“Okay,” I say, eyes on the floor, voice quiet. I thank her for telling me her stories and for my tea, and when I try to give her back the coat, she insists she bought it for me without knowing she bought it for me.
Jem kisses his mother on the cheek and gives her a hug that makes me a tiny bit jealous, because I think I should quite like it if he were to hug me like that. Or even in any way at all.
Itheelia seals herself in the cave as soon as we’re outside it, and the snow’s picked up quite a lot.
Jamison stops in front of me and tugs my jacket closed, fastening it, staring at me as he does it.
A part of me feels crushed. I don’t know why.
It was a heavy story, I suppose, that involves someone I care a great deal about.
Jem’s eyes are zeroed in on me. “Ye okay?” he asks.
I nod without saying anything.
He pulls my hood up over my head, and then he turns, starting to walk down the mountain.
“Are ye going to tell him?” he says, looking back at me.
“That you’re related?” I stare over at him like he’s mad. “I should think not. Peter is so temporarily focused. He’s interested in exclusively shooting the messenger.”
Jamison snorts a laugh—or maybe it was a scoff?
“Do you think it’s bad to not tell him?” I ask. “Is it dishonest?”
He considers this in an actual way. “Maybe.”
“What if he’s the heir?” I say quietly.
“He might be.” He shrugs. “Is thon why ye like him then?”
I give him a cross look and stop walking. “I didn’t know he might have been it until today!”
He pauses. “Then what is it then?”
That question puts me on the spot, and my cheeks go so hot that as soon as the snow hits them, they melt.
“I don’t know.” Then I say in a stupid voice, “Fate or something?” I think. I roll my eyes like I think it’s silly.
Jamison’s eyes pinch. “Says who?”
“Everyone.” I shrug like it’s beyond me. “All my family, all my life—”
Jem’s mouth pulls tight as he nods once. “Aye, the Darling girl family legacy o’ loving the same boy. That is well fucked.”
I cross my arms over my chest defensively. “To be fair to me, he’s more of a man-child now.”
“Sexy.” Hook tosses me a look. He walks down the mountain a bit more, his pace picking up. “Ye could buck it, ye ken?” he calls back, not turning around. “Love someone else.”
I stop walking. “You, do you mean?”
“No,” he says quickly, and then he stops walking. He turns around. “Maybe.”
I stare over at him, my breathing quickening as my mouth falls open a bit. I don’t even know what to say. I don’t even—I— I shake my head ever so slightly. “But we’re not in the stars.”
Jem rolls his eyes, annoyed. “Aye, and who gives a fuck about stars.”
I stare over at him again, feeling lost. “Well, they’ve brought me this far.”
“I s’pose they have.” He nods coolly. “Ye ken there’s more to yer family’s story than riding the wind and loving the Pan.”
I roll my eyes at him, like he knows what he’s talking about. “And what’s that then?”
“They all left here broke,” he says, and he speaks the truth.
It is the truth, I know it. I can see it in everyone’s eyes; they just don’t want to talk about it. Some families pass on red hair, some families pass on a cancer gene. Mine—we’re generationally brokenhearted.
Jamison catches my eye and holds it to deliver this next part. “But, Bow, you d?nnae have to.”
Something akin to a small little hope, like a budded-up rose, begins to bloom in me. “Do you really think that?”
He nods. “I ken y’are fully capable of fucking the stars and forging a new path.”
“With you?” I ask softly.
He shrugs a shy shrug as he moves towards me, tugging me in again by the coat. “Would it be so bad?”
I think for a moment that maybe he’s going to kiss me, or at the very least, I’ll finally get that bloody hug from him, and then before I know it, I’m yanked backwards and away from him.
“Daphne!” Peter yells and hurls me behind him into some snow. He lands on his feet, positioning himself between Jem and me. “Get back! You stay away from her, you filthy pirate!”
Peter’s eyes are wild and afraid. I’ve not seen him afraid before—？ This is new.