Page 112 of Beneath the Starlight and Storms

My eyes find Hooks and the sadness and pain in them nearly breaks me.

He takes my hand in his, there’s a small cut along my arm from the vines that still hasn’t healed yet. But I don’t feel it. I don’t feel anything other than dread and panic at what Hook just revealed.

“I’m sorry I let it hurt you.” He frowns still looking at my small cut like it’s something far more serious than his poisoning.

“They’re not poisonous, just slow to heal.” His frown deepens as he stares at it.

I open my mouth to tell him to stop being foolish when his words hit me. He protected me from the vines, kept them away from me as much as he could. But… how?

And then I remember… He always has magical items on him he taps into to use. He must have used them to protect us.

But it doesn’t look like he protected himself at all. From the small cuts and rips all over his clothes, it looks like he took the brunt of it. It looks like he shielded me from most of it, leaving himself vulnerable.

I check the cuts along his neck, stomach and legs. But unlike mine, his weren’t healing. They were turning dark with the same thread-like dark lines crawling out from them.

Swallowing back the panic threatening to take me whole, I look into his pain-filled eyes.

“Why, Hook?” I ask, wanting to cry and scream at him for being so foolish.

“It was the only thing I could do to make sure you were safe,” he grimaces, a vulnerable look on his face as his hand falls to his lap.

“Hook?” The panic bleeds through my voice as I look down at his unmoving hand.

“The smoke had a paralyzing agent in it. It’s slowly working its way through my body. I’m slowing it down as much as I can, but I don’t think I’ll be able to move in a few minutes.”

Magical gas…

Hook’s words come back to me, and I remember feeling nothing and thought we got through unscathed. But the longer I watch Hook, the more I think that maybeIwas the only one that came out of this unscathed.

I glance back at his wound, its dark thick stringy coils now curling outward, attempting to move over his shoulder and across his chest.

Panic bleeds into every inch of my body, taking my breath away.

I can’t lose him. I can’t—

“I think I can heal from it, but the paralyzing agent from the smoke is blocking my ability somehow. It’s taking everything in me to push it back.”

Hope floods my chest with his words, allowing me to take a breath. “So, if you just rest it will heal?”

I need him to say yes. To tell me he’s going to live. That’s all that matters right now.

“It should.” Hook grimaces. “But you need to get out of here before—”

“That’s good.” I cut him off and ignore his defeated look to focus on the positive. He’ll live if I can buy him enough time to heal.

“Just focus on healing and I’ll… I’ll figure something out.” I nod to myself, the relief of his words hitting me with force.

Glancing around, I try to think of a plan. If Hook can rest, he can heal.

He can’t use anymore of his powers or using what’s left of his energy could kill him. So if he does try anything, I could always knock him out.

I just need to keep us hidden from the Hunters long enough to give him time to heal. But, how?

There was nowhere else to go. The other side of the island has those dark webs blocking it. And whatever Hook did to push them and their dark, destroying shadows back would only buy us a little time. I couldn’t go back the way I came either with the smoke and vines. And the dark, treacherous sea was no longer an option without a boat.

I wasn’t the best swimmer and Hook wouldn’t be able to move soon.

Feeling trapped with no option or way out, dread coats my skin as panic rises up inside me once more. But something else also rises up.

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