Darling - K. Ancrum Page 0,11

around and looked out the window and down into the alley below. “We’re not strangers anymore, I don’t think. Acquaintances, now, I guess.” He turned back to her. “I’ll wear your stitches with pride, of course. They’ll just make the jacket more magic.”

“The jacket magic…?” Wendy echoed.

“Sure,” Peter replied, shrugging. “It definitely helps.”

Wendy tied a double knot at the end of the row and pulled it tight, then she turned the jacket right side out and held it out to him. Peter shimmied into the jacket quickly, then he held his arms around himself and took a deep, grateful breath. His eyes fluttered closed and he shivered a bit.

When he opened them, they twinkled with mischief.

“Would you like to see some magic now?” he asked excitedly.

Wendy opened her mouth to say, No, and also get out of my house, but before she could, Peter flashed his fingers behind her left ear and pulled out an acorn, then darted his other hand behind her right ear and pulled out another piece of yarn. Then, quicker than felt safe, Peter whipped a blade from his pocket and slit the acorn stem down the middle, scratched the side of the acorn a bit, and strung it along the yarn like a necklace.

“If you give me more time, I’ll make something prettier,” he said bashfully, presenting it to her.

Wendy took the acorn from his hand and turned it around. Peter had carved her name and a small star into the side. The yarn itself was elegantly braided to keep the acorn in place. She hadn’t seen him do that …

“It’s like a shadow,” he explained, gesturing at the jacket. “Hides what needs to be hidden for just long enough.”

Wendy didn’t know what to say. She looked at the acorn, then back at Peter. He backed away from her bed and opened her window again.

“So, I’m off. As promised,” Peter said with a wry smile. “Thank you for your time, your kindness, and the pleasure of your company. Welcome to Chicago, Darling.”

He slipped beneath the windowsill and into the night.

Wendy looked down at the acorn necklace for a minute, then strung it around her neck. It was warm on her skin, as if Peter had been holding it against his own skin for hours.

She was just about to get out of bed and make sure all the doors in the house were truly locked when Peter popped his head back up and into her room.

“Sorry to startle you,” Peter said, “and forgive me if this is a bit too forward, but do you want to come to a party?”

“Do I … what?!” Wendy clutched her chest and willed her heart to stop racing.

Peter grimaced. “It’s … kind of an open invitation sort of thing, and you did mention you were new to the city, and your parents clearly aren’t home. Do you want to come out and see the sights with me? I promise I’ll get you back before morning.”

“I’m not going anywhere alone with some strange boy I just met. Are you high?”

Peter looked over his shoulder at the two-story plunge below him and chuckled. “Well. Yeah. But I’m not alone. Tink’s here. We could all go together.”

Wendy got out of bed, went to the window, and peered down into the alley.

Leaning against the wall was a very short and very angry-looking girl. She had her blond hair entirely shaved except for two patches by her ears, and long bangs she had swept to the side. She was wearing a forest green velvet minidress and leather jacket, and her tights were ripped practically to shreds. She had a wooden pipe in her hand and was smoking out of it with a stiffness and unapproachability that nearly equaled Peter’s graceful and attractive sprawl against the side of Wendy’s house. The girl glared up at the window at Wendy and Peter but didn’t say a word.

“She’s a girl, too, which helps, I think,” Peter explained. “I wouldn’t have asked if I didn’t think you’d be more comfortable with other people here.”

“Has she been down there this whole time?” Wendy asked. “When I was sewing your jacket and everything? That was like a half hour!”

Peter shrugged. “I brought her for safety. Climbing houses is hard and I’m good at it, but old Tink here won’t let me go anywhere without a spotter. She’s a stickler for rules.”

Wendy frowned and turned back into her room to think. She looked down at her pajamas, around the room she had