“He’s not wrong,” I tell Cherry.
“Will you make the food?” she asks me.
“Is there anyone better?” I don’t wait for her to answer. “No. There’s not. So yes, I’ll make the food.”
“Good. Let’s say seven.”
“I thought you were going to ask Pan first? The sun doesn’t set till eight-thirty at the earliest.”
She smirks. “I will ask him. For forgiveness.”
“Brave little Cherry,” I say. “Fine. Now go away.”
She rolls her eyes, then starts back up the hill, disappearing through the palm fronds.
“You think you can keep your dick in your pants tonight?” Kas asks.
“Doubtful.”
He pokes me with the stick again. I snatch it from his grasp and whack him with it.
He laughs and rubs the sore spot. “If you get us kicked out of the treehouse, we’ll have nowhere else to go. So behave yourself.”
“Pan doesn’t kick people out. He thins them out. If Pan grows tired of us, we’re dead. So really I don’t know why you’re worried.”
He grumbles to himself.
I close my eyes and sink back into the hammock. The ropes tied around the tree creak. We’re quiet again and then Kas says, “Tilly will be here tomorrow night.”
“I know.”
“I miss our sister.”
I sigh. “I do too.” And the palace. And the court drama. I thrived in that place.
“You think she’ll ever forgive us?”
“I don’t think so.”
It’s hard to forgive your brothers when they gutted your father right in front of you.
“You know what I’ve been wondering about since Merry?” Kas asks.
“What’s that?”
“I wonder if our dear sister is really doing what she claims to be doing with the Darlings.”
Now my eyes are wide open. “You think she’s lying to Pan?”
Kas turns in the hammock so his feet are in the sand. “What if she is? What would we do about it?”
“That is a loaded question.”
“I know it is.”
We drop it then and there.
I think we’re both afraid of the answer.
14
BROWNIE
The Brownie has no name.
He is older than most on the island, but not older than Peter Pan.
Even the Brownie is unsure of where Pan came from or what he is.
It’s undeniable that he is connected to the island, that both he and the land have laid a claim on one another.
Which explains why the island’s energy is like a buzzing wasp nest that’s been whacked with a stick.
The Brownie remembers when Pan was king and he doesn’t wish to return to what Neverland was when it was under his rule, but if they are to be rid of him, they have to have a plan.
The Brownie set one in motion a very long time ago with Tinker Bell, stars rest her soul.
Hurrying through the underground fae palace, the Brownie’s leather shoes are silent on the rough stone floor. The walls are webbed in vines. The vines are dotted with primroses and honeycaps and bright pink hibiscus flowers. The air smells of sweet fae wine and chimes with court gossip.
When he enters the throne room, the Brownie finds Queen Tilly at a large round table sharing tea with several other noble fae. A golden circlet has been woven into her dark hair. One single ruby glitters in the centermost tine. Tilly looks like an eighteen-year-old girl, but she is older too.
Everyone on Neverland is older than they look.
The fae don’t age like mortals do, but even the mortals have escaped the toll of time, what with the Death Shadow gone.
“What is it?” she asks when she sees him.
When the Brownie is seen, there is always an “it.”
“Peter Pan has the Darling,” he answers.
“Leave us,” she says quickly and the others scatter.
The Brownie waits for the queen to command him, his hands clasped behind his back.
Once the room is empty save for himself and Tilly, she turns to him. “This Darling… She’s Merry’s daughter, isn’t she?”
“Yes.”
Tilly paces the length of the throne room. It takes her three minutes total. It’s a very large room. “Tell me your thoughts.”
The Brownie crosses the room to come to stand beside her in the bright glow of a pixie bug lantern. “He’s losing the island. I can feel it.”
Tilly nods. “And?”
“And I don’t think he’ll get his chance at another Darling.”