Page 97 of Beneath the Starlight and Storms

“ButwhyHook? Why do you even care?” He left Neverland without telling me. He left and never thought of me again. Or at least I assumed as much. He had three years to come back and prove it otherwise, but he didn’t. Why does he care now?

Maybe it was regret. Maybe he regretted leaving without so much as a goodbye and that’s all this is. His foolish conscience after getting to know me once more.

But then I look in his eyes and see the emotion burning through them and I know it can’t be the reason.

He steps forward but stops himself when I give him a look. I don’t know what he wants from me. What he expects me to say. I never wanted him to leave Neverland. And if he’d have given me the chance, I would’ve begged him to stay.

But I couldn’t go back and change the past and I didn’t know if he would even want that.

As if reading my thoughts once more, his brows snap together before a glint of steel enters his eyes and he stares at me unblinkingly.

“From the moment I first laid eyes on you and every other after that, I knew what you were to me.”

“What am I to you?” I ask as a storm of lightning flashes through his eyes.

“Everything,” he breathes, his eyes slightly widening as if he too is surprised to hear the words leave his lips.

He moves closer and this time, I let him, stunned silent by his admission.

“You’reeverythingto me, Tink. You own me, mind, body and soul. Blinded me with your beauty. Your kindness. Your heart. And held me captive from the moment I looked into those endless green eyes.”

My throat tightens at his words. It doesn’t make sense. None of it.

“Why, then? Why leave Neverland if you felt that way? Why couldn’t you just tell me?” I croak.

He swallows hard as a flash of pain moves through his eyes. “I never wanted to give you up. But I knew you would never be mine. You already had someone who loved you. Someone who would look after you far better than I ever could.” His eyes shutter and my heart sinks as I start to realize what he means.

“Peter,” I murmur.

“Peter.”He releases a harsh breath as he shakes his head, squeezing his eyes shut as if he can shut out the pain along with it.

Opening them, he looks straight at me. But pain is all I see staring back at me. Pain layered with sadness and resignation.

“You loved him. I saw that. Saw it every time he made you laugh and smile. He would take better care of you than I ever could.”

He was wrong. What he saw between me, and Peter wasn’t love. It was an infatuation. It was make-believe. A fairy-tale that was fake.

“I’m not a good person. I never was. I was broken long before I came to Neverland, and half the man I should be, but I can’t change that. You deserve better. You deservemore. And me thinking that I can be something more than what I am, is a lie.”

He looks down at his hands, opening them palm up. “I’m good at killing. Fighting with every weapon you can think of. I’m savage. Brutal. And vicious to anyone who crosses me.”

He squeezes them tight as he clenches his jaw. “At least I thought I was. I thought there was a shred of hope for something…” His shakes his head. “But when it came down to it, I couldn’t protect you.”

“What are you—”

“It was a trap,” he cuts in. “The Market. The Fae girl. All of it. I knew it. Iknewsomething was wrong. And still I let you walk right into it.” He pales as if re-living the moment over again, speaking as if he’s too ashamed to admit it.

But it was no one’s fault.

“Neither of us could have predicted what was going to happen. I was the one that decided to go there. Not you.Imade that decision.”

My words have no effect on him as his expression closes up.

“You’re new to this Realm. You don’t understand it. You don’t know what the people are like. What motives they have. I should’ve known better. I shouldn’t have been blinded by…”

He stops himself but I already knew what he was going to say. His stiff body and blank expression revealing more than any words he spoke aloud.

“By what? By us?” I ask, my stomach churning as I wait for his reply.

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