Chapter 12
Maggie
“Perfect.” Maggie ladled the sweet and aromatic poaching liquid over the pears, letting the amber syrup cascade down like a waterfall.
Specks of cinnamon were caught on the pear mountains, their autumn scent bringing a smile to her tired expression.
Maggie straightened, untying her apron and watching it drift through the water. “These are ready to be served!”
The last tray of desserts went off on the servants backs, carefully balanced as they slipped out of the kitchen's swinging doors.
Claps and cheers rippled through the workplace, the cooks removing their hats and hairnets graciously.
The special lunch for King Neptune went off without a hitch.
The servants collected all the ingredients Maggie had asked for, returning in the nick of time.
They went about preparing the food, and Maggie felt as though she was stepping into a role she always played.
Even though they were miles upon miles deep within the dangerous ocean, cooking under a lie for the haggard and impatient King of Atlantis, Maggie never felt more at home.
Peter draped an arm over her shoulders, swiping a stray streak of tomato juice off of her curved cheek. “Another successful lunch, wouldn’t you say, Chef Magpie?”
Maggie laughed and brushed him off. “I told you to stop calling me that! They think I’m the famous Magpie chef.”
“Why shouldn’t they?” He shrugged. “You are the famous Magpie chef.”
“There is no such thing, Peter.”
His shrug came again, a charming smirk lighting up his face. The King of Neverland did as much work as she did, maybe even more. Not once did he complain about having to work, leaving Maggie more grateful than before.
“I gotta say,” Maggie murmured as she overlooked the kitchen staff. “These merpeople sure know how to cook a good lunch.”
Peter’s smirk stretched across his face. “Don’t tell me you’re going to trade in the restaurant in Cricket Hollow for an underwater kitchen.”
“I wouldn’t dare.” She rocked her hip into his side, pulling a musical laugh out of him. “Besides, we wouldn’t really know how good it is until the King’s finished eating, right?”
His expression grew devilish. “Oh, I just knew it.”
“Knew what?” Maggie’s brow shot up.
“I just knew that you’d enjoy it,” Peter teased.
Maggie felt the heat rush to her face the moment the words left his mouth.
“You know,” Peter continued, one arm snaking around her waist and pulling her close to his side, “we did come for the statue, but that doesn’t have to be the reason why we hang around for longer.”
She glanced up at him, eyes wide. “Hang around longer?” she repeated.
“Selina told us to serve lunch, Maggie. What happens when it’s done?”
“We’ll have to go to the Treasure Room,” she murmured, ashamed by her own sense of growing disappointment.
Peter pulled away to face her, hands firmly planted on her shoulders.
“There’s nothing wrong with liking what you’re doing, Maggie,” he murmured.
“You are an outrageously talented chef who is bound to be connected to whatever you put your heart and soul into. In this case, it just happened to be King Neptune’s birthday lunch.
So you pulled it off – like you always do – and now you want to know whether or not he enjoyed the meal. There’s nothing wrong with that.”
“We’re here for Hook’s statue,” Maggie blurted. “To save the Everything Plant.”
Peter sighed as his hands slipped down the length of her arms, a sadness she couldn’t quite understand beginning to overtake his handsome face.
He lifted his head with a dejected smile, the skin around his eyes crinkling.
“There are more things in life than just doing what is expected of you. Having fun is the joy of living, isn’t it? ”
Once again, Maggie felt as though she had slammed into a brick wall while sprinting on a high-speed chase.
The impact of his words sank into her skin the moment silence passed between them.
Happiness did not come with responsibility, and responsibility did not come with happiness.
They were separate entities with a few overlapping moments.
How could Maggie act as though they came together, hand-in-hand?
She knew that there were more important things at hand, but all she could think about was what the King thought about his lunch.
Maggie looked up at Peter, readying herself to argue, when the kitchen doors snapped open.
The Princesses stood in the threshold, scanning the room before their colorful eyes landed on them.
Coralyn excitedly waved her hand, careful not to catch the attention of the rest of the kitchen staff.
