Straight On Till Morning (Disney Twisted Tales) - Liz Braswell Page 0,94

had come to admit her wrongdoing and take her comeuppance. To begin the next part of her quest, where together the three of them would save Never Land.

She stuck her chin out and marched up to him.

Upon closer inspection she realized how small the boy was. Not tiny, but slender and no taller than she. Maybe even shorter. His face was very boyish—he hadn’t lost all the baby fat from his cheekbones yet, and his teeth were suspiciously small…like his adult teeth hadn’t come in yet.

Wendy swallowed, remembering the near-romantic thoughts she used to have of him. The eager young lad looking up at her now couldn’t have been more than twelve or thirteen in London years. His eyes, though feral and dark, seemed somehow younger than John’s.

“Hello, you must be Peter Pan.” Wendy covered her mixed feelings and nervousness with accent and politeness. She did not curtsy.

“Tink here was just telling me you were going to help me find my shadow!” Peter said with a grin of undiluted happiness. His teeth sparkled and his eyes crinkled in joy.

All misgivings and reluctance disappeared. Wendy was immediately swept up by his energy. She would do anything with him—she could tell he was the most fun person in the whole world. His games would be the best.

“I can see you’re having trouble with your shadow, too,” he went on to say, smirking at Wendy’s. She risked a look—the shadow was pouting, arms crossed.

“Well…wolves and shadows,” Wendy said nonchalantly. “They have their own minds and motives. What can you do?”

“Ain’t that the truth,” Peter said with a sigh. Wendy felt her heart skip. He was commiserating with her! They were bonding! “ ’Cause say what you want about them, but it’s hard not having a shadow, you know. It really tires you right out. I was just taking a lie down here, on account of my continual exhaustion and the pains.”

“Pains?”

Tinker Bell and Wendy looked at each other, worried.

“Oh, stomachaches and heart aches, like I’ve eaten too much from the snacky tree,” Peter said airily, dismissing it. “But ha, Wendy! I can’t believe it! I used to come and hear your stories…and here you are, helping me! On this beach, no less!”

“Of course. But…what are you doing on this beach?” Wendy asked, curiosity getting the better of her—and her apology.

“Looking for my shadow, silly! Didn’t I just say I was missing it?” he said with disgust.

It was approaching noon, and they were close enough to whatever passed for an equator that nothing had a shadow, except for the puffed heads of the palms directly over their roots.

And Wendy, of course, whose shadow sulked away from her on a sandy mound.

“But…there aren’t any shadows here at all.…”

“Exactly! So mine would stand out, right? I’d see him immediately!” Peter crowed in triumph.

Wendy looked helplessly at Tinker Bell, unable to think of a response to this lunacy. The fairy, who had been looking up at Peter with wide eyes a moment before, a delicate hand on his, gave her a little shrug: what can you do?

“Peter, I know where your shadow is,” Wendy said quickly, before something else stopped her from admitting the truth. “I had it. In London. I traded it for passage to Never Land.”

And Peter Pan, for perhaps the first time in his existence, was silenced.

Tinker Bell gave Wendy a nod and a tiny smile, pleased at her friend’s brave admission.

“You…had it?” he finally said, trying to work it out. “In…London?”

Wendy nodded. “You left it there. The last time you came, I suppose you surprised or upset Nana, our dog. She tried to bite you but grabbed your shadow instead, and I’m afraid she rather ripped it off of you. She didn’t mean to, really. She’s a good dog. She was just trying to protect us. I kept it all these years—folded carefully in a drawer, waiting for you to come back and fetch it.”

“I remember now!” Peter leapt up, twirling, laughing and crowing. “That was the last place I saw him! Gosh, I haven’t been back to London at all since then! I haven’t gone back at all, not even to look! That’s strange, I searched everywhere else. I should have looked there. But Tink kept telling me…Tink kept telling me…”

He frowned.

Tinker Bell swallowed.

Wendy bit her lip.

“Tink,” Peter said, eyes glowing with rage and suspicion. “Why did you keep telling me it wasn’t there? That I shouldn’t bother looking in London, or ever going back? Didn’t you want me to find my