Peter had been leaning against a tree, listening to the exchange, and had gone unnoticed until now. “There won’t be any more pirates after today. They are going home,” he said. “This is the last adventure with them.”
All of the Neverlings went quiet as their attention focused on Peter, so Jack took these precious few seconds to untie Lori. Who knew what the Neverlings would do next? He wouldn’t put it past them to try to tie them both up in an attempt to keep them in Neverland. Once her hands were freed, Lori gripped his arms and pulled him close. “I’m sorry I didn’t come,” she whispered. “I would have.”
“It’s all right now.” He leaned down and kissed her.
That kiss was all it took to break the silence. “Eww!” he heard the Neverlings say in unison.
“He’s too grown up to play anymore anyways,” Beetles huffed. “Just as well that they go, I suppose. We can have our own fun.”
Jack broke the kiss and grinned at Lori. “I believe we’ve been excused. Are you ready to go?”
“Yes. More than ready,” she replied, locking her arms around his neck as he lifted her up, furs and all.
“Well, I guess this is goodbye, Runt,” Beetles said, giving him a quick nod before turning to disappear into the forest.
“Yep, goodbye, Runt,” Patch told him, following the round boy’s lead.
“’Bye, Runt,” Scuttle and Tootles replied at the same time as they, too, headed for the forest.
Morbert was the last to leave, stopping just long enough in front of Jack to say, “I didn’t wet myself. It was sea water that got splashed on me. Goodbye, Runt.”
Jack nodded and the little boy left with the others.
Peter watched them go, then he turned to Jack. “Tell your captain that Tink will come tonight to take them back. I gave my word. They are free to go.”
Without another word or the goodbye the others had given, Peter Pan turned and walked to the place the others had disappeared, his shoulders slumped, as if he was wishing more than ever for the ability to fly again. Tink flew over his head, sprinkling his brown hair with golden dust in hopes that he would remember his happy thought.
Jack waited until they had all gone before starting back toward the boat, Lori still held tight in his arms.
“I think I can walk,” she said, wiggling her toes. “I’ve never had legs before.
“Do you want to try?” he asked, more for the sake of being polite than anything else. Now that he finally had her, he didn’t want to turn her loose for a second more than he had to.
“No, not yet. I’ll have lots of time to walk after tonight,” she laughed and snuggled into his chest. Her next words were muffled, but they pulled at his heart. “I wanted to die when I watched you sail away. I thought I’d never see you again.”
“I’ll never leave you again,” he vowed, placing a chaste kiss on the top of her head. They were almost back at the boat and it was only mid-morning. They’d return to the ship soon with plenty of time to spare. A thought struck him. “You didn’t make it to tell your mother goodbye.”
Lori straightened in his arms. “I know. I have to tell her before I go. Will you wait for me?”
“Always,” he promised, walking slowly for those last few steps in an attempt to keep her with him as long as possible. At the very edge of the ocean with the water brushing over the top of his feet, he put her down.
She smiled at him. “Shall I to meet you at the ship tonight?”
He shook his head. “No, not this time. I’m going to stay right here until you get back. No one else is going to take you away from me ever again.”
The last thing he wanted was for the Neverlings to decide to play one last game and kidnap her one more time, even though they had said they were finished with taking mermaids.
She reached up and brushed a light kiss on his lips. “I’ll be back soon,” she promised.
He set her down so that her the surf washed over her feet. He held her tight for a moment more, then turned loose. Giving him one last bright smile, she turned and dove into the sea.
10
Broken
ODIN HAD SEARCHED for Lori for hours. She simply wasn’t in the water—or if she was, she’d found the best hiding place in all of Never Sea. He shook his head. Tiny bubbles escaped from his mouth and spiraled in a flurry toward the surface.
Annalise had come to him late in the night, frantic.
