Chapter 13
Maggie
In all of Maggie’s forty three years of living, not once – not ever before – was she thrown into a jail cell.
She was used to hiding from the law when it came to magic, but never did she allow herself to be foolish enough to actually get caught.
Running was easier than Maggie realized, and it kept her free from chains for a long, long time.
Her hands clasped down around the iron bars of the cell. The material was shockingly cold but she couldn’t bring herself to pull away. “Please,” she called out for the tenth time. “This has been a m-misunderstanding! Let us out and –”
Peter’s warm hand curled around her bicep, gently tugging her away from the bars. “You ought to stop doing that, Magpie,” he said in her ear. “The next thing you know, your voice will be gone before we even have a chance to speak to the King.”
“So you think we will? Get an audience with him, I mean.”
He waded back into the cell, retreating against the back wall.
Peter pulled her along with him, making sure to put as much space between her and the bars as possible.
“I’m sure we will,” he replied. “The King of Atlantis might be stubborn and hot-headed, but it doesn’t mean he doesn’t have the poise and respect that leaders normally do.
He’ll give us time to defend ourselves.” Peter’s voice lowered, a dower look over taking his normally optimistic expression. “Eventually.”
Maggie took a spot on the wall beside him. “You’re nervous, aren’t you?”
“What?” Peter chuckled and waved her off, careful to keep his eyes fixed on a spot where she couldn’t outrightly see the truth within them. “Don’t worry about me, Magpie. I’ll find a way to get us out of here.”
For a moment, she only watched him. Silence took over the cell for the first time since they had been thrown in – a much needed reprieve for the lingering guards and her voice, Maggie believed.
If Peter knew Maggie well enough to know how much she really wanted the King’s good favor about her food, she knew him enough to catch him in a bit of a bluff.
There was the slightest quiver in his voice that gave way to the truth.
After all their adventures and mishaps, even close encounters with dangerous pirates capable of inflicting great harm, Maggie had never once seen the King of Neverland succumb to something as human as fear.
That is, until that very moment.
Maggie couldn’t deny how nervous she already was, but to know that it was inflicting her partner gave her just enough strength to keep it under wraps as much as she could.
She reached for him, tucking one arm around his own until they were side by side.
The chill she'd felt from the frightening cell bars and murky waters was slowly penetrated by Peter’s undeniable warmth.
When the guards found them in front of the Treasure Room, Maggie and Peter were taken far deeper than they had ever been before.
The waters deeper than any mortal creature could survive, and it was only Selina’s magical bubbles that kept them safe from the depths.
The cells were incredibly dark and foggy from the thick water.
The guards were guided by the magical blue torches they carried, their light not at all what Maggie was used to.
Her heart raced as she remembered her predicament. The last thing she needed was to pull Peter deeper into his fears by indulging in her own. Peter risked his life for her time and time again – he deserved everything she could give.
Maggie turned to face him. “What do you think will happen, Peter?”
As if he was caught in a deep trance, Peter blinked a few times and twitched before he came fully to.
He glanced at her, his smile only pulling halfway across his face.
“Well, as the King of Neverland, Neptune won’t have much power to keep me here.
He calls the waters that surround my realm home, after all.
Neverland and Atlantis survive through cooperation. ”
“That’s it?”
“No,” Peter quickly added. “I’m sure grouchy old Neptune is taking his time trying to come up with a good price for me to pay. There’s no denying that he’s an expensive man.”
Maggie pressed her lips together. “I couldn’t help but notice that you were very specific.”
“What?”
“You said ‘as the King of Neverland,’” Maggie clarified. “As in, not me or us. Just you.”
Peter’s face was tinted an unusual shade of white.
He pulled his arm out of her grasp to stand in front of her, his wide frame blocking out the dark corridor in front of their shadowy cell.
He gripped her shoulders with a strength that was meant to be reassuring, but it only frightened her further about the words he was about to speak into existence.
“I don’t know what King Neptune plans to do about you, Maggie,” Peter finally said.
