Forever Neverland(26)

Then she whirled on Smee, forcing him to take several quick steps back.

“Now, now, miss, take it easy,” Smee suggested, holding his hands up in the sign for parley. “Aint none of us‘ve got grief with the likes of you, an’ you don’t want to be goin’ and changin’ that, do you?”

Wendy bit her lip and waved the sword slowly back and forth, nervously. She hadn’t planned to get as far as she had and wasn’t certain how, exactly, she had hoped to help Peter Pan.

“The fairy,” she said, her strategizing brain kicking in before her conscious one could. “Release the fairy, you freebooting coxswain, and I won’t slice you open from your gullet to your gut!”

Smee stared at Wendy, stunned into blinking silence.

In a few seconds, Wendy noticed that everyone else on the ship had grown quiet as well, all of them staring at her in shocked wonder.

Hook and Peter, who had both frozen at Wendy’s bellowed order, watched Wendy with a curious fascination. Hook’s ocean blue eyes sparkled, and a faint, mysterious smile played about his lips.

“Wendy!”

Everyone turned at the sound of the new male voice.

John and Michael hovered over the far end of the Jolly Roger’s deck. John seemed out of breath and pale as the moon. Michael, on the other hand, with cheeks of pink and eyes that glittered gleefully, was obviously invigorated by his return to flight after five years of down time.

At once, Wendy realized that John must have carried Michael up through the skies and that it must have taken an awful lot of effort – and mental control on the happy thoughts front – for him to make it so far.

“Will the surprises never cease…” Captain Hook muttered under his breath. And then, using Peter’s distraction to his advantage, he struck. Hook’s wicked blade flashed like lightning and slashed a clean line into the leather of Peter’s jacket, slicing through the shirt beneath and cutting a red stripe across Peter’s chest.

The attack surprised Peter, catching him off guard. He leapt back, clutching his free hand to his chest, and glanced anxiously at Wendy.

She gazed, wide-eyed, utterly unsure of what to do next.

“Capture those two, bind them and seal them in the brig!” Captain Hook bellowed, pointing the long of his sword at John and Michael. The crew of the Jolly Roger swelled to life, rushing the two boys nearly as one.

John gasped and instantly tried to rise above the flood of pirates, but he only managed to clear their heads and the taller men were easily able to reach up and grasp him by the ankles. Michael, too, was taken, as his grip on his brother’s arm was wrenched loose and he was thrown to the deck of the ship.

And that was the undoing of the Darling brothers, who were then roughly and efficiently bound and tossed below deck within the space of a few rapid heartbeats.

“You’ve changed, Pan,” said Hook, in the midst of another upswing that once more forced Peter’s defenses.

Peter grimaced, blocked the attack, and countered with one of his own. “And you haven’t,” he retorted, swinging his sword with renewed vigor. “Your heart’s as black as it’s always been!”

“Said the young man dressed in garb of pitch,” Hook taunted, with a meaningful glance up and down Peter’s tall form. Peter chanced a quick peek down at himself and barely managed to bring his sword up as Hook’s sharp blade snuck in at another angle, nicking another piece of leather from his jacket.

At the same time, a few pirates moved toward Wendy, and she whirled on them, slicing through the rope holding one man’s breeches in place, and knocking off another man’s hat with the flat of her blade. Her heart raced dangerously fast. “Stay back!” she screamed. They backpedaled, the man who’d lost his trousers doing so somewhat clumsily.

“The fairy, I said! Set her free!” Wendy demanded, once more rounding on Smee until the tip of her stolen sword threatened the area just over his heart. Her brothers were captured now and Hook seemed to be gaining the upper hand with Peter, and Wendy knew that only Tinkerbell possessed the kind of magic that could turn things around for everyone.

Peter fervently glanced toward Wendy, attempting to watch the goings-on, even as he fought off Hook.

“You seem distracted, young man,” Hook continued, using a term that he knew most likely disturbed Peter to his core.

“Shut up,” Peter hissed.

Hook smiled. “I can’t help but suspect that you might have something on your mind other than beating me in battle.” He stole a look in Wendy’s direction.

Peter’s green eyes flashed fire. “You leave her out of this, Hook.” His tone was low and held a note of very grown up warning.