Page 44 of Veiled in Stars and Silver
He blinked at me. “But your brothers—”
“I see now that getting the dagger and ending this is the only way to save my brothers.” I jerked on his arm, trying to get him to his feet. He rose slowly. Gritting my teeth, I pushed my guilt aside over my deal with Pan and imagined seeing John and Michael again. I rose into the air a little, grounded by Hook, who watched me with empty eyes. “We don't have a lot of time—”
“You go. Leave me,” he said.
“What? No, you're coming with me.”
The pounding on the door ceased.
“Listen.” His voice dropped low. “The spellbook is hidden on the Jolly Roger, in a watertight compartment inside my closet. The key is in a loose plank under my bed.”
“Hook, don't do this.”
“Wendy.” He looked at me and I saw a chasm as empty as the depths of the sea. “I don't have any happy thoughts.”
The windows in the surrounding rooms shattered, glass skittering across the rain and blood-soaked wood. Fear crawled up my throat. Hands and arms shot through the space. Shit. There were a lot of them, and trained or not, under Pan's power, they'd keep coming until they overwhelmed me and Hook. I needed to get him in the air.
The wind howled, and I dropped onto the porch, a raging desperation in my chest. I grasped his overcoat and jerked him close. “Then let me give you one.” Rising onto my toes, I pressed my lips to his.
He froze, but then Hook's fingers dug into my hair, pressing our mouths harder together as his hook arm came around my waist.His lips moved over mine with an experience that made me want to forget about our impending death.
I pulled back. My freezing hands clung to the stark fabric of his drenched overcoat. “I can't do this without you. Now, fly with me, you shameless libertine.”
A spark ignited in his eyes, and he kissed me again. We lifted, the air gathering under our feet. Water streamed over us, but all I cared about was Hook's mouth on mine. When we parted, I glanced below, relief flooding through me at the site of Madame Pearl's women and pirates far beneath us, out of reach.
I eased out of Hook's grasp and took his cold, wet hand in mine. “Come, James Hook. Come away with me to my home.” And together we flew off into the stars.
Chapter 17
Hook
His first mate.
His goddamned bloody first mate.
Not to mention the other two lives he had no choice but to end.
He couldn’t get it out of his mind. How Smee had come at him, his eyes dim and devoid of his normal cheeriment with a cleaver, about to take off Hook’s head. Leaving him with no alternative. The rain had washed away the blood on hand and hook, the hot metallic scent of death, and yet the feel of his hook slicing into his first mate remained. One of his oldest friends, who, even on days when he was lost in Pan’s control, still managed a smile or a joke, as if even Pan couldn’t stand to completely wipe the man’s personality from him.
Hook swore on his life. Pan would pay.
He’d been swearing the same thing for years, with every time he’d been forced to gut an ally, a friend. People he knew and cared about. So far, that promise had gone unfulfilled.
Not anymore. He was so close.
Water dripped from Hook’s clothes and Wendy tugged on his hand, urging him along. He gripped it. His lifeline. She’d kept himfrom getting lost in the darkness. The endless pain of his existence that had stretched on for hundreds of years. And when he’d taken Smee’s life, at the last moment, there had been an odd peaceful look that had come over the man’s face. One that, for the briefest of moments, Hook had envied.
He never knew how long it would take to fly between Neverland and London. And not because there was no way to keep track. Sometimes it felt like a few weeks had passed. Others a few minutes.
Time seemed to rush.
He wished it would crawl.
They came into London, and the darkness of evening surrounded them. It was always night when one arrived, no matter what time of day in Neverland one left. He saw the giant clock tower of Big Ben lit up like a thousand fairies flew about inside. Like how the northern part of the island at Neverland was now lit up with so many fairies that had come within the past few years. Hook wondered if Pan was behind that. There was something even lower about the idea of taking over the mind of a fairy.
Wendy led Hook above the lights of the city to the rooftop of her home. They landed on it, their feet crunching into the pristine snow that coated the surface.
Flakes had gathered in Wendy’s hair, giving it a layer of white. Ice-clouds formed from her breath. Her arms wrapped across her thin dress. “Are you going to be all right?”
