“Of course.”
“Then why didn’t you send her back to me? That’s what she wanted, right?”
“She asked to be sent back to the mainland with no more waking dreams of Neverland. I couldn’t give her that.”
“Why not?”
“Because there are some magics I can’t undo. Her fae legacy and the links she has to Neverland are things beyond my control.” She shrugs, her wings flapping along with her movement. “That’s not in my power. We are who we are, and our burdens can’t be erased without great sacrifice. Your mother’s fae side manifested in visits to faraway lands through the gateway of her mind.” She taps the middle of her forehead. “It was her gift.”
“It was acurse!” I yell. “She wanted to be with me. Not here!”
“That’s true.” She sighs. “She wanted that more than anything, but I told her as I must tell you. I don’t have that power. I have even less power now that Peter has drained so many fae—”
“Why didn’t you stop him?” I snap. “You’re their leader, right? You should’ve defended your people.” I know I’m lashing out. And I know it’s hit home when she winces.
Her eyes begin to glow, and she floats higher. “You don’t think Itried?” Her voice is thunderous as a phantom wind whips around her. “I saved as many as I could, bringing them to shelter in the mountains where they live still. But there were many more I couldn’t save. I recite their names every time the moon rises high. They are written here.” She beats her breast. “I failed them. Don’t you think I know that?” Her vitriol seems to ebb as she floats back toward the ground. “I failed all of them, because I let Peter in. I welcomed him as I’d always done, not realizing he’d taken a boon from the heart of the island.”
“Am I his boon?”
“Yes.” Her answer is like a shot, one that tears through my heart and out the back of my soul. Hook was wrong. I wasn’t his boon after all. I’m not the love he wished for. That rocks me to my core, and I stand there, dumbfounded and falling apart. The one thing I’d come to rely on, and it was only sand slipping through my fingers. Hook’s wish is still out there somewhere, some other woman who can make him whole. It’s not me. It was never me. Peter was right—he owns me.
Numb, I meet her gaze again. “What did Peter wish for?”
She gives me a look like I’m the biggest idiot this island has ever seen, and maybe I am. But her answer cuts deeper than her eyes ever could. “Power, of course.”
Power. Peter wished for power, and the answer to it was me. I look down at myself, at my shriveled hands and thin body. A crazed laugh barrels out of me. “Power?” I hold my hands out in front of me and stare at the thin skin lined with sinew underneath. “This isn’t power.”
“You told him stories, Moira.” She drifts all the way to the ground. “He took your power from you. That is our gift—or as you’d call it—our curse. Our stories have power, and if given to the wrong people, that power can be taken. Stories are a magic of the highest order. They can heal and unite. They can birth worlds within worlds. But in the wrong hands, they can bring untold destruction and pain.”
“I didn’t know. How could I have known?” I cover my face with my hands.
“You couldn’t have. That’s why you were his boon. He could use you for the power he craves.”
“Why didn’tyoutell me?” I yell.
Her eyes flash again. “You believe the island would let me do anything after the deal had been struck?”
My head spins. “Between you and me, I think the island is sounding pretty fucking evil right now.”
“No.” Her voice is thunderous. “No.” She calms a bit, then continues, “The island was off-balance from the moment Hook went into its heart. After that, the magic attempted a course correction.”
I can’t believe she’s defending the island. “By granting Peterevil powers?”
“By giving Peter a way to continue bringing Lost Boys to the island and maintaining their eternal youth. Such was the bargain. You were the way. But Peter discovered the power granted him by the island worked in other ways, as well.”
“So the island gave him the ability to drain your people, the Guardians, and even his own Lost Boys to keep his ‘young forever’ bullshit going?”
“The island never intended for any of that. It was the result of the imbalance. Peter …” She wrings her hands. “Peter got out of control, and the island could no longer influence him as it once had. You were the intended sacrifice, but—”
“Wait!” I hold up a hand. “I was supposed to be asacrifice?”
“Yes,” she says it like it’s the most obvious thing in the world. “Peter would take your fae abilities and become a Spinner in his own right. He would have a direct link to the island’s magic and continue to lure dead children, thereby maintaining his eternal youth as well as theirs.”
“Then why didn’t he do that?” I look down at myself. “I’m still standing. He could’ve killed me a thousand times over by now.”
“Because Hook and Peter weren’t the only ones who made a bargain with the island.”
I blink several times, as if it can clear my head. “What?”
