Dark Shadows and Mermaid Lore (Midlife In Neverland #2)
Chapter 1
“Watch this!”
Maggie Hart threw her arms in front of her as the wind rushed forward.
As if the sky heeded her command, the air acted as turbines on either side of her frame, funneling her through a misty cloud as though she was made of nothing at all.
The cloud dissipated at her touch, leaving the smallest droplets of water against her bare arms. Her turquoise dress flew behind her like a cape, long thick strands of rusty brown hair mingling along with it.
In the same fashion she had done many times before, Maggie slowly lowered her arms and the wind calmed down.
She simply coursed through the sky effortlessly, the breeze gentle and kind along her skin.
As if there was music playing in only her ears, Maggie twirled, ducked, and weaved.
The sky carried her along the way, not daring to let her fall.
If someone had come to Maggie weeks ago at her old bakery, telling her that she would soon be flying effortlessly through the bright blue sky of Neverland, she would have probably laughed in their face.
To her, Neverland was simply a far off place of a child’s dreams. It couldn’t have been real, not even in a world where magic lurked around every corner.
But there it was, directly beneath her, and it had granted her the greatest wish she had carried close to her heart for a very long time.
Maggie rolled along the breeze until she faced the company of men following close behind her.
At the head of the posse, a man taller than six feet with sun-kissed hair and deeply bronzed skin watched with a dutiful eye.
Sharp blue eyes that were as ethereal as the sky above clung to her for longer than she expected, long enough to pull a warm blush across her face, one that wasn’t simply a product of the sun’s persistent gaze.
Peter Pan.
The man of myths, the man of legends, the man of fairytales.
Around a month ago, Peter Pan arrived at Maggie’s hovel of a workplace to take her back to Neverland with him.
What she took as a blatant kidnapping was simply the solution to a problem for Neverland’s playsome King.
Peter brought Maggie to Neverland with the intention of keeping her there, feeding all the island’s inhabitants with the best food he could find.
Sure, the thought was a nice one, but Maggie would never forget how stunted she was by his effortless proposition. Her, ripped from the world she knew, expected to be the sole cook for an island full of mythical creatures she couldn’t even begin to imagine?
Maggie felt herself grin helplessly as she turned back around.
Things didn’t turn out to be as bad as she expected it to. The island was large but it wasn’t like she truly fed every mouth there was to feed. Some of Neverland’s natives were…secluded, as Peter liked to say. Only some came to try her treats.
What’s more, she lived in the most exciting treehouse she’d ever seen.
Not only was every room imaginable available for her to peruse, but it gave plenty of space for her loyal cat companion, Sunny, to aimlessly explore.
The dream she always had to open a bakery of her own still lingered in the back of her mind, but Neverland managed to provide an answer for that, too.
Peter and his Lost Boys built a restaurant at the base of the treehouse, giving Maggie ample space to serve as many of the island’s inhabitants as she could.
And it wasn’t like there was no answer to their problems. The Everything Plant that once fed them all still failed to produce fruit, even after the work they did weeks ago. Nevertheless, Maggie was far more determined than before to see them healthy again.
Maggie peered at the island ahead, the rushing waves lapping noisily against the ragged shores.
Back in her land, she never quite felt like there was a need for her.
Magic was outlawed long ago by the humans, and she wielded it like it was a part of her.
Even the baked goods she thought could simply bring a smile to people’s faces wasn’t enough.
Well, it wasn’t enough until Neverland.
“C’mon, Magpie!” One of the Lost Boys, Dash by the sound of the hearty laugh that followed, shot in front of her, simply a blur with his unmatched speed. He paused about a yard away, blonde hair pulled into a messy bun at the back of his head. “Don’t tell me that’s all you got!”
Maggie grinned. “Believe me,” she shouted back as the other Lost Boys gathered behind her alongside their King, “You haven’t seen anything yet!”
She bent her knees sharply before shooting off like a fiery rocket.
