I reach Marooner’s Rock just as Darling leaps over the other side.
I’m just about to jump after her when several of Holt’s men surround me.
They’re more an annoyance than a threat.
I toss one off the cliff’s edge and he screams the whole way down.
Another I grab by the wrist and the ankle and swing him around and around and then lob him into the ocean.
A third I turn into a snail and crush beneath my boot.
I can hear Darling and Vane talking on the beach below and am momentarily relieved they’re okay.
At the bottom of Marooner’s, the twins make quick work of the rocky slope to join us.
All of the fae are gone and the Crocodile has devoured most of the pirates. And the ones he didn’t eat ran off like cowards.
Holt stands practically alone in a slant of moonlight, a black rock dangling from a chain in his hand. I can sense the shadow trapped inside of it. Vane’s shadow.
That’s certainly not good, though not entirely unexpected. Vane was already considering giving his back.
“Now what?” I ask Holt.
He smiles at me and brings the rock up and jams it into his chest.
And…nothing happens.
He frowns and tries again.
The twins slow as they reach us and then a second later, Vane and Darling land beside them and Vane looks…better. Whole again. In fact, it almost seems like…
I frown at him.
The look he gives me in turn says, Later.
“What’s happening?” Darling asks.
“Holt is trying to claim the Darkland shadow, but he’s having trouble,” I explain.
“What’s wrong, Holt?” Vane says, his voice rumbling. “Did you forget to read the instructions?”
He growls, brandishes a dagger and slices open his palm, then curls his hand around the rock and holds it out, blood dripping from his fist.
We watch him because it’s entertaining.
“Here’s what they don’t tell you about shadows.” Vane steps in front of Holt and pries the rock from his bloody hand. “A shadow claims you as much as you claim it. And if a shadow doesn’t want you, you’re fucked.”
Holt’s eyes widen with panic.
Oh yes, I am enjoying this.
“What was it you promised to do to me?” Darling asks. “Strip me bare…”
I growl behind her. The fuck did he say to her?
“Use me within an inch of my life…”
I step into her, ready to tear the fucker’s face off, but she holds me back.
“Then split me open and use my guts as a noose?”
Holt backpedals and holds the knife in front of him, as if that will save him now.
“Take off your clothes,” Darling orders.
Holt shifts his weight from one foot to the other.
“I said…take off your fucking clothes.”
Following the path of least resistance, Holt mutters to himself and starts removing articles of clothing until he’s naked and shivering in the cold.
I like being naked. Neverland earth always feels better on my bare skin.
But there is nothing quite so vulnerable as being naked in front of your enemies.
And judging by the way Holt’s muscles are locked up, he knows it too.
“I will show you some mercy,” Darling says. “I don’t fuck cowards anyway.” She wraps her hand around his wrist and blackness spreads through his veins and bleeds up and up to his chest, then up his throat.
He lets out several hiccupping breaths.
Darling pushes his arm in, driving his blade closer and closer to his stomach. He fights her, teeth gritted as the blackness races upward.
She’s half his size in height and weight, but he’s having a hard time matching her in strength.
And watching Darling have her retribution is the single sexiest thing I’ve ever witnessed.
The blade pierces Holt’s stomach and he lets out a disgusting sob.
Darling jams the blade forward, then drags it across his stomach.
His guts spill out and he coughs up blood, sinks to his knees. He’s in so much pain, he can’t speak.
“Goodbye, Holt,” Vane says and then kicks him over the cliff’s edge, guts and all.
When they turn to us, shoulder to shoulder, it’s obvious what has happened.
The Neverland Death Shadow is pulsing in their eyes.
Vane is healed and Darling is no longer suffering under the full weight of the shadow.
I am so fucking relieved I could scream.
Instead, I grab Darling by the wrist, yank her into me and kiss her.
I kiss her like I mean it because I fucking do.
Somehow, the myth of Peter Pan has fallen in love with a Darling girl and his three asshole friends.
A different kind of love for each of them, but love just the same.
I never want to return to the darkness alone ever again.
“Ewww get a room,” Bash says with a laugh.
Darling breathes out around our kiss and then pulls back to gaze up at me, the twilight reflecting in her black eyes.
“I’m glad you’re okay,” I tell her. “Our vicious Darling girl.”
