and it”s because I stopped growing, changing, questioning.”
But the boy of Neverland couldn’t seem to process the realization that was building in my mind. “If Hook isn’t evil, what is truth?”
I wished I knew. If the truth was always apparent, then perhaps I would have seen it when I was here the first time. “Something you figure out as you grow, I suppose. This land isn’t an escape, it”s a prison. A prison meant to be broken out of. She’s using you, too. Keeping you here, lying to you, hurting others for your amusement. Don’t be her prisoner.” I took his hand. “Break out with me, Peter.”
He pulled from my grasp, for the first time looking frightened. “I-I can’t. This is my home. And Tink—no, this can’t be true. This is all lies. Hook put you up to this, didn’t he?”
“Peter,” I whispered.
“I won’t listen to you! I won’t!” And with that, he turned and flew off into the daylight.
A panic gripped me. What if he was off to tell Tink everything that I had discovered? I clutched the dagger and the book. I better get moving. Now. There was no time to form plans.
I’d have to decide which choice to make when I arrived.