Forever Neverland(59)

But Smee’s tiny victory was short lived because it was then that the fairies chose to unite, and it was Smee they chose to attack.

The first mate ducked, covering his head with his free hand as three flying pixies dove for his head. They sported coconut-sized rocks in each hand, like ants with giant bread crumbs, and they chucked these rocks at Smee as they soared past.

Smee managed to catch the first two attacks on the knuckles of the hand he was using to protect his head, but then the pain obviously got the better of him and he lowered his hand to take the third rock in the head. He fell to one knee, releasing Peter’s sword so that it clambered noisily to the stone beneath him.

Peter immediately dove for it, grabbing the hilt in fingers that had become slick with rain and sweat and the blood from his head. He stood once more, the weapon now firmly in his grasp.

But as he turned to face Hook, a hush fell over the cavern. The lightning ceased to flash. The thunder stopped rolling, and the wind died down.

All was quiet.

All eyes were on Hook.



Chapter Twenty

Wendy stepped back from the two pirates, clenching her fist around the grip as she tried to think of something to do next. One pirate was bad enough. One flying pirate with a sword was worse. But one flying pirate with a sword and another on the ground was impossible.

And then Mullins and Cecco looked over Wendy’s shoulder and the massive cavern fell suddenly, eerily, quiet.

Wendy frowned. Cecco lowered his sword, his gaze still focused on something behind her. Neither pirate moved. It felt as if all of Neverland had come to a stand still.

Very slowly, and against every natural instinct she possessed, Wendy turned around.

Down below and across the rippling black water, Captain James Hook stood on a slick, dark platform of stone with Michael Darling held tightly in his right arm, his left hand pressing the barrel of his pistol against the boy’s temple.

Wendy went very still. The world felt as if it was dropping out from under her. She dared not breathe. She even willed her heart to stop beating so fast, lest Hook hear it and pull the trigger.

He peered up at her with those Cerulean blue eyes and, even from this distance, she felt as if she would drown in them. The seconds stretched, threatening minutes, and then Hook cocked the gun.

“Please, no!” Wendy wanted to fly to him, but she feared that if she did, he would finish it. Thus, she was frozen in that spot, her shoes glued to the stone by the fear in her heart.

“Oh, I wouldn’t hurt him, my dear Wendy,” Hook said. In the unnatural silence, his voice rang out clearly and echoed off of the walls. “After all, I gave my word that he would not be harmed, didn’t I?” He shook Michael then, eliciting a grunt of pain from the child. “And a promise is a promise.”

Lightning slammed into Skull Rock, an electric force like a bomb, stronger times ten than any other blast had been. The accompanying thunder clash was deafening. Pirates, pixies, and Natives who were not carrying weapons instantly crouched low and tried to cover their ears. But the ground shook beneath their feet, knocking them off balance and forcing them to use their hands to catch themselves.

The wind picked up again, gaining at an absurdly abnormal speed, until within a few short seconds, it was howling through the cavern. Firelight danced and flickered, casting crazy shadows on everything and everyone in the cave.

Wendy shut her eyes against the sting of airborne salt water and her own whipping hair. When she opened them again, it was to watch one of the ancient, magical torches against the wall being knocked from its sconce by the gale.

As far as she knew, that had never happened before. The torches of Skull Rock forever burned. They had never been moved and they were never extinguished.

Yet, it fell, all the same. The torch made a strange sound as it hit the ground. It was hollow and empty and final.

The flame went out.

Wendy’s sneakers slipped against the overhang on which she’d been standing. The rock had split and cracked under the force of the awesome thunder clap, and she screamed as it now crumbled beneath her, dropping her toward the darkness and the water below.

She heard someone shout, but the sound was drowned out by another mighty boom of thunder. Wendy’s arm was wrenched painfully in her socket as Cecco’s hand slammed around her wrist and pulled tight. She dangled from his grip, saved from the icy waters beneath her by the very pirate she’d been trying to kill.

Another torch fell from its port and tumbled ominously to the ground. Wendy couldn’t see her brother; she couldn’t see Hook. But as Cecco yanked her back up and over the lip of the overhang, the cavern’s light began to wane.

One by one, the torches fell, the wind furious and deadly, the thunder causing the rock to splinter and fall all around them.