Chapter 4
I was a stranger in a strange land who had been rescued by a fairy and a flying man-boy, and then brought to some fantastical island. Yet all I could think about was a pirate who I’d never met but came to me in dreams.
Captain Hook.
How had I not realized he and the man Pan had spoken of were one and the same?
No…I’d have remembered if the man in my dreams had a hook in place of his left hand. Was that because things were different in dreamland? Surreal, warped versions of reality?
Or, was it because I hadn’t been dreaming of Captain Hook at all, but some doppelganger of the evil pirate instead. One who was somewhere out there in another world, right now, ladling soup out to orphans or building a commune for needy widows?
All night long, I thought about it. About him.
I buried my face in my pillow and let out a groan. Fucking hell…Did a deadlier sounding name even exist?
“Evil McKillface maybe?” I muttered as I squeezed my eyes closed.
All my life, I’d been haunted by the secrets of my past. Wishing I’d known where I’d come from, who my true parents were, and why I’d been sent to The Hollow. Always thinking I was an orphan from Bryngarde or Valencourt.
Now, though? After a week of the universe pummeling me with cryptic answers about who I was and who I was meant to become… After finding out that the man whose eyes made my insides weak—whose voice made my stomach twist in the best/worst way—was a pirate who had murdered a fucking child ?
Maybe being a woman of mystery was the better option…maybe I could turn the page back, and return to Alabaster, stay with Duncan and my friends there. Return to the mew and take care of the other hawks like Shira, or sassy, snow-white Bonnie…
“Are you getting out of bed or what, lazy bones?”
I let out a shriek as I jerked my head from the pillow to find Moll's face four inches from mine.
“Fuck, Moll, I didn't even hear you come in. You scared the shit out of me!”
“I know, right?” she said with a wide grin.
“Quiet as a mouse. That's because the weather's so beautiful here in Neverland, you don't even need shoes.” She lifted a sand-covered foot and wiggled her toes. “Don’t even get me started on the joys of not having to wear that awful fake leg. Check this out,” she added, handing me a half-sphere that was brown and fuzzy on the outside and hollow and white on the inside.
I took it from her gingerly and took a sniff. It smelled good, but I was still wary.
“You eat the soft white part,” she encouraged, looking far too excited for me to say no.
I sunk my teeth into the tender flesh of the fruit and tore a bite off. “Pretty good,” I agreed, savoring the sweet, milky taste before leaning forward on my elbow to take another bite. “What's it called?”
“Coconut. There are loads of trees on the south side of the island, practically bursting with them. You either gotta climb the tree or wait till they fall. I collected eight of them off the ground in the past half hour. You could live off the land here, fat and happy, no problem. It’s like heaven. So different than The Hollow.”
And by the look on her face, that would be fine by Moll. I searched for a hint of the woman she'd been back in Alabaster and wanted to kick myself when a crease of worry appeared between her eyes.
“Don't look at me like that, Harm.” She snatched her coconut back.
“The sun is shining, the breeze is balmy, the kids are laughing, and I don't want to think about anything that happened before we got here. Give me one day of peace. One day to pretend that life isn’t a pile of shit-stew most of the time, can you do that for me?” she asked, her tone pleading.
It was hard for me to deny her anything, least of all this. She'd been through a lot, more than I had even known—a fact I was still kicking myself for. It was only a couple days ago that she’d finally worked up the courage to tell me the full extent of what Heinrich had done to her.
Even now, I’d give up my own leg for ten minutes in a room alone with the bastard just so I could see him die all over again.
It took a second to tamp down the bubbling rage before I spoke. “We’re going to have to figure out how to get to that clock before anyone else does, and it’s got to be soon,” I murmured.
Her shoulders slumped, and her face fell as I took her free hand and gave it a squeeze.
“But you're right, it doesn't have to be today.”
Not for her, anyway. Because it was going to take me some time to figure out exactly how I was going to get us off the island so I could try to beat our new friends and a murderous pirate to the punch when it came to hunting down a giant, clock-eating crocodile.
I also needed to find out what our time limit was exactly. A week? A month? A day?
Fuck. Please don’t let it be a day.
I swallowed past the lump in my throat as I tried not to think of Pan’s tale about his mother’s beloved clock or how shitty it felt to know that I was going to do my level best to steal it right out from under him.
