Neverland (9 page)

“Better
you
fall into one than
us
,” he says coldly. But then he spins me around and surprises me as he cuts the ties with a knife he pulled from inside his boot. “Now go ahead and lead the way.”

I rub the burn from my wrists, staring stunned into his detached eyes. He must know I’m telling the truth…and he still wants me to go first. “You’re a ruthless man, Jamie,” I whisper through a constricted throat.

If I thought his expression was cold before, I wasn’t prepared for how he looks at me now. So full of loathing it ignites a shudder of fear down my spine. He takes the two steps to me, blocking out my view of Smee and the others. His hard gaze freezes the breath in my lungs. “If you ever call me that again in front of my crew, this,”—he holds up the rope and slices through it with the knife—“will be your throat.”

I gulp.

Tilting his head, he demands in a dangerously soft voice, “Do I make myself clear?”

“Yes, Captain,” I croak.

“Fine. Now go.”

My entire body shuddering a number seven on the Richter scale, I turn away from him and take one wary step after the other deeper into the jungle. For the first time in my life I’m really scared. Scared of what lies in front, and even more so of the man behind me. I don’t want to be in Neverland anymore. I want to be back home. I want to hug Brittney Renae and tickle Paulina until I hear her lovely laughter again.

The sound of their voices echoes in my mind from far, far away. I hear them call my name. Call me back. I want to go. I so badly want to close my eyes and just go home.

I don’t know if it’s sheer dumb luck or if there really aren’t any traps, but I manage to hike on for another hour without getting caught in anything. We cross a small clearing, and I look up to the sky, wishing upon a star that this nightmare is over soon.

And then there’s a rustling to my right.

As the light from the torch behind me goes out, I spin around and stare into the dark. All the pirates are gone and I am alone. I know they must be somewhere nearby, hiding in the underbrush.
Why?

“Angel?”

I turn to a voice I didn’t dare believe I’d hear ever again, especially tonight. “Peter!”

Standing a safe distance away, he glances around before he leaves the bushes and comes to me. “You changed your mind?” There’s a joyful smile in his voice. “Oh, I so hoped you’d come ba—”

“Good evening, Peter,” someone cuts him off from behind me. I don’t have to look to know who it is. If I survive this frightening adventure, I know his voice will haunt me for the rest of my life.

Peter stops dead and stares over my shoulder. “Hook.” When his gaze moves back to mine, there’s pain beneath a thick layer of anger. “You led him out here?” he whispers, hurt, but a moment later he yells at me with pure venom in his voice. “You allied with my enemy and freakin’ brought him
out here
?!”

“I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to—” How can I possibly explain? And suddenly I realize my mistake. Peter is so baffled to see me with Hook that he doesn’t pay attention to what’s really going on. “Peter! Watch out!” I scream, but it’s already too late. Smee and two others ambush Peter, force him to the ground and hold him down flat on his stomach.

He fights and struggles, but not even his flying ability can help him against three men. Hook steps around me and squats in front of a cursing Peter. “See, little brother, I told you one day I’d get you.”

I suck in a startled breath. That was no joke Hook made this afternoon? They really
are
brothers?

“And now I suggest you show me the way to my treasure or your friends are going to find you without your head in the morning.”

“Shove off, you bilge rats!” Peter yells at the pirates, ignoring Hook, and starts to writhe under them again.

I run to his aid, but rough hands hold me back by my shoulders. Trapped, I watch helplessly as Hook grabs Peter’s face with clawed fingers and forces him to look up. “Surrender and I’ll go easy on you, little brother. Just tell me where the gold and the chest are,” he says with barely leashed anger.

Peter’s laugh is a painful sound. “When have you ever gone easy on me? You didn’t back then, and you won’t now.” Smee is pushing his knee harder into Peter’s spine. Peter coughs. “You want the chest? Go to the edge of the volcano and jump in. Maybe you’ll find it there, asshole.” Peter stuns me when he proudly lifts his head and imitates the cry of an eagle.

Moments later, a swinging bundle ambushes Hook from the side and knocks him off his feet. More bird cries follow, but not from Peter. The Lost Boys swing into the clearing on lianas one by one, landing on their feet, ready for battle. Three of them attack Peter’s capturers, the rest go at Hook. I’m glad to see they brought real swords and slingshots instead of the toys I saw in their home yesterday. This way, they might stand a chance against the pirates.

