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The path led us onto an outcropping of sandstone overlooking a yawning cavern. The hollow space was only dimly lit by a smattering of lanterns that all seemed to pulse unnaturally. Far beneath us, dozens of boys lay on the ground. Some appeared to be sleeping peacefully, while others talked or played quietly. They ranged in age from about ten-years-old to probably sixteen or seventeen. It was tough to tell from that distance.
My heart leapt at the thought of seeing Matty, but a quick scan of those faces revealed nothing familiar. “Are these the lost boys?”
The pixie wrinkled her nose, but her treacherous eyes lit up in a way that made my anger flare. Everything she did seemed to piss me off.
“No.” She held her hand up, palm out, and the scene in front of me shimmered. The playful giggles and boyish snoring morphed into moans and groans and muted cries of misery. Those healthy, happy boys withered, losing their mass and shrinking, some to little more than flesh coated skeletons.
The first threads of panic tightened my throat and I swallowed hard. “What the hell is this? What are you doing to them?”
Anya brought that silencing finger to her lips again and I wanted to break it. The word “trap” pounded through my awareness with my rising heartbeat. My fingers loosened on the handle of my blade, preparing to flip it around so I could take her out if I needed to.
But could I?
It wasn’t a moral question, not a question of right or wrong. I was more than willing to end her existence if it came down to it. She wasn’t fooling me with that gorgeous, glittering façade. Anya was a predator through and through, and killing her wouldn’t cost me a wink of sleep.
But was it even a possibility?
Hook’s injuries back on the ship should have been life threatening. Hell, if someone I knew had sustained that kind of injury back home, I would have been on the phone with 911 in a heartbeat or hotwiring a car to speed them to the nearest hospital.
What if his ability to heal quickly was tied to this place? And if it was, who was to say Anya didn’t benefit from the same magic? I tightened my grip on the blade again, feeling the cool metal press against the skin of my wrist.
“Whatever you’re doing to them, stop now.”
The pixie’s eyes gleamed in the dim light. “This isn’t my doing. All I’ve done is lift the glamour.” She shook her head, but the look on her face as she smiled down at the misery below us was one of twisted reverence mixed with pleasure. “You see, you naïve little girl, there is no escaping this realm, not for boys who summon demons. The ones who play the game are granted the freedom to roam this island, to play and dance and do whatever they wish with their endless youth, so long as their loyalty is true.” She motioned to the moaning, writhing bodies below us. “This is the fate that awaits your brother if he doesn’t give her what she wants.”
The sing-song tone of her voice grated against my already fraying nerves, but I didn’t miss that little slip, if it was a slip. I narrowed my eyes. “She?”
21
NEVER
Anya tilted her head like she was listening for something, then her wings fluttered rapidly and we were back outside.
Except we weren’t just outside the caves or back on the trail where we’d met. I squinted against the sudden brightness. That pixie-shaped monster had taken me all the way back to the beach.
“What the hell?” I spotted two sets of footprints moving toward the tree line and my heart sank. It was the same place where Hook and I had started that morning.
“Please, I just want to find my brother and get him home.” I dropped my blade in the sand and held my hands up.
She was perched on a thick branch in a tree a few yards away, examining her nails without a care in the world.
“What do you want?” It was a challenge to keep the venom from my voice.
Her gaze dropped to my hips, and she licked her lips.
Um, no. Hard pass on that one.
She must have read my mind, or maybe the look on my face, since I probably didn’t do the best job of hiding what I was thinking.
“That is mine,” she said, pointing one glimmering finger at my right hip. At the pendant.
It suddenly felt like a twenty-pound weight pressed against my body. How had she even known it was there?
“This old thing?” I reached down and pulled the necklace free, letting it dangle from my middle finger. Her gaze followed the soft swing of the pendant greedily as I held it up and examined it. “This is yours?”
Her eyes narrowed. “Do you have any idea what that is, child?”
I chewed on the inside of my lip, considering my options. Really, I didn’t have much to work with, so I shook my head. “No.”
