Chapter 28
WINNIE
When I come around, I’m lying on cold stone, my wrists and ankles tied.
I’m on my side, facing a doorway where soft, white light is stealing in through a crack in the doorway.
Everything hurts.
I don’t remember anything getting physical, but it feels like I just fought off a small army.
Or maybe it was whatever elixir they used to knock me out.
I cough, sending dirt and dust skittering across the floor.
Shimmying onto my back, I heft myself upright so I can see what I have to work with.
I notice, immediately, that the Shadow is inaccessible to me. I don’t see any glowing bone shards in the room, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t one hanging from the neck of a nearby guard outside the door, which I’m sure is locked.
How big is the Witch Killers’ radius? How far away do I have to get before the Shadow can come to my rescue?
And then, deep down in the recess of my mind, that voice of doubt whispers: no one is coming to rescue you.
“Winnie?”
A voice murmurs from the dark corner of the room.
“Mom?”
“Is that really you?”
She leans forward, finding a slant of light from the small rectangular windows above us.
“Mom!” I get on my knees and crawl over the stone floor like a caterpillar, sinking against the wall beside her. “Are you okay? Have they hurt you?”
She’s crying, shaking her head. “How are you here?”
“Do you know who they are? How much do you know?”
“They won’t tell me anything.”
I give her the condensed version about the Myth Maker power passed down our line and the Witch Killers determined to fix the problem. She takes it all in, hardly surprised. She’s a Darling woman, after all. Our entire lives have been haunted by magic and extraordinary things.
When I finish, I reach over and take her hands in mine. We’re both tied with braided rope, but there’s just enough slack to give us use of our hands.
“I’m going to ask you something and I want you to tell me the truth. No more lies.”
She nods. “Okay. Yes.”
“Do you know a man named Hansel?”
Her expression falls, as if a shutter has been yanked down.
“Mom. Please. Just tell me.”
“How do you know that name?” she asks.
“He’s here. He came to me.”
“No. That’s not possible. He left. He said he was never coming back.”
“Is Hansel my father?”
Her chin wobbles. There are tears welling in her eyes, but she clenches her jaw as if she’s determined not to spill them.
“Yes.” She inhales and buries her face in her hands and the tears come. Great, heaving sobs.
I pull her into me because despite everything, I’ve always had to be the one who kept it together, who took care of her when the nightmares were so bad, she would shake in her bed.
There was a part of Hansel’s story I had never heard before. The story of a Darling woman who had dreams for herself and she was never given the chance to realize them.
We were both cursed from birth.
I was determined to end that curse with me and I did. I helped Peter Pan find his Shadow, but I helped him with so much more.
Pan and Vane and Kas and Bash.
Most of my life, I told myself I needed no one, wanted nothing, chased pleasure and lost myself in distraction.
Because deep down I thought I didn’t deserve more.
I thought I didn’t deserve to be at the top.
But if they can be at the top, why can’t I?
If Gretel thinks she’s so much better than me, stronger than me, more cutthroat than me, I’m going to make her fucking prove it.
“Mom.” I tuck the hair behind her ear. “Look at me.”
She sits upright and wipes the tears away with the back of her shirt sleeve.
“You did the best you could. I don’t blame you for doing what you had to do to keep us safe.”
She blinks several times. “No. No. Winnie…I…you…I can’t…I don’t think I deserve that.”
I plant a kiss on her hand. “Yes you do.”
A rush of air comes out of her, like decades of regret and shame and guilt has finally been lifted from her shoulders.
“You and me, against the world. Yeah? Two Darling women, stronger than people give us credit for.”
She nods softly, still unsure of whether or not she can believe it.
“We’re going to get out of here. You. And me.”
“Okay.”
I let her go and turn my attention to the ropes and the knots binding me.
I don’t have access to the Shadow or any of the magic I’ve come to depend on.
But I don’t need it.
Because I’m Winnie Fucking Darling.
And not even a rope can keep me contained.