Page 124 of The Last Lost Girl

“People talk. I listen.” She stares at me for a long moment. “Is he using you to hurt us with the one thing we all want?”

“No,” I rasp.

“Why you? Why are you able to give them back when even Tinkerbell couldn’t do it?”

Because of the gift Pan gave me… because of the vines, I don’t say.

Hudson groans. “Do you want your shadow back or not? We have things to do.”

Wendy scrutinizes my pinched face, her eyes shrewd. “I’ve heard that you see things when you pass them back to their owner.”

I nod and glance at Hudson. Neither of us offer the fact that I’ve already seen all that I’m going to from her shadow. That Belle cut off the visions by breaking the connection between the two of us.

“There’s no telling what you’ll see with mine,” the woman says uneasily.

“I honestly don’t care what I see. I just want this over with.”

She huffs a laugh as if to say the horrors of this place will never end.

“Can Pan see what you do?” she slurs, bringing a cloth up to her ruined lips to dab the saliva away.

Hudson denies he can at the same time I admit, “I don’t know.”

The captain’s breath hitches. “You think it’s possible?”

“I don’t know what’s possible for him.” Wendy’s eyes meet mine and she holds my stare. “I’ll tell you what I do know, and you can decide for yourself, but it’ll have to be fast. I’m exhausted.”

“Fair enough,” Wendy drawls.

I take a deep breath. “Hudson and I went to Neverland to search for Belle, who raised me as a little sister after taking me from Neverland. She lost her wings as a result and couldn’t find my family, so she took care of me. When he and I left Neverland empty-handed, Pan followed us to the shore. He shrouded himself with magic so Hudson couldn’t see him and impaled me with shadows. A sliver of it is from mine, but it’s not enough to get me home.”

“How do you know it’s yours?” she accuses.

“I’ve remembered a few things,” I say, clearing my throat.

She gives a mirthless laugh and shakes her head. “Pan’s made you his puppet. No, I don’t believe I want what you’re offering.”

Hudson balks. “You understand that you can’t go home without it?”

Her eyes are haunted. “It’s my decision, isn’t it?”

It is.

Hudson looks like he’s about to order me to surge it into her, but I won’t. He must see the defiance in my features. “It’s her choice,” I add.

He shakes his head. “What happens when you leave Neverland, Ava? She’ll be stranded here without her shadow!”

“She knows the risk,” I tell Hudson, then turn to Wendy again. “If you change your mind, I’ll be on the ship. Have them wake me.” My head feels too heavy on my neck. My bones ache and my muscles are unusually weak. I don’t feel well. I don’t feel right. “I need to go lie down, Hudson.”

I need to sleep.

Wendy doesn’t say goodbye before slipping inside and closing the door. A lock snicks behind her. From a small window cut out from the door’s wooden panel, she watches us leave. There’s no anger in her stare like there was when she saw Belle, but there is unbridled fear.

I don’t look back as Hudson steers me away. “She might be having a difficult day. We’ll check back tomorrow.”

“She won’t change her mind.”

I don’t blame her.

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