“Scintillating and psychotic?”
“It’s his shadow. He—”
“Wait…his what?”
She licks her lips. Shit, I’ve caught her in something she wasn’t supposed to say.
That’s exactly why I need to befriend her.
I lower my voice. “I won’t say anything. Promise.”
She checks the door, then leans into me, excited to have a secret that I don’t. “There are more islands than Neverland. Seven islands, seven kings. Every island has two shadows. One for life, one for death. The king always claims a shadow. It’s in his blood, having the ability to claim it.” Her voice thins as she grows more excited. “The king picks which one he wants. Pan picked life a very long time ago. But when Pan lost his shadow, he lost the power and now the island is suffering because of it and I think Pan might be dying.”
I blink at her.
It’s a lot to take in.
“So Pan is a king?” I ask.
“Yes. Or he was. But that was before I was born.”
“And he lost his shadow?”
“Yes.”
A puzzle piece clicks into place.
He thinks the Darlings took his shadow. He said as much without saying it exactly.
He’s going to have a hard time getting that information out of me considering I’ve literally never heard of it and definitely don’t know how to find it.
It makes my plan even more important. Because if I can’t give him what he wants…
“What about the death shadow or whatever from this island?” I ask.
She shakes her head. “It’s been missing for a very long time. No one has seen it and no one seems interested in finding it. Death shadows are nothing to be messed with.”
Her gaze goes distant as she says this and I get the distinct impression she knows more about death shadows than she’s letting on.
“Last night, Kas was telling me about the fae and that he and Bash are fae, but they lost their wings?”
Cherry nods. “They killed their father.”
“What?!”
And here I thought the twins were the nicer ones.
“Killing another fae is grounds for banishment and losing their wings. That’s why they’re here with Pan and the Lost Boys. They were banished from the fae court.”
“Court?”
All of this information is making my head spin, but I’d be lying if I said it didn’t excite me too. This is all so interesting. It’s better than a TV show.
“And you?” I ask. “What are you?”
“Me?” Her voice is squeaky when she says the word. “I’m human. I…I come from the north end of the island. Hook’s territory.”
“And who is Hook?”
“Captain of the pirates.”
“And the pirates—”
“Hate Pan.”
“Right.”
“They want to take over the island.” She fidgets with a loose thread on the white sheets. Wraps it around the end of her finger until it turns blue.
“Do they have a shot at it?”
She focuses on a distant spot on the wall, but I don’t think she’s looking at it so much as disappearing into a memory. “Maybe. Maybe not. My—Hook—is relentless.”
She knows Hook personally. But how?
“Have you ever left the island? Do you know how to…cross worlds, I guess?”
She shakes her head, unwinds the string from around her finger and the blood rushes back in.
I set the coffee cup down and collapse back against the pillows. “Just as well. I guess I’m stuck chained to this bed, bored out of my goddamn mind.”
“Well,” Cherry says, “maybe I can talk the twins into letting you come down to the bonfire tonight. Just to get you out of the house.”
“Okay. That could be fun.”
I can just imagine all of the trouble I could cause at a bonfire.
My brain conjures an image of Kas fucking that girl’s mouth last night and my stomach lights up and then the sensation dips between my legs.
There’s something about seeing the supposed nice guy act not so nice.
“I’ll ask Bash. He’ll likely say yes,” Cherry says. “Kas will be harder to come around, but what Bash wants, Kas usually gives him.”
And vice versa, I bet.
“And Pan and Vane?”
She rolls her eyes. “Even less so than the twins.”
“Something tells me they’re the guys who pop balloons at a kids’ party.”
She laughs. “You’re funny, Darling.”