As soon as Peter is on his feet again, the battle takes a turn for the worse. He snarls that Hook is his to fight and they go down a dirty road with their battle. Both sides take jabs and slices, punches and kicks. My heart stops when Hook spins on his heels with a sword extended, but Peter flies out of the way just before he would have gotten decapitated.

It takes me several minutes to I realize I’m alone. Unguarded. Stan engaged the pirate holding me before in a fight. This is my chance to flee. To get out of the jungle and find help…somewhere.

Taking a few deep breaths, I silently apologize to Peter for bringing this doom on him, then I turn around and run for my life. The cries of the battle fade behind me as I climb over roots and duck under broken branches. It’s dark as hell and I feel my way rather than see where I’m going, but I know I have to get as far away from Hook and his men as I can.

Suddenly, the ground disappears beneath my feet.

A frightened shriek escapes my throat. Hysterically, I flail my arms, struggling to hold onto anything I can. Sliding down an earthy slope, I grab onto roots that stick out from the dirt and cling onto them for dear life. As I tilt my head up, I can’t see much, only that it’s at least six feet up to safety. What’s beneath me, I don’t want to know.

“Help!” I cry out. Why I do that, I have no idea. Peter hates me and the pirates don’t freaking care whether I’m dead or alive. But it’s all I can do, so I cry out again. “Help me, please!”

One side of the root comes loose and with another panicky shriek I drop a couple more feet. A searing pain spreads in my fingers from my iron grip. I don’t think I can hold on much longer.

James Hook

“WHAT WAS THAT?” I hear Smee shout beside me. I don’t know what he means, and I’m too busy parrying Peter’s jabs to even care. A second later, I hear it too. The desperate scream of a girl in trouble.

Trying not to get skewered as I cast a quick look around, I can’t see our prisoner anywhere. “Where’s Angel?” I shout to my men, who are battling with the Lost Boys. Whalefluke Walter should have taken care of her, but he’s fighting against three of Peter’s friends alongside Smee.

“Wait!” I yell at Peter who’s going at my gorge with his sword that’s really just a big knife.

“Why? Need a break, Hook? Did you pee your pants?”

I dodge his next blow, strike hard with my rapier and cut his upper arm. “No, but it sounds like your friend is in trouble,” I growl.

Peter hesitates a second. He seems confused and unsure what to do. Apart from the shouts of the men and boys around us, the jungle is silent. Apparently he decides to ignore my warning. He comes straight at me, flying the last bit, and throws me to the ground. Just then, I hear Angel’s faint plea for help again.

Whatever happened to her, she sounds terrified. We’re even in numbers here and, as much as I loathe to admit it, we might not come out of this fight as the winners. If I lose Angel too, I’ll go back empty-handed tonight. And I cannot afford that.

Since Peter is still focused on me and not listening to what’s happening in the distance, I throw a hard punch at his jaw which tosses him off of me. Thanks to his fucking ability to fly, he lands ten feet to the side.

Climbing to my feet with my rapier still in my clenched fist, I dash in the direction from which Angel’s scream last came.

“What? Now you’re running away?” Peter shouts after me. I know he’s following me through the underbrush. I can only hope he keeps to some code and doesn’t spear me from behind. I would. Maybe.

“Angel!” I shout instead of answering Peter Pan. When there’s no answer, I try it again, louder this time.

“I’m here! Please help me!”

She sounds terrified, but at least she’s still alive. I fight my way through the jungle for a few more steps and stumble to a halt when I find myself at the edge of a huge hole in the ground. It’s at least ten feet in diameter and so black inside that one can’t make out anything.

Smee and the others sidle up to me. They must have stopped fighting when Peter and I did. “Fire,” I tell Jack, who runs back and brings the torch, lighting it again. As he holds it into the hole, I can see Angel hanging on to a thin twig that stands out from the earth. Her feet dangle in the air. There’s nothing she can use to climb up or even just stand on. And fifteen feet beneath her, sharpened branches jut out from the ground. If she loses her grip, she’s going to get impaled in that vicious trap.

