Pan's Revenge (16 page)

I shriek and
he winces, but it doesn’t make him fly slower.

Fly.

Dear Lord.

I’m going insane.

When the city
lights of London zoom past beneath us, he finally starts to speak.
“You have this book in your room.
Peter Pan.
I borrowed it a while
ago and read it.”

Okay?

“I don’t know what the story about Wendy has
to do with my life, but I do remember this guy called Tootles. A
long time ago he’s been to Neverland.” Tilting his head, Peter
glares at me. “Like you.”

I’m cold up here. In a dream you normally
don’t feel cold, do you?

“Somehow he returned to your world and
obviously he wrote this story about what he saw in Neverland. To
you it’s just a fairy tale. To me…it’s reality.”

I swallow
hard, because now even I can’t deny that there’s something very
fictional about the man who flies with me over London. “Are you
saying that you’re Peter Pan? The
real
Peter Pan?”

A muscle
beats in his jaw. “The
only
Peter Pan.”

What am I to make of all this? Everything
that’s happened tonight shouldn’t be happening at all. But
obviously it has. My head spins. “Please take me back home,” I
whisper.

Peter looks me sternly in the eye. “You
believe me now?”

One deep breath. Two. Three. I nod.

“
Good,
because there’s a lot more you need to know. But let’s get you back
to your house first.” He flies a loop, his arms tight around me all
the time, and carries me back to my house. As soon as he lands on
my balcony and releases me, I pad into my room and walk straight
out through the door into the hallway.

Peter closes the balcony door and follows me.
“Where are you going?”

My voice flat, I don’t bother about
whispering. “I need a drink.” My nerves are on edge. Whatever
happened a few minutes ago can’t be undone, so who cares if my
parents hear me or not? This is bigger than secretly having a boy
in my room after midnight.

Down in the
kitchen, I fetch the milk from the fridge and, for once in my life,
drink straight from the carton. Only when my nerves relax a little,
I give Peter the chance to explain it all. “Spill. What’s the deal
with you, this guy, the ship? Why do you flitter around in my world
and not in a fantasy book? And why,
of all people
, does Captain Hook
want to kidnap
me
?”

Peter
hesitates a moment. “Because he knows you matter
to me.”

I
do?
That keeps me stunned, the milk
carton inches from my lips.

“When you fell from the sky to Neverland last
time, I caught you and saved you. You stayed with me and my friends
for a while.” He gives me a bashful smile, and it’s so out of
character for him, that a laugh rattles up my throat. “We had fun…”
he adds. “You and I.”

“Fun?”

He moves around the kitchen isle in the
center and takes the carton out of my hand. “Actually more than
fun.”

Why did his
voice soften all of a sudden? Uneasiness grows in me when he lifts
his hand to my face and strokes my cheek. “Are you trying to tell
me that we were—”
Yeah, what
exactly?
“—together then?”

His lips shifted sweetly to one side, he
cocks his head briefly and shrugs. “I guess you could call it
that.”

Peter is a gorgeous man. Only two days ago in
the park, I could have imagined developing a small crush on him.
But that was before I met Jamie earlier tonight. That man was pure
godliness, no matter how hard Peter tries to make me believe he’s
dangerous. And there was just something about him that drew me,
besides the fact he knew things about me. Things that I never told
no one. I clear my throat. “Where does Captain Hook fit into this
story?”

Peter’s
hand drops from my cheek.
He takes a step back and leans against the cooking isle, folding
his arms over his chest. “Hook stole you from me. He brought you to
his ship, hoping that he could get to me through you.”

“Why would he do that?” Now I’m wondering how
much of the original Peter Pan story is true. “Did he want to kill
you?”

“Probably. But most of all, he wanted to get
to the treasure that the Lost Boys and I keep hidden from him. He’s
a greedy man, that pirate. Cares about nothing and no one, only
about what he can steal from others.”

I want to slap myself for even asking, “How
did that end? Did he trade me for the treasure?”

