Page 13 of Veiled in Stars and Silver
I saw the flash of fear in my own green eyes as I took in the tip of his hook against the soft skin of my throat, ready to rip me open. He loomed behind me, and held me so tight against him, there’d be no way of ramming the knife in my hand into any sensitive spots. I’d be lucky to nick his leg. His forget-me-not blue eyes watched me in the glass with a cavalier triumph.
“Don’t you know a captain must always sleep with one eye open? I wondered who Pan might send to take me out.” His voice wasdeep and velvety in my ear. “Welcome back to Neverland, Wendy Darling.”
He was a whole head taller than me, and I hated how he bent it toward me, how his cheek grazed my hair. My anger morphed into a frustration that grated in the pit of my stomach. I’d come this far, and he’d gotten the best of me in a matter of seconds.
Well, I didn’t need to play fair either.
I dropped my gaze and looked up through my lashes like I’d often seen other girls do when flirting. “You are mistaken. I’m not here to kill you.”
He raised a brow. “Am I? What, pray tell, is that knife doing in your hand?”
I forced a smile, taking on a wicked tint, the mirror helping me know I’d nailed it. “I heard you like to play rough.”
I thrust my shoulders back into him and let that movement roll down my body all the way to my hips, which I pushed into him with a sudden grating force. I did it again, grateful for the mirror as I mimicked the movements I’d seen Mrs. Blackwell’s outline do from across the street through the woman’s sheer curtains.
Hook’s eyes widened in shock. “What are you doing?”
Doubt filled me. Maybe I was being foolish. But his grip on me loosened to let me move against him more freely. And I did, bending my knees to drag up and down over his form. His gaze took on a tinge of gray, the clear blue giving away to the tempestuous waves of the sea. On the next roll of my body, his hand dipped to my hips, and he pressed me back against him. His arm kept my knife hand pinned as he moved with me.
“Is this what you really wanted?” he murmured, his voice unyielding and yet seductive.
My heart pounded. A raging heat combined with my anger moved in my skin. I fought through the muddiness of his warmth that surrounded me. His scent, some heady mix of the sea and a light tinge of sweetness. I could see in the mirror how flushed my skin had become, my eyes glittering with a darkness I’d never seen before. His hook dipped away from my throat. It traced a cold light path over my chest, traveling beneath the line of my shirt. He thrust against me, and a ragged breath slid out of him. My plan had worked. I should move now, plunge my knife into his black heart. Instead, I watched our reflection as my body moved with his, experiencing something it had never experienced before. Something new and unexpectedly dominating.
With the man who had killed my brothers.
The thought was like a blast of sleet to my face. My teeth grit together, and I grabbed his hook and jerked away, raising my knife. It sliced into his shoulder. Hook looked even more surprised by the swiftness of my actions. The thin fabric of his shirt ripped. He tried to stumble back, but my blade snagged on the brace near his shoulder. I gave extra effort, yanking it hard until it gave, and we both fell away from each other. His hook caught the side of his large mahogany desk to stop his backward momentum. I slammed back into the mirror, his blood dripping from my knife onto the paneled floor.
Hook ran a finger along the jagged line I’d torn into his flesh. Even I could tell it lacked depth. A smirk crossed his lips. “You managedto wound me, which means you must not be under his power.” He took in the gash in the fabric over his shoulder and disappointment crossed his face. “You ruined my favorite shirt.”
Oh, I was going to do more than that. I lunged forward, gripped his hook, and yanked hard. He shouted in surprise as the whole brace, straps and all, pulled away from his arm, like a hidden snake pouring out of his shirt sleeve. I threw it to the floor, revealing the leather strap I had cut that allowed me to de-hook him. With a cry, I rushed him with such force he stumbled back, hitting the wall. I pressed my bloodied knife against his throat.
For the first time, concern rose in his eyes. “You don’t want to kill me.”
I pressed the knife harder, and a bead of blood slid down his skin. “I really do.”
“Look, lass. I didn’t want to kidnap your brothers. I had no choice. Pan—”
“You killed my brothers,” I snarled.
Hook blinked. “Your brothers are alive. I saw them with the Lost Boys only last week.”
The shock of his words pierced me, and a burning stung behind my eyes. “You lie.”
“I swear on my life. They were out playing with the never birds around Mermaid Cove. Now, I don’t know what happened after that, but I’d bet my good hand they are alive, somewhere on that island.”
The knife in my grip trembled at his throat. Could my brothers be alive? The spark of hope battled with my distrust of the man in front of me. “Peter said—”
“The Neverland you remember as a child isn’t the same as the one you’re going to experience now that you’re grown.” His expression grew dark. “That cocky boy isn’t the noble hero you think he is. Pan is the tyrant master of this world from whom Neverland must be freed.”
I let out a derisive laugh. “You were better off claiming my brothers were alive.”
“You don’t understand everything he has—”
“Why should I believe a single word you say?”
“Other than it’s the truth? Besides, you won’t kill me, yet. He sent you looking for that precious spellbook, didn’t he?”
I gripped his wrist, which was slipping toward the throwing knives on my thigh, and shoved it against the wall, digging my knife deeper into his throat, eliciting a worried sound from him.
