Page 14 of Veiled in Stars and Silver
“It was optional,” I said.
He swallowed. Much of the haughtiness from earlier was gone. “How about we make a deal? You give me the jeweled dagger you carry belted at your waist, and I’ll help you find your brothers.”
I willed my hand to remain steady as I fought to hide my surprise. He was trying to catch me off guard. “What jeweled dagger?”
His brows drew together, and he stared at me as if I were crazy. “The dagger with the skull hilt and ruby-encrusted eyes that you wear, nestled right above your beguiling hips…”
I released him and stepped back so he could see my entire form.
Hook’s gaze raked over me. He paled. “Wendy, where’s the dagger?”
“It was you.” I pointed the bloody knife at him. “You hired that man to swindle me out of my magic blade in return for fake fairy dust.”
Desperation took over his face. “Tell me you know where it is.”
“Why do you want it?”
He ran his hand through his tousled hair. It fell, short black tendrils curling around his ears. “That dagger is everything,” he said, his eyes filled with a barely contained panic.
I raised my chin. In that moment, he didn’t appear like the evil captain I had long pictured in my worst nightmares. He looked like a man, frantic to keep some semblance of hope alive.
“This is the deal,” I said. “You help me find my brothers. If we retrieve them alive, then I will give you the dagger.”
He nodded, his messy hair bobbing. “Fine, lass. We’ll do it your way.”
I stepped up to him and wiped his blood from my throwing knife onto his trousers—an easy form of vindictiveness. But Hook didn’t even respond, and this close to him, I could see that he was shaking.
He pushed off the wall, stepping away from me. He cleaned his bloody fingers on a cloth on his desk, then picked a rolled parchment out of a box which sat on the floor. By the time he straightened, the easy arrogance was back in his movements. Turning, he held it out to me. “If you will?”
Casting a glance at his missing hand, I took the parchment and unfurled it on the desktop, revealing a map of Neverland.
“Wait.” He stepped over to the open window and jerked it shut, latching it, and pulling the drapes. I raised an eyebrow as he struggled to light a lantern. Was Hook paranoid?
He reached into his pocket and drew out a small vial of aquamarine liquid. “When I signal you, speak your brothers' names.”
“I’m sorry?”
He sighed. “I’m going to cast a spell to find your brothers. Do try to keep up.”
My mouth fell open. “You. Cast a spell?”
“What? You thought I’d collected that spellbook so I could gaze at it?”
My mouth snapped shut. My heart leaped in my chest. Dared I hope? No, it must be a trick. But why would he go to such lengths for his lie? “And you can find my brothers?”
He bit the stopper out of the vial, spitting it onto the floor, and began chanting in a language that I didn’t understand. My hand, still pressing the map open, tightened on the hilt of my knife. I didn’t stop him, though I felt vulnerable leaning over the desk, holding the unfurled parchment. He motioned toward me.
“John Darling. Michael Darling,” I said.
Hook repeated the names and then leaned forward and poured the potion over the map. I watched in amazement as a thin trail of liquid slid along the old paper, not soiling it in the least. He continued to chant and pressed his handless arm against the parchment, trailing the path beneath the line of liquid. I tried not to flinch at the sight of the jagged, scarred skin pinched together unnaturally where his hand should have been.
The trail stopped at Marooners’ Rock.
I sucked in a sharp breath. I knew Marooners’ Rock from when Hook had kidnapped Tiger Lily and chained her there to drown. If my brothers were there…
“When is the next high tide?” I asked.
Hook’s brows drew together. “Sometimes the Lost Boys play around that point. There may be nothing wrong, but…”
