The Fae Princes (Vicious Lost Boys #4)(3)

When I return the glass to the bar top, it clunks loudly. Smee’s right eye flinches, but it’s the only tell she’s got.

“Do us both a favor and leave Vane out of it.”

“Do us both a favor and don’t stab Jas.”

“I don’t know why you care. He abandoned you.”

“I don’t know why you care about a Darling girl who you haven’t seen in years and years and years.”

The knot in my chest tightens, crowding out my heart.

“Because I’m a possessive prick,” I tell her. “I don’t even have to like the thing. Or the girl, as the case may be. What’s mine is mine, and once it’s mine, it cannot be someone else’s.”

“It’s almost sad, this story you’re telling yourself,” she says. “And I pity Wendy Darling for it.”

Dark clouds roll in, blotting out the sun. The air turns frigid. An odd thing, for Neverland.

Smee glances at the shift in weather and then quickly back at me. “Time for you to go, Crocodile. Have fun on your quest for destroying everything you touch. When you’re done, I suspect you’ll be standing on nothing but a pile of bones and ash. I hope it’s worth it.” She tips her head toward the door, indicating my dismissal.

“Do you know where she is?” I keep my voice level, give nothing away.

“So you can destroy her too?”

I pull in a deep breath, nostrils flaring. “Would you like a play by play? Do you want to know where I’ll stick my cock, how I’ll make her scream my name? Destroying something can feel good, Smee. I promise you that.”

“You are hopeless,” she says.

“Aren’t we all in this godforsaken island chain?” I may be a little drunk now. Sometimes after a gorging, my insides don’t work quite the same way. Liquor can go straight to my head. I’m not usually so pessimistic.

Smee sighs. “I lost track of Wendy Darling a long time ago. Jas has no more information than you do.” She walks back to the door and pulls it open. There’s dirt crusted on the wood frame, the door handle rubbed clean of its gold plating. Why would the Captain let it go when he is so fucking anal about appearances?

Because he never came in and out this door, I realize. This door was for the pirates, the degenerates. Well played, Smee.

But if there’s one thing I know, it’s how to be whatever someone wants me to be long enough to let their guard down.

And then I eat them.

“Goodbye, Smee.”

Her farewell is the hard slam of the door in my face.

I start off down the path.

Time for plan B.





3





WINNIE


I wake freezing. Since coming to Neverland, it’s been a warm, tropical place. Never cold like this.

I can sense the heat of the boys around me. Vane, the solid line of him at my back, his arm tight across my middle. Bash in front of me, my legs tangled with his. Kas at the other end of the bed, his hand locked around my ankle.

And yet…goosebumps.

I open my eyes to the early morning light, the first rays of sunshine spilling through the open windows of my bedroom.

Except the light is diluted, more gray than orange.

And…is that falling snow?

I sit up on my elbow. Vane groans behind me. Bash reaches out for me. “Too early, Darling,” he mumbles. “Come back to bed.”

“Does it ever snow in Neverland?” I ask.

Thick flakes swirl in the light and when the wind shifts, they spill into the room through the open window, melting into tiny puddles on the floor.

Bash’s dark brow furrows. “Never.”

“Well, it’s snowing. Right now.”

His eyes pop open. His frown deepens as he looks up at me, the sleep fading from his gaze.

Then he darts upright and checks the window. “The fuck?”

“What’s going on?” Kas asks, his voice muzzy with sleep.

Pressure builds in my chest. It takes me a second to recognize that old feeling of dread. I grew up full of it. It haunted me like a ghost, stretching across blank walls, hiding in dark corners. Panic sets in before I can analyze where it’s all coming from, why it’s here.

I’m a child again, hiding from boogeymen, frightened for what the future will bring, terrified of madness.

My breathing quickens.

Vane sits up behind me, presses the warmth of his chest against me. “You’re all right, Win.” His voice is dark and heavy at my ear and my stomach pinwheels.

Now that Vane and I share the Neverland Death Shadow, there is no hiding from him. He knows everything I feel. Everything I fear.

I don’t know why that knowledge makes tears burn at my eyes.

Haven’t I always yearned for love? To be protected and cared for?

So why do I feel so damn vulnerable? His intimate knowledge of my weaknesses chaffs like new wool.

“Something is wrong,” I tell him.

Kas gets out of the bed and makes his way to the bank of windows. His breath condenses in the air.

The dread grows.

“Where is Peter Pan?” I ask.

We look around the room, finally noticing his absence. Did he run to his tomb? Are we too much for him? Am I too much for him?

Scooting off the edge of the bed, I meet Kas at the windows. His hair is loose, spilling over his shoulders, and the wind catches a length of it, billowing it around us like a curtain of dark silk. It tickles my bare shoulder.