“Um. Your friend.” He rolled his eyes. “Or have we forgotten what we were talking about.”
“Sometimes, you’re unbearable.” I huffed.
He gave me a tight smile, flitted back over to Whisper, and replenished her dust before I could get another word in.
But he definitely was a loyal little asshole.
Shaking my head, I smiled. Bay’s fingers brushed mine again, then slipped around them. I looked at our joined hands before meeting his gaze quizzically.
He shrugged. “The pixie has spoken. You’re my girlfriend now.”
“Is that how relationships work?” I couldn’t hold back my smile or blush.
His brows shot high, and a flush coated his cheeks as he glanced away. “Don’t look at me. I wouldn’t know either. Remember, you’re the first girl I ever went to a party with. The closest thing I’ve had to a girlfriend before that was a girl who was a friend, and also that one’s mother, so…” He pointed at Whisper, who had stopped up ahead and was hyper-focused on our joined hands. A wide smile consumed her face.
“Oh, great. She’s noticed.” I bit back my smile. “Play it cool.”
“Have I missed something, Lyly?” she asked when we reached her.
“Of course, you have,” Skye snipped, throwing up his hands and collapsing on Bay’s head. “You’ve been high on pixie dust ever since you left that damn temple. It’s a wonder you aren’t hallucinating!”
“Translation?” Whisper’s brow quirked.
Bay and I looked at each other, then he said, “He’s kind of worn out and would appreciate you using your dust sparingly.”
The innocent darling breathed curses into Bay’s hair.
Whisper wasn’t having the diversion. She waggled a finger between us. “What happened here.”
“He kissed me,” I answered.
Bay countered, “And then she kissed me.”
“And we got a pixie’s blessing.”
“So here we are.”
Whisper pressed her fingers against her lips, squealed, then jumped us both with a hug. “It happened! I thought it would happen, but now that it’s happened, it’s so much more than I’d hoped! The children of sworn enemies… A demigod and a pirate. Star-crossed love.”
“Fitting, isn’t it, Star Boy?” I smiled, but Bay’s grin had fallen into something softer.
“I’m not really a pirate. More of an explorer or adventure seeker.”
Or a Lost Boy. In that moment, something in his eyes reminded me of the Lost Boys. I had once asked Peter where they had come from. He said he didn’t quite remember. All he knew was that, at one point or another, they had gotten lost and decided it was better to be lost together.
My hand squeezed his. “Bay was raised beside your mother for a time, Whisper.”
She turned, looking at the sky. The sun reclined on the horizon, not quite painting it in shades of dusk. “Speaking of my mother, we should almost be at our camp.”
Nixies around the meadow. “Maybe thirty minutes more?”
Bay tensed. “Should we stop for dinner first?”
“We can have dinner together. We’ll probably need it before we head back to Skyla. We shouldn’t waste time.” Whisper held her arms out, balancing as she walked across a branch. “I’m kind of worried about what they did to her. When you saw her, did she look okay?” Worry pitched in her tone, though she tried to hide it well.
He was crushing my fingers now, but his expression remained calm and distant. “I said before, they have a certain respect for each other. I don’t think Hook would hurt my childhood friend.”
“It didn’t stop him from killing all her people.” Whisper moved on before we had a chance to say anything in response. What could we say anyway? She was right.
It was easy to see what she had told herself in the temple clung. Hopefully, that would pass when we were all safe again.
I started to follow her, but Bay held me back. “Wind Song,” he whispered, his voice raw.
“What is it?”
Skye jolted up suddenly, spun to face Whisper, and groaned. Darting, he showered her in a fresh coat of dust, leaving us alone.
My chest tightened, making it hard to breathe. “What’s wrong?”
“I don’t actually know, for sure, whether or not Hook released Tiger Lily.”
Ice washed over my skin. “What?”
“I never saw her,” he confessed.
A sinking sensation overcame me, sending my heart to my toes. I could only repeat stupidly, “What?”
“If she isn’t where Whisper thinks she would be, then—”
