Chapter 18
I whirl around, certain I’m hearing things. The music in the inn stops abruptly. One of the men playing the lyre—badly, I might add—has jumped to his feet. He shouts my name again, as if he can hardly believe it.
It takes me a moment to register who he is. He’s young, handsome, and bearded, with wavy dark hair and bright eyes. There’s something missing about his face. It takes me a moment to realize it’s the absence of shadows underneath his eyes.
“Victor?” I ask. The shock isn’t merely due to his presence, but his appearance. I’ve never seen him, well, happy. Like an idiot, the next thing out of my mouth is, “You sing?”
“I can’t believe it’s you,” he says, rushing across the room and throwing his arms around me.
I laugh, surprised. Nolan stiffens beside me, and I remember he doesn’t know who this handsome stranger is, that Victor might as well be my younger sibling.
I pull back and glance at Nolan. “This is Victor,” I explain, a little awkwardly.
Turning back to Victor, I can’t help but notice how something dark has overcome his expression as he stares at Nolan.
“This is my husband,” I say to Victor, carefully. I note, for the first time, the familiar darkness in my friend’s gaze.
“Yes, Captain Astor. I remember,” he says.
Nolan frowns at him, then his eyes widen with recognition. “It’s been some time,” he says. “You’ve changed.”
“Not as much as you have,” says Victor, at which point I remember that Victor would have only been a few years younger than Nolan at the orphanage, and that the increased difference in age is due to the time Victor spent in Neverland.
“Should I be congratulating you?” Victor asks me, his hands still on my shoulders, protectively.
I glance back at him. His expression softens when he meets my eyes. I’m not sure what about my appearance convinces him, but his shoulders sag in relief. In fact, his body language changes entirely, and he relaxes, easing into both of our presences.
“I’ve never seen you like this,” he says quietly, almost to himself. Before I can ask what he means, he pats Nolan on the shoulder like they’re old friends. Nolan almost winces with surprise.
“Well,” Victor says with a grin, “I’m assuming you’ll want to see the others.”
Charlie and Maddox join us as we leave the inn. Maddox lingers somewhat behind, while Charlie skips ahead with a triumphant air. She and I exchange a glance that communicates we’ll have much to discuss later.
“Looks like you’ve caught a straggler,” Maddox says, crossing his arms and practically glaring down at Victor, who only comes up to Maddox’s nose.
Victor doesn’t tense. Instead, he makes a familiar gesture I could’ve predicted and slips his hands into his pockets. I can’t help but smile.
“This is Victor,” I explain to Maddox and Charlie.
Charlie immediately breaks into a grin. “You made it then. Out of Neverland, I mean.”
Victor blushes at her beam, the skin surrounding his dark beard reddening. Maddox tenses, which seems to thrill Charlie all the more.
“So, what happened anyway, once you made it through the warping?” I ask Victor as he leads us through the streets to wherever he and the other Lost Boys must be staying.
“It deposited us back in my hometown,” he says, looking somewhat despondent.
I remember it was Victor’s father who opened the warping, using one of Victor’s brother’s sketches to form the magical connection between the worlds. It makes sense the warping would lead back there.
“There’s no one there, of course,” Victor continues.
“I mean, there are people in the village, but my family left a long time ago. From what the villagers told us, they couldn’t bear the shame of my father being convicted and put in prison.
Not to mention the stain to my family’s name when Thomas and I were sent away.
” He swallows. “Not that I really wanted to see them.
“Anyway,” he says, changing the subject.
“I tried to wait for you on the other side. I’m sorry we weren’t there when you got out.
There were some guards stationed in the village.
Apparently, there had been some crime—thefts happening all over town leading up to the time when we arrived.
Of course, when they saw the newcomers—a gang of young boys, one of whom was recognized for having been sent away to an institution for poor behavior—they figured it had to have been us. We actually spent some time in jail.”
My eyes go wide.
“I don’t know, that’s pretty neat if you ask me,” says Charlie, shrugging nonchalantly.
“Wasn’t all that bad,” Victor adds, his face reddening again, but a slightly less vibrant shade of crimson this time.
Nolan and I exchange a glance, and I can hardly suppress a giggle, especially since Maddox’s ears seem to be fuming.
One day, I’ll probably fill Maddox in on the truth— that Victor’s only seventeen, well, eighteen now that he’s been given the chance to age outside of Neverland. But Charlie seems to be enjoying watching Maddox squirm, and I’d hate to ruin her fun.