Peter snatched Maggie’s hand and pulled her through the kitchen, until they were slipping out into the quiet palace hallway.
The Princesses began to lead the way back to the Treasure Room without a moment to lose.
“I gotta say,” Selina said, her chin just barely grazing her shoulder, “I was expecting you two to crash and burn in the kitchen when I had to leave you there.”
Peter sped up to her. “You do realize that Maggie Hart is a brilliant chef, right?”
A bright red blush burnt across Maggie’s cheeks. Has she ever been defended before? Her mind came up blank, the answer obvious just from her reaction alone. Maggie lowered her face, only to catch a smirk from Coralyn’s suspecting expression.
Selina shrugged. “Being underwater could’ve changed that, Peter. Anyways,” she paused and whipped around to face Maggie, “I’m sorry for underestimating you. You did a superb job. Better than superb, according to our Father.”
“Really?” Maggie felt as though a hand had tightened over her heart. “I-If you’re just saying that –”
Coralyn jolted forward and snatched Maggie’s hands excitedly.
They whipped through the water, turning around a sharp corner and continuing their path.
“She’s honestly understating it,” Coralyn teased.
“Our Father talked of nothing other than the food in front of him, which – if you knew him – you’d know that it was a big deal.
Not once did he talk about our unsavory neighbors or whatever new stolen treasure he happened to stumble across. ”
Maggie swam alongside Coralyn with as much reservation as she could gather. “So he liked it, then?”
Selina guffawed, the blaring sound echoing through the hall as the walls took on a shade of gold.
“Like is an incredible understatement,” she replied.
“Father talked about the food and the food alone. He was practically raging for another helping after each course. Don’t even get me started on the dessert.
” Selina whipped around, one sleek pink brow raising skeptically toward her hairline.
“Tell us, Maggie Hart. How did you know our Father’s favorite fruit is pears?
I assume one of the cooks remembered to tell you? ”
The heat swarmed back to Maggie’s face in the same instance. “N-No one told me a thing,” she replied. “I remembered seeing pears ready for picking during Peter and I’s flight over the island, but that is all.”
Selina nodded slowly. “Well I wasn’t going to admit it before,” she said, “But I might just be as impressed as my father is.”
“It’ll be known as King Neptune’s favorite birthday,” Coralyn added.
“Is it really his birthday?” Peter asked. “I thought that was a part of the lie to get us in the kitchen.”
Coralyn shook her head. “We planned a great celebration for this evening, but I doubt anything can top the lunch he just had. He was more impressed than he was when we commissioned a statue to be made in his image – and the thing was made entirely from gold!”
“It isn’t often that something can make our Father happy shamelessly,” Selina added. “It’s nice to know that there’s something other than treasure to make him pleased with us.”
Pride inflated Maggie’s chest. It looked as though King Neptune wasn’t the only one to benefit from her time in the kitchens.
If anything, the Princesses beamed more than she had ever seen them do before.
To know that she could be appreciated and needed in more places than one only lit Maggie’s soul on fire.
If there was any doubt before on whether or not her raw talents lied in homemade cooking, then it was made certain now.
Even the old, impatient, and stubborn King of Atlantis could find a smile when there is a plate of food blessed with love placed in front of him.
Peter’s hand snaked around her own, giving her a firm squeeze. “You see?” he teased, his smile only growing. “Something tells me that you had nothing to worry about after all.”
“Come on,” she whispered out the corner of her mouth as the Princesses sped up ahead of them. “We can’t lose our guides.”
He slowed her down playfully. “Would that really be so bad?”
Before Maggie could come up with some reason to argue with him, the Princesses paused in front of a tall familiar door. The golden walls glinted and shone with their brilliance as Selina took toward unlocking the door, the multitude of rubies and emeralds shimmering against her skin.
“Hurry!” Coralyn whispered. “Inside!”
Right after each other, the group of four tumbled into the dimly lit treasure room. The doors collapsed shut behind them, the light diminishing immediately. Everything about the room was haphazard.
Tall columns of stacked coins and jewels reached high into the domed ceiling.
