Page 29 of Veiled in Stars and Silver
Then, there was the whole Hook problem, which he hoped could still be remedied. If he played his part right.
He hated lying to Wendy, but that was how he must play this particular game. The rules to this one were harder to remember than most, which made it a challenge.
Peter loved a challenge.
And if he won, then in the end, Hook would be dead and Neverland would remain his.
Forever.
Chapter 12
Wendy
I awoke to the sound of shuffling and thudding. I raised my head and squinted to find Hook lifting and re-stacking crates, revealing a large empty blackness opening up on the far side of the cavern.
“Good, you’re awake,” he said as if his racket hadn’t been the thing that awoke me in the first place. He rolled his shoulders, raising his arms in a stretch. “We should get going. No rum today. We need to stay alert. We’ll get food when we reach Madame Pearl’s.”
“Is that where the tunnel leads?”
“Correct. The ladies of Madame Pearl’s tend to be… freer than the rest of Neverland’s inhabitants.” He stepped over a crate and offered me his good hand. “Not that we won’t have to be careful, but we can’t stay here forever living on rum.”
“I need to find my brothers.”
“One step at a time. That task has now become a hell of a lot more complicated.”
I reluctantly took his hand and let him pull me to my feet. Despite his sand-covered hair and torn and bloody clothes, he somehowmaintained a ruggedly handsome appearance. My skin itched from layers of caked-on mud, salt, and sand, and I was sure my hair looked like it was home to a nest of rats. His palm was warm in mine.
I snatched it back. “Let's get going, shall we?” Moving past him, I headed for the entrance to the black abyss.
He lifted the lantern with his hook and followed me.
Part of me wished that yesterday had only been a bad dream. But waking up in the underground rum cache had ruined any hope that the world had gone back to being sane. I pulled my half of the silver stone from my pocket and lifted off my own necklace, the one that still held Peter’s kiss. Carefully, I threaded it through the opening Hook had created before settling the stone around my neck. It rested next to the small acorn.
“Tell me. If everything you claim is true, what was the point of throwing me off your ship?” I asked as we walked. Roots from the cave walls brushed my arms, and the small confines of our tunnel forced us to travel single file.
“Simple, love. My crew is under Pan’s control. The only reason he has brought you here was so you can kill me. If we had walked out onto that deck acting all cheery, his purpose for bringing you here would have been thwarted and you’d now be under his power.”
“You couldn’t have let me in on the little act?”
He let out a low laugh. “I’m afraid not. After that sham of an attempt at seduction in my quarters, I couldn’t trust your acting to be convincing.”
I huffed, my cheeks growing red. “And the kiss?”
I glanced back in time to see him grimace. “Sorry, Wendy. That’s not normally how I go about such things. But I couldn’t let you mention the dagger in front of the crew.”
I fingered the stone around my neck. “The stone protects us from Peter’s mind control…” The words were still strange coming from my mouth.
“And allows us to leave Neverland,” he added.
Yes. I had forgotten we were all trapped here. “And why is the dagger so important?”
“The Dagger of Forgotten Souls is a conduit for magic,” Hook said. “Pan exudes magic. So stab him while saying the right spell from my trusty book and Pan’s power goes into the dagger.”
“And no more mind control.”
“Precisely.”
I was quiet for a moment but couldn’t stop myself from asking what was at the front of my mind. “Why not kill him? If you are so immune to his powers?”
