Page 21 of Beneath the Starlight and Storms

I look over to the window and the dark night sky stares back at me reminding me of the time. But unless an entire day has passed, I doubt it’s been more than a few minutes.

Just in case, I pause and listen out for any sound, specifically any shouting, looking for a missing prisoner. But hear nothing.

Glancing back at the piece of paper where the watch lays hidden, I shake off the last of whatever eerie thrall it had me under and focus back on my search for the bracelet.

Moving to the drawers beneath the desk, I check inside and around them, but apart from more strange objects and a black dagger, it’s not there.

Taking a deep breath and releasing it, I turn and head for the pile of boxes in front of the shelves that span out across the entirety of the back wall behind the desk.

Not wasting any time, I search in each and every box and between all of the items, but quickly find it’s not in any of them.

Moving to the shelves, my gaze catches on a glint of something shiny. But as soon as I move closer, the shred of hope I had, shrivels up as it turns out to be just a long clear crystal.

Picking it up, I inspect it. It’s light enough that you would barely feel it, its length and width the size of a long finger. But what has me more fascinated is the small, intricate gold runes traveling up and down it.

Just like the watch, I feel drawn to it. To its power. But unlike the watch, it doesn’t try to pull me under any strange spell. Its energy is more subtle, like a brush of air whispering past me.

The runes seem familiar somehow, though I can’t place where I’ve seen them before.

With too much time wasted inspecting old relics, I place the crystal back where I found it and continue my search.

Where could he have put it?Maybe he—

“Looking for this?” A familiar teasing tone makes me freeze. I twist around only to find Hook leaning against the opened doorway, a smirk on his face as he holds up the bracelet I’ve been looking for this entire time.

But it’s something in his look that pushes back any fear of being caught.

A wolf’s smile slowly slides across his face, revealing everything I need to know.

HeknewI’d come looking for it.

“How did you—”

“Your eyes lit up when you saw it earlier.” His smile grows smug as he moves into the room and toward me.

I tense as he moves around the desk to stand in front of me. “I know that look. Every time you found something new that washed up on the shores of Neverland, you wore the very same expression.”

“Maybe I just want it because it’s pretty.” I don a neutral expression, his words reminding me of the past we shared and with it, dragging up feelings I wanted to long forget.

A smile shadows his lips. “You’re not that materialistic. You don’t care about wealth or owning something just because it’spretty. You never did. Not for as long as I’ve known you.”

“That was before. I’m not the Tink you once knew.”And it was the truth. So much has happened in the last three years that I doubt I was anything like the version he once knew.

EvenIdidn’t know who I was or what I really wanted in this life. I was never really given the choice to decide for myself. All that I knew was that I wanted to be free. Free to make my own choices. Free to live the life I chose. Butwhatthat actually meant, was something I had yet to figure out.

“But you are,” he frowns, as he searches my face for something. “She may be buried beneath the surface. Beneath layers of shadows of something I have yet to figure out. But she’s in there.”

The complete surety in his tone makes me pause. The way he continues to search my face for something I know he will no longer find makes my rising anger for tricking me, simmer. And slowly disappear as his frown grows.

Because no matter how much he thinks he knows me. No matter how many little memories there are between us, there are too many dark and twisted ones that came after that made them fade into the nothingness. And along with it, any trust or happiness I had with them.

I didn’t trust Hook anymore. I had no reason to.

“Why do you care?” I ask, while knowing he doesn’t care the slightest. At least not about me. Why would he? He doesn’t need me here. I have no powers that he knows of. And there’s nothing I can give him that he doesn’t already have or can buy.

Hook regards me with a strange look before straightening up and holding the bracelet between us. “Tell me why you want this?”

“And if I do? Will you give it to me and allow me to leave?” I eye the bracelet as it swings from side to side.

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