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Chapter Eleven

Peter

One Month and Twenty-Seven Days Before Present Day

“ P eter, I am not ready for this!” William insisted.

“You are fine. I have a crew all ready to go, and I told you that you could bring all the fruit you want,” I said while checking the rigging of our best Navy ship.

“You should be the captain,” William said, handing me his large black hat, just like the ones the captains of our Royal Navy wore.

“No, I will be your first mate and assist you. This is good for you,” I said, shoving it back.

“Peter!” he said as I moved to the wheel of the ship, calling out orders. We were ready to set sail.

If William would calm down, I thought.

“Look, William, I get that this is frightening. I am here, my friend. You shall not be alone.” I placed a hand on his shoulder and looked into his worried, dark eyes.

He nodded and gulped.

Then, I shook him a little, causing him to roll his eyes.

“Okay, okay, you are right. I must be brave,” he said, shoving my hand away.

“You are brave. Just go ahead and tell the crew we are leaving.”

“Must we leave so suddenly?”

“Yes, Gwen is gone.”

“I still think that maybe she—”

“She did not leave by choice; she was stolen, William!” I shouted as terror raced through me.

I needed to protect her, save her, find her.

The desire burned urgently within me. Stronger than I had ever felt it before, my curse pulsed under my skin.

Not for adventure as it used to–but for Gwen.

I had to find her, my entire being could not exist without her.

“Okay, yes, yes.” He turned to the crew and started speaking, and I made my way to the royal cabin beside the captain’s quarters. I sat down on my bed and tucked one of Gwen’s books to my chest, clutching it just as she always had whenever she was nervous or startled.

This is all my fault, I told myself.

She had never showed up to read to me a few days earlier. Her family had no idea where she had gone. I begged them to let me search her bedroom, and that’s when I discovered where she was. There, on her bed, was the book we had been reading only the day before.

I opened it, fingered to the page we had left off with, and traced the script, imagining her voice, reading.

It had been all my fault. I had been so casual about the pixies, and she had been worried about the warning in the book.

I would have cursed myself if it were in my power to do so at that moment.

“I will find you, Lady Gwendolyn Darling. No matter what,” I whispered.

Present Day

I awoke with a start, the wind from my open window salty and cool upon my sweaty skin. I had dreamed of that day when I had realized that Gwen was gone—stolen by pixies. The fear I had, knowing she was taken because of me, raced through my blood.

Gwen is here in Walden. I saved her , I told myself as I placed a hand over my heart.

That would never happen again. William and I had traveled the seas, rescued my long-lost brother, and then found Gwendolyn.

We had also found the many orphaned children, whom the pixies had stolen, and they had been placed in happy homes.

I wished that Pixie Isle could have been removed from my mind forever, that it could really exist only in my past. And while, yes, I had saved her, that was not the end of the story.

Saving her came at a price, one I happily paid and would do so again, but it complicated things, and meant, unfortunately, that Pixie Isle and those blasted pixies were not just in my past, but would be a part of my future as well.

I got out of bed, needing to pace a bit and get the anxious energy out of me, or I would never be able to sleep.

After a half hour of pacing, my heart calmed down, and I could breathe better.

I walked over to the large window in my room and watched the moon and the twinkling of the stars.

All I wanted was to remain in Walden and marry Gwen.

When will the pixies come? They said they would collect their payment, but it had been a full month—a full month of living a life, which I did not wish to ever be separated from, but I knew my time was clicking away as quickly as the second hand on a clock.

I ran my fingers over my damp face. My hair was longer than I usually kept it, the wavy locks falling into my eyes.

I moved them away and gazed out over the ocean.

The reflection of the moon on the sea mesmerized me, and I was not able to look away.

The countless stars that dotted the sky reminded me of Pixie Isle–their fake stars–but I only needed Gwen; she was my starlight.

One Month Before Present Day

“Man overboard!” one of the crew members called.

We’d been circling near the Misted Sea for a week with no luck. I looked over the side of the ship to see a man floating on a small wooden plank below us. He looked to be in awful shape.

Before I could order the crew to pull him out, William shouted, “Pull him up!”

I was proud of him as I watched him take the lead on our quest to rescue Gwen.

Where is Gwen, if not here? I wondered.

There had to be a way past the mists that constantly had us turned around.

The crew pulled the man out and onto the deck of the ship.

