Chapter 36
I n spite of their bold words, Pan was breathing hard, and strands of hair stuck to his damp forehead. Even in the moonlight, I could see new lines carved around his eyes. He was already tired and looked older than the last time I’d seen him—the clock was doing its job.
Tink looked the same as I remembered, but there was a tightness to her features that hinted at something brewing just beneath the surface.
I could feel the motion of the clock in the pouch at my waist. So long as it kept ticking, they’d continue to grow weaker.
“You’re surrounded,” Hook said calmly, saber in his right hand, his iron hook glinting on his left.
Pan gave a bitter laugh. “I’ve beaten you before.”
“I was a child. But then again, those are your favorite victims.” Hook’s smile was icy as he lifted his sword. “As I recall it, though, I did kill you. It was only your hobgoblin girlfriend’s magic and Noru’s bad timing that saved you. Killing you a second time is going to be a piece of cake.”
Pan let out a guttural scream and lunged at James, blade flashing in the moonlight.
Steel clashed with steel, and Hook swung like a man possessed, using a brute strength that sent the smaller Pan skittering backward unsteadily. He pivoted and danced around, but James parried each blow in the nick of time, advancing on him without pause.
Hook skirted around a thrust, flowing into a counter attack with his sword, then right into a punch, slamming his fist into Pan’s chest with a hollow thunk.
Pan gasped, rolling aside, but I had to turn my attention elsewhere as Tinkerbell darted my way in a blur.
“Give it to me!” she demanded.
I flicked my whip, magic sparking along its length.
I snapped it forward, forcing her to swerve off-course, right into Xander.
She spun midair in a blur, sending a cloud of shimmering dust as she danced right under the tip of his whip.
He coughed, flailing to clear his eyes, but he brought his whip back just in time, somehow managing to crack it a second time, smashing it right through one of Tink’s fairy-like wings.
She shrieked and a faint ripple distorted her lovely features, her mouth curving into something feral. It was only for a second before her fairy image snapped back in place.
“You’re slipping, Tink,” I said, setting my feet. “Something wrong?”
She hissed. “I don’t need to be pretty to kill you, bitch.” She shot toward me again, claw-like nails extended.
I sidestepped and slapped her across the shoulder with my glowing whip, directing its path with magic more than physical motion.
Sparks flew as it connected, and she tumbled onto the sand, rolling twice before springing back up.
Her wings flickered once again, revealing a pair of ragged, batlike membranes before shimmering back to gossamer.
Near the shoreline, Pan and Hook continued their dance of steel.
Pan was still nimble, but the strain was starting to show.
Hook exploited it, driving Pan closer to the water.
They traded blows—Pan darting in and out with cautious, surgical thrusts, Hook parrying and hacking like he had all the time in the world.
A splatter of greenish blood stained the sand as Xander’s whip caught Tink once again, this time in the face, revealing the hideous, elongated features beneath the illusion.
“You dare—?” she spat, floating higher. “I gave you and all the others everything…a childhood full of food and of games and adventure. And this is what I get for it?”
She unleashed a stream of fairy dust at me but, instead of shimmering and gold, it glowed toxic green in the moonlight.
My skin tingled, but I pushed through, swinging my whip in a wide arc.
The tip glowed bright with energy, carving a searing line across Tink’s arm.
She tumbled in midair, landing hard on her feet.
Her wings drooped, now half-tattered, no longer shimmering.
She was taller than before, her limbs thin and angular.
Hollow cheeks, large eyes, and beastly fangs.
I heard a furious shout—Hook. Pan was trying to lunge past him toward me, but Hook drove him back with fierce thrusts of his saber. Sand flew under their feet. Their blades locked once, twice, then Pan slipped free, batting Hook’s arm aside. Hook grunted in pain, stepping back to steady himself.
“They’re not dead. Why are you saying that? Miguel was an accident…”
James roared with renewed fury and reeled off half a dozen blows, backing Pan further and further toward the beach. “Accident? You used him to save your own hide. And the rest of them, they’re nothing but a massive pile of bones in that cave she forbid us all from going to.”
Pan’s expression shifted. “She said—” He flicked a glance at Tink. “She said we released them. She said we only took enough energy to keep going. She wouldn’t?—”
Hook sneered. “All these years, and you still haven't figured it out? Either you’re a fucking idiot, or you buried your head because you didn’t want to see it.”
Tinkerbell snarled. “He’s just saying this to break us apart. Finish him and then get the fucking clock before we’re out of time. I’m using up all my energy trying to slow your aging, damn it!”
But Pan’s resolve was slipping. And, ruthless as ever, Hook seized the chance, sidestepping a halfhearted thrust before slashing his blade across Pan’s side, dropping him to one knee. Pan cried out, his sword trembling in his grip as he slapped a hand over the bloody, gaping wound.
Tink howled, shifting her focus away from me.
“Bastard!” She launched at Hook, her now-monstrous features contorting with rage.
Her batlike, demonic wings carried her just high enough to divebomb him, claws out.
Hook twisted aside at the last moment, but she raked his shoulder, sending up a spurt of blood as her jagged claws sliced into his flesh.