Maggie exhaled shakily. “Alright. What does that mean exactly?”
“You’re quite the enigma, aren’t you? There’s no denying that the King loved your food,” he explained. “But he’s a stubborn and harsh man. Jewels and prizes well earned mean more to him than a good meal. And there’s nothing keeping you protected royally, like my standing as King.”
If any of that was supposed to make her feel better, it surely didn’t.
In her efforts to keep her rising fear masked confidently, Maggie felt the walls beginning to crumble.
Whatever bravery she put on before faded like the summer breeze at the turn of the season.
It drifted along the wind until she forgot it had been there in the first place, suddenly and all at once.
There was only Peter’s grip over her shaking hands that kept her grounded, kept her locked within their cold and damp prison cell.
“Maggie.”
Her eyes raised. She couldn’t recall hearing his voice come across in such a way before.
It was like a bark, but not at all aggressive.
It was sure, it was firm, it was loud and echoing.
It passed through her growing uncertainty until it reached her quivering heart, returning it to a regular beat in the matter of moments.
“I promise you,” he continued, his eyes striking her with an unbelievable intensity, “that no one will harm you. I do not care if it is every merman in all of Atlantis standing in my way, or the King himself. You and I are walking out of here with the statue when this is all over.”
Maggie held his stare. “How?”
“I-I don’t know yet,” he murmured as noise came from outside of the cell. “But I will.”
The cell clanked as the door swung open. A pair of guards hovered in front of the threshold, their spears already pointed.
“Come along, you two,” one guard grumbled. “His Majesty King Neptune is ready to receive you know.”
The guards led them back through the Palace.
They came upon an arched doorway after no time, where the floor was leagues beneath their feet.
It led into a great spherical room, where the ceiling opened up to show the deeply blue waters of the ocean above.
Large creatures swam overhead, a few StarWhales catching Maggie’s eye as their bright light passed them by.
A tall throne was erected from the floor, reaching high above until it became an ornately golden seat.
On either side of it were two chairs in the shapes of seashells, mimicking the color of the Princess that sat inside it.
Selina sat on the King’s right, her expression tight and on edge.
Coralyn was on the left shoulder, chewing nervously on her painted fingernails.
Directly in the middle, rising from the throne to meet them straight on, was the famed King Neptune.
The King wasn’t at all what she was expecting to find.
Where most descriptions made him out to be a scrawny old man without a kind thought in his entire body, Maggie looked upon a handsome man that was nothing of the sort.
Well, perhaps he still lacked a kind bone, but that was besides the point.
There was no denying that King Neptune was quite the looker.
Silver hair that reminded Maggie of the coral that hugged the seafloor rolled down the King’s shoulders in waves.
Delicate skin that was tinted the slightest shade of blue gave way to an emerald tail, one that was far longer than any of the other merpeople Maggie had come across.
He wore a white beard to match, one that was decorated with sparkling rubies and pale seashells.
They stopped a few feet away from the King.
He towered over them – even Peter, who Maggie once thought to be the tallest man she had ever encountered.
Up close, Maggie eyed the grooves of his deeply carved muscles that lined his abdomen.
Maggie felt heat rush to her face as only one thought entered her mind: the King of Atlantis is cute.
She wouldn’t dare say such a thing outloud, though.
A man like Neptune might find a word as simply as cute to be more of an insult than a compliment.
Neptune’s face contorted angrily as he eyed them, his frustration growing particular on Peter. “Girls,” he snapped, his voice slamming through the room like a tidal wave upon a quiet shore.
The Princesses rose, rushing to their father’s side.
“You two ought to stand beside these thieves as criminals!” The girls winced as he tore into them, not a thing capable of stopping his oncoming rage. “What sort of look does it give our Kingdom that the future leaders of Atlantis are as careless as thieves? As surface dwellers?”
Selina inched forward. “Father, we –”
“Silence!” Neptune’s arms snapped out to either side of him, causing the water to rush and pull around him, as though he was his own current.
