Page 67 of Veiled in Stars and Silver
“It's not him, James.”
He thrashed against his binding. “Goddammit! If you do this, I’ll never forgive you.”
A burning gripped my throat. “I know,” I rasped. “But I have to.”
And with that, I walked across the room, opened the window, and launched out into the daylight air, flying toward Neverland, dagger and book clutched in my arms, James’s shouts following me.
Chapter 25
Wendy
I dropped onto the sandy beach and turned back to stare at the Jolly Roger in the distance. I’d had to push my feelings aside so I could stay in the air, thinking about being reunited with John and Michael. But suddenly, the weight of what I had done, and what I still must choose, came crashing down on me.
I’d betrayed James. Left him tied on his ship, raging at me.
And now I had to decide: Risk my brothers’ lives by attempting to save them and Neverland? Or sell out Neverland altogether to ensure John and Michael's safety?
I sat in the sand and opened Stardust’s book, reading over the spell that should transfer the power out of Tink and into the dagger, and tried to memorize the first few lines, stumbling over the unfamiliar verbiage. Damn it. If I couldn’t remember the words, I might as well give up and go get my brothers.
If Tink would actually turn them over.
Perhaps James was right. Changing was too much. I desperately wanted to have the correct answer. For everything to be simple. Blackand white, like it had been in childhood. And yet, that childhood was lost.
Neverland wasn’t the same.
And neither was I.
And did that make me a better person? I had no idea, but I wouldn’t give up what I’d learned with James, and what I had experienced with him, for the world.
So where did that leave me? And what should I choose?
“Hello, Wendy,” Peter’s voice sounded behind me.
I jumped to my feet, drawing one of my throwing knives and holding it at the ready. It was too early for our scheduled rendezvous. Even though I no longer believed he was the mastermind behind everything, it didn’t mean he hadn’t been working for Tink all this time.
The book scratched against my chest as I clutched it with one arm, my throwing knife prepared to launch from my other.
“Stay back, Peter.”
“Why are you doing this, Wendy? I don’t understand why you would align yourself with him.”
“Why have you been plotting with Tinker Bell to keep my brothers from me?”
His eyebrows shot up in surprise, but then a grin split across his face. “I knew you’d figure it out.”
I let out a long breath. So he confirmed it. “But why, Peter? She holds all of Neverland in her power, controls them. Even Hook.”
His brow scrunched. “What are you talking about?”
I paused, caught off guard. “Has—has she never controlled you?”
“Control me? Tink never controls me. We play games. It's tiresome, coming up with new ones all the time. So sometimes she comes up with the rules, and I play them.”
I glared at him, flinging out a hand. “And my brothers? They were just part of some—some game to you?”
“Everything is a game. You know that.”
“No, it's not, Peter. The inhabitants of Neverland aren’t playing. She controls them.”
