Page 28 of Devour the Dark

Winnie presses closer so that I’m now cornered by two Darling women. If one wasn’t enough…

“I’m going.” Winnie crosses her arms over her chest. Behind me, Roc laughs.

“You must know by now, brother, that it’s a futile endeavor, arguing with a Darling.”

The Neverland Shadow seems to echo this. I can feel it laughing at me. That fucker.

“Fine,” I say, and Winnie’s shoulders fall with relief. “But you follow my orders. You do not wander around on your own. And did I mention you will obey me?”

She angles a hip toward me as the shadow’s energy dances. “Of course, Dark One. I will obey every word.” She smiles innocently up at me.

Roc snorts. “We’ve no time for that. You two have bags to pack and I have a Captain to find.”

“Asha and I will help,” Wendy says.

“We’ll meet back at the dock in an hour?” Roc asks me.

“Make it two. I’ll have some convincing to do with Pan.”

Roc nods. “I don’t envy you that, little brother.” Then he slaps me on the back and disappears out the back door with Wendy and Asha in tow.

CHAPTER TEN

WENDY

Because it wasRoc who tore a hole through the side of James’s ship, it’s Roc who secures us a new vessel. We hire a charter ship with a larger crew and even finer accommodations. The chief stewardess, a woman twice my size with a long, black braid and bright red fingernails, shows me to my room below deck while we wait for Winnie and Vane.

She introduces herself as Maggie and compliments me on my trousers.

“I borrowed them, actually,” I tell her. “I used to spend my days in complicated gowns, and it was…”

We pause at an intersection in the narrow hallways. She looks over at me, her dark brown eyes trained on me as if she’s actually listening. What an odd feeling it is to feel like someone is interested in my answer for the answer’s sake and not because they were pretending to be interested for court favor.

“It was what?” she coaxes.

“Insufferable,” I admit.

“Ahh. Well, trousers suit you. I can tell you feel like yourself in them.”

I glance down at the leather hugging my thighs. While they’re Asha’s pants, and very much the pants of a would-be assassin, ofwhich I am not, I think Maggie might be right. I do feel more like myself.

“I appreciate your honesty and your kindness.”

“Always a pleasure.” She winks and continues down the hall. “Here we go.” She opens the third door on the right with a small metal key.

“We call this the Lily Room. You can probably tell by the theme.”

The room is large by ship standards with a queen bed draped in a thick duvet, on which are small, embroidered lilies. The curtains are a gauzy white that I imagine must billow with sea breeze when the window hatch is open.

There’s a chair in the corner upholstered in rich indigo velvet. And beside it is a door leading to a small adjoining bathroom.

“If you need anything,” Maggie says, “ask me or my second, Quin. Quin wears a red jacket signifying their position on the ship. They are the only person with that jacket so they are hard to miss.”

“Okay. Got it.”

“Anything above deck, ask the deckhand, Mr. Kepler. He looks like an old, crotchety fisherman, but he’s nice enough.” She smiles. “But take my advice, do not mention the Storm of Howel to him. He has about seven different tales about the storm, and you will never escape him.”

I laugh. “Noted.”

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