Page 48 of Lost Starlight
“You mean, when you marry Peter.”
“Yes. I will kiss my husband and hold him after I wed, whenever I wish.”
“I shall like to see that when you are in the same room as Mother. Her response would be very fun to observe.”
“She would most likely pass out,” I said, and Michael and I both laughed. How freeing it was to have Michael’s friendship.
I had thought that once Mother knew I was courting the prince, she would be less abrasive. In so many ways, shehadbeen kinder, but still, I could not wait to leave her.
“Here! Let’s go up this small path!” Dominick shouted, and the few of us, Meria, my brother, and myself, headed toward the island jungle.
I knew that path—unfortunately. The sight of it brought back an unpleasant memory.
Three Months Before Present Day
“Mother, Mother!” the pixies chimed. I looked around at them as they began to lift me off the ground, and then we entered the forest. I closed my eyes as they carried me to a lagoon with a large and stunning waterfall. The water was illuminated by what seemed like starlight, itself, as if they had learned to harness the stars and capture them in that radiant lagoon. They set me down and helped me walk to the waterfall. Without a word, I let them guide me behind it to the inside of a cavern where they eventually brought me to the children who they had taken from Walden.
Present Day
“I wonder what way we should go.” Dominick’s words pulled me from my memory. He and Meria had walked back to where Michael and I were standing.
“If we go through here, we’ll find the pixies’ lagoon on the other side of the mountain, and that is where the children’s camp used to be,” I said.
“Thank you, Lady Darling,” Dominick said formally.
“Just call me Gwendolyn if you please,” I said.
“Gwendolyn, let’s go find your Peter, shall we?” Dominick said with a smile, and I took my brother’s hand tightly in mine, then nodded.
Chapter Twenty-One
Peter
Present Day
“Gwen,” I whispered, peeking from behind the ferns near the shoreline.
“Who is that?” Leaf asked me, moving his head from the tree beside me.
“Someone who has come to help,” I said, looking back at the pixies that were still there with us.
“Welcome, Welcome!” the pixies called out. I saw Dominick, Meria, Michael, and a few other crew members. It had to be a rescue mission for me. I felt a lightness in my chest. Of course, I was grateful that they were thereto try and save me.
Gwen. Upon seeing her, I paused, watching as she spoke to Meria, then to Michael.
I watched my brother walk to the treeline and call back to Gwen and Michael. He had a light in his eyes. “Lost boys, it looks like more help has come. Let us give them a warm welcome!” I called, and the boys cheered. The group on the beach looked in our direction. Gwen, standing beside her brother, placed a hand over her eyes to block out the sunlight, and I wondered what she would think about seeing me fly. I looked down to my shirt and with an impish thought, I unbuttoned a few buttons.
With a smirk and a happy thought—which was easy because my happy thought was the person I was looking upon–I sprinkled some pixie dust over my head and flew above the lost boys, guiding them across the beach to my rescuers.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Gwendolyn
Present Day
“What is that?” Meria called. I did not have time to look at her because from the other end of the beach, something was coming at us. There was some enormous bird flying above–
I squinted my eyes.Are those children?They looked older than the ones I had been with on the island before. The pixies were not supposed to have any more children on the island. I frowned. As they grew closer, I saw that thebirdwas not a bird, but a person—a man. Peter.
