“You remember what I told you last time?” James asked her as the rock grew nearer.
“About what?”
“About Pan. About good versus bad. About how I won’t ever win.”
“You won last time.”
He scoffed. “I didn’t. You did.” Then, more soberly, “I’m probably not going to win this time either.”
“But what makes him good?” Jae asked, reaching up and pulling him to a stop with her. “What makes you bad? Because you had these roles once upon a time? Because Granny picked him over you?”
He opened his mouth, probably to argue, but she held a finger up to stop him.
“Stop letting someone else define you,” she finished.
He raised his eyebrows at her.
“What?”
Her question was met with silence and a look.
She waved him away. “No one defines me. But you do what you want.”
They reached the gaping mouth of the skull and pressed against the cold stone wall, listening. It was Pan’s voice that reached them, and she noticed his shadow, high up on the wall, like he was sitting in one of the eyes.
“You thought you were better than me from the first moment you woke up on the island. Well, look at you now. No one gets the better of the Never King for long.”
Jae had forgotten that Pan had called himself that once, when he’d banished the pirates and been known as the Dream Thief to the rest of the world. No one thought him the king anymore, except for himself, apparently.
“You are no king.” The sound of Wren’s voice flooded Jae with relief as she voiced her exact thoughts. “You are just a scared little boy who can’t grow up.”
“And you are just a foolish little girl in a pirate costume who won’t grow up.”
Jae looked to James at this, expecting to see the captain agree with Pan, but his face was stoic, his mouth grim as he listened to them exchange insults.
Deciding they were too absorbed in their argument to notice intruders, Jae and James crept forward until they could see inside the cave. Just as she thought, Pan was perched in one of the eyes. Even though he couldn’t fly anymore, he apparently still liked to be higher than everyone else. Wren was tied to a pole in the middle of the cave, the water rising around her neck. Every now and then, she had to raise her chin so as not to get it in her mouth. Across the cave, on a ledge nearly out of sight, slumped Archer, his hand to his side where, Jae guessed, he was injured.
What a mess. Even though she’d told him she hadn’t wanted him there, she was at least glad that James had ignored her and she wasn’t going into this alone.
They leaned back so they were safely out of sight.
“Remember the Never bird?” James whispered to her, his voice barely audible so as not to echo off the cave walls.
Jae nodded. Of course she did.
“I’m going for Pan. You get Wren and Archer.”
Now Jae shook her head. Just because Pan couldn’t fly didn’t mean he wasn’t still one of the best fighters on the island. And how was she supposed to get two people to safety, even with Bell’s help? Jae couldn’t even walk.
“You remember Wolf?” Pan was saying.
He was met with silence by Wren, but she knew her sister remembered. It was one thing that still haunted her, watching that boy drown with Archer’s arrow in his back as Wren made her escape from the island on the pilfered Jolly Roger, with half of James’ crew and half of Pan’s boys in tow. According to Wren, Wolf had been awful to her, but he was just doing what he thought was right, what Pan told him to do. How many times had Wren told her that it should have been Pan in the water instead? Countless.
“It seems only fair that you suffer as he did.” Pan’s voice was low and teasing. He had to know it bothered Wren, too, and he was using it. “Let the water fill your nose and your mouth and your lungs. Let it pull you under.”
Jae clawed for the surface, reaching, grasping for something, anything, a hand to hold to pull her out, someone to save her. Water and darkness and pain—that was all she knew. Overhead, the world burned.
There was a thump and then footsteps against the stone. He was moving. “The only thing missing . . .” There was a grunt and then the familiar creaking noise of Archer’s bow being pulled tight. “Is an arrow in your back.” He sighed. “Of course, it would be more poetic if your boyfriend shot it, but since he can’t exactly stand right now, let alone shoot an arrow, it will have to be me.”
Jae turned to James, her eyes wide with panic. Pan was going to shoot Wren. He was going to kill her maybe even before she drowned. She hated to ask it of him, but she did with her look alone, no words needed: Please, don’t let him do it.
James gave a sharp nod and shot out of the cave’s mouth, back the way they’d come. At first, Jae was confused, but then, she heard his voice from somewhere inside.
“Pan, stop.”
Jae darted forward, peering around the cave’s mouth again. There was James, perched in the eye where Pan had been moments before. His voice must have startled Pan, because he jerked the bow up, firing wild. The arrow knocked harmlessly against the stone and plunked into the water.
After a brief, stunned silence, Pan laughed delightedly, though it did sound a bit forced.
“Ah, James, good of you to join us. I believe you know Wren. You helped her betray me, if I’m not mistaken, just before she betrayed you, too.”
“Hello, Wren,” was all James said.
“Are you here to watch, then? To revel in the traitor’s suffering?”
Jae had somehow, in all the madness, forgotten that James had every reason to want revenge on Wren, too. Wren had made false promises to him, stolen his dreams, and locked him in a tower to await discovery by his nemesis. Granted, he’d brought her to the island against her will, so maybe he had it coming. But perhaps James wasn’t the best person to send on a rescue mission for Wren.
“No,” came James’ answer. “I’m here to stop you.”
