Page 15 of Devour the Dark

The ship sways, and the Captain stumbles. Proof that he is not himself. No one is more adept at the whims of the sea than Captain James Hook.

“Is it really you?” he asks, his voice thin, trembling.

It does not escape me, the fact he already has the pistol arm cocked, ready to shoot.

I don’t tell him that a bullet will not stop me. I don’t tell him that there is only one weapon in the Seven Isles capable of killing me and he doesn’t have it. I think Smee does, though. How else would she have wounded Vane?

Did she ever tell the Captain?

“It’s me.” I close my eyes and take a breath. My heart is racing. My stomach is in knots.

I’m finding it difficult to tell the difference between dreams and nightmares and waking hours.

I never dream of my mother. Not anymore. But the accuracy of the dream…

My mother lovedMadame la Mort. Madame Death.

My aunt Roan often told me that my mother came out of the womb a “melancholy child, obsessed with the darkness, always flirting with monsters.”

Did she know Aaric Soren Maddred was a monster when she married him? Did she know she would birth monsters too?

“How long have I been out?” I ask the Captain.

“Several days.”

The pistol still hangs mid-air between us.

The ship sways again, but it has the directionless sway of a harbor, not the sea.

“Neverland?” I ask.

“Yes.” He finally uncocks the pistol. “We’re docked. Asha has gone to the treehouse.”

I sigh and scrub at my burning eyes. It feels like I’ve not slept at all. “What do you have to drink?”

The Captain holsters the pistol and turns a circle, then decides on a direction and goes to a half-drank bottle of rum. He pours me several fingers in a cut crystal glass and brings it back. His hand is still trembling. The dark liquor sloshes inside.

I meet his eyes.

“Did I hurt you?”

He blinks rapidly. “No.”

“Wendy?”

“No.”

I breathe out. Thank fucking god.

“Your crew?” I ask next.

His jaw clenches, and he says nothing.

“Anyone you care about?”

“Take the drink, Roc.”

I don’t often take his orders, but I make an exception now, aware that I am on thin ice.

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