Page 15 of Losing Wendy

“But we aren’t finished with our dance.”

My heart feels as though it’s in my throat. “I do apologize, but I’m feeling quite ill.”

I step back to excuse myself from the dance, but Evans’s grip around me tightens.

“I truly am sorry, Miss Darling,” he whispers through his teeth, his brown eyes wide with apology. “You really do seem like a nice girl.”

Panic sets in, and for the second time tonight, I freeze. It’s only a moment, only a fleeting second before the urge to protect my youngest brother overtakes my spirit and ushers me to fight back.

I’m a moment too late.

Evans tugs on me hard, yanking me into his chest and spinning me around, pressing my back to his front while, in a single fluid motion, he brandishes a glistening dagger to my throat.

Gasps overtake the crowd, but are quickly cut off as what must be two dozen suitors slit the throats of the noblemen and women conversing next to them.

Their sparkling wine glasses hit the floor first, fracturing in chinks. The bodies follow soon after, landing in the shattered glass of their own drinks.

All the while, my eyes are on Michael.

In the moment Evans overcame me, the bald man threw my youngest brother over his shoulder. He’s thrashing at the man, but he’s so slight, so spindly, nothing he does is much use.

“Michael,” I cry, but my brother is too overwhelmed to notice. I watch in panic as he digs his teeth into the bald man’s shoulder and the man lets out a growl.

The bald man carries my brother through the nearest door and slips away.

My mother screams.

Or perhaps it’s me; we’ve always sounded so similar.

I thrash in Evans’s arms, but despite his narrower frame, he’s strong, and the knife he holds to my throat proves effective.

“Please, my brother. He’s done nothing wrong,” I beg, thinking surely this kind-eyed man will care something for the life of a child.

“Come with me,” says Evans. “Don’t make this more difficult than it has to be.”

“No!” My cry isn’t as shrill as I want it to be. It comes out choked. Weak. Stuck in my throat. But I slam my heel on Evans’s foot all the same. He lets out a grunt. The moment his grip falters, I duck beneath the knife and break into a run.

Bodies scatter the floor of the ballroom as I race toward the door where Michael just disappeared. Where is John? Where are my parents? I wonder, but there’s no time to search for them in the crowd. I don’t want to search for them in the crowd. Not when halfof the crowd is on the floor, the other half’s hands are dripping blood.

I make it several paces across the throng of bodies before someone dares to step in my way.

Him.

The captain’s green eyes flash with warning, but I don’t heed it. I scramble to the side, but I’m not fast enough, and he snatches me into his grasp, hauling me toward him.

“I’m truly sorry, love,” he says, his body practically motionless against my struggle. I flail against him, but his grip on my wrists doesn’t budge. “Wendy,” he says, like I’m an animal or a child to be placated, an infant to be hushed.

“Please. Please, just let them go. Please, my brothers are innocent.”

“Are you not?” The captain cranes his head to the side. He’s maskless now, though I don’t know whether he removed it or someone else did in the struggle. He’s even more beautiful than I would have guessed, and it enrages me.

I scream, making to slam my fists against his chest, but his grip is too tight. As I stare into his face, gnashing my teeth, something catches my eye. A glint underneath a tuft of raven black hair. A single golden ring shines, but the position of it is disorienting—too high and far back to be an earring. But then as the captain shifts, his hair does too, and the realization dawns on me with the revelation of the pointed tip of his ear.

All sharp lines—that’s what I’d thought when I’d first laid eyes on the captain.

The mask wasn’t a nod to the past, but a means to hide his nature.

“You’re fae,” I whisper, dread crawling through me as I realize just how hopeless it is to fight. Why the captain seems so unfazed by my attempts to escape.

---