Page 15 of The First Lost Boy (The Shadows of Neverland Duet #2)

Hudson

Pan disappears in a tide of darkness.

My chest heaves as I drop to my knees beside Ava’s limp body. I don’t know what just happened between her and Pan. I’ve always known Peter is a coward, but I’ve never seen him show fear of anyone or anything on this island – except for her.

I take her hand in mine and dust the sand off her skin, waiting for her to come back to me. Without her, I feel lost in the middle of the sea with no stars to guide me home.

I don’t understand the inexplicable connection I feel to her, but there’s not a single part of me that can deny it’s there.

Nyin drags herself over to us. Her coral scales shimmer in the warm sunlight.

“I never dreamed I’d say this, but I wish you had legs,” I tell her.

She nods and snaps her teeth in agreement as she examines Ava, raising one of her eyelids with the pad of a webbed thumb before letting it fall closed again.

Smee abandons Bones to care for the unconscious Wraith. He lumbers over and crouches beside the mermaid, giving her a nod. “Thank you for jerking me backward. He would’ve stuck me for sure if you hadn’t.”

She dips her chin, her wide eyes unblinking.

There’s color in Ava’s cheeks and lips. She looks like she’s sleeping, but every minute her lashes don’t flutter open I worry that something is terribly wrong. Afraid she won’t wake up this time. Neverland is a thief, and it enjoys stealing hope more than anything else.

Belle leaps from the skiff, angrily splashes into the shallows, and stomps across the sand. She must have called the sad little vessel to come and get her. “You left me behind!” she seethes, stomping her foot and clenching her tiny fists at her side.

“How are you surprised by this? You’re supposed to be well on your way to begin your search,” I remind her.

“Things changed and my plan changed,” she gripes.

“And I’m supposed to read your mind when that happens?” I smirk, enjoying her indignant anger.

She points a finger toward the Never Wood. “Peter’s gone now. He’s not going to hinder me.”

I furrow my brows at the pixie and point down at her sister. “Do you see how he ‘hindered’ Ava? He can reappear anytime and anyplace he chooses. You’d do well to remember that. I suggest you conjure whatever shield you think you need and make it twice as strong as you planned.”

Her eyes narrow to slits. “If you spent a thousand years trapped on this sand, I’d still know more about Pan than you ever would! He won’t leave his precious circle now that he knows who’s crouching inside my sister.”

She’s wrong. Peter was so shaken by the revelation that he immediately lashed out at the one who threatened him. It might grow tedious, but he could simply kill Ava again and again. It was like pushing a proverbial reset button to buy himself time, and he had all the time in the world to do it.

Belle brushes back dark strands of hair that have caught in Ava’s lashes and tenderly cups her cheek. “Come back to me.”

Her palm begins to shimmer and the healing pixie dust seeps into Ava’s skin. There’s a deep scratch on the heel of her hand, but the torn skin knits itself back together thanks to Belle’s magic. When it’s finished, not even a sliver of a scar remains.

“Smee, will you go with me to look for the other pixies?” she asks. “I might need your strength for this task.”

“Of course,” he tells her. “I’d be happy to help you free your family.”

Belle beams a smile at him and the oaf’s cheeks blaze scarlet.

The sound of crunching grass has us all turning to see who, or what, is approaching from the woods.

It’s only Bones.

I’d noticed him dragging Wraith into the trees and assumed he would continue down the trail. After all, Peter is waiting, and he doesn’t want to disappoint his sadistic captor.

The Lost Boy’s hands lift as he gingerly comes nearer. His knives are tucked away but I know how fast he can draw them.

“I can help,” he says. “I want to help you.”

Belle’s lips part, Smee’s eyes narrow, and Nyin gnashes her teeth at him, revealing how they each feel about his offer. You can’t trust any of the Lost. They’re beholden to Pan in inseverable ways. One word from Peter and Bones’s actions will mimic Pan’s.

I place Ava’s hand on her stomach, clutch the handle of my sword, and step over her to guard her from him. If Peter ordered him to kill her, that’s what he’ll try to do until the order is rescinded. The thrall he has over them isn’t easily broken, but bodies can be, and I’ll gladly break his again and again to keep her safe.

“I don’t want trouble,” he adds.

I laugh. “Well, you’ve found it.”

He turns pleading eyes to Belle. “I know where your people are. I can show you.”

Belle scoffs, “Why should we trust you?”

Bones appears earnest. “Because Ava did. So much so, that she returned my shadow. Because of that, I’m hoping we can make a deal. If I take you to your people, you take me and a friend off this island when you sail home.”

Gaze narrowed, I pointedly search the ground behind him, but there’s no sign of his shadow. “Liar.” I move toward him.

Bones curses and retreats a few steps like the coward he is. “Ava hid it inside me somehow.” He lowers his hands to his sides.

If he reaches for one of his knives, I’ll run him through before he curls his finger around its macabre handle. “Prove it!”

