Chapter 4 #2
I was bent at the waist, stretching to ease the dull ache in my back from falling out of the sky and slamming into the water at a trillion miles an hour, when a low voice spoke from the doorway.
“Oy.”
I jerked upright to find Tristan standing just outside the room with Fetch perched on one shoulder, looking strangely comfortable.
“I think your bird likes me.”
“Huh,” I said, surprised. “He does seem to like you.”
Fetch hadn't shown the same regard for Tink or Pan, and he and Moll had never reached the ‘perched comfortably on her shoulder’ stage, even after all these years. He had grown fond of Duncan pretty quickly, though…
The thought sent a shaft of pain through my chest, the wound too fresh to dwell on.
Instead, I focused on Tristan, the young man who seemed to have replaced the chip on his shoulder with my falcon. It was then that I noticed the greasy morsel in the boy’s hand.
“Ah, you found the way to his heart. He’s not won over easily, but catching him a fish is a good start.”
“He caught it for me, actually.”
I stared at the boy, mouth wide.
“What do you mean?”
“Well, I was walking the beach looking for some driftwood for some shelves I'm working on and saw Fetch flying over the water.
I saw a school of mackerel splashing around in the distance, and I let out a whistle and pointed to it.
Wouldn't you know, he did a one-eighty, dove down and came up with this sucker right here.
Cooked it over an open fire, and that's what we had for breakfast.”
Fetch had never been a great fisherman, but clearly, he’d wanted to impress Tristan.
Interesting.
The falcon plucked the last bit of food from Tristan's hand and gulped it down before cleaning his beak on his feathers. Tristan shuffled from foot to foot, head cocked.
“Are you guys gonna stay a while?” he blurted, lifting his head and holding my gaze with an intense stare.
“I'm not sure,” I hedged. It was a lie. Fate had brought us to Neverland, but I had that same gut feeling that our time on the island would be short. Guilt poked at me hard as the hope in his eyes died. “It seems like a pretty nice place, with some pretty nice people, so who knows?”
He nodded slowly and opened his mouth to speak, but before he could, another voice chimed in.
“I realize you had a bit of a day yesterday, but we don't want these eggs to get cold now, do we?” Tink sidled up next to Tristan. Not unlike the first time I'd seen her, for an instant, her beauty actually took my breath away.
“Sure, I could eat some eggs, if it's not too much trouble.”
“Already made, no trouble. The chickens were good to us this morning so there’s plenty,” Tink chirped, sparing a glance at Tristan and Fetch.
“You should head out and help your brother and sister with the firewood.
Fair's fair,” she said with a wink before turning on her heel and making her way back down the hall towards the kitchen.
“Not my brother and sister,” Tristan muttered under his breath, the chip sliding neatly back into place on his shoulder. I stayed quiet, unsure of what to say as the boy stroked the downy feathers on Fetch's belly.
There was clearly some jealousy or a family dynamic that I hadn't yet seen a reason for…
And you won't be here long enough to find out about it, I reminded myself grimly.
By the time I scarfed down a breakfast of fresh eggs and fruit, I was feeling a little less guilty and a lot more amenable to spending the day with the children.
Molly would be able to relax, and I would be hurting exactly no one as I kept my ears and eyes peeled for any information we might be able to use.
As scary as our original introduction to it had been, I couldn’t deny that the aquamarine water surrounding the island was like something out of a dream.
In fact, the whole place was kind of like a paradise.
The morning passed in a blur as the kids showed us around the northern part of the island, pointing out landmarks and things to look out for.
Like the Widowmaker, a spindly-looking black and red plant with enough venom to kill you if you were stupid enough to be lured in by its vermillion, razor-sharp leaves.
And the cave at the far end of the island that was infested with bats.
And the little copse of brambles behind the house where the sand wasn't really sand at all.
It was more like a trap that would suck you in so the island could swallow you whole.
Apparently, though, the little cove that surrounded Neverland wasn’t nearly as fraught with danger as the land or the open sea.
As long as we stayed within a hundred yards, we were free to swim without fear of getting eaten by a sea monster, which was nice.
And, when we finally hit the crystalline blue water and dove beneath the surface, there were a few moments where I almost forgot that any place else existed.
Colorful fish flitted by in flashes of orange, yellow, and silver.