Pan scoffed. “What? Don’t tell me you’re taken with her, too.” The bow creaked again as Pan drew the string tight.
“No.” His eyes flicked to Jae’s and then away. “Not her.”
Jae ducked under the water just as Pan turned in her direction, trying to see what James saw. James took advantage of his distraction and lunged forward. Pan stepped back, forgetting about Archer. He tripped over Archer’s outstretched legs and teetered for just a second before falling back, landing hard on the stone ledge. James pursued him, sword drawn now, and Jae knew this was her chance.
In just that short amount of time, the tide had risen even more and was now lapping against Wren’s chin. Wren was sputtering, taking deep breaths and pulling against her binds but only making the knots tighter. Carefully, Jae reached out and touched her sister’s wrist.
Wren jerked, her eyes frantically searching the water. When she spotted Jae just below the surface, she looked furious instead of relieved.
“What are you doing here?” Wren hissed.
Jae surfaced behind her, keeping Wren between her and the dueling boys. Sparks flew and the sound of metal on metal rang off of the walls.
“Rescuing you,” Jae said.
Wren scoffed—actually scoffed, tied up and defeated as she was. “Go home, Jae. This isn’t your fight.”
Jae ignored her, her fingers working at the knot. But her long claws made her clumsy at this, and she had a hard time working them into the knot.
“You’ll only get hurt,” Wren said over her shoulder. “You can’t do this.”
Jae didn’t pause in her effort, even as salty tears welled in her eyes. Because her eyes were especially equipped to deal with salt water, they didn’t blur her vision, but they did pour down her cheeks as readily as if she were weeping. She was glad Wren couldn’t see her. It would only serve to prove her right.
But she was wrong.
This was Jae’s fight, too. A fight to prove to her sister, to James, to herself—that she was capable of t
aking care of herself, and not just herself, but them, too. She was capable of making decisions, of taking action. She didn’t need someone to watch out for her all the time. Sometimes, she could be the one doing the watching.
Her claw slipped and scraped Wren’s wrist. Wren let out an involuntary cry of pain. It was short and not very loud but it was enough to draw Pan’s attention. He ducked one of James’ swings and then whirled on them.
“You,” he spat, recognizing Jae probably from when she’d nearly drowned him with her siren’s call. Then, with a dangerous smirk, he dove into the water, slicing through the surface as easily as a merman, easily avoiding the next swing of James’ sword.
Jae gave one more tug and the rope binding Wren’s wrists snapped. Her sister gave a shout of relief and began treading water, keeping herself at the surface.
Then, seeing that Wren was fine, Jae ducked beneath the water to meet Pan head on. There was no fear, only acceptance. She was a mermaid, and he was a boy, and it didn’t matter who was good and who was evil, because underwater, she would always win.
Chapter 12
It usually took Jae’s eyes only a split second to adjust to the darkness beneath the surface. Without the sun overhead, though, it was thicker here, deeper, and the water was colder.
Reaching, grasping . . . water and darkness and pain . . .
Jae spun, searching for any sign of her adversary, knowing that he didn’t fight fair. He prided himself on having good form, but only when it favored him. Only when he was winning. And right now, he was losing. He had to know facing a mermaid beneath the water was a suicide mission. Or maybe he didn’t. Maybe he was arrogant enough to think that—
Something sliced against her arm and her blood, black and thick, spilled out into the water.
Water. Darkness. Pain. A cloud of blood.
She squeezed her eyes shut, forcing out the memory. Then, she spun with a hiss, searching for him.
There was nobody. She could not even see Wren’s legs above her, or the glint of moonlight off James’ steel sword. She was alone, and the darkness was closing in fast, pressing in on her, heavy, unbearable, squeezing the air out of her lungs.
Lungs that she didn’t have anymore. She had to remember—she wasn’t there anymore. She wasn’t that feeble human anymore, with lungs that didn’t work. She wasn’t drowning, she wasn’t dying. She was more alive now than she’d ever been, and this was where she belonged. He was fighting her in her territory, not his, king or not.
She heard him coming by the gentle movement of water around his body and whirled in time to meet him this time. Her claws lashed out, her hand grabbing his blade. She bared her teeth at him in a feral hiss, flaring the fins at her ears to add to the ferocity. Maybe it was foolish to hold the dagger as she did, her hands wrapped around the blade, but it worked. He dropped it and flapped his arms and legs, paddling backward, dissolving again into the dark.
This time, Jae followed him. She was the one doing the hunting, and he was the grumpy crab trying to scurry away, snapping useless claws at her as if that would deter one of the most fearsome predators in the sea. As she moved, she flicked her tail carefully, as quietly as she could so as not to disturb anything else that might distract her from her true quarry.
Finally, movement just to her right. Her hand shot out and—
Nothing was there.
But she wasn’t falling for that again. She turned in the opposite direction and this time, her fingers wrapped around a skinny ankle. He gave a kick, but it was weak—he’d been under the water for a long time. She tugged at him, her hand snaking up his leg and to his arm until they were face to face.
His eyes were wide with fear, and his lips were blue with cold. He made small noises of objection deep in his throat, but he wasn’t able to voice them, not here underwater.
Maybe he couldn’t talk, but she could.
