Chapter 31
Tink
Blood raced in her ears. She kicked, hit, cried as the man—it had to be a man—crushed her wings against his body. “Too late now, Captain,” the deep voice rumbled from behind her.
James pulled his sword. “Let her go.”
The man raised his own blade to Tink’s neck. She went utterly still, frozen by fear. “Think not.”
That voice. She knew that voice. James’s eyes locked with hers across the space between them. Raw fear lingered there.
Captain Blackbeard. Her stomach plummeted, her knees shook dangerously. Other men emerged from the dense jungle, their own blades raised.
“What do you want?” James demanded, ignoring the others.
“Ta take ya to yer crew, of course.” He chuckled. The edge of the thick, curved blade nearly scraped her skin. Her vision blurred, but she could swear he gripped a handle wrapped in some kind of reptilian skin.
“What have you done with them?”
“They’re waitin’ just ahead.”
Lily.
Her heart nearly beat out of her chest. Had she gotten away?
Did he have her too? A tear slipped down her cheek as Blackbeard ushered her forward.
Everything she’d sacrificed was to get her home safe, and now Blackbeard probably had her again.
She’d gotten James and his crew cursed, put them in danger, and for what?
“Drop tha sword,” Blackbeard ordered, angling the blade of his own against her throat for emphasis.
James didn’t take his eyes off her. “If you hurt her…” He tossed his blade away.
“Ye’ll what?”
A bulky man with long, greasy hair kicked the back of James’s legs, knocking him to the ground. A grunt of pain slipped out as he slammed into the dirt. Tink yearned to run to him, but Blackbeard held her steady. One move, one ill-timed lunge, and his sword would cut her throat.
Another man, short and lean, punched James in the face, knocking him to the ground. “Fish bait,” he spat.
In moments, they bound his arms behind his back and hauled him to his feet. Blood dripped from a cut on his lip. She ached for him, hurt worse for his wounds than her wings screaming in pain, trapped against the bulk of Captain Blackbeard.
The pirates pushed James down the path ahead of her.
Deadly quiet reigned until they entered a small clearing.
Even the birds and other animals made themselves scarce in the presence of these monsters.
Blackbeard removed his filthy hand from her mouth, but what could she say?
There could be no reasoning with this monster.
She knew to even attempt it would mean wasting her breath.
Hook’s men were bound and gagged, tied together in little clusters with Blackbeard’s men on watch.
A tight knot bobbed in her throat as Tink scanned each of the crew, taking stock of injuries—bruises, a little blood, nothing fatal that she could see. But…
Lily. Her heart skipped a beat. “Where is she?” she blurted, before she could think better of it.
Smee looked away. Sage snarled against her gag. Why…?
“Looking for me?”
Lily strolled out from between two of Blackbeard’s men, none the worse for wear. Tink’s brows scrunched. Her mind tried to work it out and failed.
Blackbeard lowered his sword and shoved her forward. Tink floundered like a fish, mouth agape, and fell to the ground. Her knees barked in pain even as her wings sighed.
“Tink!” James lunged for her, only to be jerked back.
“Bind ’er.” Blackbeard ordered.
She scrambled to kneel, blinking at Lily, before her arms were wrenched behind her by two brawny men. “You’re…” Reality choked her. Truth stabbed her in the gut.
“With them?” A feral grin crossed her cousin’s face.
No.
Acid crawled up her throat.
No. This couldn’t be.
“I loved you. I saved you,” she gasped. “I gave everything.” Tears burned the corner of her eyes, but she refused to cry, not for her. Rope bit into her wrists as the man behind her pulled the bindings tight.
Lily sauntered over and crouched before her. “Your mistake.”
“My—” Breath left her. She hunched as if kicked in the stomach. A cold sweat broke out on her skin.
“I wanted to go with them that night.” She grinned at the only decent-looking man among Blackbeard’s crew, who blew her a kiss in return. “I planned to come back…eventually.” She shrugged. “But then you had to be all perfect and heroic. Little shining star Tinker Bell, off to save the day.”
Tink reared back at the sarcasm in her voice. Perfect? Shining star?
