I stared at him, my eyes wide, my heart still, dread filling every inch of my body. Mouth dry, my mind grasped for what exactly he was telling me. He had lied to us. And if she wasn’t safe… “Then Hook still has her and could be in Skyla right now, with enchantress magic and a hostage.” I choked, tearing my hand out of his and floating back. I covered my mouth, trying to control my suddenly panicked breaths. “Why are you only telling me this now?”
“Skye told me what the sirens said. We didn’t have time to make sure she was okay. I trust they wouldn’t have said what they did unless she would be safe, but we couldn’t take any chances.” He held his hands out, pleading, but I could hardly look at him.
I shook my head in disbelief. “How could you?”
His jaw tightened. “We couldn’t risk failing. The sirens said—clearly, which is rare—if we didn’t go directly to the Nixie Cove, we wouldn’t succeed.”
Anger exploded in my skull, hot and red. I glanced at Whisper, who danced onward with Skye, likely believing we were back here having a “moment” that she shouldn’t disturb. Even when she didn’t trust him, she wouldn’t interrupt if it made me happy. Airwoman . How could I have been so stupid? Hook could already be in Skyla; he could have already confronted Peter, failed to get what he wanted, and killed her. Leaning forward, I hissed, “You better hope Tiger Lily is at their camp, Bay. In fact, you better pray.”
With that, I flew to my friend, ignored my cracking heart, and left him behind.
The silence did not bode well. With darkness rising over the meager, deserted camp, everything appeared eerie and forsaken. I held my breath, praying to the airwoman, to whatever deity had birthed me, that Tiger Lily would appear.
An untouched fire pit rested beside a simple lean-to, any past ashes already stolen by the wind. Tucked in a corner of the forest with high brush, footsteps would hardly be noticeable, but something would have been disturbed had anyone been here in the past few days.
“Maybe they found her again?” Bay’s voice had the decency to be choked.
Whisper stood beside me, staring blankly at the tiny camp. “She should be here. She said if we got separated, we’d meet back here…”
“Whisper…” I reached for her.
She shook my hand off her shoulder. “No! I trusted your trust in him, but my mother isn’t here! We shouldn’t have left the bay without her!”
“No, we shouldn’t have.” I faced Bay, bitterness on my tongue.
He started, “The sirens said—”
“I don’t care!” A torrent of wind ripped through the space, and the lean-to collapsed. “Why didn’t you tell us the truth sooner than now? If we had known, we could have left for Skyla yesterday! Every day we wait, we don’t know what’s happening over there; we don’t know if—”
“Hook could have released her.” He swept back his hair and had the gall to defend himself. “I just wasn’t sure.”
A sour laugh sputtered out of my mouth. “Really? You weren’t sure ? You know your father, Bay. The man had you tortured and thrown in a cell for lying to him, and that’s just his most recent crime.”
He winced, distress in his eyes. “I didn’t know. I only did what I thought was best for us.”
My chest hurt. Something stung in my heart. The scene before me twisted, and I was Wendy, staring at Hook. He smelled mostly of ash, but beneath that was a far worse scent: the tang of blood. “You did what was best for yourself,” I whispered. “If you had done what was best for us, once we were safe, days ago, you wouldn’t have hidden the truth. You knew lying to us was wrong.”
“I knew you’d want to go back.” He swiped his hair away from his eyes again. “We couldn’t afford to go back. We couldn’t afford to be captured. The second my father came back, he would have killed you, Wind Song! You’re most useful to them dead. I did what was best to save you.”
Because he didn’t believe I could save myself ? My heart cracked; I swallowed the bitterness and didn’t let any welling tears fall. “I thought you were better than him.” The image of him sacrificing himself in the temple came to mind, but beside it, the thought of Tiger Lily already out of reach burned. So what if he was willing to sacrifice himself for his goals? It was clear he was also willing to sacrifice others. “You’re exactly like your father. If you had just…” Told me the truth, ages ago, all of it. But again and again, he hadn’t . I was foolish. Belief and trust and faith and dust could be magic, but it didn’t just magically change people. Each person had to choose to do that themselves.
I turned my back on him. “Come on, Whisper. Let’s go home. We’ll find Tiger Lily, I promise.”
The wounded look in her eyes didn’t hurt half as much as the doubt. She had only just begun to believe in me, and now, thanks to Bay, all I could see on her face was pain and question.
Taking a shaky breath, I lifted my pinky. “I promise.”
She glanced at Bay then at my hand. Biting her lip, she nodded, linking her finger with mine.
I clung to the action whether she felt it in her heart or not. Without looking back, I asked, “Skye, did you know the truth?”
A moment passed, and I already knew the answer. Of course . He knew Hook as well as his son, they shared everything, and the damn creature was exactly as he’d said: loyal. “I’m sorry,” he replied, voice meek.
“I guess this is where we part ways.” I blinked, and tears traced down my cheeks, but I refused to acknowledge the dampness.
Whisper’s lips parted. “How will I…” She stopped, realizing. Already, even with dust, how could she possibly trust it enough to get home?
“Wind Song, please,” Bay started, touching me.
A rush of air slammed into his chest, throwing him back. He crashed into a tree and winced, sliding down the bark to land on his ass in the foliage, but I had seen the moment his feet left the ground. If I could do that, I could get Whisper safely home.
“Good eve, Star Boy,” I murmured. Supporting Whisper around the waist, I exhaled, peering through the canopy at the sky. Star-speckled as it was, I pinpointed home. My feet left the ground right as Bay gathered his bearings.
“Please!” He shouted over the wind building around us. “I went about it wrong, but I didn’t mean— If I had known—”
Whatever else he said was lost in the gusts.
Exhaustion ached in my limbs by the time I landed with Whisper in Skyla. She released a held breath, but that was all. We both looked around. No signs of a war had touched Aire. Everything, for the most part, was quiet. Normal.
“They haven’t come yet?” I took a step, but my head spun.
“Lyly!” Whisper caught me before my face landed in the dirt. “Are you okay?”
“I’m not used to my power, I guess.” Or my trust had shaken. I had been so wrong. How was I supposed to keep things from falling apart when they already had? “Flying is one thing, but flying and using the wind to carry someone…” I tried to shake off the nausea, but it didn’t want to go anywhere.
Whisper scanned the empty market streets. Each stall had a brightly colored cloth hanging over the entry. Any scents of baked goods or warm food had long since dispersed, and now only dust swirled down the paths. “Since it doesn’t seem like the pirates are here yet, let’s get back to my house so you can rest for a bit.”
I leaned on her, taking slow breaths and not bothering to soften my words. “Your house isn’t here anymore.” Neither of us had a home to go back to right now.