“How about I get dressed and see if our hosts can spare one more set of clothes so we can go swimming in ours?”
She lit up again, her good mood back tenfold. “Yes! That sounds perfect!”
We hadn't managed to see everything the night before, but so far, it was pretty impressive. Plenty of food, a constant, warm breeze, and best of all, unlike in Alabaster, we’d had the chance to get a full night's sleep without fearing we might be woken up by guards dragging us to the gallows.
Judging by her glowing skin and chipper mood so far, Moll looked like she'd taken full advantage of that opportunity. As for me, my head was pounding, and I had more grit in my eyes than was on that beach out there. And it was all because of the man in that damned poster. Hook.
“Still thinking about him, huh?” Moll asked as she plopped down beside me at the edge of the bed. “I have to admit, when you mentioned those dreams to me, I didn't realize he was that good looking.”
“And here I am, more taken aback by the fact that the man I've spent more hours dreaming about than I can count is actually a murdering pirate,” I growled, sparing a glance at the door and dropping my voice to a whisper. “I’ve been kind of hoping he’s like Cissy. In two places at once, you know?”
“Ooh, yeah, that would be good.” Her eyes shot wide. “Wait, you don’t think that could happen to one of us, do you?”
The thought had occurred to be, but because my brain was close to exploding already, I’d ignored it completely.
“At this point, we have to assume anything is possible.”
“Well then we need a special handshake or something. A way that we always know if we’re talking to the real us or some two-bit phony.
” She grabbed my hand and demonstrated. “It’s two firm shakes, slide up, grip the wrist, then pull back down until we’re almost not touching.
..annnnd sizzle fingers!” She wriggled her fingertips against mine and tossed her hand in the air with a flourish.
“No way anyone else is gonna walk up to you and do that .”
I couldn’t argue with her there.
“Now that we’ve gotten that critical task out of the way, back to Hook. We’ve got to make sure that the fact that he looks familiar doesn’t leave this room. Got it?”
We’d been welcomed and treated like honored guests by two people who were waging an all-out war with the man in question.
The last thing we needed was Pan and Tink thinking we knew the guy…
or worse, that we were spies working on his behalf or something.
After all, how was I going to betray their trust if they didn’t trust me?
My stomach roiled and I let out a groan.
“Mum’s the word.” Moll pressed her thumb and forefinger to her lips, gave them a twist, and threw away the key, but we both knew how reliable that lock was.
“Seriously, Moll. It’s crucial. Possibly life and death, even.”
“Okay, okay. I got it. And I’m sorry for teasing you about him.
I was wrong. Not about his looks,” she added hurriedly.
“Obviously, he’s a stone-cold fox. But for teasing you about the dreams. I can't imagine how frustrating it must be to not know exactly where you're supposed to be, and what you're supposed to be doing, but also knowing that if you don't get there and do it, the whole world as we know it could end.” She looked around the room and lowered her voice to a whisper. “Heck, we don’t even know what other worlds exist. Ever since the Cissy Petway thing, my brain has been boggled.”
“Same.” I swung my legs over the side of the bed and stretched my back. What if there was another Duncan Westerly somewhere here in Neverland…
Another Heinrich Westerly? Yet another reason for my insomnia.
Stop borrowing trouble, woman.
I shoved the thought aside and stood just as the pitter patter of little feet skittered down the hallway. A second later, Cissy Petway and Caleb came sliding to a stop just outside our door.
“Do you guys wanna go fishing with us?” Caleb asked, his cute little lisp making my mouth twitch.
“We were just going to go for a swim?—”
“Ooh, we love swimming!” Cissy said, elbowing Caleb hard in the gut, causing him to nod in agreement.
“Yeah, we love swimming.” He didn't look quite as sure about that as Cissy did, but this Cissy was just like the one back in The Hollow. A hard taskmaster who made sure her minions toed the line. At least some things hadn’t changed.
“All right,” Moll said, waving the kids out of the room as she made her way towards the door. “We need to let Harmony wake up and get a bite to eat, then you can show us around the island before we do some swimming and fishing. So long as Pan and Tink are okay with that?”
“They will be,” Cissy said. “We just have to make sure we collect some firewood first.”
“Why don't I help you two, and we'll do it doubly fast?” Moll reached out to ruffle Caleb's dark hair.
Both kids squealed with delight, and the three of them scampered off.