21. Peter

Painfully I stretch, my spine cracking as vertebrae pop back into place. Holding onto the tree trunk, I get back on my feet. I rub the back of my head.

Damned Tink and his magic. His strength. Sometimes I forget how powerful he is.

I forget too much.

Like… what the fuck, Tink cares? About me? Why would anyone? I mean, I know they all stuck around for a reason, but I thought… I thought it was to resolve this spell.

I didn't know any of them got attached.

That's a mistake. We can't.

Why are they all here anyway? Why stick with me, on this forsaken island in Neverland when they could be… home. In the human world or other parts of Faerie that aren't getting swallowed by despair and the waves.

I know the answer to that, dammit. They're here because… they don't have another home, do they?

The world has left them destitute, like me, destitute of goods and heart. Of family. Of anyone who gives a damn.

Somehow, I wish I was back in the human world, hunting for a girl named Wendy to save us all. There I remember things. There, my shadow belongs to me, with me, it has my shape and my thoughts. It's only here that it warps out of shape.

"Peter," the girl says.

"Wendy." That has to be her name. All of them, all the girls I stalked and brought over were called that.

"You remember," she smiles.

"Not really."

Her smile falters. Probably not the best reply you can give to a girl you were just fucking. Then again, she knew when she kissed me that I didn't recall who she was.

"Come." Tink grabs her arm and hauls her to his side. "Let's go. Time for you to get off this island."

"What?" She's glancing from him to me, eyes wide. "For real?"

"Tink," I snap, annoyed.

"What? You have to take her back, Peter."

"Back?" I mutter.

"Don't pretend not to understand, asshole. Back to the human world."

I fold my arms over my chest. "Why should I?"

"You want her to die here?"

"She can save us," I tell him.

"She's destroying everything!"

Wendy hisses at us. "I'm not."

"The hell you're not!" Tink snaps.

"You mean the island?" I ask.

He doesn't reply, his gaze bleak and I think he's talking about something else.

It doesn't matter.

"I can't take her back," I say.

"Why not? Why not take her back?"

"Why not? Are you serious?" I glare at him. "Apart from the fact that every such trip tears my fucking shadow a little bit more, apart from the fact I just brought her over, Tink, and the fact that there's still hope—"

"There's no fucking hope!" he yells.

That brings me up short. Wait… Is Tink jealous? I step closer to him, lift a hand to his face. "Tink—"

He slaps it away. "Don't. Fucking don't."

Doesn't he know that I care for him, too?

Probably not. It's not like I ever show what I feel. Caught in a maelstrom of pain and fury, pulled this way and that by a shadow who wants to maim and kill, I'm rarely in the frame of mind to sit and talk and be gentle with anyone.

Which begs the question why I think I should do it now, of all times, as the island crumbles and my memory withers.

Maybe because she's here. She makes me feel… settled. Rooted. Located in space and time, even as I know it's an illusion.

"Wendy—" I start.

"Let me go," she whispers. Her eyes are too large, too wide, too dark. Why is she so scared? Her cheeks have paled to milky white and she's trembling.

That's when I notice Tink's power flaring again. It twines around him like a storm cloud, swirling with flashes of lightning.

"Stand down, Tinker," I mutter. "Let's discuss this."

"Discuss what? You can't even recall what we're trying to do here, can you?"

"What do you mean? We're trying to save the island, to save ourselves, to—"

"You don't remember!" he roars and sparks fly off him, stinging my skin.

"Remember what?"

"What this is all about."

"The island—" I start.

"Fuck the island!"

I stare at him. "What the hell, Tink?"

"Who are we trying to save? From what? Every time we go over this, but your memory has gotten so fucking bad you forget from one day to the next."

I blink. "What…?"

"You put us into this situation, Peter," he says, his voice shaking with anger. "You trapped us here to help you."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Peter snarls.

"You said, if we save her, we save ourselves, but that's not what it's all about, is it?"

