Unhooked(53)

With a shaking breath, I crouch to scoop up the few stones that remain. The second my fingers touch them, the Fiona I know is back. And touching them, I remember something else—a room in London, the foggy voice of my mother as she slipped the bracelet onto my wrist.

Is this why my father had given my mother the bracelet? Why she gave it to me? All those years, could it have been the reason she could see the monsters, and the reason I could see the truth of what Fiona was in London?

I stand back up and face her again. “Why are you telling me any of this? I thought you worked for him.”

With a hiss, Fiona glares at me. “I work only for my own kind. Pan believes in my loyalty, and that gives me power to work against him. To free my people and my world. But if you reveal your true self to Pan, if you give yourself to him, all my work will have been in vain.”

“I don’t plan on giving myself to anyone,” I tell her. “Your plans are safe as far as I’m concerned.”

“It is not enough.” Fiona runs her long tongue over those awful teeth. “You’ve chosen to betray the one ally my kind have in this world. Without the Captain, who will stand with my kind against the one who calls himself Pan? The Captain must be freed.” She gives me a smile that makes the prickling sensation across my skin intensify until it’s almost painful.

Understanding what she intends me to do, I take another step back. But there is nowhere else to go. As I stumble toward the chasm, Fiona’s hand snakes out to grab my wrist and hold me by one arm as I dangle over the gaping pit. She doesn’t immediately pull me to safety.

“You expect me to free him?” I ask, trying not to let myself look down at the blackness beneath me.

“The Captain is your only chance to escape from Pan, to ever see your miserable world again.”

I can hear the soft, distant echo of the shower of rocks I knocked loose from the edge of the chasm. My mouth dry, I plead with Fiona: “How can I save him? I don’t even know where Pan’s keeping him.”

“I can get you to the place where he is being held. Once he’s free, the Captain can help you find your way from the fortress.” Her grip feels like a vice as she jerks me back to solid ground.

I let out a ragged exhale, fear still squeezing my throat.

“Then we understand each other?” the Fey says, satisfaction dripping in her tone.

I glance up, still trying to catch my breath. Her expression is so arrogant, so sure, the panic running through me falls away. “Not even close, Tinker Bell.”

Her expression transforms into something cold and truly terrifying, but I force myself to stay calm. I’ve jumped from one mistake to another out of fear. This time, I need to understand more. I still don’t completely trust the Captain, and I need to know what I’m choosing.

“I need time,” I tell her. “To consider.”

Her eyes narrow at me, but to my relief she takes a step back. “I will give you one thing more . . . to consider. A gift, you might say, between distant kin.” She licks her lips, like she can taste my fear and uncertainty. “Fey power cannot be taken. It can only be bestowed. Guard your secrets well, Young One, and be careful with what you offer him.” She gives me a smile that I can feel prickling at my skin. “Be careful of what you surrender.”

The pinpricks turn into a thousand razor-sharp slices, and I feel like I’m being flayed alive. And in a sudden flash, the world explodes in light, and Fiona is gone.





At first the field was quiet, and for a moment the boy felt an unspeakable excitement. Finally, the adventure he had so wanted was his. Then, quick as a thought, a shell burst overhead, lighting the field. Exposing them all. It hung, still as a star, flickering above as though it were alive. . . .





Chapter 24


ONCE MY EYES ADJUST AGAIN to the evening light, I head back into the fortress. I need to find Pan. I need to figure out if anything Fiona has just told me is true. But I’m no sooner through the entrance when a boy I’ve never seen before runs up to me. He’s barely as tall as I am, and he can’t be more than ten or eleven. Still, with the thick club he’s holding and the wild look in his eyes, I take a step back.

“You were there, weren’t you?” he demands, taking another step toward me. “Today, out at the End. You went with Himself, didn’t you?”

“Yes,” I tell him, inching back as I eye the club.

“Did Liam return with you?” he asks, taking a step even closer yet. “I haven’t seen him. And then with the fighting . . .” His voice trails off, as though he’s unsure of what else to say. He chews on his lip nervously, his eyes darting wildly from side to side, like he’s afraid to look at me. From the state of it, I’d say he’s been chewing on his lip for a while now.

“I don’t know,” I say, trying to inch around him. I don’t want to be the one to have to tell him that no one came back from the End except Pan, Olivia, and me, but the boy is insistent. He won’t let me go.

“Himself said it would be fine. Just a bit of fun. But Liam ain’t come back yet, and I’m starting to worry.”

“A bit of fun?” I ask, confused. There was nothing fun about the morning’s excursion. The boys we found out at the End were beaten and bloody, and the gray mist. . . . I get a chill every time I think of what could have happened out there.