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“Follow my lead.” I managed to get the words out without sounding like a blubbering fool. Then I pushed up and got to my feet, leaving her in the dirt. It went against every instinct I had, all my training, and I felt slimy doing it, just like I had all damn day. I turned my back on her without another word, as though she wasn’t the most captivating soul I’d ever encountered.
A familiar sound, long lost in my ocean of memories but not forgotten, filled the space around us, like tiny shards of glass falling delicately on a marble floor.
“Hello, Anya.”
“My dear, sweet Hook.” The pixie’s sing-song voice was an instant irritation across my nerves, and hearing that cruel name on her lips sent a flurry of fire through my chest and back that made my scars tingle. It brought with it a maddening urge to reach up and press my hand to the irritated flesh. To claw at it and rip it apart just to make it stop.
If I could have seen the normally faded, puckered scars, now many centuries healed, I knew I would find those lingering reminders of her viciousness flushing a bright, angry pink. As though the injuries she’d inflicted with her magic and malice had only just happened.
I stopped myself before I reached up to touch my chest, anchoring my restless palm to the hilt of my cutlass. “Careful, pixie.”
There was a rustle behind me, and I felt more than heard Never get to her feet. She kept a few feet of space between us and, thankfully, kept her mouth closed.
The pixie’s tiny form was unassuming, at least until her wings agitated the air around her. In a swirl of brilliant turquoise dust that made the ferns and palm fronds nearby shiver, she grew to nearly match my size.
Her green eyes danced between me and Never. “Does this mean our arrangement has come to an end? ”
Our arrangement. She made it sound so civilized.
I forced a casual stance, feigning calm. “The arrangement stands.”
Her wings fluttered in pulses as she circled us, no doubt trying to glean something useful about Never. She turned up her nose with a little huff. “Taking in humans now? I knew you’d changed, but this is bottom of the barrel, even for you.” She raised her glittery hand and tapped her lips with her index finger. “But I’m curious, what is a human girl doing in this realm in the first place?”
Tension rolled off Never, and she stiffened behind me.
Anya’s face lit up. She almost looked like the sweet pixie I’d made the mistake of trusting all those years ago, save for the malevolent gleam in her green eyes. She touched down, her bare toes settling lightly on the rich soil, but her translucent wings never stopped moving.
“Aw.” She pressed a hand over her heart, or the place a heart would have been if she’d actually had one. “This is the big sister, isn’t it? Come to rescue the new kid?” She looked Never up and down and clucked her tongue. “Too bad you decided to shack up with a pirate.”
“I didn’t shack up with anyone,” Never hissed from behind me. “I came here looking for my brother when this asshole kidnapped me off the island and detained me on his ship. Now he’s trying to make amends by playing tour guide.” The venom in her voice sounded real enough.
Was she just playing along, or was some of that ire truly meant for me?
Anya shook her head. “Nice try, girl. I saw you protect him.”
She laughed mischievously. “You saw me tackle him. That was not protection. In case you haven’t noticed, he’s kind of a dick.”
Anya hummed thoughtfully and gave me a seductive once over. It was almost enough to make me physically ill. “He is many things.” She spread her wings and shook them gently, releasing a cascade of fine turquoise dust that shimmered in the light.
“Don’t.” I tapped the handle of my cutlass in warning, but she just shrugged innocently. As if she hadn’t just been releasing pixie dust around her for some malicious purpose. I wasn’t sure the maniacal creature had ever actually possessed innocence.
Her eyes glittered knowingly. “Don’t what, pirate?”
Before I could respond, Never stepped in front of me. “Where is he? Where is my brother?”
Anya folded her arms over her chest and grinned. “What’s in it for me?”
20
NEVER
My mind raced trying to think of anything I could offer the pixie in exchange for my brother’s location. What could she possibly ask for? According to the stories, her kind loved collecting shiny things, little trinkets. Yeah, the only two things I had that met that description were my dagger and the pendant.
No and no.
She stood just shy of six-feet tall, and her wingspan, or what I could see of it when she stretched them out until they looked like iridescent gossamer pulled tight over a fine silver frame, was nearly twice that. It made perfect sense why she would need the ability to shrink down to the size of a softball. There was no way she could fly through the forest otherwise.
“You work with Pan, correct?” I asked, eying her and those gently fluttering wings. Not going to lie, she made me a little nervous.
