After another hour or so, I realize I can see more detail in the walls, the glow of the crystal a warm gold. There’s light. My torch is growing weak, so I’m glad for the illumination, though I wonder where it’s coming from. I have no choice but to keep going, the sound of the water a rumble beneath my feet now.
The light grows brighter, and when I step out onto a ledge overlooking a soaring cavern, I douse my torch altogether. The roots overhead are thicker than redwoods, all of them glowing golden and showering the enormous cave with light. Down below, a wide pool shimmers, golden on its surface, and a waterfall churns to my far right. The entire cavern is indescribably vast, the roots of the Nevertree creating their own forest underground. Roots wrap around pillars of crystal, and some delve into the water. There’s a hum here, a song. It’s the same one I felt when I pressed my palm to the crystal pillars on the shore.
Picking my way carefully down the wall, I step onto one of the wide roots. It’s thicker than a city bus, and I’m able to walk along it, jumping to the next one where it hovers over the water.
I keep going deeper into the forest of roots until I see a small island ahead. Several roots twirl around it in a pinwheel fashion, and the crystal that forms its base is shot through with golden veins. Somehow, I know I need to go there.
The song grows louder, but it’s not in my ears. It seems to be coming from inside me, resonating through my chest as I climb along the roots and lower myself onto the island.
Once I’m there, I ease down and sit, crossing my legs and staring around at the magnificent beauty that lies at the heart of Neverland. Reaching into my pocket, I rub the pearl. “I’m here, James. I made it.”
A ripple appears in the water ahead of me. I let go of the pearl and lean forward, palms on the ground so I can peer into the pool.
The ripples grow, and beneath the golden shimmer, I see a horse. Well, sort of a horse. It has scales and a beautiful golden mane, with a mermaid tail instead of legs.
“Hi,” I whisper.
It swims around, then pokes its snout from the water.
I reach out to pet it.
“I wouldn’t if I were you,” a familiar voice says.
I jump and fall back onto my ass.
When I look up, my heart stops. “Mom?”
ChapterTwenty
“Kelpies are water fae, mischievous ones. They shapeshift, and they have only one goal. To drown you.” She waves a hand at the water, and the kelpie changes into a handsome merman, his golden hair bright as he motions me toward him. “See?”
“Mom, is that really you?” I scramble to my feet, my gaze fixed on the woman floating over the water just ahead of me, her wings beating lazily.
She moves closer and lands on the island. “Your mother is part of Neverland. I thought you’d want to speak with her. But if you’d prefer some other form …” My mother vanishes, and in her place is the Spinner from the Fairy Village. Then she changes into Tiger Lily, then Nessie.
“Wait!” I step back. “Stop. Go back to my mother.”
“As you wish.” The form ripples, and my mother appears again, though now in fae form.
“It’s you.”
“As I said, she is now part of Neverland.”
“You mean she’s dead?” My heart wrenches.
My mother nods. “Long ago. Or maybe far into the future. Time moves strangely here.”
I wipe my cheeks. “It’s not real. You’re not her. Change into something else. Be your real form.”
“My real form?” She steps closer. “Neverland is a world of dreams. Nothing isreal.”
“Be anything else.” I’ve wanted so badly to speak to my mother for so long. But this is different. This is worse because she isn’t really here.
The form shifts into a golden woman in the form of a tree. Her hair is golden leaves, her body tree bark, her eyes a forest green. “Better?” she asks, her voice warm and tinged with cinnamon.
“Yes.” I take a deep breath. “Tell me how to fix you.”
She sways back and forth, as if wind is blowing her this way and that. “I don’t think I can be fixed. The balance I enjoyed for so long is gone.”
