Chapter 7
Chapter
Seven
The shadow stops so violently that I lose my breath. It turns midair and seems to be staring back through the trees.
“What? Your boss in trouble?” My voice is hoarse.
I try to kick at the shadow, but my foot meets only air.
When it drops suddenly, I scream. We hit the ground, and the shadow takes off, leaving me in a pile of leaf litter in the dark.
I struggle to my feet, dazed from the fall but no more hurt than I already was. The sounds of the battle are growing louder, and then I hear booms.
My senses sharpen, my adrenaline kicking back in and powering my limbs as I push through the undergrowth and rush toward the noise. Those booms—they have to be musket fire. It’s the only explanation. And the only people I’ve ever seen with guns around here? Pirates.
I shouldn’t want to see Hook, shouldn’t care if he’s all right, but my heart betrays me.
It beats for him. Even though he’s a villain of the darkest design, cut from a cloth of midnight.
He’s so much more than that, so much deeper than what others say—and even than what he says.
There is so much good in him. I’ve felt it. Seen it.
When I burst through the woods and into the village, the fray seems to have shifted off to my left. I follow the sounds, hiding behind buildings and moving as quickly as I can.
A pirate rushes past me, his sword held high as he chases a Lost Boy. It’s Cecco. I can see the glint of his earrings as he yells.
More Lost Boys run by me, and I press my back against the wall of a tiny cottage. They don’t look back at me, not when they’re running for their lives.
“Run, cowards!” Bill Jukes lumbers past me, blood streaking down the back of his head.
A Lost Boy staggers only a few feet away from me, falling to his knees as he gasps for breath. It’s stupid, but I pity him. He didn’t choose this. Peter chose it for him.
I move toward him slowly, but then I see another familiar shape. Widow.
She stalks around to the Lost Boy’s front. “This is it for you, lad. Godspeed on your travels.” She ends him with a quick stab to his heart, and he falls forward, not a sound uttered.
“Widow.” I stumble toward her.
“Moira!” She stows her sword and runs to me, catching me before I fall. “We’ve been all over this blasted island looking for you.” She hugs me so tightly I wonder if my ribs might break.
“Peter had me.” I lean on her as she guides me around the house I was hiding behind.
“And then I escaped. The Guardians have taken care of me.” I have to catch my breath, fatigue wearing on me.
This sort of tired—the kind that goes all the way to my marrow—is crushing.
Not only because it hurts, but because I know my vigor was stolen from me.
I pull up short. “Promise me something.”
“What?” She eyes a Lost Boy who runs into the trees to our left with a pirate hot on his heels.
“If Peter’s shadow gets its hands on me again, kill me before it can take me.”
“Kill you?” She shakes her head and drapes one of my arms over her shoulders, her wings tickling along my skin. “If I were to do that, Hook would hang me from the mizzenmast like a puppet on strings. No, thank you.”
“I mean it.” I trip over nothing in particular, and Widow takes on more of my weight.
“I know you do.” Her voice is softer now. “But it won’t come to that.”
“His shadow can’t be killed. It’s like smoke.”
“Anything can be killed.” She says it with such authority that I begin to wonder about all the things she’s killed since taking up the pirate life.
“Moira!” Shiner runs up, her arm bloody.
“I’m all right,” I announce, but Shiner ignores it and loops my other arm over her shoulder. “You look like shit.”
“You’re the one who’s bleeding.” I stop trying to support myself as much and, instead, lean on both of them.
They seem to handle my weight with ease as we pass through the village, only stopping to check on injured Guardians.
Valinx lies outside the kitchen, a hand at his stomach. “Moira.” His voice is reedy and thin.
Shiner ducks from beneath my arm and rushes to him, dropping to her knees. “How bad is it?”
“Could be worse.” Valinx sighs.
When Shiner grabs his wrist and lifts his hand from the wound, she puts it back quickly and places her own hand over his.
Widow lowers me to the ground beside him, and I stare at the blood that still rushes from between his fingers.
“Don’t go.” I take his other hand.
“I was hoping to fatten you up before I took my leave.” He smiles weakly. “You need a good cook to set you to rights.”
“You’re an amazing cook, and you aren’t going anywhere.” I squeeze his fingers. He becomes fuzzy in my haze of tears. “I’m ready to be fattened up, all right?”
“All right.” He gasps in another breath.
“Please, Valinx.” I hold his hand between mine, his skin dark and luminous, my own pale and aged in comparison. He has so much life. This shouldn’t be happening.
“No.” Shiner shakes her head. “No!”
