“All right. Here we go.” I half carry her down through the village, under the arch, past the houses and toward the sounds of thefight. The ground is stained with blood in places, but I haven’t seen any bodies, though I was careful not to look at poor Nibs as we passed.
“There were children here, Moira.” She looks at a particular house on the right. “Beautiful children with the rainbow in their eyes. He killed them.” She brandishes her little fangs. “He drained them and left their bodies to rot. That was the only time I managed to break his hold over me and fight back. Just enough for him to give me this.” She drags her finger down the dark scar on her cheek. “He called it a little lesson in obedience.” She points ahead. “Go. We’re almost to him. I can feel him like oil on my skin.”
“What are you going to do?”
“I’m going to rip his throat out.” She tongues one of her fangs. “That’s the fae justice he deserves.”
“Tink, I don’t think you’re in any shape?—”
“Tink?” She scoffs. “Are we friends now, emptyheaded Darling?”
“Maybe in a ‘Mean Girls’ sort of way, I guess?”
“I’m not mean.” She looks at me, a golden sparkle reigniting in her eyes.
“If you say so.”
“You think I’m mean?” Her broken bell voice grows stronger.
“You’re probably the meanest person—fae or otherwise—I’ve ever met. Even meaner than the mermaids who wanted to eat me. That’s how mean you are.”
“Lies.” She wrinkles her perfect nose. “You’re a liar on top of being stupid. Worst combination.”
“Now you’re just flirting with me,” I crack.
She giggles. “I might’ve liked you if you’d shown up before that dumdum Wendy. Before everything went to shit.”
“I doubt it. You don’t like stupid mainlanders.”
“Good point.” She peers ahead of us. “There they are.”
I don’t see anything, but her vision is fixed on a point, so I steer us toward it. My knees are weak, my back aching, but if Tinker Bell thinks she can end Peter, I’m here for it.
“Moira!” Widow appears from the trees to our right and runs up. The moment she sees Tinker Bell, she hisses like a cat.
“No! Widow. She’s okay. She’s helping.”
“Helping?” Widow approaches, her cutlass bloody and at the ready. “She’s with Peter.”
“No, she just saved me from his godforsaken shadow, okay? She’s good.” I shake my head. “Not good. I mean, she’s still a huge jerk, but she’s on our side.”
Widow doesn’t look convinced, but she doesn’t have time to argue when a shadow with red eyes rises from the ground behind her and lunges for her.
She dodges it and runs to my side, wrapping her arm around my waist and dragging both Tinker Bell and me toward the beach. “We can’t kill the shadows. One of them hurt Cecco bad, raked the skin off his back, but most of them have been going after Lost Boys. They drag them down into the dirt with them.”
That explains the bloody marks on the ground but no bodies.
“Horrible.” I shudder.
The terrain finally changes from moss to sand, and Widow pulls us onto the beach where only a few Lost Boys are left. Two are in the water trying to swim away from a pair of fae shadows. One is dueling with Starkey, though I can tell Starkey is only playing with him at this point like a cat with a mouse.
Then I see Hook and Peter. Tinker Bell jets away from my side, flashes into the golden orb, and flies away toward them.
“What is she doing?” Widow turns that direction and starts moving even faster, pulling me along.
“She’s trying to kill him.”
“Hook?”
