Darling Girl: A Novel of Peter Pan(74)

“There must be another way,” Holly says, and the desperation in her voice echoes Jack’s from a few hours ago. “A drug, a hormone. Something that will slow the aging.” But even as she’s saying the words, she knows they’re not true. She’s already tried everything.

“What about . . .” Holly doesn’t want to say his name. “Peter. Is he aging the same as you?”

Eden looks away. “Bell hasn’t told me. She won’t say much, other than he’s changed. He’s dangerous now. All avarice, greed. So she is too.”

They watch Bell stuff her pockets with the coins and bills tourists are throwing to her.

“But she doesn’t want to be. I think that’s why she’s helping me. One reason, anyhow. I’m her chance to escape too.” Eden shivers, and Holly reaches out and lightly wraps an arm around her shoulder. Eden lets it stay. “I haven’t seen him, not exactly. But there was . . . a shadow at the edges of my dreams in Cornwall. Something dark that wanted me. Was reaching for me. I could sense it.”

Holly holds back her own shudder. “It’s possible he was there,” she allows. “The staff saw . . . things. And I’d been saving your blood, using it to treat Jack and to try and find a way to cure you. I think Peter stole it.”

Eden’s quiet a moment. “That wasn’t Peter,” she admits. “It was me.”

“You took the blood? But why? And how?”

“I’d heard the safe combination a million times. And I knew what my blood did for Jack. I thought it might help me. That it would slow everything down. Give me a chance.”

She looks down at her hands. “I didn’t mean to hurt Jack by taking it. That’s one reason why I came to the house—to help him.” She smiles, the first one Holly has seen, but it’s a sad smile. “He’s so grown-up. Not my little flea anymore.”

Holly remembers the scar on Jack’s wrist, the way it healed so quickly. But she can’t think about Jack right now or she’ll tumble back into an abyss of panic and loss and never find her way out. Instead she concentrates on Eden, on the spark of hope her words offer. For all her scientific background, Holly’s never thought of injecting the whole blood directly back into her daughter. “That was clever thinking,” she says. “Did it work?”

Eden shakes her head. “No. It had the opposite effect. I think it speeded up my growth.” She looks sideways at her mother. “What you did—taking my blood—may have helped me after all.”

It’s a small concession, but Holly clings to it. The stone in her chest lightens, lets her breathe again in a way that hasn’t been possible in years. She’s carried the guilt of using Eden to save Jack for so long. To know her efforts may have helped Eden too . . . She can’t help herself. She pulls her daughter close, into a full embrace. For a heartbeat, then two, Eden relaxes into her arms. Holly holds her, inhales that delicious scent of springtime and warmth.

But even this moment isn’t enough to turn off Holly’s brain. The question nudges at her, won’t leave her alone, until she asks it aloud. “But if it isn’t your blood, what does Peter want with you?” It doesn’t make sense.

“It might still work on him,” Eden says. She pushes away from Holly, just enough to see her face. “That’s what Bell thinks. It’s different for him, the aging. I don’t know why. Maybe because he’s been to Neverland? Or maybe because I’m only half like him. I’m only half his daughter, Bell says. I’m half like you too.”

“Eden,” Holly says. She pulls her daughter close again. “Eden, I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry. For everything. There’s so many things I should have done differently.”

Eden doesn’t answer. But she doesn’t pull away, either.

“Do you think Peter knows how to get back?” Holly asks. “To Neverland?”

“If he could, don’t you think he would?”

Holly thinks of her last conversation with Jane. Of how little any of them know about this place called Neverland. She thinks of Barrie and all the ways he might have changed Wendy’s story. And she remembers Peter that last night, when he’d looked at her like prey. She has no idea what he would do.

A disturbance at the far end of the atrium breaks her train of thought. Bell is hurrying toward them. She pauses every few seconds to blow kisses to the crowd behind her, but when she looks at Eden, her eyes are wide with urgency. The mother from earlier stands in the far entrance to the atrium. There are security guards with her and she’s pointing to Bell.

“I have to go,” Eden says.

“No,” Holly says. “Come with me. We can figure this out.”

But Eden is surprisingly strong. She pulls out of Holly’s grasp. Bell motions to an alley between two of the sand-colored buildings and Eden runs toward it.

“Eden, wait!”

“No. I need Bell, and she needs me. I trust her,” Eden calls over her shoulder.

“Eden!” Holly hurries to catch her. Bell sees Holly and frowns. She holds her arms up and begins turning in a circle, spinning faster and faster. The feathers on her shoulder are so bright they seem to glow. Bits of gold shed from them, dancing through the air.

“Take care of Jack,” Eden says. “Don’t let him . . .”