He glares at me. “You know I can’t. But she –” His eyes flick to Ava, then he tenses and sucks in a sharp breath. “H-hey,” he stutters.

I turn to find her alert and staring up at him. The hair rises on my arms at the sight of her uncanny gray eyes, sharpened and lethal. Because now I know that this thing crouching inside her is exactly as Belle described. Starving for revenge and willing to eviscerate anything in her path to exact it.

Knowing she may not remember me yet, my heart thunders as I tentatively say her name. She doesn’t respond.

“Imani?” Belle carefully tries.

The being’s attention snaps to Tinkerbell and warning ripples through me. This thing is nothing to trifle with, and yet, what choice do we have?

Imani – Ava – slowly sits up and dusts herself off. Sand trickles from her arms and back. The pixie dust healed all the damage caused by the spear. She scrutinizes Bones like she’s wondering if he’s an ally or an enemy. Her lip curls when Bones shifts his weight uneasily, like he might run. He wouldn’t make it far.

Imani hisses when Nyin’s hand clamps around Ava’s ankle. The mermaid growls, “Had-no.”

My stomach drops. Nyin had warned Ava of shadows after Pan marked her, and when she wore his watch. But maybe she wasn’t talking about the shadows that were obvious, but rather the Celestial that was hiding inside her friend.

Imani drops into a crouch before the siren.

I lunge to stop her from killing Nyin, but she tears through my grip as she dives at the mermaid’s neck. She doesn’t harm her; instead, she throws her arms around the creature in an embrace that makes the sea-maiden uneasy. And then I hear it. We all do. Ava’s laughter. Heartfelt and pure. And so, so relieved.

Nyin looks at me pleadingly, like she’s not sure what’s happening or what to do next. Mostly, I’m not sure she knows how to hold Ava. Has the creature ever been hugged?

Ava pulls away from Nyin… but whatever the mermaid sees makes a slippery smile glide over her mouth. “Ay-vahhh!”

“Thank you, Nyin,” Ava tells her. “For everything.”

Relief empties into my veins because, at least for now, she’s back.

Twisting right and left, Ava takes us all in. “Hey.”

Nyin pokes at Ava’s chest with a clawed finger. “Had-no.”

Ava nods. “Yeah, I guess you knew all along, didn’t you? I wish I’d listened better.”

Bones clears his throat. “We need to move quickly if we’re going to set the pixies free. Pan will anticipate the move.”

The growl that tears from Belle’s throat surprises us all. “He caged them?”

“More like trapped them…” The Lost Boy’s words fall away as a series of feral shrieks come from Neverland’s heart. He curses. “Never mind. I guess we won’t need to find them. Peter’s already sicced them on us.”

Belle’s fists clench at her sides. “What do you mean by that?”

“They’re under his thrall. Like when he turned the mermaids into sirens,” Bones explains.

Or when he turns the Lost Boys on us.

I sharpen my smile. “Guess that means our bargain is void since we won’t be needing your help.” I don’t trust Bones. Never have. He’s always been in Peter’s pocket.

“He just wants to get his brother and go home,” Ava argues on his behalf. “Beyond that, he’s my friend and ally. I won’t let you hurt him.”

My brow pops. Oh, really?

I look Bones over, wondering how he got so close to her, and whether I truly want to know. “What brother?”

Bones claimed he wanted passage for himself and a friend, but he did not mention a brother.

“Ash is my brother,” Bones says. “My sister is dead.”

A curious glance at Ava and she supplies what I already suspect. There’s only one woman on Neverland who’s died recently. “Wendy Darling.”

Bones winces when she says the name, then turns his attention to my ship. “Is Ash safe aboard your ship?”

“He and Shorty,” I confirm. “Ava has their shadows.”

“Bones… I think you’re overshadowed, too. There were times that Peter would say something and you and the other Lost Boys would follow him like you were in a trance or something. I think he marked you and hid it, but if you’d let me, I can search for it and remove it from you.”

He grants permission with a single, decisive nod.

Ava’s eyes scan him. But when she smooths her hands down his arms, my teeth grind together.

She takes his hand in hers and a breath later, slithering up from below his belt and across the planes of his back to her palm is Pan’s insidious shadow. His breath hitches when she sucks it into her mouth like she’s taking in smoke…. and savoring the taste.

“Thank you,” Bones says, sagging forward like a heavy weight has been lifted from him.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” she asks, hurt. “I all but asked you.”

“Because I couldn’t ,” he admits.

She sags like she understands far more than I ever could. But I do know that Peter – Ezryn – whomever he is – doesn’t allow disobedience. And if he marks you, you’re his.

I brought Ash and Shorty aboard because I’d already planned on taking as many souls off this island as possible, and because I needed any leverage I could gather against Pan.

I’m not disappointed by this fortuitous revelation. Because Bones’s motivation ensures his cooperation and places him squarely on our side of this war.