Chapter 21
Chapter
Twenty-One
The water doesn’t scare me this time. If anything, it’s comforting. Like soft hands cradling me and pulling me along to whatever’s next.
I close my eyes and drift, my heart beating a strange new rhythm.
“Moira.”
Curling in on myself, I ignore the soft voice in my ear.
“Moira, sweetheart. Wake up.”
I know the voice, but it’s a lie. It’s not my mother. It’s the island.
“Moira, please.”
It feels different, though. Somehow, this voice feels warm. I can’t trust it, though. I can’t trust anything here. The one person I believed in is gone, and I don’t think I want to go on without him. I tried my best. I did everything I could to balance Neverland, to save it from itself.
“Be brave, my sweet child. Be brave.”
Why does it have to hurt so much? To hear her voice saying his words? I reach for the pearl in my pocket and squeeze it between my fingers.
“I’m not brave, Mom.”
“You are.”
I feel her palm on my cheek, and I open my eyes.
We float beneath the water in a golden orb, just like the one that surrounded Ari and me as I told my story.
“Is it really you?” I look up at her.
“It is.” She leans down and kisses my forehead. “The island pulled me from its memories. I think it felt a bit … guilty.”
“The island feels guilty?”
She nods, her wings flapping slowly behind her. “It’s a beating heart, one full of all the emotions we experience. Dreams are creatures of emotion, of imagination. Just like stories.” She glances at my chest. “You have to wake, Moira. You have to fight to the surface.”
“Peter’s up there.” I shiver.
“No, the current is carrying you from the cave.” She strokes my wet hair from my forehead. “I don’t have long. I wanted to say I’m sorry.” She takes my cold hand and grips it between her warm ones. “I’m sorry I couldn’t come back to you.”
“You did it to save me. You made a deal with the island to keep me safe. I understand.”
“I wanted so badly to be the mother you needed.”
“You were. You are.”
Her eyes well with golden tears. “I love you, my sweet darling.” She looks up. “You’re almost free of the cave. I can’t stay. Take my love with you.” She kisses me again.
“I love you.”
She shimmers and fades, a golden tear dropping onto my hand before she’s completely gone.
The barrier around me disappears, and water surges in, surrounding me.
The pain in my chest intensifies, and I kick toward the surface, though I’m not sure which way is up.
I follow the bubbles, kicking and move my right arm to push through the water.
It hurts too much to raise my left one, but I fight.
I’m brave.
I’m not going to give up. Not until my lungs burst and my heart stops. I will always fight. Maybe I’m just like my mother, after all.
When I breach the surface, I suck in a watery breath, then plunge beneath the waves again. With another hard kick, I surface and breathe again, my chest burning even more as I try to catch my breath. I can’t seem to get enough air.
“Moira, there you are!” The sound sends a tremor of panic through me.
Spinning in the water, I see Peter flying toward me, sinking lower over the surface of the sea as he opens his arms. His neck is still bleeding, but he doesn’t seem deterred.
“Get away from me!” I scream and try to swim away from him, but my left arm doesn’t work, and I’m flailing badly with my right.
“I’ll save you.” He’s close now, almost on me.
I spin again and find him only a few feet away, a grin on his face and his eyes burning into me as he reaches for me.
I scream and throw my right hand out to ward him off.
The water ahead of me bursts upward in a geyser, and a golden trident flies from it and hits Peter in the chest so hard it knocks him back several feet.
I can barely kick now, my body going numb.
Then I see a pair of eyes bluer than the sea and smirk that can only be truly worn by a filthy pirate.
“Lass, there you are. I’ve been looking all over.”
The cry I let out might be more beast than human, the sound of a soul finding its mate.
He pulls me into his arms, holding me up as he kisses me, the familiar taste of him shocking my system.
“Are you hurt, lass?” He stares into my eyes, not even giving Peter a glance.
“I-I …” I can’t speak. No thoughts coalesce onto my tongue as I watch Peter.
The boy who never wanted to grow up sinks slowly into the water, his eyes on me as the water around him plumes with his blood.
More movement catches my eye, and as Hook swims away with me, I see the fins and scales of mermaids. The water grows even darker, and Peter surfaces once more, half his face ripped away as he screams and is dragged under, never to be seen again.
“Lass?” I startle.