Layers of ancient tomes and books were stacked like stairs on the floor, following the rising heaps of untold treasures.
All sorts of coins glinted in Maggie’s eyes like a slurry of stars in the sky.
Torches on the walls glowing with an otherworldly blue flame danced as they swam by, as though there was air pushing it to and fro.
Maggie carefully swam between stacks of locked wooden treasure chests. “How are we supposed to find one statue in the middle of all this?”
Coralyn’s blue head poked out from a tall mountain of golden coins. “Don’t tell me you thought this was it?”
“You mean,” Maggie murmured, eyes widening, “there’s more?”
Selina was on the opposite side of the room, holding the edge of a scarlet colored curtain that hung from the tall ceiling. Maggie caught a glimpse of what lay on the other side, her eyes narrowing as she saw flashes of emerald green and sky blue.
“Don’t worry, Maggie Hart,” Selina called out. “Finding your statue will be a lot easier than it seems.”
With Peter close to her side, Maggie swam to the other end of the room, allowing the King of Neverland to lead her through the mysterious curtain.
No matter how many weeks or months Maggie spent in Neverland, there were things still capable of outrightly surprising her.
Within King Neptune’s Treasure Room lay a secret cove, where the world above the waves met the mystical wonders below.
A wide courtyard took up most of the space, with underwater wildlife taking up every corner possible.
Vines stretched over the stone walls, trees with canopy-like leaves studded the corners and center, forming an invisible symbol.
Flora houses colors that were unseen by any human lit up the ground – suddenly, there was hardly a need for jewels or expensive gold to make the room magical and expensive.
The natural beauty magic managed to capture within the murky sea was more than enough.
Maggie swam through the courtyard, almost trying to walk on the floor out of pure habit. “How wonderful,” she whispered.
Podiums stood in a circle at the center of the courtyard.
Each spot showcased another particular treasure, one that wouldn’t take so kindly to being stored away amongst thousands of gold coins and various jewels.
Peter neared a particular long sword with a glittering handle, not at all like the ones the Lost Boys wielded back on land.
The blade itself curved near the end, making the sharp tip pointed and far more dramatic.
Another podium carried golden statues while the one beside it showed off a luxurious painting of a nude woman standing on top of an open sea shell.
The treasure grew visceral beside those, where a fossilized dragon skull was poised to let a flurry of flames roll out from between its snapping jaws.
Maggie swam further through the courtyard, her eye catching onto a tall ship that was stored away around a corner.
There was a powerful aura radiating off it, one that pulsed its way into Maggie’s heart.
“There!” Peter pointed across the center of the courtyard, his aim landing on a podium that was obscured by one of the various paintings.
Maggie followed his direction and left the other marvels behind, her eyes widening as it landed on their prize.
The pirate statue sat beneath a particularly bright patch of sunlight, somehow managing to pierce through miles upon miles of ocean waves.
It was just as Hook described it: an authoritative looking pirate with a leather patch and an unmistakable parrot upon his shoulder.
And though Hook mentioned it to be much lighter than it seemed, Maggie hesitated.
The thing looked to be made of pure stone, through and through, and the height wasn’t anything to scoff at, either.
She grasped it by the waist and jerked the statue forward, gasping as to how the light work of art skidded through the waters. “Well, I’ll be,” she muttered. “It’s as light as a feather!”
“Come on!” Selina waited by the red curtain, already waving a hand frantically at them. Coralyn remained in the first room, keeping an eye on the door. “I don’t know how much longer we will have.”
With the statue in one hand and Peter’s firm grasp in the other, Maggie swam across the courtyard to meet the Princesses.
They shot through the treasure room, carefully ducking and weaving around the maze of gold coins and wooden chests.
As Coralyn opened the front door, Maggie burst over the threshold, filled with an empowerment like never before.
“Uh-oh,” Maggie breathed, coming to a firm halt.
A trio of angry guards dressed in iron armor stood poised outside the treasure room, their spears at the ready.
She raised her shoulders. “I don’t suppose any of you had the chance to try my lunch?”
Silent stares answered her.
“Right.”