Forever Neverland(51)

“Forget them, Wendy! Hook won’t hurt them! Now come on!” He reached his hand through the open window and grabbed her by her upper arm, pulling her toward him. Wendy caught herself just as she would have run into the stained glass that lined the window on either side. Then she pulled back, jerking her arm out of his grasp.

“No, Peter!” She’d given Hook her word. I promised I wouldn’t escape, she thought frantically. And, thus far, Hook had kept his part of the bargain. Shouldn’t she keep hers? If she left, what would the pirate captain do to Michael and John? “I can’t leave!”

“The storm, Wendy!” He growled at her, motioning to the turmoil around them. “You can’t stay here; it’s too dangerous!”

As she stepped back from the window, something red flared in the emerald depths of Peter’s eyes. Wendy gasped and blinked.

And then Peter was sailing through the window to land on the wooden planks in front of her. Lightning flashed – and then flashed again. Thunder rocked the cabin. Something on Hook’s writing desk rattled ominously. Peter glanced in that direction and then settled his strange green gaze on Wendy once more.

“I’m not going to argue with you, Wendy,” he told her, his tone low. “I’ve spent time on a ship in a storm; believe me it isn’t fun.” He shook his head, once. “I’m not leaving you here.” He took several steps toward her, but she hurriedly stepped back.

“And I’m not going with you, Peter,” Wendy asserted in a tone just as low and determined. “I made a promise and I intend to keep it.”

It was probably one of the most idiotic things she had ever done. If she’d had a lick of sense, surely she would have taken his hand and left the ship then and there. But she’d given Hook her word, and as the captain had said – a promise meant something. Especially to a pirate.

She also couldn’t leave her brothers behind. Not now.

Peter stood before her, a tall figure in mist-drenched black, his blonde hair dampened and darkened by the gathering storm. And Wendy suddenly felt a little shorter. That strange redness flashed in his eyes again. She wondered if she were imagining it. It reminded her of someone else. . . .

Peter said nothing for what seemed like an eternity. He just stood there, his jaw set, his eyes sparking green and, sometimes, red. Wendy felt her resolve melting ever so slowly away. What would Peter do next?

And then there was a noise at the door.

Wendy whirled around to face it. When she did, she felt Peter’s arms wrap around her, quick and strong. Her own arms were trapped at her sides. His hand slid over her mouth to prevent the sounding of the scream that was already bubbling up inside of her.

Before she could think to react in any intelligent or useful manner, Peter was lifting her off of her feet and sailing with her toward the open window. There was a hard shattering of glass as Peter used his leather-encased elbow to knock out the side panels, giving the two of them enough room to glide through.

And then they were in the air and the wind was whipping around them, chaotic and cold. Wendy let loose with the scream that had been building, but it was effectively muffled by Peter’s hand. She had no pixie dust. There was nothing to catch her if she fell this time. The ship that sailed further and further below sported an empty deck. The sea around it churned angrily. The clouds whirled and rolled and spun overhead and the world was dizzying as it both sped away beneath her and loomed ever closer above.

Wendy shut her eyes tight and, with every conscious fiber of her being, she willed Peter not to drop her.

*****

Hook slid the key into the door of his cabin just as the sound of shattering glass greeted him from beyond. He shoved the door open and stormed into the room.

Wendy was gone.

Wind whipped at his hair and scattered the papers and maps on his desk on the other side of the room. The lanterns swung hectically on their chains, their flames extinguished long ago. The cabin loomed around him, empty and foreboding.

Anger flooded his system as it never had.

He felt betrayed in that moment. And the pain it caused in his heart was worse than any he had ever known. It was worse, in fact, than the pain that Pan had dealt to him on that cursed night so many hundreds of years ago.

Hook stood at the center of his whirlwind of a cabin, unmoving and uncaring of the cold and the rain that battered his tall form. He gazed at the open, ruined window and thought of Wendy’s promise.

She lied.

It was the worst thing a pirate could do to another pirate. Break a promise – go back on her word.

But Wendy wasn’t a pirate, was she? He didn’t know why he’d thought of her in that way. How could he have expected her to remain here, with him, on this dangerously listing ship when she could flee to safety with –