He knew that Lori had spent all of her nights in the tall grass in the knoll over the castle. Ever since that day her mother had left marks on her arm, she hadn’t spent another night with her, choosing instead to sleep in the thick, soft rushes in the open water. Annalise had known it too. He’d seen her sneak up to check on her daughter each night.
“She isn’t there!” she’d cried, pacing back in forth in front of the Mer queen—Odin’s mother—and himself like one crazed.
“It’s all right,” he’d told her, hoping to soothe away her worry. “I’ll find her.”
But he hadn’t, and he’d looked everywhere. Well, almost everywhere. He brushed a lock of blond hair away from his face and looked up. The surface glimmered from the morning sun. It was possible she’d fallen asleep on the shore. He’d spotted her with the pirate more than once and saw the look on her face when she sat on the shore with him. Odin knew she was in love with him.
That’s where she had to be, so that’s where he was going to have to go to find her, Odin decided, swimming up into the cooler water.
A sudden splash on the surface got his attention as something came hurtling toward him in a frenzy of familiar red hair.
There she is! Relief and happiness surged through him now that his search was over. She had indeed been on the shore, the one place he hadn’t checked.
His first real glimpse of her body told him something wasn’t right. Where her beautiful blue tail should have been, there were two human legs.
Odin’s heart dropped nearly as fast as Lori was sinking. He realized her fingers were clawing at the water as if she was trying to swim. As her hair swirled around her, he caught a glimpse of her wide, terrified eyes and the flood of air bubbles that was escaping from her nose and mouth. He rushed up and wrapped his arms around her, swimming toward the surface. The ocean that should have been home to her was killing her.
The human has done this, he seethed. With a couple more thrusts of his tail, he propelled them to the surface and pushed them both above the water.
Luckily for the human, Lori began coughing the instant her head came above the waves, or he would have immediately swam to the beach, grown his own legs, and promptly killed the one responsible for this.
Lori moaned and laid her head on his shoulder for a second before coughing again. He looked down as something warm trickled down his chest. It wasn’t water Lori was coughing up, it was blood.
The ocean is killing her, he realized. I have to get her out of it.
“Hold on, Lori,” he told her, trying to keep his voice calm and even, even though he knew it was on the verge of breaking. “We’ll get you fixed up and everything will be fine.”
“Jack…” he heard her whisper, her voice scratchy. “Jack…the curse.”
The human was responsible for this. Anger roiled through Odin. The human named Jack would pay dearly for what he had done.
“Hey!” he heard a shout and saw the soon-to-be dead man on the shore, waving at him, trying to get his attention.
Odin swam for the shore, not caring when the tide swept him into the shallows and the sand scraped at his tail.
The human ran into the sea up to his knees toward him. Though Odin wanted to grab him and drown him on the spot, the look on the man’s face stopped him.
Tears were running down his cheeks as he reached for Lori. “No, no, no,” he whispered, taking her from Odin as gently as if she were made of some fragile seashell. He stumbled through the water until he made it out of the surf, carefully laying her down in the sand.
Odin followed as far as h
e dared, wary of the human and of losing his own tail. “How did this happen?” he asked. “What did you do to her?” The last part came out thunderous, but the human didn’t care. He was busy brushing her hair back from her face and wiping the trail of blood that came from her lips.
“The sea witch’s curse did this,” Jack answered him finally. “I should have known and not let her go back in. This is my fault.”
The way the man’s voice broke made it impossible for Odin to stay angry. He loved her, he realized. The pirate had fallen in love with Lori, just as she had fallen in love with him.
He watched as Jack leaned down and kissed her. It was obvious from the way he waited, that he thought the kiss should have done something. When it didn’t, he kissed her again, this time more urgently.
Jack finally leaned back just enough that Odin saw her face. Her eyes had sunk in and her cheeks were becoming hollow and her breath was raspy.
“I’m going to Nerida,” Odin told him. “She’ll know how to fix this. It’s her curse after all, though I don’t think she ever meant for it to do this to merpeople.”
