“It is when one of my boys speaks out of turn.” He rounds on them. “I’ve brought her here so we can keep her safe from Hook and his men. If we lose her, we lose the island. Keep that in mind, all of you. Understood?”
“Understood,” they reply in unison.
“No one is to touch her. No one is to bother her. She’s our guest. If I hear that a single one of you has looked at her askance—” His glower bears down on the man he struck. “I’ll have to enact real discipline, and you all know how much I hate to do that.”
Some of them share uncomfortable looks and others shift in their seats, but no one objects.
One of the men toward the back strides forward, his eyes on Peter. Something in his walk, in the way the other men look at him, tells me he’s a leader to them. He wears a beard, a streak of gray striping down the left side of it, and he has an unspoken fierceness that almost matches Peter’s. Almost, but not quite.
“What about the shadows, Peter? Last full moon, they took seven of us. You said you’d handle it. Did you?”
“Are you challenging my word, Geo?” Peter steps to the man.
“No, Peter. I’d never do a thing like that.” His tone drips with venom. “But the full moon will be here in ten more nights. If the shadows come again—” His gaze flicks to me. “We can’t guaranteeanyone’ssafety.”
I can feel the air go taut, as if it’s tinged with electrical current between the two men. The others watch, none of them moving, maybe not even breathing.
“The shadows are taken care of,” Peter bites out. “I suggest you focus on the pirates. They’re more likely to take you out than any so-called shadow.”
“Yes, Peter.” The man finally relents, dropping his chin just a hair before backing away. The men seem to ease at the mention of their greatest enemies, as if talk of fighting pirates is more in their comfort zone.
Peter seems pleased with Geo’s answer and once again offers me his hand. His usual demeanor is back—warm and playful.
I take it, and he leads me from the room. “What was that about?” I hiss as soon as we’re on the platform that’s now foggy and damp. “First, you hit that guy for no reason. Second, what are the shadows?”
He sighs. “Moira, I did that for your protection.”
“I thought you said the Lost Boys would never hurt me.”
“Theboyswouldn’t.” He steps into my space, towering over me as I press my back against the wall. “But ever since the magic began drying up and we’ve becomemen—” He almost spits the word. “I have to be more careful. Especially now that you’re here. You’re the key to fixing this.”
“How?”
“I don’t know, but just by being here, it feels like the island might be beginning to heal. Hook is still trying to tear it apart, to grip the power at the heart of it, but you’ve changed something.” He taps two fingers over his heart. “I feel it in here.”
“I’m not the key to anything. I’m just a grad student, and I really wish?—”
He claps his hand over my mouth, his eyes going wide. “Don’t say that word.”
What the hell? I grip his wrist and try to yank it from my mouth, but he’s a lot stronger than I am. I get nowhere, his earthy scent in my nostrils, on my lips.
“Promise me, Moira. Promise me you won’t say that word in Neverland.” For the first time since I met him, Peter seems … scared.
I glare at him.
He slowly drops his hand. “Promise me.”
“What’s wrong with the word w?—”
His hand comes up again, and I hastily rephrase. “With that word?”
He sighs with relief. “Neverland is a place born of magic. Magical creatures are everywhere—though perhaps not now as much as they used to be, thanks to Hook. But that word has great power here. If a creature were to take you up on that—” He winces. “—‘Word’, then you’d be bound to it.Don’tmake deals here. Don’t make promises. And never, ever make a—” He cuts himself off, but his eyes tell me exactly which word is forbidden.
“Okay.” I can just add this to my mile-high list of things I don’t understand. But it does lead to another question: “What about the shadows?”
He rolls his eyes. “The boys have got it into their heads that the island is cursed and sends out shadows on the full moon.”
“That’s kind of … scary. What do the shadows do?”
