Straight On Till Morning (Disney Twisted Tales) - Liz Braswell Page 0,118

or yeoman, or cabin boy, or something,” Wendy said in wonder. “I did think it was odd I was never properly introduced.”

“Our old captain here hasn’t been right for years…maybe he never was.” Zane shrugged. “Thanks to Peter Pan, or not. Anyway, you’ve won. We were on the point of mutiny anyway, if you want to know.”

They made a strange pair: the crumpled, pale Peter, whose eyelids were just beginning to flutter, hat tipped back—and next to him his nemesis, hunched over, shivering, black wig askew.

“This raises a lot more questions about Never Land,” Wendy murmured.

Slightly had directed the Lost Boys over to the golden cage. The moment the knobs were all reset and the gate swung open, the two shadows shot out together like captive birds set free.

Wendy watched the shadows, now elongated by the low, failing red light, enjoying their last moments that day together hand in hand, swooping and soaring over the water before merging into the dusk.

She smiled, lost in thoughts of other possibilities, other stories: where she was younger, Tinker Bell didn’t mind, and she and Peter wound up together.

In reality, Tinker Bell nervously hovered over Peter. He rubbed a hand over his brow and tried to sit up.

“Wha-what happened?” he asked, somehow sounding both imperious and demanding despite the weakness of his voice.

“We won!” Slightly said, kneeling down to pat his hand. “All thanks to Wendy here, and Tink, and this brave fellow, Thorn.”

Thorn bobbed demurely next to Wendy.

“But where’s my shadow?” Peter asked, looking around. “I still don’t have it!”

“He will be back, I promise,” Wendy said. “He’s just taking a little jaunt. But he has a good keeper this time. Shadows have their own minds in Never Land, and deserve some freedom, I think.”

“Well, then, it doesn’t seem like a victory to me,” Peter Pan said peevishly. “The whole point was to get my shadow back.”

Tinker Bell’s eyes widened. She flew in close and pinched his cheek.

And save Never Land, you acorn!

“Aw, I’m just kidding, Tink,” Peter said, waving her away and laughing. “I couldn’t have asked for a better rescue. You all did amazing without me. I guess I taught you really well.”

Wendy rolled her eyes. Tinker Bell gave Peter a kiss on the nose. Slightly laughed and bumped knuckles with him.

“You think you’ve won,” Hook whispered. “All of you standing around congratulating yourselves on a job well done. Well, you haven’t won. Peter was supposed to watch all of you die. Everyone and everything he loves. But if I can’t have Pan, no one can. Time comes for everyone, eh, Wendy? Tick…tock…Boom!”

He lapsed into a fit of psychotic giggles.

“What do you mean, exactly?” Wendy asked softly, addressing the captain the way she used to her great uncle.

“Goodbye, dear,” Hook hissed. “You’d be safer if you had stayed in London. Safe as houses. Here you’ll be quite exploded.”

It sounds like an incendiary, Thorn jingled.

“It’s a bomb!” Peter Pan exclaimed, standing up. Color was coming back into his face. “That’s how he’s going to destroy Never Land! He tried to blow up the hideout once—remember? It was attached to a clock!”

“Oh, that was a good adventure, that one,” one of the pirates said with nostalgia. “That one almost worked.”

“There was a clock in the chart room,” Zane said. “And powder. Makes sense.”

“A bomb to blow up all of Never Land?” Wendy demanded. “It would have to be huge! Where is this bomb, Hook?”

“I’ll never tell—never,” Hook said, holding a finger up to his lips. “We’ll all go together!”

“We’ve got to find it. All of us,” Slightly said. “Right now. Who knows when he set it to go off?”

“We’ll set sail right now and search the coastlines,” Zane said grimly. “With the right wind, we can make quick work of all the perimeters.”

“I’ll check the most explody places,” Peter Pan said. “The volcanoes and the geysers. Those would be great places to hide a bomb.”

I’ll rally the fairies, Thorn said.

Yes, yes! Tinker Bell jingled. We can cover all of the jungles if we spread out.

“We’ll take the caves around the mountains,” Slightly offered. “And the tunnels, all the places underground where it’s possible to hide a giant bomb.”

Wendy watched the unlikely group before her—Lost Boys and pirates, fairies and shadows—work together to excitedly plan how they were going to save the world.

She cleared her throat.

“Gentlemen!” she shouted.

Everyone stopped talking.

“And ladies,” she added. “And those who haven’t made a decision one way or the other, or have chosen not to choose. This is Captain