I tried to intervene, but illusions sprang up again—this time half-formed shapes of swirling dust. I wasted precious seconds shredding them with my whip as Tink landed at Pan’s side, throwing up a magical barrier at the last second to deflect my attack.
Pan struggled to his knees, looking up at her. “Tink?” he rasped. “Is it true? Did you lie about letting them go?”
“Don’t listen to him!” Tink shrieked. “I– I love you. He’s trying to trick you.”
Pan hesitated, sword pointed at Hook, but his hands shook. Wrinkles creased his skin even as I watched and his cheeks had begun to hollow.
The clock was really taking its toll now.
“Think about it, Peter. All the pieces are there…You already know the truth,” Hook said, advancing on him again, sword first. Using his first name, drawing him in—smart, it was very smart.
Pan’s expression faltered, and he let his sword clatter to the ground, his eyes flitting toward Tink. “We were supposed to be helping them. You couldn’t…”
I winced as her hand snapped to his jaw, but it wasn’t an attack. Instead, she pulled him closer, leaning in for a kiss. As their lips parted, she swiped a tear from his eye.
“Everything I’ve ever done has been for us. It’s me and you against the world, just like always. Don’t let them take that from us.”
He turned back to us, his lips curving into a sad smile as his hands strayed to his chest. “It was never supposed to be like this…” He ripped open his shirt, revealing the faint amber light at the center of his chest—the piece of Tink’s heart, which she’d shared with him all those years ago.
“But, no matter what she’s done, I won’t let you have her.
” He plunged his palm into his chest, his face contorting with agony.
Tink gasped, arching her back as a wave of energy flowed from him to her. “Pan, you can’t, you’ll?—”
He dropped to the ground with a thud, his hair graying, his face collapsing in on itself as he aged a dozens of years in mere seconds.
Tink let out a wild snarl as her hobgoblin body became more solid, her wings mending themselves. A swirl of illusions danced around her again, forming razor-sharp shapes that crackled with energy.
“You see?” Tink said, voice hitching. “He gave it all…he gave me everything. This is love.” She turned on us, illusions closing in. “And it will be his love that saves me!”
I braced myself. My whip glowed, but I wasn’t sure we could stand against her now.
Suddenly, I heard a commotion behind us. The door to the house slammed open, and footsteps began pounding across the sand. Cissy’s voice rang out.
“Stop! Please!”
She tore away from Molly’s hold and sprinted into the fray, stumbling toward Tink.
“Cissy, get back!” I yelled.
She ignored me, tear-filled eyes locked on Tink. The illusions shimmered, some lunging for Cissy, but Tink waved them aside with a hiss. “Not this one! Leave her alone.”
“Please,” Cissy said, pressing her small hands together. “No more fighting. You don’t have to hurt them, Tink. I know you don’t want to.”
Tink’s expression wavered, and her jagged wings twitched. “You wouldn’t accept me,” she whispered, voice rough. “None of them ever did.”
Cissy shook her head. “I would. I do! What you look like doesn’t matter to me.” Tink’s face once again flickered between that of a fairy and her true form, her expression shifting from fury to despair. “I just need to know…Were you going to hurt me like you did Caleb?”
“Never!” Tink said fiercely, eyes blazing. “Little girls suffer enough in this world. I love you, Cissy.”
The little girl reached out to lay a hand on Tink’s cheek and the illusions around them faltered.
“Hook!” Xander shouted, sprinting forward in a blur, his whip extended. The lithe strip of leather curled around the little girl’s waist and he yanked hard, sending her skittering across the sand even as Hook lunged with his saber.
I watched in horror as he ran her through, piercing the amber glow in her chest. She howled, arching forward, eyes wide with shock.
The illusions collapsed instantly as Tink convulsed, wings flapping uselessly.
A sickly green energy rushed from her body into Hook, and he collapsed, leaving his sword buried deep in her chest.
Tink sank to her knees. Dark green blood poured from the wound, and her hobgoblin face twisted with pain.
Cissy burst into a wailing sob as Tink let out another bloody cough, her gaze shifting toward the near-motionless Pan.
She reached toward him, laying her hand on his chest and then slumped, the last shimmer of amber flickering before going dark.
It was over.
Cissy collapsed to her knees beside Tink. Molly and the boys ran up, gathering around her. Xander dropped to Hook’s side, feeling for a pulse as I hurried toward them on shaking legs.
Had taking her evil inside him been too much for him to take?
“He’s alive,” Xander said, voice tight. “But he’s out cold.”
Thank the gods.
But my initial burst of relief was short lived as I took in the scene around me.
Tinkerbell’s body looked pitiful in the moonlight, monstrous features slack in death. Pan’s gray hair fluttered in the breeze; his boyish features distorted with wrinkles. And as the moon shone down on the quiet beach, I couldn’t shake the hollow feeling inside me.
I took Hook’s hand in mine and pressed my face against his chest. The sound of his slow, steady heartbeat kept time with the ticking of the clock in my pocket.
We’d done it. We’d won…So why did I feel so lost?
Maybe it was because part of me knew that there were no true winners here. Maybe it was because, in spite of coming out on top, we were all leaving this place with wounds that would become scars.
Or maybe it was because I knew, deep in my heart, that Captain James Tyler Hook had a date with death…
And now that the deed was done, there was nothing stopping him from keeping it.