Chapter 20
Chapter
Twenty
“Kelpies are water fae, mischievous ones. They shapeshift, and they have only one goal. To drown you.” She waves a hand at the water, and the kelpie changes into a handsome merman, his golden hair bright as he motions me toward him. “See?”
“Mom, is that really you?” I scramble to my feet, my gaze fixed on the woman floating over the water just ahead of me, her wings beating lazily.
She moves closer and lands on the island. “Your mother is part of Neverland. I thought you’d want to speak with her. But if you’d prefer some other form …” My mother vanishes, and in her place is the Spinner from the Fairy Village. Then she changes into Tiger Lily, then Nessie.
“Wait!” I step back. “Stop. Go back to my mother.”
“As you wish.” The form ripples, and my mother appears again, though now in fae form.
“It’s you.”
“As I said, she is now part of Neverland.”
“You mean she’s dead?” My heart wrenches.
My mother nods. “Long ago. Or maybe far into the future. Time moves strangely here.”
I wipe my cheeks. “It’s not real. You’re not her. Change into something else. Be your real form.”
“My real form?” She steps closer. “Neverland is a world of dreams. Nothing is real.”
“Be anything else.” I’ve wanted so badly to speak to my mother for so long. But this is different. This is worse because she isn’t really here.
The form shifts into a golden woman in the form of a tree. Her hair is golden leaves, her body tree bark, her eyes a forest green. “Better?” she asks, her voice warm and tinged with cinnamon.
“Yes.” I take a deep breath. “Tell me how to fix you.”
She sways back and forth, as if wind is blowing her this way and that. “I don’t think I can be fixed. The balance I enjoyed for so long is gone.”
“Tell me how to restore it.”
“Maybe it doesn’t need to be restored.” She stops swaying. “Maybe it would be better if Neverland ceased to be. Then I could start fresh. My magic would be untainted.”
“But that would kill everyone on the island.”
She shrugs, a single leaf fluttering down into the water. “Anyone can die a thousand deaths in dreams.”
“I didn’t come here for riddles. I came here for a solution.”
“You came here to make a wish.”
“No.”
“No?” She puts her hands on her barky hips. “Then what do you have in your pocket?”
I furrow my brow. “Why does that matter?”
“Show it to me.”
I pull out the pearl and keep it in my palm. For some reason, I don’t think I can bear to let it out of my possession.
“Mmhmm, I see. So, you don’t want to wish for James Hook?”
I do. I do with all my damn heart. But I can’t. “You know I can’t.”
“Of course you can. Hook wished for love. Peter wished for power. You can wish for Hook.” She grins. “You’re all chasing your tails, aren’t you? Hook, Peter, Moira. Moira, Peter, Hook. Pook, Meter, Hoira. Heter, Poira, Mook,” she singsongs.
I’m beginning to suspect the island isn’t all there.
“I’m all here.” She pats her bark stomach. “Don’t worry.”
“Stop reading my thoughts.” I pocket the pearl.
“Why?”
“Just tell me how I can stop the island from tearing itself apart.”
“You have to kill Peter, of course.” She blinks, her golden eyes narrowing. “He took my bargain and lost his soul. Hook took my bargain and gained his soul.” She winks. “I’m rather clever, aren’t I?”
I’d say sadistic more than clever.
She frowns as I think it. “But Peter took our bargain too far. He cheated. Stealing souls. At least Hook only took what was given to him.”
“You mean his true love?”
“Yes. You.”
“Back up.” I hold up a hand. “I thought I was Peter’s boon.”
“You are.”
“But you just said I was Hook’s boon.”
“You are.”
She smirks. “I told you I was clever.”
“How is that clever? That’s insane. You put the two of them on course to crash into each other and wreck everything around them when they did it. And you put me in the middle of it all. Why?”
“To bring the line of ancient Spinners back home. It worked perfectly.” She waves her arm branches at me.
“Here you are. Both Hook and Peter will do whatever it takes to keep you alive and here in Neverland. I never should’ve allowed Wendy to leave in the first place, but I fixed that mistake with nothing more than two wishes.
” She smiles, then taps her chin. “Though I must say I didn’t foresee all the other trouble—with the sun, and Peter, and the shadows, and all that.
But I’m certain once you kill Peter, the scales will balance again. ”
“You’re ‘certain’? You don’t sound ‘certain’. You sound like the man behind the curtain pretending to be the Wizard!”
“I’m the magic of dreams, Moira. I’m just as trustworthy and forthright as they are.”
So, she’s neither. I learned long ago to never trust anyone in Neverland, but I didn’t realize that also applied to the island itself.
“Okay, let’s forget all that and focus on the problem. Can you turn Peter back into the little boy who wasn’t a homicidal maniac?”
“No.” She shakes her head, another leaf falling to the pool. “That time has passed. He’s gone too far, taken too many souls. He’s grown stronger with each one he’s stolen. He has to die, to leave this island and these waters forever. It’s the only way the ones he’s taken can be free.”
“Kill me?” Peter’s voice wraps around the cavern and warps as it echoes back and forth. “Is that really your plan, Moira?”
The tree melts away into a golden haze that disappears as Peter flies over the pool, headed right for me.
“You can’t be here.” I draw my sword.
“Don’t be silly, Moira. Neverland is my home.
I can go wherever I like.” He eases to the crystal ground in front of me, planting his feet where the tree was standing only moments ago.
His face is lined now, older than he was when I first met him on campus.