“Who are you?” I asked, standing over him. Someone was shoving a water flask at him, and he greedily took it.

“The name is Sands. Thank you for saving me from that bloody sea.” Then, he passed out.

“Is it safe to keep him here?” William asked as I entered the captain’s quarters that evening to discuss our course of action.

“We need to get him talking soon. We won’t trust him fully, but it appears he has been through much. We will pass judgment after we speak with him.”

“Alright.”

“I did want to tell you that you are doing well as our captain.”

“Thank you, but we have not found your lady love yet.”

“Stop it. Is it not at all possible to have a friendship with a lady?”

“No—not with one so pretty,” William said, stroking the beard he had been working on while aboard the ship.

I did not like him calling her pretty, but that was only because I cared about her.

“Do stop. We will question this Sands person tomorrow and see what comes of it. ”

“Sounds fine to me,” William said, sitting down behind his desk. I watched as he pulled some of his dried fruit from a jar. “Are you eating?” he asked, motioning to the jar with peach fruit in it across the table.

I would rather starve than eat that peach jerky.

I usually sat with him, but I wanted to go check on this Sands person.

“I will take this to go. I’m rather tired,” I said, moving around his side of the table and stealing his already open jar of Strawberry leathers. I popped one into my mouth and sighed.

“Peter! You need to give peaches a second chance,” William chuckled, taking the jar of peaches and opening them.

“I’d sooner die,” I said, walking toward the door.

“You do not fool me. You are going to see Sands.”

I stopped and looked back at my best friend who was busy stuffing peach leather into his mouth. I tried not to throw up in disgust. “You know me well,” and then I walked from the room.

“Oh, well, you are awake,” I said as I reached the healer’s cabin beneath the deck. The man, Sands, was sitting up, his clothing ripped and tattered, his hair a mess around him.

“I am. You wouldn’t happen to have some rope to tie my hair back, would you?”

I turned to see some tan, frayed rope and tossed it to him. I watched as he tied it back, and two thick bunches of hair on either side framed his face. What the point was of tying his hair back at all, I couldn’t say.

“What can I do to thank you for the rescue?”

“Who are you? Why are you out here?”

He looked like a pirate.

“Our ship was struck by lightning.”

“What kingdom are you from?”

“Oh, well, I am from Sorra, but my captain, he was from Walden.”

“Walden?” I asked in surprise.

“I believe so? I am not good with all the kingdoms’ names. Spent most of my life on the seas, so you will have to excuse me.”

“Was your captain lost to the sea?”

“I am not sure; maybe he is as adrift as I was.”

“Well, we will keep our eyes open for anyone else from your ship.”

“You are very kind. What is your name?”

“I am Peter, the first mate,” I said with a nod.

“Thank you, Peter. I am indebted to you.”

Four days later, the mists seemed to part, somewhat, and we spotted what we assumed to be Marren Island.

We had old maps, pre-Great War, and luckily they had been rather informative.

It was a small island, and hope bloomed inside me that Gwen would be found there; surely, that had to be where the pixies dwelled.

I was wrong.

Sands had been a helpful addition to our crew. We rowed a boat up to the island, spotting a man and a woman on the shore.

“Aye! I think that is a shipmate!” Sands shouted.

We rowed harder. Sands insisted that there would be new fruits for William to check out once on shore, and William had not backed down from that possibility.

The woman had long, almost white-pinkish hair, the likes of which I had never seen before.

The last thing I ever expected at that moment was that the man who stood there on that shore would be my brother—and that he would commandeer my ship.

But alas, that is what happened. That man was my long-lost brother, Dominick, and he did, indeed, pirate my ship.

Present Day

My thoughts returned to the present. I closed my bedroom window and went back to sit upon my bed. I needed to see Gwen, kiss her again, and tell her how much I loved her. I had spent most of the late evening with her, but it wasn’t enough. It would never be enough.

I hated myself for having been more distant with her as of late. Yes, the pixies were coming for me, but that did not mean I should not spend as much time with Gwen as possible. Perhaps, and I knew it was entirely unlikely, but perhaps, it would be years before they called me to them. Perhaps—

I shook my head and just remained there upon my bed.

Stop thinking—Tomorrow, you shall see her, kiss her again, and all will be well.

It was a lie, but I convinced myself of it, just enough that I finally found a semi-peaceful sleep.