“No. He wouldn’t let you go, even if we gave
him what he wanted.”

“How did I get free then?”

Now
Peter
smirks like a teenage boy up to
something. “I saved you.”

“Ah.” So I was the real Wendy in his tale.
That would have been so romantic…if it wasn’t completely insane.
“How did I get back to London?”

“I taught you to fly.”

“
How?”
No, wait! I know it, I know
it!
“With a happy thought and some pixie
dust?”

“Exactly.” His grin turns into a frown. “But
that wasn’t the right way to send you home. You had to fall again,
the same way you fell into Neverland.”

“
Oh. Weird.”
I put more volume into my voice next. “But why are you here
now?”

“I missed you, so I followed you. And Hook
must have followed me. He sure thinks if he can steal you again,
he’ll get the treasure eventually.”

“So I’m just a pawn in this battle of
yours?”

“To him you are. To me”—he takes my hand and
squeezes it—“you’re more.”

Does he think I’m his girlfriend? I can’t be!
I don’t know him at all. Gosh, this is crazy. “So, what do you want
me to do now?”

“Stay inside until I took care of Hook.”

I laugh. “That’s definitely not going to
happen. I have school tomorrow, and then there’s the ball in the
evening.” My friends and I were looking forward to it for most of
this year. It’s my last high school dance. Nothing will stop me
from going.

“It’s too dangerous with Hook in this
world.”

I take a
moment to recap the situation. Peter can fly, so he most probably
is the real Pan.
If
he’s the real Pan, then Jamie might be the
real
Hook
. And I read the story often enough to know just how cruel
Captain Hook is. But it doesn’t apply to the gentle guy who tried
to coax a kiss from me less than an hour ago. He didn’t look
anything like the pirate captain from the movies or book. Heck, he
even had both of his hands—and I would know since they were on me
when he leaned in to kiss me.

For all I
know, I should be scared of Jamie—
James Hook
. But the fascination I
hold for him runs deeper than that. I can’t stop to wonder what
would have happened if Peter hadn’t interrupted the kiss. But if
Jamie is really the ruthless pirate, it’s probably best to be
thankful for Peter’s help.

“How can I protect you from him if you’re out
there and free for him to approach you?” Peter insists.

A funny thought sneaks into my mind. “Easy.
Come with me.”

“To the dance?” Contemplating my offer, he
purses his lips.

“So?” I prompt him.

He scratches his chin that by now holds a
dusting of stubble again. “It might work.”

At that moment, footsteps carry down from the
stairs. Peter and I both jerk around to the door. “It’s my mother,”
I hiss.

Lifting his
arms in a helpless shrug, he grimaces, definitely out of a
solution. Before we get caught, I dash to the window and open it
for him. When he just stares at me, I gesture with my arms in
sweeping moves. “Outside!” He can fly, so that won’t be a problem.
But when he glides past me, I grab his arm and hand him back for
one more second. “It’s a spring dance. You can wear whatever you
like. Pick me up at eight.”

He nods then zooms off.

Jeez! Peter Pan just freaking flew out of my
house.

Quickly closing the window after him, I pivot
and grin at my mother’s sleepy face as she stands in the doorway.
“I heard noise. What are you doing up this late?” she demands and
smothers a yawn with her hand.

I scrunch up my face, chewing the inside of
my cheek. “I had a weird craving for milk.” There’s really nothing
else I could tell her. I mean, no one will ever believe me that I
have a date with the notorious Peter Pan tomorrow.

NOW THAT DIDN’T go too bad. Hook is gone. His
ship is gone. And I have a date with his girl.

After Angel let me out through the kitchen
window, I intended to fly back in through her balcony door, but
clever me has locked it before we went downstairs. Perched on the
chimney on top of the roof once more, I scan the neighborhood.
Everything is silent.

Gazing at the
black-blue sky, I can’t stop wondering where Smee has steered the
ship. Hook himself certainly isn’t in the position to command
anything tonight. The impact on the ground has knocked him out
cold. It’ll take a while until he comes around, and then with a
mean headache for sure.

