She giggles. “I might’ve liked you if you’d shown up before that dumdum Wendy. Before everything went to shit.”
“I doubt it. You don’t like stupid mainlanders.”
“Good point.” She peers ahead of us. “There they are.”
I don’t see anything, but her vision is fixed on a point, so I steer us toward it. My knees are weak, my back aching, but if Tinker Bell thinks she can end Peter, I’m here for it.
“Moira!” Widow appears from the trees to our right and runs up. The moment she sees Tinker Bell, she hisses like a cat.
“No! Widow. She’s okay. She’s helping.”
“Helping?” Widow approaches, her cutlass bloody and at the ready. “She’s with Peter.”
“No, she just saved me from his godforsaken shadow, okay? She’s good.” I shake my head. “Not good. I mean, she’s still a huge jerk, but she’s on our side.”
Widow doesn’t look convinced, but she doesn’t have time to argue when a shadow with red eyes rises from the ground behind her and lunges for her.
She dodges it and runs to my side, wrapping her arm around my waist and dragging both Tinker Bell and me toward the beach. “We can’t kill the shadows. One of them hurt Cecco bad, raked the skin off his back, but most of them have been going after Lost Boys. They drag them down into the dirt with them.”
That explains the bloody marks on the ground but no bodies.
“Horrible.” I shudder.
The terrain finally changes from moss to sand, and Widow pulls us onto the beach where only a few Lost Boys are left. Two are in the water trying to swim away from a pair of fae shadows. One is dueling with Starkey, though I can tell Starkey is only playing with him at this point like a cat with a mouse.
Then I see Hook and Peter. Tinker Bell jets away from my side, flashes into the golden orb, and flies away toward them.
“What is she doing?” Widow turns that direction and starts moving even faster, pulling me along.
“She’s trying to kill him.”
“Hook?”
“Peter.” I sag, my legs finally giving out.
“Come on.” She hoists me over her shoulder like a sack of potatoes and runs across the sand.
“What’s happening?” I can’t see anything except Bill Jukes running along behind me, a huge axe in his hands and blood on his face.
“Hook has the upper hand,” Widow calls. “Peter is falling back toward the trees.”
“Tinker Bell?”
“She’s fucking with Peter, flying in his face and flashing that bright gold.” Widow slows, then puts me down on the sand. “Bill!”
“I’ve got her,” he calls.
“I’m going to help.” Widow blows me a kiss then runs toward Peter and Hook.
I watch helplessly as Hook continues unleashing his fury on Peter, his sword shining and slicing through the air until Peter stumbles backward and falls on his ass, his sword in the sand. Hook is ready to make the killing blow.
Tinker Bell bursts into her full form and lets out a harrowing cry full of pain and rage. A golden blade is in her hand, and she stabs it straight down toward Peter’s heart.
She doesn’t make it.
Peter pulls a second blade from his side and shoves it into her chest. “Traitor!” he yells, and even the water seems to tremble at the force in his cry. “Fucking traitor, Ineverbelieved in you!”
Tinker Bell falls, her skin leaching of color.
