“It doesn’t work like that.”
He presses the blade against Darling’s throat and blood beads beneath it.
Through gritted teeth, I tell him, “I’m going to kill you.”
“Fix the princess. It’s in your best interest and mine if you fix her.”
I don’t doubt him. Roc isn’t stupid. And he plays by strategy, not emotion.
There is a dead queen lying on the tavern floor and a princess not far behind. I’m not sure about the youngest girl, but I think it’s safe to assume she’s dead too.
“Fine,” I tell Roc. “Let me go to her.”
Darling’s black eyes are trained on me.
I have no time to question how she got Neverland’s Death Shadow or how much it’s taken over. No time to contemplate the consequences of her having it.
But when the corner of her mouth lifts in a mischievous little smirk, I know I’m in fucking trouble.
Because there will be consequences.
There’ve already begun.
She wraps her hand around Roc’s forearm, her other around his opposite wrist.
On any other day, under any other circumstance, he would be stronger than her.
But it’s not any other day.
Blackness creeps out of her grip, up his arm. He hisses in pain and instinctively steps back. She shoves out, shifting the blade from her flesh, then immediately ducks and spins and jabs him with his own hand.
His eyes go wide as blood spills from his mouth and pours down his neck soaking into his shirt.
“Darling,” I call.
Roc staggers back and slumps against the wall.
“Darling. We have to go. Right fucking now.”
Roc chokes and the sound is wet and garbled.
“Darling!”
She finally looks at me and it’s like I’m in a fever dream.
I am looking at her, but I can feel her seeing me too, and for the first time in my entire immortal life, I sense the shadows connecting, like two mirrors pointed at each other.
“Come,” I tell her.
And though her eyes are still black and she’s covered in blood, she smiles up at me, takes my offered hand and follows me out the door.
16
PETER PAN
As soon as we’re under the Neverland sky and breathing in the fresh night air, I scoop Darling into my arms and take flight. She hooks her hands behind my neck and rests her head against my shoulder. She says nothing all the way back to the treehouse.
I can hear the party underway when I land, but I can’t tell where Vane and the twins are just yet.
I need to get Darling somewhere safe so I can figure out what to do next.
I push quietly through the front door and find the foyer empty. The sconces that follow the curving staircase up to the loft are lit and flickering light casts odd shadows around the space.
The twins are in the kitchen. Bash is trying to cheer Cherry up with a sweet tart. Kas is laughing at something his brother said.
Of course The Dark One is silent. I’m anticipating him appearing practically out of thin air to analyze me and Darling covered in blood.
Not yet.
I can’t face him yet.
I fly up to the loft and then down the hall, more grateful than ever that I have the ability back.
But at the last second, I realize I made a grave error.
Vane is in the library.
“There you are,” he says as I land outside my tomb door. His boots are heavy on the hardwood floor and an uneven board pops beneath his weight as he comes out to greet me. “Where did you go?” he asks.
“Town,” I tell him and pull open the door to the turret, keeping my back to him so he doesn’t see Darling.
When he finds out she killed his brother…
The thing they don’t tell you about love is that sometimes you are forced to pick between two impossible versions.
Vane or Darling? I could never choose.
I don’t want to.
“Is that blood?” Vane asks.
“I got into a fight with a drunk in a tavern. It’s not mine.”
“And Winnie?” His voice drops a decibel and I pause at the top of the winding staircase, my gut lurching at the emotion threaded through his voice.
There is too much caring these days.
And I don’t know how to handle it.
I thought getting my shadow back would solve all of my problems, but I forgot just how many problems I have. And that not all of them can be solved with power.
“Sleeping,” I tell him over my shoulder even though her eyes are wide open. “I’m laying her down in my room. Don’t disturb us.”
“Pan,” he starts, but I kick the door shut with my boot and seal him out.