I glance at my husband. “Nolan, we could have helped her.”
I watch him replay the events of the night in his mind, just as I am doing.
“I saw her in the crowd,” I say. “And the Nomad too, I think. I didn’t realize it was them. I thought it was them, but then she didn’t have any wings, and I thought I was just seeing things.”
Nolan shakes his head. “If she wanted our help, if she wanted us to know she was there, she could have made herself known.”
I work my lip, thinking of the Nomad. “Unless he didn’t let her…”
Nolan shakes his head. “He let her get away long enough to plant that on you. And besides, the pocket watch was in hispossession, not hers, the last time we saw it.”
“You think he wanted us to have this?” I ask, examining the pocket watch in my hand.
“I think she convinced him to let you have it,” says Nolan.
I frown, hating that I missed a chance to speak with my friend. To see if she’s okay. But Nolan’s reasoning is sound.
“You don’t think she had anything to do with the prisoner that broke out, do you?” I ask.
“That, Darling,” says Nolan, “is exactly what I think.”
“You did say that Tink spent years in a carnival,” says Charlie, “didn’t you?”
I nod. “Yes, but I didn’t think that was the carnival she was enslaved to.”
“I’m sure those places make trades of their slaves,” says Nolan. “It’s quite possible that whoever she broke out, she had connections with back in her carnival days.”
I frown, thinking back to something the Nomad said about him needing Tink. I had gotten the impression it was for more than her past connections, but the Nomad is not one to waste resources.
“I just wish I had been able to see her face,” I say, looking down at the pocket watch.
I’m not sure what Tink wants me to use this for. It’s not as if Peter has any shadows left to trap.
There’s a part of me that wonders if the Sister herself—if her shadows—could be trapped within something like this. But I have a hard time believing the Sister’s power could be held in something so small.
I place it back in my pocket and ponder on these things. Then head down to our cabin to greet Michael and tell him I have a message from his friend.
CHAPTER 54
We’re all suited up in leathers on the day we are to infiltrate Neverland.
According to Peter, Neverland is the only place he still knows how to reach the Sister. It’s not as if we can verify any of this, so we have to take him at his word for it, which makes me uneasy.
There is a part of me that wants to believe that Peter is genuinely helping us—well, as genuine as he can possibly be. I still get the impression he’s hoping to steal my heart. But still, the fact that he didn’t force a bargain on me in order to enlist his help provides me some comfort.
But as I emerge onto the deck and see him on the edge of the ship, perched up on its railing, his wings extended behind him—one the dark leather patagium, the other shining black metal—I ache to know what he’s thinking as he stares up into the night sky. What I once would have given to know what he was thinking, just for the sake of it, just to know him better. But I now know better than to lose myself to the current, to the depths of Peter’s mind.
All I want now is the assurance he will not betray us in the end.
I linger behind him. As Nolan and Maddox are still down in the map room—I can only assume they’re discussing their strategy—I’m the first one to make it up to the deck.
“Ready for this, Wendy Darling?” asks Peter. He hasn’t moved in the slightest, giving no indication he knew I’d ascended onto the deck.
“I am ready to see my son. I am ready to hold him once again.”
“You sound so confident,” says Peter, turning his face to me. There’s no mocking in his voice. In fact, there’s something akin to admiration. “You’re different.”
He doesn’t mean it offensively. But it stings all the same.
