Page 24 of Tick Tock, Darling

This place was just getting better and better. “It guards Neverland?”

He nodded. "And Pan. He can summon it to take down whole ships or grab things out of the sky."

So flying was out. Which left the water, in something wooden, at whatever speed a boat makes.

"Then we need a ship," I said.

Darius looked at me like I'd suggested we walk it. “Where are we going to get a ship?”

I stepped out from the forest. “I have no idea, but this is your world. Where would you get one?”

The Grand Sea had earned its name. Big waves rolling in, some of them breaking white on the rocks, the whole thing a blue-green I'd never seen on any water anywhere. Just looking at it eased some of the muscles bunched up in my neck. On another night I'd have stood there and looked at it.

But she was somewhere out on it. That took the pretty right out of it.

Darius looked up and down the beach as if a boat would miraculously pop out of the sand. I don’t know. Maybe it would. This was the Elder Dimension—not Earth.

“We go west.” Alice held up the box and the shard threw a path down the beach.

I followed the light onto the sand. Three sets of footprints heading the same direction. One set small and bare. She was walking. Whatever else he’d done to her, she’d been on her own feet.

But then I smelled it. Metallic. Blood.

I rushed over to a dark patch of sand. I knelt down and put my fingers in it and tasted it. Sweet. Spicy. But there was something else. Strong. Almost like anise.

Alice frowned. “What is it?”

I tasted it again, and I hated myself a little for how easy that was. Magic in it. Definitely something magical in the blood.

“Someone’s blood.” I glanced between their troubled faces. “I think it’s Tinker Bell’s. I swear it almost tastes like Christmas.”

Darius cocked his eyebrow. “Have you ever tasted Christmas?”

He was really starting to piss me off.

I stood and wiped the sand off my fingers onto my jeans. “Yes, I have. Anise. I love pizzelle cookies and they always remind me of Christmas.”

Alice’s shoulders slumped. “You think someone hurt her?”

And they’d pay for doing it. Ripping out Pan’s heart. Bleeding him dry. Doing to him exactly what he’d been doing to her, and taking my time about it.

“I do. Pan’s ruthless.” I folded my arms. “Who knows what the hell he’s doing to her.”

Darius pointed. “There’s a small fishing village. Ifelthas. Two or three miles away.” His face was grim. “We might be able to rent a boat there.”

The scowl didn’t match the good news. “You don’t look too happy?”

“The villagers there are loyal to Queen Alanna.” He said her name and something closed down behind his eyes.

I had no inclination to meet this Alanna. She could remain asleep forever for all I cared.

Alice clasped his arm. “You keep forgetting, Darius. My father’s king. Things have changed.”

Daughter of a king. That would help.

“If her father is a king, what are you worried about?”

“Because Alanna’s cunning, vengeful, and she’s a witch. I was supposed to marry her and literally left her at the altar.”