Grays dominate his hair, his lips no longer as full, though his eyes are just as bright as they ever were. He looks at my sword. “Really?”
“You killed Tootles. You killed—”
“Geo, Nibs, Foy, Carstark, Lincey, Puck …” He lists names one after the other, so many names that he has to stop and take a breath, but then he keeps going.
When he’s done, he smiles down at me. “Yes. I drained them all, but that’s only because I couldn’t find you.
” He steps toward me. “But here you are. Come back to the cave with me where it’s safe. ”
“Never.” I keep edging backwards.
“Don’t be like that.” He pouts and advances. “We can still make this fun. Like a game. I won’t be able to drug you this time, but I can still make it enjoyable for you. It’s just a little make-believe, that’s all. You tell me stories, and I’ll make you happy.”
“I’ll never tell you another story, Peter. I’m done. You won’t steal any more children.”
He pulls back as if wounded. “I don’t steal them. They’re already dead. I bring them here so they can live forever with me, having fun in Neverland.”
“You trap them, enslave them. They can never move on to whatever’s next. Never see their families again. They even forget their mothers.”
“No one needs a mother. Wendy taught me that.” He grins. “I just need the island. Then I can keep bringing more children here so we can all have fun. No more growing up for anyone. Think of all the adventures we could have.”
“I think you used to believe that. You thought you were giving the children a reprieve, granting them a life outside of the one they’d already lived. But you don’t believe that anymore, do you? You stopped believing in the magic of children the moment you began preying on them.”
“It doesn’t matter what you think, Moira. It never has.”
“The island is tearing itself apart because of you! You used to be good. You used to love children. You used to—”
“I used to be weak!” he yells, his voice shaking the surface of the water. “Not anymore. I will have Neverland, and I will have you for as long as I wish.” He adopts a stern tone, the monster inside him mocking our conversation. “Now stop playing games, and come home.”
I can’t back away anymore. I’m at the end of the small island, and Peter is still advancing on me.
“Stay back.” I swipe my sword through the air.
“Are you waiting for Hook to save you, Moira?” He smirks, a vicious glint in his eye.
“I heard a sad story about his death at sea. I can’t wait for you to retell it to me again and again.
I do believe that will be my favorite story of yours.
Why don’t you go ahead and tell it to me now?
I’d love to hear a firsthand account of how he drowned, his body torn to bits by the creatures in the deep.
Do you think anything is left of him? I doubt it.
In fact, I’d like you to tell me that story tonight at bedtime while I’m inside you.
Seems fitting, don’t you think? He may have had you, but now I get to keep you. My little pet from the mainland.”
The wound was already open and bleeding, and Peter just poured gasoline into it and lit a match. Even though my heart aches, my spine straightens, and I step toward him, my sword at the ready.
“You want to play?” He pulls his own sword. “Do you need to bleed before you’ll give in?” He licks his lips. “I can give you that.”
He swings hard. I counter, and our swords meet. I immediately counter-attack, the way Widow taught me, and draw my sword along his upper thigh.
He lets out a yell and backs up, then reaches down and looks at the blood on his fingers. “You cut me.” He sounds nothing short of incredulous.
“I’ll do it again. Come at me.” I bare my teeth and think about Coy, Tootles, Nibs—all the Lost Boys Peter hurt and killed. The island was right. He’s beyond saving. He’s become the murderous villain, the nightmare feared by all children. I have to put an end to it.
He’s a better swordsman than I am. I know that. But he also has a disadvantage: he can’t kill me.
Flinging the blood off his fingertips, he advances on me and thrusts straight for my stomach. I parry his blade, knocking it to the side, then come down hard on his shoulder.
He yells and backs away, his eyes flashing with rage. “What the fuck?” He glances at his shoulder, then shakes his head. “Is that all you have? I thought you’d been practicing.”
I aim for his throat, slicing sideways, then spinning and bringing my sword lower.
He parries then grabs the front of my shirt, yanking me to him. “You can’t kill me, Moira. I’m a god.”
“You’re an asshole.” I headbutt him, pain blooming on my forehead as blood spurts from his nose.
“Moira!” He howls and reaches for me again.
I slash my sword against his arm, cutting deep and drawing more blood.
“Stop this!” He fights off my next slash, then slices my leg and brings his blade to my throat. “Stop, I said.” He wipes the blood from his nose.
I lean against his blade, the metal cutting my neck and sending a rivulet of blood racing to my collarbone.
He pulls it away. “Not so fast.” He tsks. “I won’t kill you until I’m finished with you. It’s going to be a long, long time.”
I stab for his heart.
He parries me.
I step back, then almost fall into the water.
Taking the opening, he grabs me again and wraps his arm around my waist, his other hand going to my wrist and squeezing until I’m forced to drop my sword. “There. That’s better. You’re done, Moira. You’re mine. You can’t beat me. You’ll never beat me. And I’ll never let anyone else have you.”
He’s right, of course. I can’t beat him. Not in a fair fight.
Reaching into his pocket, he pulls out a vial of fairy dust.
As he does it, I pull the blade Bill gave me from behind me and stab it into his neck.
He screams and shoves me away.
I run forward to grab the knife and finish the job, but he swings his sword up, catching me in the chest. The blade goes through, piercing me so swiftly I barely feel it.
His eyes widen with horror, and he pulls his sword free.
I stumble and fall backwards, the water catching me and pulling me into the depths below.