Wendy swallows, her throat bobbing against the tip of the knife. “Others tried throughout the centuries, Nik,” she reminds me gently. “Have you never considered why you were the only one who succeeded?”
I stare at her, a sudden dark thought filtering through my mind.
“You’re a Darling.” It isn’t a question so much as a snarled demand, and Wendy stiffens against it. I cock my head, running my gaze from her head to her toes as the past and the present realign themselves in a new light. “What a delightful littleliaryou are, Wen.”
She lets out a shaky breath, but her gaze sparks with defiance.
I let out a dangerous laugh. “All these years, I thought you were such a self-sacrificing little hero. That you were toogoodfor the likes of death. But really, you were just biding your time, weren’t you?”
Wendy’s lashes flutter, a flash of fear lighting her eyes, one I know all too well: the fear of being seen as you truly are.
“You were falling in love with the Aeternalis, so that you would hold his life in your hands. So that you would control the power of Somnya.”
Her silence is answer enough. I step back from her with a curse, shaking my head in disgust and raking my fingers through my hair in a futile attempt to ground myself. Though Wendy and I never moved beyond friendship, she’d been well aware of my feelings for her and done everything in her power to nurture and encourage them.After we save the world from him, Nik. Then we’ll be free to be together.
Newfound rage spikes through my chest as another grim thought ensnares me. “That’swhy you’re afraid of me.” I shake my head. “That’sthe reason you were so terrified the night I forced you through the wards. You knew I loved you…and you knew the power that held.”
Wendy watches me sullenly, her jaw tightening. “You were always so kind to me. It was just smart planning. If I had someone who loved me most, someone who would never hurt me…the Aeternalis would never be able to hold power over me. Not even when I stole his island out from under him.”
Her words are sterile, nearly emotionless, and I laugh again, the sharp sound edged in madness.
“You thought I was safe?” I repeat in faint disbelief.
Wendy grimaces. “I was clearly mistaken.”
“I’d say,” I reply sardonically. I run my hand roughly over my mouth, another stroke of heady realization spiking through me, this one far more unwelcome. “That’s the reason you hid yourself in this world, isn’t it? You were never afraid of Pan finding you. You were afraid ofme…because you believe I still love you ardently enough to be your weakness.”
Wendy opens her mouth to answer, but before she can say a word, I charge toward her and slice my blade across the milky white skin of her throat. Her lips bob open soundlessly, her eyes flaring wide in terror and betrayal. Like after all this time—after every horrible thing I’ve done—she hadn’t truly believed I would hurt her.
I trace the jagged wound with a clinical gaze, watching her blood soak the white sofa. It pours over her collarbones and pools in her lap. It spreads through the fabric of her shirt, and drips onto her tan sneakers. So much. Sored.
With a snarl of annoyance, I turn and pour myself another measure of whiskey. I drink down both the alcohol and the gurgled sounds of Wendy’s struggle. A vicious part of me oncecraved her pain, like her agony would relieve some of my own—but that was before, when I thought I knew what it meant to regret.
I’d had no idea.
I take another sip of liquor, the burn in my throat paling to the one in my veins.
A few moments later, Wendy spits from behind me, “What thefuck,Niko?!”
I spin to face her with an arrogant grin, enjoying the bedraggled state of her far too much. Blood soaks her clothes and the sofa, pooling in a congealed mess on the floor. Her blonde hair hangs in matted ropes at her shoulders, her cheeks sticky with tears.
But her throat is as whole as ever. Interesting.
“What is wrong with you?!” she seethes, her hand gripped around her neck like she’s prepared to hold it together if it bursts back open. Her lower lip trembles. “Why—why would you do that?”
“I didn’t appreciate your implication,” I answer with a casual shrug. Draining the dregs of my drink, I set it down on an end table with aclink,before turning to her with a sneer. “Now there can be no mistake, Wendy, despite the romantic delusions you’ve apparently amused yourself with for the past two centuries.”
I lean over her menacingly, my face a mask of pure death. “I do not love you.”
She trembles, a single tear rolling slowly down her cheek.
“I am not a man of forgiveness, nor one of benevolence. Whatever affection I had evaporated the moment you begged me to let you stay withhim.And though my apathy apparently means I cannot kill you, I promise…my creativity for your agony will beendlessuntil you open the wards to my kingdom.” Ismile cruelly. “And as you’ve well learned…I do not break my promises.”
“We can’t go back there!” Wendy’s cry is desperate, another large tear spilling down her cheek. “If the Everlasting lives, it’s already too late. Heknows…he’s always known the Darling weakness. It is why he ruled the way he did…whipping from hatred to love, from violence to care. Peter knows if he falls in love with Willa, he’ll be able to kill her and take back his island.”
If I still possessed my death, it would have exploded from me at her words, shattering every trinket in this starforsaken room. As it is, the only death I possess is contained within my heart, but it is enough to leave me momentarily breathless at the cold fury that pumps through my veins.
When I reply, my voice is lethal. “The Aeternalis could try for a thousand years, Wendy…He will never come close to loving Willa as I do. No one will.”
