Chapter 3
A n hour later, as we followed the children through the kitchen and back outside, I was still thinking about what Moll had said.
And the more I thought about it, the more sense it made. Crazy, utterly insane sense, sure, but still…
I wish I could’ve blamed it on the trauma from all I’d done and seen in the past week or so, but Moll had gone through the same, and more. And she’d still seen the connection before I had. The truth that had been right in front of my nose all along…
As insane as it seemed, when we had grabbed that dog-eared fold I had seen with the loupe, Moll and I had turned the literal fucking page , thrusting us into a whole new world.
One from my childhood fairytale book and, unfortunately, one I didn’t remember at all.
The image of the hulking pirate ship at the start of that story had scared me so much as a child that I’d never let my Pawpaw read it to me.
Then, once my brothers had destroyed the book, it was too late to go back.
“If I hadn’t been such a chickenshit and let him read it to me, we wouldn’t be flying blind here,” I muttered.
“Stop beating yourself up. You were like what, five years old? There was no way of knowing that the key to unlocking your destiny might have been inside that book and now it’s gone forever.”
Oof. When she put it like that, it sounded even worse. “Thanks?”
“Sorry,” she added, reaching out to give my shoulder a squeeze.
“I meant that you were just a kid. And you’re not the one who threw it in the creek!
That was your brothers’ doing. Not your fault,” Moll whispered as she dodged a sapling that came snapping back at us as we trailed behind Caleb, Cissy, and Tristan.
Once we’d finished our baths, the kids had gotten us clean clothes and some cold, fresh water.
Now, me, Fetch, Moll, and the kids were headed to join Tink and Pan by the fire pit for some snacks, storytelling, and the promised game of hide and seek.
My bare feet sifted through the soft sand and, although it was still warm from the day’s sun, I found myself longing for my crimson boots.
I’d done my best to wash them, and only hoped they were fit to wear again once they’d dried.
Duncan had given them to me…
Nope, don’t go there.
Thinking about the man who gave those boots to me was a mistake and would only distract me from my purpose here. If he was meant to be a part of the rest of this journey, he’d have come along. I had to trust the process and focus on the here and now.
But, damn, was it hard to not wish he’d come with us. With me…
“Sometimes, we roast sausages, sometimes we roast nuts and fruit. Depends on whether we’d gone and gotten supplies from Blackbriar or are living off the island,” Cissy explained over her shoulder as Moll and I sped up to match her near-sprint toward the smell of a campfire.
A soft thunk split the air as I stepped through a space in a circle of trees.
By the flickering light of the fire, I got a good look at Tink without the shroud of shock and terror hanging over me, and it stopped me in my tracks.
With her heart-shaped face and cupid’s bow mouth, she was the most beautiful creature I’d ever laid eyes on.
Her slim shoulders were bare in what could only be described as a mix between a bathing suit and a petticoat that came to mid-thigh.
The sage green color would have washed out a lesser woman, but on Tink, it looked just like the rest of her.
Perfect.
Pan stood facing a tree in the distance, arm cocked, knife in hand as I approached. His arm shot forward in a blur, and cheers erupted as the blade buried itself in the trunk with a dull thud.
Cissy rushed toward him, holding her hand out for a dagger. “Me next!”
Pan grinned and shook his head. “After we eat you can all have a turn, alright? Our guests are probably starving.”
Moll's stomach let out a deep growl, as if triggered by his words, and Pan let out a burst of laughter. “Well, at least Molly is.”
Tink shot him a quick frown, and the grin faded as he cleared his throat.
Jealous one, was she?
“Please,” Tink said, with a graceful wave of her arm, frown disappearing. “Come sit by the fire and let us feed you!”
It was only then that I caught the subtle scent of cooking spices melding with the wood smoke and salty air. Something with spring onions and roasting vegetables had my mouth watering. We made our way around the fire, where blankets and pillows were strewn about.
“I hope you don't mind. Tristan here has been working on some outdoor chairs for us, but they're not quite finished yet. Right, Tristan?” There was no judgment in Tink’s voice, but the boy gave her no more than a clipped nod as if she’d scolded him.
We all sat as Tink reached for an oven mitt on a stone next to the fire and used it to pull the top off the massive pot tucked in the embers. The savory scent intensified, and I let out a groan.