“I’m surprised they didn’t come after you too,” Maddox says to me, raising an eyebrow. “Although you probably look slightly less threatening.”
“Less threatening than Smalls?” I ask, a little offended.
Victor chuckles. “So what did happen? Where’s Tink and Michael? I assume they’re back with whatever crew you three came from,” he adds, making pointed looks at my privateer friends.
“Michael’s taken care of by one of the crew members,” I say. Evans, our navigator, has been quite vocal about being less than thrilled about being left with childcare duty. But since he’s one of the most responsible members on board, I found his efforts to make me feel guilty rather ineffective.
I bite my lip, unsure of how to respond regarding Tink.
“Tink’s not with Peter, is she?” Victor asks, sounding alarmed.
“No, no, nothing like that,” I say quickly.
Victor visibly relaxes. Not for the first time tonight, I find myself searching for the missing bruises underneath his eyes. “Well, then,” he says, “I suppose wherever she is, she’s in a better situation than she was.”
“Yes,” I say, though I’m not sure, even as the words leave my lips, whether it’s a lie. I think back to the Nomad lifting Tink’s limp body off the ground after she hacked Peter’s wing off, the anger draining from her face as she allowed the Nomad to take her away.
He’d known her, even called her by a different name— Wanderer . But when Tink had first seen him, I’d only glimpsed fear in her eyes—that is, until she slumped into his arms.
I don’t know what to make of what happened to my friend. Or whether I betrayed her by not fighting the Nomad, by letting him leave with her. All I can do is hope that wherever my friend is, she’s found peace.
“So she split off from you and Michael after the three of you escaped Neverland?” Victor asks as we reach a stone pathway walled by rather lopsided hedges.
“Not exactly,” I say, my boots almost sliding against the cobblestone, and he looks at me quizzically.
“I didn’t—” I pause, not wanting Victor to carry the guilt of what happened to me, but I’m too late.
“You didn’t escape Neverland, did you?” Victor asks, his voice gentle.
The whole group pauses, Nolan taking my hand in his. I shake my head.
Victor stares at me, silent for a long beat. “How long?”
“Another ten months,” I reply.
Victor bites the inside of his cheek, pinching his forehead between his fingers. “I’m so sorry. Had I known, I never would have left. I should have never left.”
I offer Victor a gentle smile. “No, I wanted you to leave,” I say. “You’d been in Neverland long enough. Besides, my friends didn’t stop searching for me.”
I regret the words as soon as they leave my mouth—what they imply about Victor. Before I can clarify, we find ourselves at the door of a small cottage on the edge of town.
“Welcome home,” Victor says.
I’m not sure why I expected the Lost Boys’ home to resemble the Den.
Though the cabin is made of wood, there is no wood in sight.
Every inch of the walls is covered in sketches (I imagine done by Victor—has he perfected that skill in honor of his lost brother?), cheaply woven tapestries that look like they came from the market at the base of the mountain, and an assortment of shelves on which are perched row after row of toys.
So, I suppose there is wood in sight. It just happens to belong to Benjamin’s whittled carvings.
The bits of wall that do peek through the assortment of decorations have been painted blue.
Even the den area is strange, the furniture arranged in a way that almost appears unnatural. I can’t help but wonder if it’s in an attempt to avoid the setup of the furniture in the Den.
“What do you think?” Victor turns and asks.
I smile at him in answer, a mingled pride and sadness leaking into my heart.
Moments later, there’s the scuffling of feet, and a boy walks into the den from an adjoining hallway, wiping his eyes and yawning.
“Who are you talking to?” he asks, but when he sees me, his eyes jolt wide.
“Winds?” Smalls asks, though he’s hardly small anymore.
He’s shot up at least four inches since the last time I saw him, the baby fat he’d kept on his cheeks and around his waist having stretched out with him. Now he’s as lanky as John had been at that age.
I wave at him with a grin.
While I expect him to pounce on me in a hug, instead, he turns on his heel and sprints off down the hallway.
“What did you do to that poor boy to make him run off from you like that?” teases Nolan.
“Yeah, I’d always thought you were the gentle sort,” says Maddox. “Though I suppose I should know by now that’s not the case,” he adds, nudging Nolan’s hook.
I roll my eyes at them both, and listen as a commotion echoes down the hallway where Smalls disappeared.
Moments later, a gaggle of boys appear, and my heart sings.
“It really is her,” says Benjamin, brown eyes wide as he looks me up and down, face breaking into a gregarious grin. “I thought Smalls was pranking us again.”