“I could kill you right now,” she said, running a claw over his cheek, careful not to draw blood. The wound on the back of her arm still stung, so it was tempting to return the favor, but that wasn’t her, not really. She pressed her claws to his bony human chest and felt his heart pounding against its walls. “I could reach my fingers into your chest and carve out your weak heart.”
He squirmed, trying to kick her, but he had no strength.
“But I won’t.”
He looked relieved, but also like he might faint.
“Not for your sake,” she continued, though she knew her time was short, “or even for mine. But for the sake of my grandmother, who loved you. And, for her sake, you won’t touch me or my sister or James or anyone we love ever again.”
He nodded frantically.
She stared at him for probably too long before deciding he’d had enough. Then, she gave a powerful stroke of her tail and shot toward the surface, Pan in tow.
When they surfaced, she tossed him onto the rocky ledge. He coughed once and then started taking huge, gulping breaths before collapsing onto his back.
James was on his feet. “What happened down there?”
“We’re not going to do this anymore,” Jae said, brushing her hair back from her face. “It’s over.”
Wren was there with Archer. She’d torn his shirt and bound his wound, and he didn’t quite look like he was on death’s door anymore. “What’s over?” Wren asked.
“All of it. The feud between the three of you. This has gone on long enough. No more.”
James furrowed his brow and looked down at the panting Pan. “No more?”
Pan nodded, and when he spoke, his voice was hoarse and low. “No more,” he agreed.
Wren walked up to them then, and when she reached the boys, she spit into her hand. “Spit swear,” she said.
James looked at her like she’d lost her mind, but Pan was already pushing himself up to his feet. Pan spit in his hand and shook hers, and then they both looked at James.
“I’m sorry, what?” James asked.
“Spit swear,” Wren repeated.
“It’s the most unbreakable of promises,” Pan added.
“I am not—”
“James,” Jae barked.
James turned to her, his mouth half open.
“Just do it.”
He pursed his lips, exhaling through his nose, and finally spit into his own palm. They all shook again, and then wiped their hands on their respective pants.
Jae watched the whole proceeding with a smile, not caring that her lips were pulled back and exposing her fangs. They were a part of her, as much as her tail and her claws and the gills that crossed her ribs. She was done being ashamed or trying to hide herself to spare her sister or to woo the captain. This was who she was, whether they liked it or not. Now, she just had to do her best to make Wren understand that.
Chapter 13
They did not leave Skull Rock until morning. The dark side of the island was still dark, of course, but some orange and pink clouds could be spotted on the other side of the mountain. Bell loaned her fairy dust to everyone except for Jae. Even Pan got enough to fly himself back to his treehouse. Jae was still doubtful as to whether or not he would keep his promise, but was more convinced when she watched him receive the gift of the fairy dust. He stood with his eyes closed, hands upturned, a smile instead of a smirk on his lips.
Wren kept her arms around Archer as they took off. He was still in pain, but the blade had missed anything vital. And Wren was, of course, no worse for the wear. James went next, with a glance back at Jae to make sure she was following. And she was. They had agreed to meet up in the lagoon, and there, she would tell Wren her final decision. She was glad James would also be there to hear it.
The celebration was over by the time they returned to the lagoon. Some mermaids still slept near the surface or on the shore, but it was no one Jae recognized, most of the rest having retreated back to the colony. The Lost Boys were gone, too, except for one, a small boy with glasses, who slept slumped against a tree. There were no pirates to be seen, except
for James, who came to rest on Marooner’s Rock with Wren and Archer.
Jae was the last to arrive, but only because she held back. Not because she was afraid, but because this was the moment that would truly change everything. Not when she left Starlake, or when Naunet turned her into a mermaid, but this moment, now, when she made the decision and took control of her life into her own hands.
“Jae!” someone hailed her under the water.
Jae turned and saw Assana, trailed by Leven, slicing through the water toward her, something clutched in one fist. When she reached her, she uncurled her hand and revealed the vial of orange potion.
“I thought you might need this.”
Jae took it. “How did you know?”
Assana shrugged. “It seemed like it might be time.” Then, Assana put a hand on Jae’s shoulder and smiled almost sadly. “Whatever you decide, I know it will be what’s right for you. But you’ll always have a home under the sea with me.”
“Thank you for everything,” Jae said with a nod. Then, she looked pointedly over her friend’s shoulder at the waiting merman. “But I think you might be needing your privacy soon.”
Assana giggled in a way that was very unlike her and pulled Jae in for a hug before swimming away with a wave of her tail.
Now that she had the potion, there was no delaying it. Jae approached the rock and surfaced nearest to Wren, resting her elbows on the stone shelf just below where her sister sat. She pinched the vial between two long fingers.
“What’s that?” Wren asked, taking it from her.
“Jinx’s potion,” Jae answered.
Wren looked up at her, surprised. “You found it?”
In answer, Jae nodded to the vial with an admittedly smug smile.
“That’s amazing. Now we can get this over with.”
Jae wasn’t smiling anymore. She bit at her bottom lip, then forced herself to look Wren in the eyes. “I’m not going to drink it.”
Kingdom of Villains and Vengeance Page 44