“Lost Boys. They’ve been missing for a while.” He turns and encloses me in his arms. “We feared Hook had gotten them.”
“Hook did this? Killed them and just left them like this?” I sniffle as Coy rubs my back.
“Don’t look. Shh. It’s all right.”
“It’snotall right.”
The others come back to us, their faces grim.
“Pirates.” It’s all Nibs has to say.
Coy turns me away from the bodies, from the cruel way they were left for the others to find. “Come on. Let’s get home.”
Dread seems to spread its wings over us and sink in its claws. The war Hook is raging against the island isn’t just some figurative thing out there in the ether. It’s happening, and those men swaying in the wind are the evidence of just how real it is.
The sky darkens even more as the rain finally lets loose, crashing all around us and shaking the trees overhead. Our steps quicken, and we push through the undergrowth as the lightning flashes closer, the strikes seemingly on top of our heads.
We break into a run, streaking through the dark until another bolt of lightning strikes nearby and makes everything bright as day.
That’s when we see the spears ahead of us, held by a band of warriors hunkered down and prepared to attack.
Chapter
Twelve
Sometimes, though not often, he had dreams, and they were more painful than the dreams of other boys. For hours he could not be separated from these dreams, though he wailed piteously in them.
Thunder rolls over the landscape as Coy jumps ahead of me, his hands up. “Wait! Wait. We’re not here to fight,” he yells.
The forest goes dark again, and I hold my breath as Nibs takes my arm and starts walking me slowly backwards. We don’t get far. The next lightning bolt reveals another line of people behind us, most of them with their bows drawn.
“Shit.” I scoot closer to Nibs as Tootles moves to my other side.
“If you aren’t here to fight, then why are you here at all?” A voice lilts through the quiet.
“Shiner?” Coy calls. “That you?”
“Coy.” Recognition and a snort of amusement. “How have I managed to catch you so easily? Hmm? Last time I had to chase you all the way through the forest and up into the fairy mounds.”
He laughs low in his throat. “I remember. Ialsoremember how nice you look under the light of the moon with nothing on you except me.”
I blink. Then blink more.Holy shit, Coy. Well played.
She laughs, her sultry tones meant just for him. I feel like I just stumbled into the wrong room at a party. A very sexy wrong room.
“You going to let us pass? We need to get home.”
Lightning strikes the sea, tendrils of electricity crackling along the water. The thunder seems to shake even more rain down from the sky, drenching us.
“Did you find the tree?” she asks.
“Yeah.” Coy’s voice is low and cold. “We did.”
“I’m sorry.” She moves closer, though I can only see her in a glancing flash of lightning. “Coy, you and your boys are free to go. I’m here forher.”
“Me?” I chirp.
“You can’t have Moira.” Coy bristles.