“I might as well have all of your heads, no matter your titles! I thought I raised dutiful girls, wise girls, respectable girls. Instead, I am delivered thieves who’d rather take what rightfully belongs to their father! ”
Coralyn made the mistake of snorting.
“Do you find that funny, child?” Neptune sneered, whipping around to face his daughter.
She cowered under his gaze, immediately apologizing.
“You snuck in outsiders, lied to our royal guard, to our staff, and broke into my precious Treasure Room!” His attention finally turned to Maggie and Peter, his piercing blue eyes even more flaming than before.
“Tell me, thieves. What do you have to say for yourselves?”
Peter drifted forward with his chin high. “Your Majesty, the blame does not lie with your daughters. They were simply doing us a favor.” He breathed in deeply as if in preparation. “Maggie Hart and I have been trying to heal the Everything Plant for quite some time now.”
“Yes, yes,” Neptune murmured. “I know all about the damming of the cove and the Moon Coral. We have nothing more to do with your Everything Plant, Peter Pan.”
He offered him a smile, though the Sea King was in no mood for it.
“Of course, your Majesty,” Peter grumbled.
“But it seemed that a statue Captain Hook and his crew considered their good luck charm fell into your waters, and thus into your Treasure Room. We only sought it to return the final thing keeping the Everything Plant from thriving.”
Neptune nodded slowly. “That is the same story my daughters said, but how can I say that it justifies stealing from a King?”
“The Everything Plant kept my island fed, Neptune, it –”
“Kept,” Neptune repeated.
Peter frowned. “What?”
“You said kept. As in, it did but doesn’t anymore. Gossip from the shore reaches even our depths, Peter. This girl is your famed cook, is she not?” He nodded to Maggie. “What need is there for your Everything Plant if your island is already being well fed?”
They were faced with a stunned silence. Maggie couldn’t believe that the King managed to talk around them so effortlessly. He had a startling obvious point, one that left them grasping for straws at what else to say.
King Neptune sighed as he returned to his throne, taking a seat alongside his daughters.
“Due to your recklessness, Peter Pan, I have decided that you shall send Atlantis one thousand fairies for our next celebration. They will use their magic to light up our Kingdom, and brighten our festivity properly.”
“You got a deal, Neptune,” Peter replied, the relief almost soaking out of him.
“And as for you.”
Maggie gulped. The King’s steely blue gaze was fixed on her.
“As goes all thieves in Atlantis, you will be imprisoned for one thousand nights.”
Sheer, utter panic gripped Maggie’s heart. Her legs wobbled and she staggered, even though they were hundreds of feet off the ground. Beside her, Peter’s strong grip latched around her waist, quickly keeping her upright.
“Did you miss the good news, Neptune?” Peter laughed and teased. “And here I thought you caught all the gossip down here!”
Neptune’s eyes narrowed.
“Maggie and I are to be married,” Peter exclaimed, pulling gasps out of all who heard. “She will be the Queen of Neverland, and is hereby protected by the same rights that protect me.”
Neptune settled back into his seat, the anger slowly fading. “Very well,” he murmured, one hand tapping the center of his chin.
Maggie was gaping, but Peter’s squeeze around her waist was enough to make her mouth snap shut.
It was a ruse, she told herself. A means to keep the King off her.
A means out of there, a means to get back home.
But her pulse was racing in a way that almost frightened her. Peter had said those words, didn’t he?
To be married.
Selina leaned forward. “Father,” she cooed, “I hope you aren’t forgetting that it was Maggie Hart who prepared you that unforgettable lunch. Weren’t you calling it your favorite meal ever?”
Neptune’s eyes lit up. “What a smart girl you are, Selina,” he said, pulling a shimmering smile out of her.
“I have the most perfect idea. You, Maggie Hart, will make me my birthday dinner and cake. If those also turn out to be the best I’ve ever had, you can consider yourself free.
I’ll even throw in the statue, let’s call it a wedding gift.
” The King rose from his throne, eyes darkening.
“But be warned, cook. Fail to impress me for a second time, and you will be punished, regardless of your status as Peter Pan’s bride. ”