Her gaze dropped, and she landed on the flap of my satchel. “I vaguely remember.”
“Home, right?”
She straightened, holding herself in a hug. Her huge eyes met mine, and she swallowed, nodding.
“No way.” Whisper threw her hair back and blew out a breath. “All this time, the Fountain has been in your home?”
“Hidden under it.” I snatched my bag strap, and Tinkerbell moved out of the way so I could pull it around my shoulders. My eyes caught on the feathers marking my arm, and I clenched my jaw. Exhaustion punctuated my movements, but I would have to accept the fact I hadn’t had much sleep. “Right under my nose, just like the temple spirit said.”
“Forgotten in time by the only one who had ever been allowed to find it.” Tinkerbell exhaled, looking at Peter. “It was ages ago, back when Skyla had first appeared in this world as a refuge for those fleeing Neverland’s tyrants.”
“How do the other Lost Boys share his eternity if only he found it so long ago?”
Sadness made Tinkerbell settle back into the dip of Peter’s hat, her legs pulled tight against her chest. “After the first war with Hook, Peter took a blood oath, promising to protect the Lost Boys who survived; unknowingly, he bound them to the power running through his veins.”
Peter scratched his head, peering at us all like we were talking in another language. At least, he understood both of us, though. Whisper tugged on my sleeve, a brow quirked in question.
“They shared blood,” I said.
“Oath blood,” Peter added, and something lit in his eyes, but it was gone in the next second. He pumped his chest. “None of whatever you’re talking about matters. If pirates are on their way, we need to secure Skyla. And that means getting you home.”
I frowned. “How did you even know I was here?”
His expression didn’t change as he tried to push me toward the door. “Doesn’t matter.”
“You don’t remember, do you?” Whisper accused.
Peter glared at her, but that was exactly it.
I looked directly at Tinkerbell, even though she had sunk deep into the groove of Peter’s hat, hiding everything but her leaf-clad feet from view. “Someone told us. The other boy who also glitters with pixie dust.”
Bay .
He had followed us? He was here?
My heart wouldn’t settle from the moment it knew Bay had followed us back to Skyla. I floated in a daze toward home, ignoring all Peter’s complaints about “strangers discovering the base” even as he led us there. Whisper ignored him too, guiding me along behind her like a balloon. Periodically, she shot me a worried glance, but I tried to smile and reassure her when I noticed.
He was here, in the shadows. He knew where our home was. Had telling Peter where I was been to distract him? Had Bay figured out where the Fountain was, even though I’d never said anything specific about its location?
Worry ate away at my gut, and I tried to temper it. Bay was still Bay. Even if what he’d done concerning Tiger Lily was unforgivable, he wasn’t the kind of person who would…go behind our backs and burn down an entire civilization of people, right? I had seen in his second temple test that he had boundaries.
I squeezed Whisper’s hand and hoped. He had proven himself to be like his father in too many ways. My heart still wanted to believe in him, but I couldn’t afford misplaced trust in these dire moments before what could be the devastation of the entire world.
Peter grumbled the entire way down the tunnel into the base, swiping the furs aside. Whisper followed. I followed behind her, spotting the Lost Boys at the table, their hands filled with food. They peered at one another, then back at Whisper, but no recognition touched their gazes.
“Ah…” Slightly began, “Who’re these girls, Peter?”
A part of me chipped away. Peter had remembered, but they hadn’t? I looked between the Twins, but they shifted their gaze to one another, exchanging shrugs. Tootles’ brows were lowered with concentration, but nothing sparked, and for some reason, that made him deflate in sorrow. One by one, each turned away to wait for Peter’s answer.
“What do you mean? It’s Lyric,” Peter snapped, finding his chair and plopping into it.
“Lyric?” Nibs scrubbed the edge of an empty bowl against his head. “Is that a new friend of yours?”
Peter sighed, waving a hand at them, and a sliver of brokenness splintered over his face. He wiped it away when he looked at Whisper and I. “Your room is untouched, and there should be enough food in the stores.”
Swallowing the lump burning in my throat, I nodded and crossed to the door.
“Her room?” Chubs and some others chorused behind me.
“I always wondered why we had that.”
Someone said with a scrunched nose, “So girly.”
My stomach tightened, but I pushed into my space and let the familiar glowing mirabel, bed, and random bits and bobs calm me. They did a poor job.
“It’s just like I would have imagined!” Whisper laughed, though the sound was strained. She lifted a hand-made arrow off a dresser and twirled the shaft between her fingers. “I can’t believe it took this long for me to finally see your home.”
I couldn’t believe it took me this long to really see how fractured my family was. What did the world look like through their eyes, when everything was new and remade and the games they played again and again were always the same but never recalled? I didn’t know how often the Fountain’s magic reset them, but it was clear only Peter knew how to tamper with it.
And he fought. He fought to keep me.
A sob swallowed me up, and I gasped, leaning against the dirt wall and covering my face with my hands.
Whisper set the arrow down and was at my side in an instant. “Hey,” she said softly, “it’s okay. Let it out.”
Tears poured down my cheeks, and strangled breaths left my chest. I hadn’t cried like this since that night I thought I’d lost her. Now, she held me, letting me muffle my pain against Adam’s shirt, the one he gave her after she showered with his soap; she smelled like a stranger, and that made my sobs worse.
I stayed in her arms for several long minutes. Eventually, the tears dried, but the ache in my chest remained. “Let’s find that accursed Fountain and get rid of it,” I whispered. I took a few spare moments to change out of the clothes I had borrowed from a native camp in Neverland. Promising to avenge them once and for all, I pulled on my own familiar shirt and pants.