The wind rushed on either side of her in an explosive manner, the funnel of air almost so sharp it sliced the ends of her wavy hair.
The world around her blurred for a moment as she pulled her arms forward, pushing through the wind as though she coursed through a rowdy sea.
Perhaps she could have stopped there, simply sizing up Dash with her speed, but where was the fun in that?
The island sharpened beneath her as she dove.
Emerald green treetops appeared within a second, but it was hardly enough to stop her.
Maggie shot into one of the trees, feeling the dew covered leaves gently caress her skin.
Branches and twigs stuck into her hair but she could hardly care enough to pluck them out.
She erupted through the next tree top like a dolphin, a splattering of leaves coming along with her.
Behind her, the Lost Boys whooped and hollered as they quickly followed, using the path she made.
Maggie flipped into the air once more, coming to a slow stop high above Neverland. She gazed over the island fondly, catching her breath while imagining the next way to lose it all over again.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen a person laugh as much as you have today, Magpie.” Scamp hovered beside her, long strands of dark hair framing his handsome face.
She blushed and fought the urge to cover her mouth with the back of her hand. “Oh, I doubt that,” Maggie replied in a murmur.
“No, no,” another Lost Boy called out as they hovered around in the air. Twitch waggled a finger in the air like a scolding parent. “Scamp’s got a point, now.”
Maggie crossed her arms. “Oh, really?”
“You weren’t ever this happy when you first arrived,” Twitch continued.
Dusty, his soft eyes holding onto her in a gentle way, ran his pale hand through the coarse and fiery ringlets at the top of his head. “I’d have to agree,” he said with a shrug. “A-And according to Peter –”
Neverland’s King appeared on his left like a shadow. He smirked as he draped one arm across the young Lost Boy’s shoulders. The look of a trickster clung to Peter’s handsome face, bringing a sort of youthfulness to him. “According to Peter what?”
Dusty gulped. “M-Maggie never smiled in the human world. Never smiled and never laughed.”
Maggie simply sighed. If there was one thing she could firmly say about the Lost Boys, it was that they all carried hearts of gold.
Ever since she first arrived, all they cared about was her happiness.
They wished to give her the things she had always wanted, giving her more reasons to remain in the one place they thought made her happy.
It was the kindest thing she had ever seen, and the most naive.
She gave them all a smile. “I am happy.”
Their faces lit up one by one. It was Peter’s expression that caught her in the end, his smile no longer teasing or the start of a joke. It was sincere, it was meaningful, it meant something she was not yet ready to dive into.
Peter cleared his throat and retrieved a vial from around his neck. Popping the small cork keeping the contents within, Peter swirled the bottle as the powdery substance within began to glow and shimmer.
“You can do all sorts of things with Fairy Dust,” Peter explained as she hovered across the air to her. “Whatever you need to do or – most importantly – wherever you need to go. You thought that flying was fun?” Peter sprinkled it over Maggie’s head. “Just you wait, Magpie.”
The moment the dust settled over her, a burst of energy rippled through Maggie’s body. Her eyes widened as she stared up at Peter, his expression reflecting her own. Her chest rose and fell drastically, the ripples in her summer dress gracefully swishing with the gentle breeze.
“Now what?” she breathed.
“Now,” Peter placed his hands on her shoulders, carefully turning her around until her back pressed against the hard center of his chest. The breath hitched in her throat at the contact, her hammering heart practically melting against his touch. “You fly.”
Peter gave her a push and she shot out like a bullet.
The Fairy Dust sent sparks along every inch of her skin, filling her with an energy she had never felt before.
The world became a sporadic series of colors as she raced back toward the island.
The feeling of the air against her skin, the sweet tropical smells of the island filling her system, the sound of her Lost Boys and their handsome King eagerly following behind – all of it filled her with a greater euphoria than she had ever known.
The town came into view next. Maggie flew as low as she could, skidding over umbrellas and walking crowds of mingling fairies.
Most of the people she saw rang familiar with her, their names coming to mind almost instantly.