“Odin…” Lori’s eyelids fluttered. “…get…my mother.”
“But Nerida…”
“No...time,” she managed. “Get…my mother…I have to tell her…”
“Okay,” he turned and dove into the sea. He wanted nothing more than to swim straight for Nerida’s isle, but the way Lori’s voice faded had him worried that she was right; that it would be too late by the time the sea witch arrived to set things straight. And if Lori died and he hadn’t done as she had asked, he knew he wouldn’t forgive himself.
He headed straight toward the bottom, different scenarios playing through his head as he wondered what would happen when he found Annalise and she realized her daughter was now human—and dying.
A few moments later, he arrived at the last cavern and called out for her.
She emerged, the same frenzied look on her face that he had seen the night before.
“Where is she, Odin? Did you find her?”
He took a deep breath, knowing that his next words were going to be hard for her to hear.
“She’s on the island—and she needs you.”
He’d expected her to ask questions, but she swam straight past him as fast as any water sprite he had ever seen, and headed upward. She was so fast that he had a hard time catching up, but he finally took the lead to show her where they were headed.
“The humans have her, is that it?” Annalise asked him as they rushed for the surface. “I’ve warned her so many times…”
Though Odin had felt the need to kill Jack only moments earlier, he now found the desire for some reason to defend him. “His name is Jack,” he told her. “And I’m pretty sure they love each other. It’s the curse on the sea that is the problem, not the humans.”
Annalise was silent and Odin didn’t know whether it was a good thing, or a bad thing. Then they were at the surface and he didn’t have time to worry about it.
Jack had pulled Lori farther out of the water, seemingly in an attempt to help her, hoping that maybe if the sea was farther away from her it would help.
Odin watched as Annalise swam right up onto the shore, completely out of the water. Her tail shimmered, then melted away, leaving two human legs for her to use to rush to her daughter’s side, not caring that the sea might very well curse her, too, when she came back to it.
Jack had been cradling Lori’s head in his lap, oblivious to everything around him, but when her mother knelt beside of him, he looked up, tears still running down his face.
Lori was limp, Odin realized as he watched Jack gently move her to her mother’s lap. It was as if every bit of life had drained out of her in those few moments that he had been gone. Her arms and legs were thinner, nearly skeletal and her once shiny, long hair looked dull and matted…and he didn’t hear her raspy breaths any more. Jack arranged the fur that had been covering Lori, so that it covered both her and her mother, then he sat back and wrapped his arms around his knees and watched them.
“My poor sweet girl,” Odin heard Annalise whisper. “I am so sorry for everything.” She stroked her face with her fingertips. “I always thought if I kept you close, you would always be safe, but I drove you away. And now look what has happened. I should have listened to you, and now it’s too late.”
Lori stayed still, unmoving and silent. “I love you, Lorelei,” Annalise whispered as she leaned down and kissed her forehead, then gathered her up close and hugged her daughter to her.
A quick jolt passed in the water, as if it had suddenly been struck with lightning. Odin’s attention left the two mermaids on the beach and he started to look up into the sky to check for a storm when he noticed the water was changing color. While the sea had always held a small tinge of a dark color for as long as Odin could remember, it was now clearing, leaving the water a clear and vibrant blue. It felt different, too, as if something heavy inside the Never Sea had lifted.
Magic, he realized. Somehow the curse had been broken.
“Momma?” Lori’s voice sounded young, weak, and muffled coming through Annalise’s hair. At the sound of her voice, Jack pushed himself to his knees in the sand as he took one of Lori’s hands.
“A kiss of true love from a selfless soul is what was supposed to break the curse. You did it, Momma,” Lori said, her voice getting stronger with each word. “And I love you so very much.”
THEY’D SPENT THE rest of the day on the beach, Lori sitting in the sand with her mother as she told her everything she’d wanted to say, and Jack spending time with the sea prince.
