“It isn’t a lie at all,” she continued. Maggie began to move in a circle, rounding the room. The pirate followed her pattern, just as she predicted. “Tell me who you are, why everyone on Neverland should know you, and I just might do the same.”
The pirate tilted his head and clicked his teeth together. “No can do, my lady. Doesn’t sound like a fair trade at all. And if there’s anything I know –” he wiggled his brow, teeth glinting as his grin broadened “ – it’s what makes a fair trade.”
Maggie’s frustration was almost as high as her anxiety. The curiosity was there, she could see it in the pirate’s eyes. He fancied himself a good riddle, to have knowledge that someone else didn’t have, to know just a pinch more than the person next to him. To Maggie, it was as clear as day, but she was running out of ways to use it. The pirate only needed to catch the bait.
The pirate paused in his path and raised the sword higher. “I don’t believe it,” he murmured. “Youtrulydon’t know who I am?”
Maggie raised a brow. “Why is that so hard to believe?”
“There isn’t a soul in Neverland who doesn’t know me!”
He sure is an arrogant one.
“I bet that deal is sounding a bit better now, isn’t it?” she mused.
The pirate’s mask was cracking. He couldn’t help himself. “Fine,” he snapped, as though it had been his plan all along. “You have a deal, my lady.”
He resumed his path, following in a circle around the room. Maggie continued on ahead of him, never once moving her eyes away from him. The pirate seemed to have a knack for theatrics, and the last thing Maggie needed to do was be caught unprepared. Besides, there was a way out somewhere, just waiting for her.
“I hope you are excited, my lady,” he teased.
Maggie scoffed. “Whatever for?”
“You don’t know it yet,” he said, “but you’re sparring with the most feared pirate in Neverland’s history. I captain the most powerful, the most feared, the mostrelishedcrew.”
“Captain?”
The pirate’s smirk grew as he dipped into a deep bow. “Captain Hook, my lady.” He slowly rose, eyes suck on her. “At your service.”
Maggie’s attention was pulled back to him. A silence so deep swallowed the room whole. Fear behind a word, behind a name, was something Maggie had never experienced before. That is, until that very moment. A chill raced down her back as it settled, the realization that the danger was far more imminent than it had once seemed.
As Captain Hook straightened, Maggie’s eyes snapped to something in one of the corners she was approaching. An oil lantern sat on a squat table against the back corner of the study, beside the front doors, burning with a flickering light.
“So,” Hook said.
Maggie’s brow furrowed, the sword trembling. “So?”
“Your end of the deal, my lady.” Hook started to move again, inching nearer. “Now you know my name, but I would prefer to know yours.” He jabbed with the blade, pulling a flinch out of her. “And just what you might be doing on my ship!”
“P-Perhaps you were right,” Maggie blurted. “And the deal wasn’t fair at all.”
He shook his head and waggled the sword playfully. “Not so fast, fair maiden. Maybe I was patient with you before, but I am quickly losing interest in it.” Hook sneered and stepped closer, no longer circling like a preying vulture. “Pray you tell me before it all goes out the window.”
Maggie’s breathing was ragged and uncertain. The lie rested on her tongue but she could hardly get it out. It wasn’t like there was a reasonnotto do it, the man was a terrible pirate, after all. But suddenly, Maggie felt like she had been wearing a mask all along, one that was quickly beginning to crumble with every passing second. The power she once carried, the determination to seek out adventure, to save the townspeople, all of it was fading. Eventually, she’d simply only be the girl who didn’t belong there, the girl who never should have come in the first place.
The hesitation went on for far too long. Maggie opened her mouth to speak, finally meeting the captain’s eye.
“You…” he said with widening eyes. “You’reher,aren’t you?”
Maggie only needed a few more steps, and she’d be close enough to snatch up the oil lantern. That could be her ticketout of there. “I-I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she murmured, still inching away.
Hook advanced quicker than she thought he would. Within an instant he was in the middle of the room, in front of the wooden desk. The tip of his blade pointed threateningly close to Maggie’s torso. “You’re the baker,” he murmured.
Maggie froze. “I –”
“Every man on my crew complains about how rubbish our food is,” Hook said, “while the rest of the island have the best food they’ve ever had.”
Flattery touched her for a fleeting moment. Though he was Neverland’s greatest adversary, there was something about being so well known that Maggie was recognized aboard a notorious pirate ship. She almost couldn’t believe it.
