The Fae Princes (Vicious Lost Boys #4)(45)

“I’m sorry,” she says and then bursts into tears. “I’m so sorry. I was all alone and I didn’t know what else to do and I thought I had to be strong and unwavering for the court and the brownies told me I needed to be decisive and I just…I was more queen than sister in that moment and it tore us apart. And in every moment since then, I tried to be a queen when I should have been a sister.”

And in this moment, she is just a girl, a little sister who always balked at her overbearing, protective older brothers, but who right now, desperately needs us.

Kas and I fold her into our arms and she trembles in our grip, sobbing against our chests.

“It’s all right, Tilly Willy,” I tell her. “You’re not alone now.”

She nods her head, sucks in her tears.

“Now come on,” I say. “Let’s dry our eyes and go murder our mother.”





26





WINNIE


Vane and Bash scope out the treehouse before we return to it.

There are several dead Lost Boys littering the floor, but Tink and her possessed army are gone.

I try not to look at them as I make my way to my bedroom. I never bothered to get to know any of them. The twins warned me early on that Lost Boys come and go. “And sometimes Pan thins them out,” Bash had added.

I dress in warmer clothes, but clothes I imagine a girl can fight in. I’m no warrior, but I am Winnie Fucking Darling and I will not let Tinker Bell take what’s mine.

I just wish Pan was here.

I’m terrified for how we may find him when this is all over.

When I come back to the loft, I find the boys have changed too. They’re wearing dark royal blue clothing that was clearly made to fit their wings, which means they had been holding on to the clothing this entire time, waiting for their wings to be returned.

The shoulders are reinforced with metal plates, and leather cuffs cover their forearms.

They look like princely soldiers ready for battle. Except Bash is sporting a tiny little braid that sticks straight up and even though that looks ridiculous, I can tell he is happy to wear it. Kas’s hair is braided into two perfect braids that hang over his shoulders.

Beside them, Vane is in all black in an outfit that could either be labeled “dark prince from another realm” or “badass assassin anti-hero” from my world. I would take any version of him in black.

Sometimes it catches me off guard how otherworldly they all are, how they’re all mine. Someday when we’re no longer at constant war on Neverland, I’ll take them to my world and parade them around the people I used to go to school with. I got along with most of the girls in my town, but there were definitely a few who knew I was beneath them. They would lose their ever-loving minds for Vane and the twins.

Who wouldn’t?

“So the plan is—” Bash starts,

“We distract Tink while Tilly stabs her,” Kas finishes.

Tilly pulls the sheathed black blade from a leather belt at her waist.

“We really think this is going to work?” I ask. “The blade didn’t kill Vane. Thank god.”

“Yeah, but Daddy Dark One”—Vane scowls at Bash—“has the Neverland Dark Shadow. Tink has…well, we’re not sure what she has, but I’m willing to bet it’s not as indestructible as the Dark One.”

“And if it doesn’t work?” I ask.

“There’s always a plan B, Darling.” Bash hooks me into his arm and drags me into his side. He plants a kiss on top of my head and his wings open behind him.

I’m not sure if I’ll ever get used to that. Talk about looking hot. The twins in their natural fae form are like mythological heroes stepped from an oil painting.

If only Peter Pan was here.

Where is he?

My chest tightens thinking about him. Is he purposefully avoiding us or is something wrong? Did Tink get to him?

Come on, Pan. Come back to us.

We leave the treehouse and make our way down the footpath. Because Tink probably wants to kill us as much as we want to kill her, we’re betting she’ll find us eventually. So we walk in the direction of the fae palace as the snow starts falling around us again.

It may be close to dawn, but it’s hard to tell with how dark it is.

When this is over, I’m sleeping for an entire day and I’m going to make the boys stay in bed with me.

Something to look forward to.

We cross the Mysterious River Bridge. Ice that has collected on the stones crackles beneath our feet. More ice has formed along the river’s shore, gathering in chunks where the earth juts out into the water.

Tinker Bell is waiting for us just as we leave the cover of the forest and enter into the great meadow before the fae palace. She’s flying several feet in the air with at least two dozen fae behind her, and a spotty army of Lost Boys and wingless fae on the ground before us.

“My children have come home,” she says and claps her hands, fairy dust raining down from her. “But you brought a Darling and the Dark One and no Peter Pan? Just as well. I suspect the Never King is no more. Perhaps we will never see him again.”

The thought makes my stomach turn. I know she’s just trying to get a rise out of me and it’s working.

“We’ll ask you once,” Bash says, “to kindly fuck off and leave the island. We don’t want to fight you.”