"Save me?" she whispers. "From what?"

"From the island!" Tink shouts. "From the nightmare! From herself! You trapped us with a honey trap of hope and redemption. Look at us!"

His eyes are glowing and his hair lifts in a wind I can't feel, the pink streaks darkening. Dark lines rise on his pale skin, writhing like snakes.

She twists, trying to free her arm from Tink's grip. Lifting her other hand, she slaps him across the face.

"Let me go," she seethes. "I'm not a plaything for all of you to grab and push and bend over. Let me go, you freak!"

And Tink loses control, just like I did earlier. It was a matter of time, I think dimly, and he's been on the edge for far too long.

He roars again, his magic bursting out of him in a rolling wave that knocks me over. I crash to the ground, groaning as my still-healing spine protests.

It rolls over her, too, and I make an abortive grab after her.

"Wendy!" I yell as she's blasted away, rolling on the ground like a ragdoll. "Tink, what have you done?"

He's not hearing me.

He's marching on her, hands turned to claws, hair turned to the branches of a tree, his face becoming a dark mask of fury—the face of the old gods, the hideousness the Fae hide under their pretty fa?ade surfacing. He's pulsing with power, every pulse sending the trees shaking, their leaves flying.

That's the power of the son of a Faerie King.

And they want me to be the king.

Fuck.

Bitter laughter bubbles up my throat—but then, my breath catching, I see her writhe on the ground. My laughter dies, joyless as it was.

"Wendy!" Cursing, hissing in pain, my back a thing of pure fucking agony, I manage to get on all fours and crawl toward her. "Wendy, are you okay? You asshole, Tink, she's not like us, oh fuck…"

But then I stop as she slowly sits up and gets on her feet. I stop, stock-still, as she lifts her head. Light blazes from her face, her neck, her hands.

I stare.

Blink.

Tink is still going after her, blazing like a night sky, his Fae nature all twisted up in anger, leading him, possessing him.

"Tink! Stop! Fuck, man, stop!"

He doesn't seem to hear me. He's a flare of darkness and I scramble to my feet, grabbing at him.

His magic sends a shockwave through me, shaking every bone in my body, rattling the teeth inside my mouth.

He doesn't have a shadow. He is a shadow made of power.

"Don't, Tink," I whisper as he turns on me, fangs bared, eyes all black like a demon's. "Don't."

"Yeah, Tink, don't," a new voice says and Hook emerges from the woods.

Alone.

Seemingly unarmed.

And I'm too fucking stunned to move, still holding on to Tink's arm, buffeted by his magic that's trying to liquefy my bones and warp my muscles into new forms, to tear my shadow clean off.

"Come with me," Hook says, reaching a hand out to Wendy, smiling.

The fucker is smiling.

"I don't know if I should go with you," she whispers. The light around her is fading. Was it ever really there or did I imagine it? "Why should I?"

"I can take you home."

"Home?" Her eyes brighten.

"No," I say, though my voice comes out garbled. "Don't listen to him. He can't do that."

"Peter!" The Twins arrive running, panting. "Tink! What the hell, man, you…"

Silence spreads as we all contemplate Tink's shadowy, pulsing form, the waves of magic expanding around him.

"Holy fuck," Colt says, succinctly, expressing all of our feelings.

And Wendy takes Hook's hand. His smile widens.

"Good move," he says even as we all lurch toward them. Nobody ever speaks of Hook's shadow, and there's a reason for that.

It's not his own. It's a leech, attached to him, forcing on him the will of the Fae. A foreign body, much like mine is starting to be. Hook gave up his shadow to become who he is.

The envoy of the Fae King.

The Mermaid Queen's pawn.

"Wendy!" I yell but she doesn't look my way. She's gazing at Hook as if he's her savior. "Wendy, no! Don't trust him!"

She doesn't reply.

And as Hook's magic envelops them, I lunge at them, and grab her other hand.

Blackness swirls around us, erasing the world.