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She sniffed like a debutant faced with the task of addressing someone below her station, wrinkling her nose. A wave of rage tore through me, setting my skin alight and making my extremities tingle. What was it about her that triggered that response in me?
Was this what it felt like to have a mortal enemy? A nemesis?
“If you tell me what it is, I’ll think about trading it.”
Her grin turned into a snarl. I hadn’t ever considered what a snarling pixie might look like, and I definitely wasn’t ready for the shock of terror it sent through my body. I stumbled backward, tripping over something in the sand and almost falling on my ass before I managed to stabilize. I shoved the necklace in my pocket and flicked my gaze over the ground, checking for any more potential hazards.
“Give it to me,” Anya hissed, except she didn’t sound like a sweet, adorable pixie. No, her voice was like a dozen dark, dangerous voices twisted around each other.
I knelt slowly, trying to appear non-threatening, but she saw right through me.
And shit, she was fast.
I dodged her mid-air charge by the skin of my teeth and whirled around, wielding the piece of driftwood I’d snagged from the sand like a bat. Under no circumstance was I letting that little glitter bitch get behind me, or in my pants.
In the blink of an eye, she shrank to the size of a grapefruit and disappeared into the trees.
Yeah, I definitely wanted to cut the little bitch. Maybe, before everything was said and done, I’d carve those pretty wings from her back when she was in her creepy bug-sized form and string them up on a delicate silver chain.
It would make a lovely necklace.
A high-pitched battle cry pierced the air, like an angry hummingbird on the warpath, and she barreled at me. Her charge through the trees was jagged, but I squared up and swung that gnarled chunk of wood like I was Babe Ruth aiming for a home run.
The crack when it connected reverberated up my arm and into my shoulder, and it sent her screeching ass tumbling into the shadows in a giant puff of turquoise glitter.
I waited for a breath. Then another. “Want to try again?” I yelled. I scanned the darkness as my chest rose and fell with quick, shallow breaths.
Part of me wanted to pull the pendant from my pocket and examine it, but I knew better. She was probably out there waiting for another shot at me.
Anya appeared out of nowhere, hovering just inside the tree line. “That was a mistake, girl.” Her lips twisted. “You’ll never find him in time.” A blinding flash of turquoise light illuminated the darkness beyond the trees and in a blink, she was gone.
“Wait!” I lunged forward then spun in a circle, making sure the glitter bitch hadn’t rematerialized somewhere nearby. A quick scan of the beach told me what I already knew; I was alone.
The skiff was gone too, and the pirate ship that had been anchored offshore was nowhere to be seen.
A rollercoaster of emotions twisted inside me, all battling for dominance as an invisible vice slowly clamped around my heart again. I’d expected that wretched little bug to pull something, but to have Hook ditch me like that, to see the evidence that he’d bailed. Ouch.
“Classic Never,” I grumped at myself, bending down to pick up my knife. I stared out across the open water, frustration bubbling in my chest. “And to hell with you too!”
The gently rolling waves gave me nothing in return, no hint that I might have been wrong about him. Why did any part of mewantto be wrong about him anyway? Even if the man wasn’t a pirate, which he most definitely was, he was also snarky and cocky and a giant pain in my ass. I drew in a deep breath and held it for a count of four.
When I let it out, I didn’t feel any better.
“Fuck it.” I slid my knife between my belt and my jeans, wedging it in place at my hip, and marched back toward the tree line. “Fuck it all.”
* * *
The rest of the day crawled by. Even the sun barely inched across the afternoon sky. And it felt like I was making stunningly slow progress finding my way through the woods. I was on the same trail Hook and I had followed earlier, I was sure of that much, but the vines and palms were already creeping back into the path, reaching ever closer as the minutes ticked by and the shadows slowly stretched longer across the ground.
Eventually, I reached the spot where we’d gone our separate ways. At least, I thought that was it. The fruit rinds were gone, and everything looked just different enough in the waning daylight to make me question myself. Being on the right trail meant nothing if I didn’t know where I needed to go.
I took a minute to rest, sitting on a boulder and closing my eyes, trying to conjure the sounds that had surrounded me when I’d had my run in with the glitter bitch.
How close had Hook and I been to Pan’s lair when she’d intervened?
Close enough to get her attention.
The sandstone walls of the cave had buffered the outside world, absorbing most of the sounds that dared intrude from the dim openings. I squeezed my eyes shut and focused on the memory. Water. I remembered the dull roar of running water, but none of that babbling brook nonsense. No, this water was headed somewhere, fast.
