Page 11 of Veiled in Stars and Silver
Bitterness and annoyance raced through me. How dare he act like he didn’t remember. As if my brothers and I were people to be forgotten. I shut my eyes, reminding myself that Peter was Peter. But deep down, he was good, and he’d help me. “Yes, Peter. It has been that long. Now, my brothers?”
His head dipped, and his shoulders sagged. “I’m sorry I have to tell you, but your brothers are dead.”
I nearly doubled over at the news. No. My arms wrapped around my middle at the nausea that filled me. No. No! My throat constricted painfully, and my hands curled into fists even while my eyes stung with tears.
Michael with his floppy blond hair and John with his lopsided know-it-all grin. They couldn’t be gone. They couldn’t.
The searing in my throat intensified. “Are you sure?” I croaked.
Peter nodded. “Forgive me for not coming and telling you, but Hook killed them not long after returning to Neverland, and I couldn’t admit to you I’d failed.”
Tears spilled down my cheeks. My breaths came in short gasps, the pain in my chest shattering me, breaking me apart and searing through every part of my body.
Hook.
He’d killed them. He’d done this. Damn him. Damn Hook! I would gut him alive. I would—
I nearly leapt as I felt Peter’s arm across my shoulders. “I wish there was more I could do.”
I moved out of his hold, every part of me raging with an inevitable fury. “Where’s Hook?” My voice shook even as a cold certainty took over.
“Where he normally is. On his ship.”
I turned to go.
“I need your help,” Peter called after me.
I tensed but twisted to face him. Whatever it was, it could wait. I had a pirate captain to bleed out across the deck of his own ship.
But Peter stared at me with an earnestness that was almost too intense. “Hook has gotten his hands on the spellbook of Stardust. It has the power, when combined with another artifact, to drain the magic from Neverland. If that happens, everyone and everything will be destroyed. I beg you to help me retrieve it from him.”
“That’s going to be rather difficult as I am on my way to murder the captain of the Jolly Roger,” I said.
“I need that book. It is dangerous, not only in Hook’s hands, but if any of his men got ahold of it after his death…” Peter shook his head. “If you could get him to talk. Trick him. Use your… feminine wiles on him.”
My eyes widened, and I wanted to ask if he even knew what feminine wiles were. But then I clenched my jaw. “I’ll see what I can do.”
“Thank you, Wendy.” He grinned at me, showing off his straight white teeth. “Beware, Hook will tell you all kinds of lies to get you on his side, right before he turns on you. Oh, one more thing.”
My lips pressed, and now both eyebrows were raised. I bounced a little on my toes. The coldness wrapped around my heart urging me to leave.
“Me and my Lost Boys can’t go after Hook. You see, he’s cast a spell that makes him immune from the attacks of children. We’re unable to injure or harm him. You must do this on your own. But I can send Tinker Bell ahead to scout out the best way in.”
“Thank you.” On a last thought, I moved my knives from my cloak and into the holder on my thigh. Then I untied my cloak. “I’ll leave this here.” I left it on the floor of his hut before spinning on my heel and heading for the door.
The captain of the Jolly Roger was about to meet his fate.
There would be no mercy.
Chapter 4
Wendy
I sat in the boughs of a giant Nevertree, waiting for Tinker Bell to return from her scouting mission. The green leaves were larger than any I had ever seen in London and did an excellent job of obscuring me from view.
Vengeance burned inside me, and I checked my knives. Having left my cloak behind with Peter, they were now in sheaths strapped to my thigh. How good it would feel to plunge them into the captain of the Jolly Roger. My hand trembled, and I forced it to steady, not allowing myself to think of John and Michael. I could fall apart later. It was time to act.
I peered through a gap between the foliage, catching sight of Tink’s glow as she streaked through the air.