Many of them came to her restaurant, and almost all of them made sure to spend time talking with her whenever they did.
As she flew by, hardly able to slow down, they simply waved hello, giving her shouts of greeting and bellowing laughs.
“Hello, up there!” A blonde haired woman with a sharp and spikey pixie haircut waved her arms over her head as she shouted. Rainbow colored wings were stretched out behind her, shreds of sunlight falling onto it before sending a kaleidoscope of colors against the ground.
Maggie managed a wave, her shout coming out like a faraway bellow. “Hello, Vespera!”
The Queen of Fairies waved eagerly, her laughter following Maggie as she swooped back toward the sky.
Behind her, the Lost Boys and Peter lingered, their ability to control the Fairy Dust far greater than Maggie’s.
Not that she was ready to stop any time soon – if anything, she was just getting started!
Elated and unstoppable, Maggie soared back over the open sea.
She headed toward the waves, dipping her fingers into the warm water before splashing herself with it.
The water coated her skin refreshingly as the sun beat down on her overhead.
Shouts echoed from behind her but Maggie could hardly listen to them.
The open world was ahead, and there was far more left for her to explore.
What hadn’t she seen of Neverland? What lies in the far depths of the oceans? Why couldn’t she travel farther than –
Arms tightly wound around her torso before she spun out of control.
There was a sharp whistle, followed by a cannonball soaring through the air, slamming into the spot she had been flying at just a moment before.
As dizziness and nausea began to grab a hold of her, the spinning came to a stop, and she peeled her eyes open.
“Are you alright, Maggie?”
She peered up to see Peter’s worried expression blocking the sun. His blonde hair rested around his head like a halo, and for a moment, Maggie was under the impression that she had been dreaming all along.
“W-What happened?” she murmured, her hands pressed flat against Peter’s hard chest. “I could’ve sworn I saw –”
“Cannonball!”
Peter was shooting through the air before she could finish her sentence.
The Lost Boys formed around them in a defensive position, tightly surrounding their King as they flew back toward the mainland.
Maggie clutched Peter’s chest, her eyes just able to peer out over his shoulder.
In the distance, lingering in the sea where they had been, was a dark and shadowy pirate ship.
Smoke curled from the deck, no doubt from where they mercilessly fired their cannons.
A white skull with ominous crossbones stared at her from the pirate ship’s masted flag.
They flew all the way back to the treehouse, not daring to stop until their feet had touched the golden wood of the patio. Peter gently rested Maggie on her feet, his arm lingering around her waist before slipping away inconspicuously.
Almost immediately, the sound of a cat’s quiet chirps filled the room.
Sunny, sun-kissed and fluffy, trotted toward Maggie with a happily raised tail.
The large feline leapt into her outstretched arms the moment he had a chance, nuzzling his cold nose against her neck before his purrs calmed her erratic and spooked heartbeat.
“What happened back there?” Maggie finally asked.
The Lost Boys glanced at each other before eyeing their King.
“Pirates,” Peter replied stiffly. “Simply the end to our fun, that’s all.”
Maggie’s eyes narrowed, getting the sense that there was more to be said about their violent adversaries. “Why?” she blurted, not entirely thinking. “I thought you were the King of Neverland. Isn't there more fun to be had, pirates or not?”
Where she thought Peter might’ve scolded her or grown annoyed, he simply gave her a toothy smile. One by one, the Lost Boys cracked similar grins, their expressions lopsided and goofy. They swarmed her playfully, draping arms across her shoulder and scratching Sunny’s chin lovingly.
“What’s so funny?” Maggie snapped, her cheeks growing pink with embarrassment.
“Nothing,” Peter replied with a shrug. “You’re just sounding more and more like a Lost Boy with each passing day.”
Maggie matched their smirks and laughed. The question surrounding the pirates continued but it simply slipped away at that moment, allowing her to simply bask in the joyous company she found in King Peter and his Lost Boys.