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“Why?” My skin crawled with frustration, prickling in an almost painful way. “Why would Wendy do everything she did to try to save them, only to turn around and kill them?”
Hook—Atlas—whoever the fuck he was, shook his head and gave me a pitiful look that made me want to punch him in the throat. “We didn’t get to them in time.”
I waited for what felt like an eternity, but apparently that was all he was going to give me. “What does that even mean? If she killed them, that means she got to them while they were still alive, right?”
“It’s not that simple,” he said, backing toward the bed. He sat on the edge, spread his legs in that cocky, masculine way some men had, and leaned forward, elbows on his knees. “The demon had already succeeded in separating the boys from their shadows. Killing them was the only humane option.”
A hot rush of panic flooded my system, making my head pound in time with my increasing pulse.I only had two days left.My lungs couldn’t hold enough air. I let my hand fall to my side but kept a painful grip on the dagger’s handle. “I’m going to need you to show your work here, because you aren’t making sense. If this is Neverland, and there is all this magic, is there really no way to save someone like that?”
Understanding softened Hook’s face, but it didn’t soothe the need for violence ranging in my heart. And I decided in that moment I would be calling him Hook for eternity. He could go fuck himself if he didn’t like it.
His eyes took on an eerie glow, reflecting the moonlight back at me. “It consumes souls as a source of power. Once they are gone, all that’s left is a husk. Still living, but a slave to the demon’s whims. There are dozens of such creatures on that island, children who were forever trapped, forever under the demon’s control.” His voice fell to almost a whisper. “Killing them is a merciful act.”
“Fuck.” I felt breathless. I looked down, glaring at the knife in my hand and my short fingernails digging into my palm around it. “Fuck, fuck, fuck!” I paced in front of the table. “You’re telling me this douchebag demon turns kids into lesser demons?”
He watched me, saying nothing for long enough that I was tempted to repeat the question, only louder and with more colorful phrasing.
“They’re not demons,” he finally said. “Demonsdohave souls. It’s how the ancients were able to trap it here. The demon’s shadow, soul, whatever you wish to call it, is bound to the island. The demon’s physical form, however, is not. It can leave this place, but only for short periods of time. If the two remain separated for too long, even the demon doesn’t possess the power to reconnect them.” He waited until I looked back at him to pin me with a serious look. “No one does.”
“Why does he want the souls? You said he consumes them, but for what? Are they like some gross delicacy?”
“Consume might not have been the right word. Souls are powerful, the most powerful magic in the universe. Incredibly strong magical barriers were erected to keep the demon’s shadow tied to this place, but each time the demon succeeds in luring a boy here and collecting his soul, it absorbs that power.”
I continued my pacing, trying to work through the implications of what he was telling me.
“If you keep that up, you’re going to make me dizzy,” Hook said with a slight quirk to his lips.
I paused. “You’re a pirate. Don’t you kind of need to be immune to motion sickness for that job?”
He leaned back on his hands, crossing one ankle over the other. “Doesn’t matter. I got you to stop moving for a moment.”
“Yay for you. Can we get back to the demon?”
“That depends.”
“On?”
His head tilted to one side and the edge of a scar peeked out from the open collar of his shirt. “Do you believe me?”
I kept my eyes locked on that scar as I straightened and adjusted my grip on the blade. My intention wasn’t to stab him, at least not right that moment, but having something in my hand helped me think. Kind of like my mom with her cigarettes when I was a kid. She always had one burning between her fingers, but sometimes she would just hold it and stare at the ember on the tip, letting it burn away to nothing as it filled our tiny kitchen with pungent smoke.
Did I believe Hook? I felt like a crazy person, but yeah, I guess I did. “So far.”
“Fair enough. The demon and those soulless boys have the run of the island. The sirens and other creatures that are a danger to you have no interest in tangling with them. They don’t have enough power to manipulate a creature with no soul.”
“Does anything have that kind of power?” I asked.
“To manipulate? I can think of one or two things. To kill? No. The demon is immortal, and the soulless are nearly immortal.”
“So, that means the lost boys can be killed?” That’s what I was hearing.
He watched me for a long moment. “They can, but it takes a great deal of… dedication to get the job done.”
So, if my brother was with them, he was being held hostage by an immortal, soul-sucking demon, and his soulless, almost immortal minions. Awesome.
Something from the story came back to me. The made up one.
I held up a hand. “Are pixies real?”
