Page 16 of Losing Wendy

“Astute,” he says, but before I can respond he whirls me around, tucking me into his chest as he presses a serrated blade to my throat.

My mind reels. The fae are supposed to be extinct. Or if not extinct, close enough. In the ancient days, the fae overcame our world, enslaving humans with their incomparable strength and agility. But when the fae were cursed with mortal lifespans, everything changed. Fae don’t procreate as easily as humans, and without centuries to spend producing offspring, they quickly began to die out. The captain is a rarity, a fae come out of hiding.

“George and Mary Darling. Do come out, won’t you?” he calls to the crowded ballroom.

The still-living guests tremble at the hands of the captain’s men, several of them holding their dance and conversational partners at knifepoint.

“There’s no use hiding,” says the captain, his deep voice rumbling through the hall. “We will find you anyway. Might as well offer your daughter the gift of remembering you as the noble parents who gave your lives in exchange for hers.”

“No,” I cry, but it comes out as more of a whisper. I search the crowd for my parents, for John, but I find no sign of them.

“Come out, and I won’t tell her what you did,” calls Captain Astor.

No. I beg my parents inwardly not to reveal themselves. I’ll be handed over to the shadows come the end of the night anyway. There’s no reason for them to sacrifice themselves, not when they need to find Michael, need to get him and John to safety.

Footsteps clatter on the floor. Two pairs of them as my parents appear out from underneath the trapdoor in the stage where they’ve been hiding.

Between them, they’ve clasped their trembling hands. A united front as they meet my captor in the center of the ballroom.

“Why are you doing this?” I beg.

“Count it as a mercy that I’m choosing to keep that information to myself, Darling.”

The knife is cold against my throat, the tip of it exactly where my parents’ gazes are fixed.

“Please, they took Michael,” I tell them.

My father tenses, my mother searching the room for my youngest brother in panic, but I hate myself instantly for telling them. There’s nothing they can do. They’re going to die in the center of this ballroom, and now I’ve plagued them with the horror of what might happen to Michael.

I search the crowd again, desperate to find John, but relieved when I don’t. Perhaps he heard me. Perhaps he’ll go after Michael while the crowd is distracted.

Perhaps he’s not one of the bodies that litter the tile floor.

“What do you want?” my father asks, his bowtie bobbing as he attempts to swallow and fails. “Money, I assume. We’ve got it. Anything you want. Just return our children to us unharmed.”

“All of them?” The captain’s voice is a taunt.

My mother’s face drains of color.

“And what if I made you choose? What if you could only have two of them back? Which two would you pick? Which would you save?”

“No,” I cough, miserable at the hapless looks on my parents’ faces, when the choice is so obvious. “John and Michael. They choose John and Michael,” I say, because it’s the logical thing to do. Because it’s the only thing to do.

“There you go again, just letting life happen to you,” says the captain, his breath tickling my ear, sending shivers down my body. “Do you even know who I am?” he asks as my parents tremble.

Of course they don’t, but my father and mother exchange knowing looks, and my stomach falters.

“Please. Just don’t hurt her,” says my father, holding his palms up.

The laugh that escapes from the captain’s mouth is crackling ice on a frozen lake. “Do you know how many times I’ve woken in the middle of the night, begging the same of you?”

Something in my mind stops. Homes in on that tiny sentence.

“What is he talking about?” I ask my parents, my jaw nudging the knife still pressed against my throat.

“Please,” my mother says, clapping her hand to her mouth, like she always does when her expression threatens to betray her. “Please, it wasn’t her fault. She’s not the one who should be punished.”

“You mistake my intention.” I can feel the captain’s cruel smile break out, his lips grazing my ear. “Any harm that befalls her is meant to punish you.”

---