I dove closer to the bottom, reaching out a hand to a creature shaped like a star before pulling away.
Safe from sea monsters didn’t mean safe from everything.
There were definitely things in Neverland that could kill you, and if I hadn't let a reanimated rotting corpse infested with blowflies take me down, I sure wasn't about to let some adorable but poisonous sea star trick me.
I kicked my way to the top, sucking in a breath as my face surfaced.
“You sure can hold your breath for a long time, can'tcha?” Cissy Petway observed splashing water a few feet away.
“I guess I can, yeah.”
“Did you grow up next to the sea?” she asked.
Until they’d plucked us out of it, I’d never even seen the sea, but I wasn’t about to admit all that. “I didn't, but I did spend a lot of time fishing in creeks and ponds during the summer months.”
“Well then, let's make it a contest. Hey, Caleb!” she called, cupping her hand around her mouth. “We’re gonna do a fishing contest!”
Caleb kicked and flailed furiously a few yards away, barely keeping his head above water as Moll stood three feet behind him, both hands at the ready in case he went under.
“M-maybe we should swim back to shore and start right now,” he sputtered.
I bit back a smile and began to paddle my way back toward the beach.
We dried ourselves off with some towels and then set about catching bait. Caleb, Moll and Tristan worked on trapping minnows in a net while Cissy and I dug for worms.
“Sure, bait fishes are good for catching some big ones,” Cissy said, perching the tip of her tongue on her upper lip as she dug deep into the soft dirt by the tree line, “My dad always said, worms ain’t fancy, but they’re as close to a sure thing a man can get when it comes to fishin’.”
Her hands slowed and she cleared her throat before looking up at me and forcing a smile. “Oops. He’s dead now, and I’m not supposed to talk about him. Don’t tell Tink.”
A sharp pain stabbed at my chest, but I tried not to let it show as I nodded. “Of course not.”
Leave it be, Harm. This is none of your bus-
“Can I ask why?”
“Why he’s dead?” Cissy started digging again and shrugged. “He got real drunk and tried to steal our neighbor’s cow. Mr. McClachi thought he was a wolf so he sicc’ed the hounds on him and they tore him to pieces.”
I bit my lip, trying not to let the image of that form in my mind. “Sorry, I meant why you’re not supposed to talk about him.”
She screwed up her face and settled back on her bottom. “Tink says men who are mean to little girls aren’t worth our tears.” She lifted her gaze, eyes glassy. “But he wasn’t that mean. Not most of the time. And I really miss him…”
I dropped the handful of dirt I was holding and reached out to take her hand. “I lost my dad too. He wasn’t perfect, but man, did I love him. It’s okay to miss your father, Cissy. And if you ever need someone to talk to about him, I’m here.”
I wanted to bite my tongue off the second I said it. Because I wouldn’t be here. The second I got the chance, me and Moll would be in the wind. I was just another adult she was soon to be abandoned by.
Do not get close, damn it.
I moved to pull away and then paused. She had a tiny little mark on the inside of her wrist…
No. Not a mark.
A tattoo.
“What is that?” I asked before I could stop myself.
“That’s my magic.” She brightened suddenly. “I’m Tideblessed. See,” she pointed to the tattoo with one grubby finger. “It’s a vine with a droplet of water.”
Tideblessed.
“So the vine means…?”
“I’m a Blossom. I can make things grow. Not real good yet, but someday.” She looked away and sniffled. “I know it doesn’t seem as good as being a Mend, but Tink says it’s way cooler, and everyone will think so once I’m older.”
I ran my finger over the tattoo and paused. There was definitely something there. An energy…a sizzle under my fingertip.
“And you were given this tattoo when?”
She frowned and laughed. “I was born with it, a course, like all the Tideblessed.”
“What about Caleb and Tristan?”
She shot a glance over her shoulder toward the shore where the others were still netting up bait fish, and then leaned closer.
“Caleb has one. It’s of the sunrise, but it’s really faded.
I think it might be because his Tideblessing just isn’t that strong.
And I don’t know about Tristan. Never seen it if he has one, and he don’t talk much. ”
“What about Pan and Tink?”
She shook her head. “Nah. Tink’s a fairy, and Pan is…” she scrunched her nose. “I don’t actually know what Pan is. He’s magic, but I never asked if he was Tideblessed. Want me to ask for you?”