Seems like
Angel bought the lies I told her about him, if not a hundred
percent. When he tries to sneak up to her next time, she’ll be a
little more alert than she was tonight. I’ll be damned if she lets
him kiss her again. A sneer creeps to my lips, though I manage to
suppress the rising snicker. Phase one of my plan to take revenge
on my brother plays out perfectly so far.

I think Angel
even liked it when I touched her. A couple of days ago in the park,
she let me carry her. The look on her face then had etched in my
mind
. Enamored.
It actually hadn’t been easy to leave that
picture of her and me back in Hook’s cabin. I debated half the
night, whether I should keep it to myself. Angel looked adorable in
it. I could have stared at it for hours, and then the image doesn’t
even come close to the original.

Tonight, when Angel clung to me, recovering
from the shock of the incident outside her room, I would have given
a lot to be able to keep holding her like that. She feels so soft
and fragile, and in the next moment she can be a sassy little
thing. I like that. It makes me want to spend more time with her.
Makes me want to make her smile.

All these new thoughts are confusing as hell.
I wonder if it all came with me aging. Dammit, I must stop thinking
about Angel that way. Beautiful or not, I can’t effort to let her
distract me so bad.

In the end, revenge is all that counts.

“WATER, CAP’N?”

Struggling to
open my eyes, I turn my head in the direction of Smee’s worried
voice. I swallow and try to move, but my head feels like being
weighed down by an elephant’s ass. When a cup touches my lips, I
drink in small sips. It takes a while until I can focus on
anything. “Care to tell me why I’m in my quarters and need you to
cocker me up?” I whine.

“Took a blow to your head.”

Not only to my head, it seems. Pain surges in
my side, making me wince at my attempt to sit up. “Explain.”

“As far as I could see through the shield of
clouds, you were about to kiss the lass. But then Pan knocked into
you and the both of you dropped from the balcony.”

Rubbing my
forehead and temples, I moan. Slowly, everything comes back at me.
I
was
about to kiss Angel. I almost had her ready to believe me.
Damn Peter’s bad timing. That fucking little bastard, I’m going to
kill him for ruining that moment for me. “How did I get back on
board?”

“Pan left when Wade Dawkins and I lowered on
the rope to get to your aid. We brought you up. As soon as you were
back on the Jolly Roger, she moved.”

“Moved? Where are we?” There’s not much to
see through the windows in my cabin. Outside is black with some
faraway dots that might be stars.

“We sailed—or flew—higher up into the sky. If
you ask me, we’re somewhere between Angel’s world and Neverland
now. You’ve been out cold for almost ten hours.”

“What?” This can’t be. It means I wasted the
first night of three snoozing away in my cabin instead of winning
Angel over. I throw the blanket aside and jump out of bed, which
after a blow to the head is obviously punished with a dizzy spell.
Ignoring the black dots taking up most of my vision, I shove Smee
aside and stumble to the door, pulling it open. The crew sits on
deck, playing cards and drinking the hours away. The ship stands
totally still in the sky. Everything around us is a velvety black
sea with diamond stars all around.

It’s a wonder my wobbly legs carry me up to
the sterncastle. Grasping the wheel, I spin it around, but nothing
happens. There’s no wind in the sails to move the ship. “Go, you
damn thing!” I kick the helm hard. “Go, go, go!”

“Maybe it’s because she mustn’t be seen down
in Angel’s world at daylight hours. You said the fairy insisted
only to go down in the shelter of night.”

It’s true. But still—a whole night wasted and
being stranded until it gets dark down there again? This isn’t
fair!

After some good persuading from Smee’s side,
he convinces me to eat a few bites of food and take the time to
rest some more, since there’s no chance to change things anyway. My
headache ceases after a while and I start pacing the decks for what
seems like forever.

Eventually,
the sounds of linen catching wind draw my gaze up. The sails
billow. The ship sways. Then it starts to sink.