The Aeternalis lets out a delighted guffaw, his exuberant clap scattering the few remaining will-o-wisps into the safety of the leaves. “Youarefull of surprises, cousin! Wherever did you find such a long-lost toy?”
The green of his eyes sparks with madness as they rove over Wendy, his expression a terrifying picture of contradictions: his features ancient and experienced, while his eyes sour with the possession of a jilted child.
He steps forward to slide a hand over Wendy’s cheek, wetting his fingertips with her tears. He brings them to his mouth and sucks, his eyes rolling in pleasure. “I’d nearly forgotten,” Pan says, more to himself than to either of us, “howdeliciousyour fear tastes.”
More tears spill down Wendy’s cheeks in response, the rapid blink of her eyes and the terrified wobble of her lower lip the only movement Pan’s magic allows her.
“Do you have any idea how long I searched for you?” he breathes. “The worlds I scoured…the lives I ended.” He grips her chin, wrenching her terrified gaze to his. “You know better than anyone, Wendy Darling…no one leaves the Strayed.”
He squeezes a pained whimper from her, as he hisses, “No one leavesme.”
I dip into my magic with harried fingers, sloppily painting a picture of Wendy’s freedom. Pan seems to have forgotten all about me as he leans in to lap at Wendy’s tears with his tongue.
Hot rage threads through me, because the Aeternalis may be thousands of years old—a creator of myth and legend—but he is the same at his core as so many men.
The ones who leave a trail of destruction behind them everywhere they go; the ones who believe everything was created with the sole purpose of their pleasure—that the world is theirs to destroy at will, and people are theirs to freely ruin.
My shadow claws at my shoulder, its hunger ballooning in my stomach as I send my magic careening outside of me.
It simmers in the air, not gold like the Aeternalis’, but the silver light of a star. It circles around Wendy, before winking out. Dissipates into nothingness.
Pan tears his gaze away from Wendy to set it on me, that same rotted mask flickering in and out in time with his deranged laughter. “You thinkshedeserves your loyalty, Willa?”
I plant my feet, hatred pulsing through me. “You were the one to tell me that family means everything, weren’t you? She’s just as much my family as you are.”
Pan stares at me, his expression unreadable. Then, with a blink, his magic loosens. Wendy tumbles to his feet with a sharp whimper, tendrils of her hair tangling between her fingers as she tries to claw to safety.
The Aeternalis spits at her. “She is no longer kin. She chose to believe that death was more powerful than the life I give, but she was mistaken. I am the Creator, and any who choose to leave me forfeit the protection of my power and embrace the blade of my wrath.”
Wendy lunges to her feet. Fresh tears pouring down her cheeks, hands trembling on the grip, she levels a small automaticpistol at the Aeternalis’ head. “I know your secret, Peter.” Her voice shakes. “I didn’t choose death. I choseyou.”
His lips peel back from his teeth, the magic threading through him pulsing ominously.
“Wendy,” hetskswith false pity. “The self-proclaimed king of death had no power over me. It is pathetic to think you’ll be different.”
Wendy doesn’t reply. She pulls the trigger.
Her aim is true, and the world seems to slow around us as the bullet explodes through the Aeternalis’ forehead. I watch the grotesque gape of his mouth, the subtle widening of his eyes. I watch the blood spray, the pieces of skull and brain matter spatter on the tree trunk behind him.
It feels like the universe holds its breath as Pan stumbles backward. One step, then another—and the Everlasting falls to the ground.
Seconds pass in silence. Wendy and I both stare at his motionless form, watching frozen as blood stains the moss beneath his head a deep crimson. The forest comes to life around us, a sudden cacophony of sound that buzzes against my skin and wakes me from my shock. A beast roars in the distance, and I move forward to grab Wendy by the forearm and pull her away from Pan’s body. Though there are no children here to drain, I won’t trust his death until he’s sliced into pieces and dumped into the sea.
Wendy’s skin is ice cold beneath mine, the color leeched by shock and trauma.
“That was a good shot,” I tell her gently, unaccustomed as I am to being a comfort. A compliment is the best I can manage through my own shock, even if it’s a dark one.
She hardly seems to hear me. “I—I loved him.” Her words are a broken whisper, and she slips from my grasp, falling to her knees beside Pan’s body. “I truly did. I loved him.”
More tears gather at her lashes, but these ones don’t fall as she repeats the same words, over and over, in a hushed chant:I loved him, I loved him, I loved him.
I stare at her, unsure what to make of her anguish. Is she horrified by her love of a monster?
For a moment, I consider leaving her to it as whatever she’s feeling is certainly none of my business. But something keeps me rooted in place, shifting my weight awkwardly from hip to hip behind her.
When she finally turns her attention from the Aeternalis, the anguish in her eyes is enough to make my heart stutter. “He hurt me…so badly, Willa…and after all of it—I…I loved him truly.”
She shakes her head. “In gaining power over him…I—” She swallows hard. “I gave him power over myself.”
