Chapter 37 #3
The liquor burned a path to my gut, but I took another swallow before handing it back over.
I couldn’t help but note that James had kept himself secluded in the captain’s chair since we’d left Neverland.
Not that I’d been expecting a declaration of love or anything.
I did wish we could spend a little time alone before I had to go.
Leaving Duncan back in Alabaster had been hard. Why did this feel ten times worse?
Because you’ve known this man longer than your mind will even let you remember.
Because he’s lived in your dreams for a lifetime.
And the final truth that I hadn’t even admitted to myself until right now…the one that blew me wide open, and almost made me go to him, right then and there.
Because you are two sides of the same coin…a coin stamped in Ca’an Saas.
"We'll be reaching The Edge soon," Xander mused as if reading my mind. He jerked his chin toward the dusky, purple sky as the sun fell off the horizon. “Another few hours and?—”
I saw it at the same time as he did. The gaping black holes that dotted the surface of the water up ahead. Dozens of them that seemed to be getting larger by the second. And suddenly my love life faded into the background.
“Wormholes!”
“Shit.” Xander rushed headlong up the steps toward the helm. “Hook!” he bellowed. “Trouble ahead!”
“I see it,” Hook shouted back, stepping into view.
“She’s got a bead on us for sure, and she’s not going to stop until you’re gone.
” He locked eyes with me. “I have to use all my energy to control the ship and avoid the wormholes, so I can only use the wind to push us so fast. You’re going to have to try using the clock and speed up time or we’ll never make it. ”
I narrowed my gaze and let the idea sink in. Almira didn’t actually exist in our timeline, which meant only our progress should be affected. Or at least, that’s what my tinker brain told me.
It was a solid plan, assuming I could make it work. And, as much as I hated to use the clock’s precious energy, there was no other choice.
I reached into my pouch and yanked it free, holding it in my hand as I whispered encouraging words under my breath.
“You can do it. Just close your eyes and feel the power inside you.”
I set one finger on the hour hand and then did just that, reaching for the well of magic that lived inside me.
“It’s working…it’s workinggggg…”
Everything around me began to stretch and streak. Even sound grew distorted and jumbled. I tried to focus as time and space whizzed past in a dizzying blur. How would I know when to stop?
But I should’ve trusted myself, because when I instinctively lifted my hand away from the clock face, everything seemed to come to a shuddering stop.
“This is it. This is the spot!” James shouted. “Xander, come help me hold the ship steady. Harmony, head to the plank!”
“Take care, my friend,” I called to Xander as he rushed off, resisting the urge to get one last glimpse at James.
There was no time for that. The window was closing fast.
I hurried to the plank, heart hammering out of my chest as I inched my way across it. Had the sea been so choppy before? Surely not…
“You can do it, Harm,” I whispered, breathless with terror. “One more stop, then it’s off to Ca’an Saas. And there’s no place like home.”
I stared down at The Edge, willing my feet to move. Three, two, one…
“Fuck!” I snarled, taking a step back. “You’re such a chickenshit. Just go!”
Five…four…three…two…
“Stop stalling or the worms are going to eat the ship, and Xander won’t be able to get back to Molly.”
My stomach took a dive as I wheeled around to find James standing directly behind me.
“What are you doing here?” I managed, the whipping winds carrying my words away almost as quickly as I spoke them. “It’s a little late for goodbyes.”
“Goodbyes?” His lips quirked into a half-smile. “You didn’t think I was going to let you go without me, did you?”
I most certainly did, but my brain was all a jumble as I tried to make sense of what was happening.
“This is my destiny, not yours. You’ve already given up enough.”
His ebony eyes still swirled with a pain so deep, I could hardly fathom it. “What would I be giving up, drinking and gambling my days away? I’d rather see how the story ends.”
“I don’t even know if I’m going to see how the story ends,” I admitted with a helpless shrug. “So far it’s been dodging one near-death experience after another.”
His lips twitched and he inclined his head. “Sounds perfect to me.”
My already shaky legs nearly went weak with relief. Not just because I didn’t have to go it alone—although I couldn’t deny, that was a piece of it. But because James T. Hook would be the one by my side.
Maybe he’d never heal. Maybe we’d both die in the process. Maybe we’d get all the way to the end, only to find that he’d still rather be dead than alive. For now, though, we both still had a chance.
I was about to reach for his hand and count down from three for real this time, but the breath was knocked out of me a second later as he rushed forward, curled an arm around my waist, and dove off the edge of the world.
“No more stalling, Princess. The clock is ticking!”
We tumbled through the air in a freefall, but this time was different than the last, when I’d left the Cinderella story with Molly.
The atmosphere shimmered around us—not dark like before, but dazzling, almost blinding, as if we’d been sucked into a prism.
Wind howled, tearing at our clothes, roaring in our ears, but just beneath it, another sound…
a chime-like singing that seemed to come from inside my own head.
Lalalalala, lalala, lalalahh
Lalalalala la lahhhhhh!
The space around us twisted then, tearing our hands apart as we were swallowed down into a funnel of wind, not unlike what the whirlpool had nearly done.
We were inside a tornado, I realized with a wave of dread. But not a gray collection of swirling clouds. This one pulsed with color, its bands like pulled ribbons of candy. Red, orange, yellow, green…all whirling in a dizzying display.
Hook grunted beside me, reaching for me in slow motion as though the air had thickened into syrup. I moved to make a grab at him and barely caught the edge of his coat.
“Hold tight!” he shouted, his voice stolen instantly by the roaring wind as he managed to clasp my hand.
It was a good call, because a moment later, the world turned sideways, then upside down. Words flickered past, jumbled and disjointed, but this time they weren’t completely unreadable—just unfinished. W E L…O Z each letter swirled past in streaks.
The pressure built, rising in my ears, squeezing at my chest, and then everything went dead silent. We hovered in the air for one impossibly long moment and I risked a glance down to see endless green fields far below us, a ribbon of yellow winding through it like a scar.
Then gravity remembered us, and we dropped like stones.
I barely held back a scream when a sudden gust of warm, sweet-smelling wind caught us just before impact—Hook’s Tideblessing from Davy to be sure.
It was enough to slow us down some as we hit the field of grass and wildflowers.
Our hands were again pried apart as we rolled and tumbled until we finally came to a stop.
My head spun and my stomach seized with the urge to retch as I tried to get my bearings.
“Holy shit. That was?—”
“Stay down and be quiet!” Hook hissed, already pushing himself to a low crouch. “Someone’s coming.”
“Hello?” a muffled voice called in the distance. “Hello, are you alright over there? I saw the storm and I?—”
I blinked furiously into the bright afternoon sunshine that was all-but eclipsed a moment later by the silhouette of a tall, broad-shouldered man, with a snowy-white falcon perched on his shoulder.
He leaned closer, and my heart dropped to my knees as I searched his familiar features, in stunned disbelief.
“Duncan?”