Page 29 of Tick Tock, Darling

I put my hand flat on the wheel and held the course north.

Alice unboxed the shard and it lit a path on the water, but instead of going north, it went east. “You need to follow the path.”

I studied Darius. The puzzlement on his face wasn’t reassuring. “I thought Neverland was north.”

“It is.”

East. Not where Darius said. Which meant the one man aboard who’d been to this world before was as blind as I was.

Alice looked between us. “The shard is leading us to Tinker Bell, not Neverland.”

I didn’t know if this was a good or bad thing. I had no way to gauge this world and had to trust Alice and Darius to show me the way. Not what I wanted. I wished my crew were here. I trusted them.

“You don’t think Pan’s taking her to Neverland?”

“He’s taking her to his shadow,” Darius said.

Of course he was. But I knew Tinker Bell. She had a reputation for being a fighter. She wouldn’t do this willingly. That’s what scared me. Pan was ruthless. He didn’t take kindly to no. Men had ended up dead for defying him.

Alice gasped. “There’s something in the water.” Her voice cracked.

My fangs extended. The Kraken had found us. But when I followed her gaze, there was something floating in the water—a piece of clothing—not just clothing. Pajamas. The bottoms Tinker Bell was wearing when she was kidnapped.

I gripped the wheel tighter and the wood cracked.

Darius reached over and snagged the bottoms. He examined them. “Shit, they’re stained with blood.”

Tears slid down Alice’s cheeks. “He keeps hurting her.”

Every time he hurt her, I’d make him hurt twice as bad. I’d bleed him dry.

I stared at the bloody pajamas.

I knew what he does. I’d had years of knowing it. Every port I went into I heard another piece of what he’d done to my sister, and I’d stand there and take it and say thank you and go back to my ship.

Now it was happening again. Same man. Different woman. And I was on a boat I’d bought for four gold coins, a day behind him, doing exactly what I’d done the last time.

Nothing.

“That’s what Pan does.”

Silence overcame us. Water slapped the sides of the boat. The shard’s golden trail led farther and farther out to sea. Even with my vampire eyes I couldn’t spot the boat.

Darius flapped out his wings. “I could fly and see if I can locate Pan’s boat.”

Alice’s head came up fast. She didn’t say a word. Her hand found his arm and closed on it and she didn’t seem to know she’d done it.

“I should be doing it.”

He frowned. “Why?”

“Because you have somebody on this boat who needs you to come back.”

Alice’s grip on him went loose. She looked at me and her chin came up and her eyes filled, and she pressed her lips together and turned her face toward the water.

Nobody said anything for a minute.

Then Darius folded his wings. “Be careful. Pan’s crafty.”