I stare at it in wonder only for a half a second before I dive in, unable to help myself.
“They’re Noctiluca scintillans,” Rye says, smiling down at me.
“They’re what?”
He laughs, then jumps in too. “Bioluminescent plankton.”
I let out a small laugh. “I thought you were going to say it was mermaid dust or something magical.”
“No.” He shakes his head. “Just phosphorescence. Still magic though,” he says, looking straight at me.
Rune coughs to break the tension in the room that I don’t understand.
“Hey, Daph.” Rye catches my eye. “Hook’s a really good man, you know.”
“I know.” I frown defensively and duck under the water for a second. I think he’s maybe the best man. And then I sigh at the same part I do every time—the part that doesn’t make sense. I pop my head back up. “He can’t be my fate though.”
“Says who?” Rye asks.
“Well—” I roll my shoulders back. “You. Everyone. Anyone whose paying attention to myself and Peter and everything that’s happened with my family till now.”
Rune chimes in my ear, kicking up some water into my face with her tiny foot, and I roll my eyes at her because she’s really hung up about that breeze.
“Would it matter if Hook wasn’t?” Rye asks, swimming into a beam of light.
“Well.” I swim after him. “I should think so?”
“But why?”
I shrug, hopeless. “Because it’s fate.”
“Right.” He looks sad for me. “Maybe fate’s not all it’s cracked up to be.”
The fairy tinkles again about the snow, but I think she’s putting too much stock in the weather.
“There wasn’t a great anything to it, Rune.” I give her a look. “He just put his coat on me is all.”
She sighs, belling again.
“No, maybe she’s right,” Rye says with a shrug. “Maybe there are different kinds of fate. Maybe everything’s fate.” He gives me a long look. “Maybe we all are.”
And then he ducks under the water.
* * *
* Not to name names, but Jamison.
CHAPTER
FOURTEEN
“Wake up, girl,” Peter says, his nose pressed against mine. “We’re going to play.”
I rub my eyes, tired. “Play what?”
He beams down at me. “Make-believe.” Then he pulls me out of bed. “Let’s go.”
He shakes me by the shoulders excitedly, and I give him a look. “Peter, I’m not dressed.”
He growls under his breath. “Fine. Hurry then,” he says, and then he walks away.
“I should like to have breakfast first,” I call after him.
“No time!” he calls back. “You have five minutes!”
“Where are we going?” I ask mid-flight.
“It’s a surprise.” He beams, holding my hand tighter. He looks at me in my fairy birthday dress. “Where’d you get that from?”
“Rune.” I give him a proud smile. “Do you like it?”
He shrugs. “It’s okay.”
I’m wearing her boots again today. I’ve been wearing her boots a lot lately, mostly because it means I can hide the dagger in them.
I give his hand a squeeze. “I am hungry though.”
Peter looks over at me with a long-suffering face.
“Sorry.” I grimace. “You didn’t let me have breakfast.”
“You should have been up earlier!” He rolls his eyes.
“I didn’t know we were going somewhere!” I tell him, and he groans, rolling like a barrel in the air. “I would ever so love even just a small bite to eat,” I say, hopeful.
He breathes out exaggeratedly. “We’re almost there, girl. Can you just hold on?”
“Almost where?” I look around.
All I can see is blue. Blue every which way. Blue skies, blue seas, and they melt together on the horizon, making you feel like you’re in some sort of aqua prism. Which is funny because we haven’t been flying that long. It’s just…Neverland, I suppose.
And then I see it. An island, sort of just there suddenly. It’s tropical, but there’s a big monument or something in the centre. Big enough for me to be able to see it from far away.
He starts flying us down towards it.
“What are we doing here again?”
“Playing make-believe.”
“Right.” I nod, ignoring the rumble in my stomach. “And how do you play that?”