“What is it? Smells like heaven.”
“Just a simple one-pot meal I make that the kids and Peter and I all love. It's got wild garlic, leeks, and loads of vegetables. Some we grow here on the island, and some we get from the mainland, like the sweet potatoes and squash.”
She made quick work of ladling us each out a portion into lovely little carved wooden bowls, and it took everything I had not to slurp it down the way I would’ve if Moll and I were alone.
I plucked a morsel of sweet potato from the bowl and held it out to Fetch, but he seemed uninterested, and instead leapt off my shoulder to hunt. More for me. There had to be loads of vermin for him to hunt here with the amount of fruits and vegetables they had on hand.
“Hunt safe, Fetch,” I murmured before I poked the bite into my mouth, letting the delicate spices curl around my tongue.
Silence reigned as we ate. It wasn’t until I finished the last of the stew that I realized none of us had spoken a word in at least five minutes as we relished every bite of our food, which told me one thing;
Every single one of us had known hunger.
The realization gave me the courage to speak my mind. “So, are you all orphans like me, then?” I asked, taking a risk that they'd find the question offensive, but hoping they didn’t, and I could get some easy answers.
The children all nodded as Pan and Tink exchanged a glance. Tink tipped her head toward him, as if giving Pan permission to speak.
“Yes. In fact, that's where Tink and I met.
The Gentle Hand Asylum for Wayward Youth.
It wasn't a good place.” Pan's face, which had seemed to be wreathed in a perpetual smile up to this point, grew serious.
I tightened my grip on my bowl, knowing in my gut that whatever came next was going to be difficult to hear.
“We had a really evil Headmaster…we called him The Warden because he treated us like prisoners. And he wasn’t wrong, I guess.
We were definitely stuck there. He was tough on us, especially the boys.
We never had enough to eat, and nothing we did was ever good enough.
” He shook his head and let out a soft laugh.
“Funny, when I was a young lad, even younger than Caleb, I remember wishing I could make him like me. Give me a smile or show me some small kindness.” He stared into the flickering flames, as if lost in the past, before shaking his head slowly and looking up.
“It never happened. But by the time I’d reached my teen years, I realized I didn't need him to like me. I just needed to do my time and get out of there without letting him break me. Even with that…I’m not sure I would’ve made it if Tink hadn’t come along. She saved me.”
Tink reached out and took his hand in hers, giving it a squeeze. “You didn't deserve that place, Peter. No child does.”
Moll let out a sloppy sniffle, then swiped at her running nose, and I knew she was one more word from full-on, snot-sobbing. She was a tender heart, especially when it came to kids. No doubt she was picturing Peter as a little boy right now, and it was killing her.
“And the kids?” I murmured. “You decided you didn't want to see the same happen to them, so you brought them here. To raise them in the sunshine, food and people who care…”
“Exactly,” Tink said with a smile. “These three aren't the first. We've had dozens come through over the past couple of decades. It’s given Peter a purpose, and it’s been nourishment for my soul, too.”
I blinked, still caught up on the earlier part of that statement. Couple of decades? Peter didn’t look much older than twenty or so. Tink must have seen my surprise because she wiggled her fingers and shot me a grin.
“We're a lot older than we look. It's the fairy dust, you know,” she said as little golden sprinkles shimmered from her fingertips.
I shouldn’t have been surprised. This world, like the one we’d come from, clearly had its share of magic.
I wanted to ask more about how their magic worked, but I didn't want to seem overly curious.
We had to at least try to fit in, like we'd been forced to do in Little Alabaster after Molly had stabbed King Heinrich with the glass shoe.
I was getting pretty good at trying to balance the need for information with the need to hide in plain sight.
Moll, on the other hand...
“So wait, I gotta know. How can you both fly? This guy doesn't even have wings!”
Luckily, neither Pan nor Tink took offense. In fact, he set down his bowl and leapt in the air, whirling, flipping and twirling over the sparks from the bonfire.
“Another thing I love about Tink! She didn't just save me; she shared her power with me, too. I’ll never be anyone’s prisoner. Not ever again.”
He did one more loop-de-loop before drifting back down onto his pillow with a chuckle.