That’s when I realize he’s taken his last breath. He’s no longer looking at me though his eyes are still open.
Shiner pulls her hand away, her palm bloody. “No,” she whispers.
I close my eyes and say a prayer to whoever’s out there that Valinx’s next kitchen is stocked to the brim with only the best ingredients. But he should still be here. This mindless slaughter has to end.
“We have to go. They’re still here.” Widow’s gaze is on the treeline at the edge of the village. I can’t see any Lost Boys, but I know she’s right. Peter will sacrifice as many of his soldiers as he must if that means he gets his hands on me again.
“You will be given a hero’s burial.” Shiner dips her chin, bowing to Valinx, and then she stands.
“I’m so sorry.” I lean on both of them again.
“He died a hero’s death defending the village and the island. There’s no nobler end for any of our people.” Shiner says it with certainty, but I can still sense the pain in her voice.
There’s nothing more to be said. Grief lives in the silence between us as they help me away from the kitchen and deeper into the village.
“Whoa!” Shiner pulls out her blade as a Lost Boy runs between the kitchen and the round house.
He doesn’t stop for us, only sprints away like the devil is on his tail.
Because the devil is on his tail.
Hook appears from between the buildings, the scowl on his face so intense that I almost wince. He has blood on his shirt, a rapier in his hand, and vengeance writ large in his eyes.
When he turns his gaze on me, my breath catches.
His prey forgotten, he stares at me, his eyes wide with recognition. No, not just recognition—there’s so much more there, not the least of all is love.
My mouth drops open, and all the emotions that I carry hidden within myself, locked away in beautiful boxes with unbreakable latches—all of it bursts open like a dam giving way. My tears flow freely, and I whimper as he stalks to me.
Sheathing his sword, he grabs me around my waist, lifts me up, and kisses me hard on the mouth.
I can’t think, can’t focus on anything except the claiming brand of his tongue, the way his hands rove me with complete possession.
He crushes me to him, almost as if he wants to tuck me away inside his ribcage where its safe. I cling to him, wrapping my arms around his neck as he grabs my ass and pulls my legs so I’m straddling him.
“Lass.” He pulls back, his eyes meeting mine, like the sea crashing on the shore. “Are you hurt?”
“N-no.” I shake all over, my body pushed to the breaking point.
“You are.” His jaw tightens. “You are. That bastard hurt you. I don’t know how, but I’m going to kill him, Moira.
I’m going to destroy him for you. Only you.
I don’t give a flying fuck for any of the evil he’s wrought, any of the Lost Boys he’s murdered, or the innocents he’s corrupted.
When I kill him—and I fucking will—he will die knowing that you are the reason.
” He kisses me again in that fierce way of his, the one that would turn my knees to jelly if they weren’t already there.
“Moira!” Tiger Lily runs up.
Hook kisses me more, his mouth seeking mine, hunting me down and taking, taking, taking. When he finally lets go, I’m even more dazed.
“You’re all right? When Bunk told me the shadow had you—” Tiger Lily’s gaze darts to our right, then she nocks an arrow and lets it fly with unbelievable speed.
A Lost Boy falls from the roof of the round house, his body thudding onto the ground.
“It let me go.” I look at where the Lost Boy fell. He doesn’t move.
“Let you go?” Tiger Lily scans the roofs of the other buildings.
“Yes. It was doing that whole kidnap thing—which I’m so flippin’ over, by the way—but it pretty much dropped me and headed back this way.”
Hook turns and strides away as if we hadn’t just been having a conversation.
“Hey!” I cock my head to the side. “What are you doing?”
“Taking you to the Jolly Roger where you’ll be safe. We have to get to the Fairy Village.” His eyes search my face. “Now.”
“But where’s Peter? What happened?” I wriggle in his hold. “Wait!”
He stops. “Wait for what? That bellend to take you again?” He shakes his head. “No, Moira. I won’t let him lay another finger on you. I can’t bear it.”
The Lost Boys have all but vanished now, retreated to the forest.
“Peter fled.” Tiger Lily catches up. “The moment his shadow had you, he turned tail.”
“And ran right into me.” Hook smirks, a look of malice in his midnight eyes. “I suppose that’s why his shadow let you loose. His master needed him. I had him beat, my sword through his gut, but his fucking shadow pulled him free and flew away with him.”
“You fought him again?”
“That’s all I seem to do, lass. Fight that cocky little shit over and over again. But no more.” He pulls me against him, squeezing me like he wants to meld our bodies together. “He’s going to die for what he’s done.” He begins walking again, carrying me away.