Turning to stare at Hook with a grim frown, Danika flicked the wand Trisha hadn’t been aware she’d been holding and a silvery net immediately encased them. In less than an hour her definition of what was and wasn’t possible had definitely been tested.
Danika had just trapped them inside the pearlescent, thin shell of a soap bubble. When she pressed a finger to it, it bulged out, soft and squishy.
James jerked to his feet, his insolent demeanor replaced by narrow-eyed suspicion.
“If we stay in here too long, Hook will wonder. But I need a moment’s quiet with you without the giant oaf listening. Ask no questions.” Danika licked her lips, gaze flicking toward James and back before saying, “My dear, I’m so sorry for thrusting you into this. Believe me when I say it’s true. I had to yank you out of there, because I knew otherwise you’d never come. Betty and Gerard were getting nowhere with convincing you.” She shrugged, letting Trisha know she wasn’t really all that sorry, but figured it was better to say it than to not.
“This land is real. He is real. Hook is your destiny. One hundred years ago you were a mermaid and engaged to be married to him.”
“What!” She laughed, rolling her eyes.
“Ssh,” Danika hissed, clamping a finger over her lips, “I said no talking. I’m telling you this because you need to understand why you’ve been brought here.”
Oh, have mercy. What had that waiter put into her coffee at lunch? A roofie? This was ridiculous, ludicrous, preposterous, and any other Regency period word she could think of. Why oh why couldn’t she think like a normal person? Words like stupid, dumb, idiotic… Well, she tried, but those words didn’t roll off the tongue quite as sharply as the others. Besides, it was all his fault with his delicious British accent.
Asshole.
There, that was an Americanism.
“James is in a bad way.” She laughed, eyes going distant for a second. “Actually they all were. All my boys in such terrible shape until the love of their mates helped temper their baser instincts. He may not seem it, but Hook is without hope.”
“Duh, he’s Hook, what else would he be?” She tapped her foot.
Danika frowned. “Point is, me dear, you’ve got three days to convince him he’s not without hope. This ridiculous war he’s got with Pan, it must end. Though, the likelihood of that ever happening is slim to none, at the least it must decrease. The Fae world has grown tired of his scheming, particularly because of the lies that bloody Tinker spreads. Conniving, little bi-”
“Whoa,” Trisha held up her hand, “Tinker. As in Tinkerbell?”
“Indeed.” Danika nodded gravelly.
This just kept getting better and better.
“Pan is like her child and she’s quite frightening when it comes to him, the depths she’s willing to sink to keep him safe, it’s rather dastardly. Though she did one kindness in all of her life…that is that she—”
“Pop the bubble, you bloody damn fairy or I shall,” James growled, “I’ll not have machinations being played out I’m not privy to.”
“Well, I suppose I’ve kept him waiting long enough. Just know this, you cannot leave, or escape, so don’t try. But please, try to have fun here. If you don’t wish to stay once the three days expire, you don’t have to.”
Pursing her lips, Trisha tried to think. But there was too much chaos in her brain at the moment, like someone had tipped over a jar full of marbles and they were all rumbling and tumbling over one another.
What she really needed was to get away from everybody and everything and just think.
Danika popped the bubble.
“What did you two speak of?” James drawled and Trisha rolled her eyes, taking a giant step away from him.
“So since I obviously can’t leave, where’s my room? I have a headache and I need to think.”
A shiver coursed down her spine when his lips stretched wide into a secretive type smile.
“Room? Where do you think you are, little Pan?” He spread his arms wide. “Women stay in my room, in my bed.”
The way he said bed, with that rolling, scratchy burr of his, it made her stomach clench.
“Fine,” she said, happy her voice didn’t crack or sound breathy, “go away then.”
Slapping a palm to his thigh, he laughed again.
Danika’s eyes widened once more and Trisha honestly didn’t understand her reaction, she was acting like no one ever talked to Hook this way. But she really didn’t care; she was tired and just wanted both of them to leave her alone.
“Is she always this savage, fairy?” he asked, but didn’t take his eyes off her face. They roamed over her with an excited gleam in their hard, black depths.
“Well, umm…” Danika hedged, but James didn’t give her a chance to finish.