Page 20 of Veiled in Stars and Silver
No. They were right here, I thought. My heart thudded in my ears as I desperately searched the murky water for any sign of them. Squinting, I saw a graceful scaled fin disappearing into the haze. A mermaid.
Mermaids were drowning my brothers.
I squeezed the hilt of the knife in my hand and kicked off the rock. Whether or not I found my brothers alive, I was going to skewer some mermaids. The burning in my throat and chest was merely my anger fueling me onward. I dove deeper.
Something broadsided me. Strong arms wrapped around my body and jerked me toward the surface. I twisted and tried to getmy knife into whatever had me, but a sharp metal object met my arm and yanked it to the side. Damn it. Hook. We broke the water’s surface, and I gasped for air, the burning in my chest receding, but not my fury.
“Mermaids have my brothers. Let me go, you foul, black-hearted git.”
He dragged my struggling body up onto the shore and straddled me, pinning my hands into the sand. The cold metal of his hook trapped my left wrist, the tip buried into the ground. “Unless a mermaid has kissed you, you’ll drown long before you catch them.”
“I don’t believe a damn word you say. These pirates who attacked me are your men. You—”
He pressed his face so close to mine, I saw the outline of a small scar along his jaw. “I swear to you, no matter what anyone has said, this wasn’t me. Now, either I can hold you here and argue, or I can go try to discover what is happening to your brothers.”
He wanted to help? No, this had to be a trick. But the look in his eyes…there was worry there.
“Wait here.” He released me and rushed for the water.
I went for my knife and sat up, catching his back in my sights. I lifted the weapon, ready to bury it between his shoulder blades.
I hesitated, and he disappeared under the waves.
I let out a hiss and rammed the knife into the wet sand. Why had I stopped? I didn’t believe him. I didn’t. And what if, on the off chance, the mermaids were saving my brothers? I had just sent an enemy after them.
“Wendy?” Peter appeared from the trees, sword in hand, dripping with blood, a dejected look on his face. He came and sat next to me, his shoulders hunched and leaned on his knees. “I couldn’t save your brothers. I couldn’t—”
“Mermaids took them, Peter.” I motioned toward the water. “Hook has gone in...” I paused, realizing too late that maybe I shouldn’t finish.
His brow furrowed. “Hook? But it was his men who put them on the rock.”
I groaned and pressed sand-covered hands to my face. What had I done? “I don’t know. Nothing makes sense anymore.”
Peter gazed up at me, the same boy who had brought me to Neverland so long ago on the back of the wind. “He must be trying to get on your good side. He wants something from you. But what?”
My eyes narrowed. That was shrewd, even calculating of him. I wasn’t used to him being either.
I thought of the jeweled dagger and shrugged.
“I’ll go in after your brothers.” He stood and laid a hand on my shoulder. “Don’t worry, Wendy. We’ll find them. Which way did they go?”
I pointed out over the water. Peter took off and flew in that direction for a little way before diving in. Apparently, everyone here had been kissed by a mermaid except me. I only hoped that my brothers were also counted in that number.
So close. I’d come so close to reuniting with them, and now they were gone. Again. Sand scratched against my skin and clung to mysoaking clothes. After sheathing my throwing knife, I tried to brush myself off, but eventually gave up.
The beach was eerily clear of any pirates or Lost Boys. The two men I had wounded were also gone, though they must have taken my sword with them, because it wasn’t lying where I’d left it. I unbuckled the casing and dropped it into the sand.
With nothing to do but wait, I settled for pacing across the shore. I should have told Peter about the dagger. Hook hadn’t come until after my brothers had conveniently been taken, and then he’d stopped me from rescuing them—admittedly saving my life. But why lure me into a trap when he’d had complete access to me on board the Jolly Roger? Why the schemes?
And Peter—his story kept changing. But perhaps that was to be expected from the boy who thought the rules constantly shifted according to his whims. Was that the genius behind his act? Or was he simply a child trying to keep up in an adult’s game?
Pan. The last name on the dying man’s lips. I looked up the hill to see his dead body still laying in the sand. He could have been saying anything. I was mistaken. Hook had gotten into my head more than I wanted to admit. I trembled at the sight of his corpse but pushed the regret and shock aside. There was nothing I could have done.
Peter came back first, flying over the inlet. A small glow floated next to him. Tink. Suddenly, she zipped off into the afternoon light. The boy touched down on the bank and I rushed up to him. “What did you find?”
Water dripped from his soaked golden locks. “These.” He grinned, holding up my five other throwing knives and a saber. “Found them in an abandoned rowboat.”
I gasped and took them from him, fitting them into the sheaths on my thigh. I strapped the saber to my waist. “Thank you, but I meant about my brothers.”