Odin was more of a big brother than a cousin to Lori, he realized. When the merman figured out that Lori was leaving Neverland with him, he’d peppered him with more questions than Jack had thought possible. Finally, after he had answered every one and assured him that he had every intention of loving Lori for eternity, in whatever world she was in, a small gleam of approval showed in the sea prince’s eyes.
“You have my blessing,” he’d said, and even though Jack knew that Lori would go with him, with or without her cousin’s agreement, it was a special thing.
Annalise wasn’t as easy to convince, it seemed, as he overheard her ask Lori why she wanted to leave Neverland.
“I love him, just the way you love Daddy. That’s why I’m going with him. I can’t stand being apart from him.” He saw Annalise reach out and brush a strand of Lori’s hair back.
“Then, I won’t stand in your way,” her mother had answered, though she made sure to look up and fix Jack with a stern look. “But you have to promise to take care of her always or I’ll find you, wherever you are.”
“Yes, ma’am. I promise,” Jack said solemnly.
After a tearful goodbye from Annalise and wave of farewell from Odin, the two dove back into the sea as the last rays of the sun glowed on the water.
Jack took Lori’s hand and helped her into the boat. He looked behind him at the island for one last time, somehow knowing that tonight when the Jolig Roger sailed, they wouldn’t ever come to Neverland again. Part of him felt sad as he stared at the place that had been home to him for so long, but as he looked into Lori’s face happiness overwhelmed him and he couldn’t help but smile.
While he had lost many things here, he had found his true love in Neverland—and that was something he would never forget.
11
Home
TINK FLEW OVER the ship, looking at the ones standing on the deck. The fish-girl was there, as was Runt, the round cook, the grouchy white-haired pirate, and the big tattooed one.
She felt sad, knowing her favorite grown Lost One had been killed twice, first by Peter, then seconds later eaten by the crocodile. He should have been here with the others, giving Neverland its last farewell.
She sniffled and flew down the steps, zipping to the doorway that had been his. She wanted to visit the room one last time before she took them back to their world. After all, he had been the rea
son she’d brought the ship full of pirates to Neverland in the first place.
Light flickered in the crack under the doorway. That was strange. Her Lost Ones typically didn’t leave candles lit unless they were in the room with it. She landed and ducked under the door, the wood catching at her hair again.
“Good evening, Miss Bell.” The familiar sound of Hook’s voice filled her with so much joy she didn’t care when the door pulled her hair free from its topknot. Disheveled, she zipped up to the table and hovered in front of him, happily chiming her hello back to him.
He was still bound for some reason, his arms behind his back while his hook rested on the table before him.
“This won’t do!” she chimed, flying behind him to tug on the rope holding him fast. “All the others are ready to go and you’re down here.”
“I don’t want to go back,” he told her quietly. “I have no reason to do so. Everything that makes me what I am is here.”
She stopped tugging for a moment to listen to him. He sounded sad, as if he would miss Neverland once he was gone.
This wouldn’t do, she decided. If he didn’t want to go, she wasn’t going to make him. She looked at the way the ropes crossed each other and picked up the end of one and started pushing it through the loop it was in. It was loose, as if he’d been trying to undo them himself, but had gotten tired.
That was quite all right, she thought. Everyone needs a little help sometimes. She flew to the opposite side and jerked the rope hard so that it would come through. The rope went slack.
“If you want to stay, you’d better get off the ship,” she advised him happily as he shrugged the ropes off and stood, reaching for his hook. Unable to contain her happiness any longer, she zipped over and patted his hair.
“I thank you very much, Miss Bell,” he said with a small smile as he fixed his hook to his wrist and walked over to the door.
Tink knew if he was going to be successful, she was going to have to help him again. There were too many pirates on the deck for him to escape. What he needed was a diversion, and lucky for him, she knew just what to do.
The Untold Stories of Neverland: The Complete Box Set Page 48