Page 23 of Tick Tock, Darling

He'd done that for me. A man I'd been rude to since the second I turned and found him in that doorway.

“Never.”

Chapter Nine

Caspian

I fell faster and faster. Colors — brown, blue, gold, black — blinded me. Wind tore past my ears.

Then the air changed. Hot and wet, thick as a mouthful, and green all the way through it. December gone out of the world.

Leaves slapped my face. Twigs tore at my shirt.

Then the ground.

I landed on one knee, panting. I scanned what looked like a forest. Smell of pine but there were trees and flowers I didn’t recognize. Every instinct was on alert. I kept waiting for Pan to ambush me or some other creature. I could feel eyes on me but nothing attacked.

Alice landed about five feet away from me. Her blond hair hung in her face. She knocked it away. “I’ll never get used to going through that damn portal.”

She almost made me laugh but my laughter died as I thought of Tinker Bell going through. Bound. Imprisoned. I looked around the ground for any signs of blood but didn’t see or smell any. Hopefully, she was unhurt.

Darius fell right between us. He landed on his feet as if he was a natural at this. But his face was grim.

“We’re here. I hope that shard didn’t wake Queen Alanna up.”

That's all we needed. A mad queen on our trail. One monster in this world was already one too many.

I looked at Alice. She was dragging her fingers through her hair, getting the tangles out. “Now what?”

She shrugged. “Follow the shard. It should light the way.”

I hoped she was right, because it was the only plan we had and I'd staked both of them on it.

Alice removed the lid of the box. A light shone out and lit a pebbled path I hadn't even noticed.

“Follow the yellow pebble road,” I mumbled.

The three of us started down it. The sun was out and the shard still lit the forest like a spotlight. No shadows anywhere. Birds went up out of the branches chirping angrily, as if to say turn off the damn light. Other creatures — some like squirrels, some like badgers, one like a deer with a striped hide — bolted deeper into the trees.

We weren't going to keep our presence a secret much longer.

The trees started to thin and the air turned salty. It reminded me of the ocean and my own ship. I felt most at home on the open sea. Sometimes land made me feel trapped.

“We’re getting close to the Grand Sea,” Darius said.

I glanced at him. “The sea leads to Neverland. Would it be too far to fly?”

“For me no. I can draw on my demon speed—” he flashed his gaze over me as if sizing me up. “—but I’m not sure a vampire bat could fly across that ocean.”

I clenched my fists. Calling me weak? The pompous ass.

“I can do it if I have to.”

He held up his hand. “It’s not just a great distance. The Grand Sea is unpredictable and there are creatures that live in the very depths.”

I didn’t like the sound of that. “What kind of creatures?”

“The Kraken for one. A huge beast over one hundred feet tall with six clawed hands. It has a long tail with deadly spikes. It’s always hungry.”