Furious, I snarl at Peter, “Damn, you had to make this impossible to escape from, didn’t you?”

“It’s the only way to keep vermin like you away,” he spits back.

“Congrats. Now fly down and get her out.”

Peter takes a small step back and crosses his arms over his chest, staring me straight in the eye. “Why should I?”

What the fuck was wrong with this boy? I thought I was the ruthless one here. “Because she’s your friend!” When that argument obviously hits a wall, I grab the first boy nearby in a bear-fur vest and press my blade to his throat. “And because I’m killing this one if you don’t.”

Clenching his jaw, Peter throws a narrow-eyed look to his other friends. They all retreat into the thicket of the jungle. My men immediately go after them, but I signal them to let the kids go. I don’t care about the rest. I still have little Bear here to make my point clear.

“Let him go and I’ll save her,” Peter bargains with me in a dead-serious tone.

Sure, he’s deeply hurt because he thinks Angel betrayed him, but I don’t see why he hasn’t already flown down and saved her. This isn’t how I know my little brother. For the briefest moment, I think I understand what’s wrong, but that thought is gone too fast to chase. There are other things to concentrate on now. Slowly, I lower my rapier and ease my grip on the kid.

Peter nods toward the dark jungle and the guy walks away from me. Peter follows him.

“Wait!” I shout. “What about the girl?”

Looking over his shoulder, Peter says in the same cold voice as before, “She’s your friend, not mine.” Then he flies away. The kid in bear disguise stops and gazes back at the hole for a moment, as though he’s considering climbing down himself and helping her out. But when the cry of an eagle sounds above the trees, he quickly spins around and disappears after the others.

The frightened whimpering at my feet tears me out of my confusion. I step forward and gaze down, meeting Angel’s glistening eyes. We stare at each other for the length of a breath.

“Please, don’t leave me here,” she mouths.

I won’t.

Clenching my jaw, I hunker down by the edge of the hole and test the ground.

“Cap’n!” Fin Flannigan shouts out. “What the hell are you doing?”

“Saving the girl.”

Smee squats beside me. His voice is low and anxious. “There’s nothing there to hold on to, James. If you slip, you’ll fall to your death.”

I consider his concern for a second then nod. “That’s exactly why someone has to get her out of there.”

Smee pushes a breath out through his nose, plants a heavy hand on my shoulder and tells me to wait. Then he rises to his feet and tugs a knife from his belt. He walks to a liana, cuts it off and hands it to me. “We’ll pull you back up when you’re ready.” As if on a silent command, all the others take hold of the ropey vine.

Grateful for the possibility to come out of this alive, I wrap the liana around my fist and start to slide down to where Angel still hangs on to a tiny piece of a protruding root. When I’m at her side, I can see how she’s shaking and her breathing is hitched. Her hands have gone white from her desperate grip.

I ease one arm around her waist and pull her into me. “I have you. You can let go now.”

The chatter of her teeth is all that comes out of her mouth as she shakes her head. The girl is petrified, and I’m the one who put her in this situation. In a strange way, it makes my chest ache for her. I almost tell her I’m sorry, but at the last moment I realize my mistake. “You have to let go of the root now. I’m going to get you out of here, Angel, but you have to trust me one last time.”

Shit, who am I fooling? I wouldn’t trust myself if I were her. But in her dire situation, she doesn’t have much of a choice. Still, it surprises me when she suddenly slings one arm around my neck, pressing her face against my shoulder.

“See, that wasn’t so hard.” I hold her tighter against me to give her a better sense of safety. The softness of her fragile body catches me unaware. It feels good to hold her. Slowly, the fingers of her other hand loosen and she wraps that arm around me, too. “All right…I won’t let you fall. I promise.” As if the word of a pirate counted for anything, I know. This time, however, I really mean it. “Get us out!” I shout up to Smee.

The men pull on a counting rhythm, slowly lifting us toward the edge of the hole. Angel is shaking so hard in my arms, I’m afraid of losing her. Holding on tight, I bring her up with me. Smee helps her over the edge and steadies her until I’m on my feet as well and can take over.

As soon as I touch her shoulders, though, she starts fighting me. Thrashing about, she croaks some unintelligible words. She probably wants to curse me to hell, but no real sound comes out of her throat.