“What happened?” She asked, quick and urgent. Lily panned her gaze, searching in earnest for the others. “Where are—”
The gaggle of boys heaved fallen branches into a pile taller than themselves. A quick count of the figures trudging across the sand had some of the tightness slipping from her shoulders.
Worrying about some human kids… Elders, what was happening to her?
“They burned the Kraken.” Peter’s lips twisted into a sneer as he knelt before Lily. “Stuck us in a rowboat and just left us.”
“Who?” But she knew. The bits and pieces of memories that came rushing back rewove themselves into a complete vision: Tink and her lover.
“Captain Hook,” Peter spat at the exact moment the pirate’s name echoed in Lily’s head. Peter flopped onto the ground in front of Lily, legs crisscrossed and hands planted on his thighs. “I kinda…” His face fell. “I kinda thought he was cool, you know? His courage. That hook.”
Child-like admiration glimmered in his eyes, though she could sense the words were more for himself than her, like he needed someone to speak to about it and thought the other kids wouldn’t understand. Maybe they wouldn’t. And, if she were honest—which she was, sometimes—she understood that feeling. She’d looked at Tink the same way when they were young. Skilled. Admired. Loved. Everything Lily wanted to be. Bitterness coalesced on her tongue. And look how that turned out.
“We’re well rid of him,” she snapped. “Pirate bastard.”
Peter straightened, the curiosity vanishing into a hard press of his lips. “You’re right. He burnt our ship! Blackbeard said it could be mine one day. Maybe. If I behaved.” He sighed, his gaze wistful again. “At least the boys thought to bring our packs. Curly put some stuff on your wings to help.”
She glanced over her shoulder. Now that he mentioned it, there was some kind of goop smeared on part of her wings. How much worse would they be without it? “Thank you.”
Peter gave a jerking nod.
Lily hugged her arms around herself. Injured. No ship. Stranded with kids… Her lingering pain was suddenly nothing compared to this mess. “The captain?” she asked.
He was nowhere to be seen, nor any of the crew.
“Dunno.” Peter shook his head. “Haven’t seen any of ‘em. That other pixie knocked me out.”
Tink… Lily’s teeth ground together. What did you do?
“Didn’t wake up till morning,” Peter continued, “but the boys said the ship went down.”
Morning? Lily glanced at the position of the sun. It was well past that now. How long had she been out? “Ugh.” Her head dropped into her hands. What a terrible mess.
“Don’t worry. I’ll make sure Captain Hook pays for this.” Peter rose to his feet, the portrait of arrogant pre-teen confidence.
Lily rolled her eyes. “And how exactly do you plan to do that?” she asked, sarcasm dripping from every word. No ship, no crew—a small sigh slipped out at the loss of the few passable ones who’d been pleasing bed companions—no gold, no plan, and stuck... “Where are we even?”
He shrugged. “An island somewhere.”
Elders take me. Lily groaned.
Peter held out a hand to help her up, oblivious to her frustration. At least the kid respected his elders. Lily grimaced at the thought. Elder? No way, I’m too young and pretty for that. Slightly more mature companion? She nodded to herself as she took Peter’s hand and let him help her up. That she could live with. It was a good thing he had a hold of her, too, because just standing made her head spin and all the aches on her body cry out.
“The boys are almost done, then we’re going to light it up,” Peter said, beaming with pride. “A ship will see it and come.”
Lily slipped her hand from his. “And what if it’s Captain Hook?” And Tink. She swallowed the sudden tightness in her throat. Her cousin was okay. Somehow, she was sure of that. Facing her again, though? She wasn’t ready for that. She might not be for a long time. At least, not when she was stuck in such a pitiful situation as this. Maybe once she had a fortune from the sale of her dust. A nice home. A handsome lover of her own…
“I-it won’t be,” Peter stammered, the slightest waver to his voice. “Not yet. But we’ll be ready when we meet him again.” He crossed his arms and beamed toward his boys. “Probably some merchants. They won’t want to leave a bunch of kids and their mother alone out here.”
Mother? Her brows scrunched. But they didn’t— She jumped back, her wings fluttering painfully. “Me? You can’t be serious!”
Peter just blinked at her. “It’s perfect. You just hide those wings—”
“You cannot ask a pixie to hide her wings!”
He shrugged. “More believable that way. You wanna explain why a pixie is out here with us?”
The hard look he gave her had her teeth grinding together. But damn him if he wasn’t right. In her condition, she couldn’t just fly away or fight off the humans if they weren’t friendly to pixies.
