I wordlessly nodded and hoped that it, plus a night of rest, would prepare me for tomorrow. Whatever Bay had done, Wendy didn’t deserve her fate. I still had the vial that held the precise amount to heal her, and I still needed to find the Fountain so I could destroy it. If possible, before Hook had any chance of finding it as well.
28th November
“L yric!”
I gasped awake, staring blearily up at a face too close to mine to make out. I slashed my arm out, grabbing the air around me like a cloak and throwing it over the person. They moved effortlessly out of the way, but something broke across the room.
Scrambling for purchase, I blinked against the darkness, glanced at the chair where Adam had been when I drifted off, then swallowed when I found him missing.
The shadowy form hovering in the room was too small to be Bay.
“Shout in her face again. That worked so well the first time,” a high-pitched voice I didn’t recognize snipped. A pixie zipped to me, tilting her head. “It’s just us,” she said gently.
“Tinkerbell?” I blurted, squinting at the boy behind her. Peter . Was I dreaming?
Tinkerbell buzzed right back to him and sat on the rim of his hat. “I think she’s okay.”
“Where have you been?” Peter demanded, throwing his arms out. “Do you know how hectic it has been around here since you left?”
I stared at him, mute. It made no sense for him to be here. How would he have known I was here?
“Well?” he prompted, his voice pitching higher.
“Neverland,” I replied in disbelief. If this were real, Adam would be seated in his chair like he was when I’d fallen asleep, and Whisper would have heard us by now.
Almost on cue, the door to the back room creaked, and light flooded the space. I squinted through it as Peter whirled on Adam and Whisper.
Adam stood protectively before her, holding an oil lamp, but there was a significant amount of murder in her tired gaze as well. At least, until she saw Peter.
“What are you doing here?” Her eyes went wide.
Peter folded his arms. “Doesn’t matter. What are you doing here?” He dismissed them both and directed that question at me, frowning. “There are pirates everywhere , and I haven’t been able to find you for weeks. Why didn’t you come home?”
I swallowed, my heart rate picking up. “I,” I began, my eyes filling with tears, “I didn’t think you’d remember me.”
His arms loosened, and his shoulders drooped for half a second. Hurt flickered through his gaze, but he shook it off. “Stupid.”
“It’s a valid point,” Tinkerbell chimed mercilessly, kicking her legs through his hair.
Peter ignored her. “Well, I do remember you, so come home. We’re on the edge of a war, and it’s not just here either. This whole world is falling apart.”
“I know that. I’m supposed to fix it.” Though how exactly was another topic.
“Fix it?” He blinked at me, incredulous. “I don’t think so. You’re going to stay safe and let me handle this. It isn’t the first time I’ve had to deal with pirates.”
After everything, he thought I was just going to sit by and let him fight this battle alone? I rose off the couch, folding my arms as I faced him in the air. “It isn’t exactly my first time dealing with them now, either.”
“Lyric,” he warned.
“No. I don’t want to hear it. You’ve kept me on these islands for my entire life. And, sure, maybe when I left, I wasn’t in the best mindset, but even then, I survived. And not only did I survive, I survived a place that’s more dangerous than anywhere I’ve ever heard of. I came out of it all stronger.” My fists clenched. “Skyla is my home. I’m going to stand beside you and defend it.”
“This isn’t an adventure!” he yelled. “This is war! And I’m—” His voice cracked. “I’m not going to lose you to it.”
“For the love of the stars,” Tinkerbell sighed dramatically, “Peter, she’s two feet off the ground without pixie dust. I think she’s learned a lot on her adventure. We’ve always known this day was coming. Or at least I have. Did you forget?”
He glared upwards, but didn’t reply to her.
“What does she mean you’ve always known this day was coming?”
The annoyance on their faces disappeared. Peter’s arms dropped by his sides, and his eyes went huge.
Whisper coughed, sidling up to me and wrapping her arms around my shoulders. “Yeah, she also understands pixies now. So maybe it’s time to stop treating her like a child?”
Tinkerbell’s breath seemed to hold, then she murmured, “So you really have been to Neverland, and it decided to grant you our tongue.”
“I have. And we know that Hook is coming to try and take Skyla. And we know that he’s not alone; he has magic, an enchantress backing him up.”
Whisper nodded. “And also, he has my mother hostage.”
Peter’s concern was blank, but Tinkerbell’s eyes shone with something deeper, and she whispered, “Hook is back, and he has Tiger Lily?”
Sunlight gleamed through the window, catching on Adam standing patiently in the hall. Dawn meant we hopefully had another day before Hook could reach us. I landed with my feet on the floor and found my bag where I’d discarded it beside the couch the night before. It had definitely seen better days, but it would still carry food for the trip to the Fountain. Other than that, my spyglass and pan flute were all that had survived Neverland. I hesitated before picking it up. “We have to find and destroy the Fountain of Youth before Hook even has a chance to reach it. He wants to use the magic for himself and in whatever plot the enchantress has set him on.”
Tinkerbell flitted off Peter’s hat and waved her hands before my bag, blocking me from grabbing it. “You know about the Fountain?”
“Yes. Do you know where it is?”