“They told me what you offered for them to send me back to shore. And you know my first thought? Freedom. Finally. No more being Tinker Bell’s shadow. Always overlooked and unappreciated.”
Each word struck worse than a blow.
“No more being compared to Little Miss Goody-Goody. I could finally shine. Me!”
Nothing Lily said made sense. “I never—” Tink began.
“No, you never knew what it was like to be me. Not as pretty, not as smart, not as skilled. Every day my parents compared me to you. Why can’t you be more like Tink? Even the elders just had to go on and on about you and pretend I didn’t even exist!”
Tink dry heaved. They’d always been together. They played together, studied together, shared secrets. Lily was her friend. Her best friend.
“You asked me to go with you. Always. You said you trusted me, wanted me with you.” Any time they snuck away to the human lands, Lily had insisted she come.
Who could she trust better than her very best and closest cousin?
Who else could she possibly want with her? Tears streamed down Tink’s cheeks.
“Of course.” Lily blew a lock of blonde hair out of her eyes.
“If we got caught, you’d make sure we didn’t get in trouble.
They just loved you so much. And…” She shrugged.
“I kinda hoped you’d like it. Maybe stay?
Get lost? But you have to do everything so well.
” Her laugh, once so comforting, grated like coarse sand.
Lily wanted her to be cursed and cast out. Her own cousin. Someone she’d loved, given everything for… Tink stared at the ground, unable to look at her. “You never even went back.” No wonder no one came to look for her. They never knew where she’d gone.
“Oh, of course I did.”
Her head snapped up. “Then…what did you—”
“Say? See, I know you so well. Though apparently you never knew me, did you?” She bared her teeth.
“They were distraught. ‘Poor Tinker Bell,’ they said. ‘We must find her at once. We have to help her.’ None of them cared a whit about me. Taken hostage by pirates.” She gasped in feign shock.
“Barely escaped in time. I might as well have been invisible. So…I might have given them the wrong location.” She rolled her eyes.
“You—”
“Oh, and told them you sold your dust on purpose and asked the pirates to take you away.”
Her body shook. They couldn’t believe that, her parents, the elders. Everyone she’d ever loved…
“They were dubious, of course, but when they couldn’t find you. Well?” She stood and flipped her palms to the sky.
The move shifted something in her. Changed the tide from sorrow to fury. “You bitch.”
Lily straightened, her smirk vanishing.
“I gave everything.” Home. Family. My way of life. “Everything! And you—” Her nails cut into her palms. “You’ll pay for this!”
The other pixie threw her head back and cackled. “Everything? You think this is everything?” she mocked. Lily ripped the pixie bracelet from her arm.
Tink gasped as the beads scattered across the dirt. That shouldn’t… They didn’t break so easily.
“A fake.” Lily shrugged.
“Then you…” She’d cursed herself too.
“Of course. Who wants to stay where they’re not wanted?”
“You’re the one who sold dust to the bartender in Tortuga.” Hook’s icy words cut through her haze of fury.
Lily smirked. “There and half this side of the Cerulean Sea. Had to make sure my story would check out for anyone who came looking.”
Tink shook. That’s why James was confused when she told him she hadn’t sold dust in months. He’d come across Lily’s. It had led him to her.
“Enough.” Blackbeard stomped his way to them. “Ye’ve had yer fun,” he snapped to Lily.
Lily’s nose wrinkled, but she stepped back as Blackbeard circled near.
He looked just as he had that awful night: tall, stalky.
Jet-black hair tumbled from under a black hat to graze the back of his neck.
Streaks of silver highlighted it, especially in his overgrown beard that covered the lower half of his face.
From the way he wielded his cutlass with practiced ease, the man was still muscular beneath the thick, black jacket that covered him neck to boot.
“Now.” He twirled his curved blade and walked to James. “We’ve a few things ta…discuss.”
Tink blinked away her tears as she gazed at James where he knelt on the ground a few feet from her. The look on his face said everything: fury at Lily’s betrayal, heartache for her. And a promise: she hadn’t lost everyone who cared for her.