Hook kneels beside me, and I realize I’m lying on the beach. He lets out a sharp sigh. “There you are. Thought I’d lost you.” He keeps his hand on my chest, then turns his head and whistles so loudly it’s a wonder my eardrums don’t pop. “That’ll bring them running, make no mistake.”
“You’re alive.” My voice is barely above a whisper. I reach out my right hand to cup his cheek, feeling his scruff and loving every bit of it.
“Aye.” He kisses my palm. “Anne had the better of me there for a bit. She’s a slimy one, she is. But I fought her. Eventually did her in with her own knife. After that, it was sink or swim.”
“You never sink.” I smile and try to ignore how cold I feel all over.
“I don’t. Swim like a mermaid, I do. I stayed afloat even though the waves tried to drown me again and again. But I didn’t give up. I couldn’t. Not when I knew you’d be waiting for me.”
“You didn’t want to let me down?”
“Never.” He smiles, but I can tell he’s full of tension.
“Don’t worry.” I rub my thumb along his stubble. “I’m just so happy to see you.”
“Not worried. You’ll be fine.” He turns and does his whistle again.
“Keep going. I love your stories.” I can barely push the words past my lips.
“So there I was, treading water for what felt like hours on end—and probably was—and what showed up? A narwhal!” He grins. “Stabbed me in the leg, it did.”
“Ouch.”
“Ouch indeed, lass. But, you see, I have a way with the creatures of the sea, and after some hard negotiating, she agreed to bring me back to shore as long as I swore I’d feed her fish whenever she came rolling up to the Jolly Roger.”
I can’t tell if he’s lying at this point, but I don’t care. It’s a good story, and stories are magic.
“I agreed, and she began hauling me through the heavy waves, and past the lightning, over a bed of sleeping water dragons, and to the edge of the storm. Once we got there, we were set upon by a host of eels with teeth longer than my cock.”
I want to laugh, but I don’t seem to be able to.
He clears his throat and glances over his shoulder.
“Ah, so we had to fight the eels. It wasn’t a quick brawl either.
Eels are clever little monsters. They’d dodge this way and that, trying to force us back into the storm where they could pick us off easier.
The narwhal and I decided it was best to separate.
She agreed to lead them back into the storm so I could swim for shore. ”
“Nice of her,” I say. But I don’t say anything. My lips don’t cooperate.
“So there I am, kicking as hard as I can and making good time. I get about a mile before the mermaids show up, and they’re hungry.”
Mermaids are always hungry, I’ve noticed.
“They come up with their teeth trying to—”
“Captain!” I know Starkey’s voice.
I hear something else, too. A schick noise. Like the sound of Nessie’s scissors cutting the thread.
“Did you hear that?”
“What?” Hook turns. “Sky, I need you. Hurry!” His voice cracks, and when he turns back to me, the worry shows through.
I want to tell him it’s okay, that I’m at peace with this.
I can’t. I can’t do anything. Something warms the side of my face, and for the first time I see even more depth in his blue eyes.
It’s not just one ocean, but multitudes.
Deep shades of blue that wrap around each other and sparkle with a beauty I’ve never seen before.
“What is that?” Bill says.
Sky kneels beside me and yanks a bunch of stuff from his bag.
“Is that …” I heard Widow’s voice.
“It’s the sun.” Hook leans over me, his hand stroking my hair as Sky attends to my wound. “My lass brought the sun back.”
I want to tell him we did it together. I want to tell him so much. But I can’t speak. It’s hard to keep my eyes open even when the sky is shining in shades of salmon and pink as the sun rises.
I thought I wasn’t meant to be his. I realize how foolish that was. Even if the island hadn’t told me I belonged to James Hook, I would know it in my heart. He’s the reason I’m here. He called to me across worlds, and I answered him. I had to. He was the part of me I didn’t realize was missing.
“I’m sorry I doubted it. I’m sorry.” He can’t hear me, but I tell him anyway. “I love you. Thank you for showing me how to be brave.”
“Sky, goddammit! Save her!” His eyes water as he stares down at me.
I don’t catch Sky’s response. I don’t even feel him doing anything. In fact, I don’t feel anything at all. My eyelids are heavy.
“Don’t, lass. Please don’t close your eyes.” Hook strokes my cheek. “Stay with me.”
His eyes look even bluer with tears swimming in them, like the birth of brand new oceans.
“I love you.” I repeat the words until they fall into the darkness with me, everything silent, everything at peace.