“No, no. That’s okay. I was just curious.”
She cocked her head and stared at me for a long moment. “Did you used to live near Bolton Street?”
I drew back with a frown. “No. Why do you ask?” I wasn’t about to tell her I didn’t even know where Bolton Street was…or anything else in this place.
“Me and my dad lived there. It’s weird…just right this second when you were real close to me, I felt like I knew you…before.” She pulled her hand from mine and absently touched her forehead.
On the exact spot of the cut she’d gotten the day the mantis had taken her.
I shivered and waited, my whole body on high alert. Did this Cissy have some sort of connection with Cissy from The Hollow? Would her memories come rushing back?
But she just shook her head and shrugged. “Tink says my imagination is too big sometimes. I gotta squish it down a little.”
I smiled and ruffled her hair. “I think a great imagination is a gift, so don’t squish it down too much, okay?”
She grinned and then let out a squeal, pointing to a worm poking its head…or tail from the dirt. “There’s a big fat one!” She was distracted easily enough, but I found myself dwelling on this new information.
This place had magic users just like Alabaster except instead of Whispers, here, they called them Tideblessed.
And maybe, just maybe, if a person existed in both worlds, they shared some memories?
Or, Tink was right, and the little girl had a big imagination.
“We’ve got loads of bait, come on!” Molly called from the beach.
I tucked away what I’d learned to chew on later and gave Cissy a grin. “Ready for me to beat you at fishing or what, little miss?”
The last remnants of sadness after talking about her father seemed to melt away as she shot to her feet.
“I’d like to see you try!”
The rest of the afternoon was a haze of sunshine, laughter, and joy that soothed the ragged edges. Even Tristan had joined the fun. The five of us didn’t get back to the big house until the sun was nearly setting, and we piled into the kitchen, sun-burned and giggling.
“I was watching you guys reel ‘em in! Seemed like a close race. What's the final count?” Pan asked with a grin.
He was seated on the countertop, legs criss-crossed, watching Tink as she stirred something in a large pot on the stove.
“I supervised, as I don’t much have the stomach for it.” Molly raised a hand with a sheepish smile. “And Harm had a little trouble with casting into the waves, so we only got three between us. The kids beat us by a longshot.”
“I got five and Caleb got three!” Cissy crowed, tucking her thumbs under the straps of her sandy, damp overalls.
Tink let out a gasp, set down her spoon, and pulled her in for a hug.
“That's my girl!” She pulled back, her perfect little nose wrinkling just slightly as she let out a chuckle.
“Why don't we let the others clean those fish to go with dinner, and we’ll get you in the bathtub and into some fresh clothes. You can even try the new gardenia oil I made last week. It smells like paradise.”
“We all washed off under the waterfall. I’m clean!”
“My nose is telling me otherwise. You need some soap, my dear.”
Cissy stared longingly at us and then at the fish but then gave a grudging nod. “Alright.” The two headed off down the hall, leaving the rest of us to finish dinner preparations.
“What about you? How many?” Peter asked Tristan.
“I got eight.”
“Nice. I’ve got to pick some greens for our salad.” Peter snatched a basket off the countertop next to him and leapt to his feet. “The big table out front is our cleaning station. The boys will show you where to put the guts and such.”
He made his way out the door a moment later and I spared a look at Tristan, who stared after Pan.
Fetch was once again perched on his shoulder, and I resisted the urge to reach out and ruffle the boy's hair.
He probably wouldn't appreciate the gesture, but I couldn't deny that Fetch wasn’t the only one this kid was growing on.
He'd come out of his shell as the day had unfolded, offering tidbits of knowledge about the local wildlife that he himself was still learning.
Apparently, he'd only come to Neverland two months before, while the others had been here longer. I’d wanted so badly to know his story.
Had his parents died in a tragic accident?
Had they left him because they couldn’t care for him?
Or had he spent his life wondering, just like me?
But I forced myself not to ask any of that.
Don’t get attached, dummy.
I’d made that mistake last time, and now I was paying the Piper. His price? Pain.
I knew better now. I’d have to be a real fucking idiot to let myself care about any of these people when I knew they were just another steppingstone on my treacherous path to the end game.
I barely heard the little voice in my head that whispered…
It’s too late…