“I’m not Talia,” she screeched. “I’m so sick and tired of everyone saying that to me.” Breathing hard, she was silent for several long tense moments.
Danika didn’t know what to say. At its core, a soul remain unchanged. Perhaps the memories were gone, but surely the love remained?
Sighing sadly, Trisha shook her head. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, Danika. It’s not your fault, it’s just that I feel so bad for him. I like him, a lot, okay. I’ll admit that. I really do and it hurts me what Peter did to him. And maybe I’m even to the point that I can believe I may have been a mermaid at some point in my life, hard as it is for me to say that, but I just can’t be what you all want me to be for him. I’m sorry.”
Danika hated conceding defeat. After all the times she’d failed Hatter she’d sworn to herself, never again. Never again would she bring a woman to her men if they were not absolutely the right ones and deep in her gut she knew, knew with every shred of her immortal being that Trishelle truly was Hook’s destined mate. “Even Betty knew, and she had the same amount of time as you.”
Eyes sad, Trisha shook her head. “No she didn’t, Gerard came to Earth. Even though the days are stupid long here, in my head, they’re only three very long days. Betty had three months. Days and weeks to get to know him. I’ve got three days?”
“But you can’t leave him, Trishelle, if you care for him at all...”
Closing her eyes, she shook her head. “He is a good man, I do see that. But no one person should have to bear the responsibility of being the sole source of happiness for another. That’s toxic and in the end, it never works out.”
Just then Alice’s scream ripped through Danika’s brain like an ice pick, making her cringe and nearly lose her hold on Trisha’s safety net.
It felt wrong to leave now. Wrong to walk away, all her boys had found their mates, Hook deserved her attention just as the others had, and had it not been of such great importance, she would never leave until she figured out a way to make Trishelle see the truth.
But Alice needed her now, and with love, she knew, sometimes the road to getting there was bumpy and riddled with holes. Some choose a difficult route, and still others didn’t realize they’d had it until it was gone.
She’d known from the very beginning Trishelle would be difficult, because of her past. Because of how love had grown to be a thing considered vile and tainted in her mind. This was a time when blind faith was called for, Miriam had told her truth and it was up to her now to hold fast. Hook and Trishelle were fated to be and she’d believe that and hold tight to that truth with all her heart. In the end she knew it would be all right.
“Then it is here we must part, dear Trishelle. Hook is able to travel between lands, even to yours. When the time comes for you to leave he will take you. You can find happiness here, with him. But I will not push, because that is not how love works. I wish you all the best. And now,” she inhaled deeply, very content even in the face of Trishelle’s obvious confusion, “I’ll return you to the Jolly Roger, I’d imagine Hook has grown slightly insane by this point.”
Trisha laughed and looked around at the empty stretch of the Never Sea below her. “I doubt it, he sure didn’t try to find me. Peter couldn’t have taken me that far.”
“Peter took you very far, my dear.” She pointed to the land mass floating away in the distance. “Tink designed that home for them, she hid it deep within the air kingdom, only one of them can find it. No matter how much he might have looked, he would never have found you there.”
Then turning into the wind, Danika flew toward the ship. Trishelle didn’t talk again, she simply grabbed onto the net and stared straight ahead and Danika’s smile grew wider because she saw what Trisha denied. Anticipation glittered in the depths of emerald green eyes, whether the girl admitted it to herself or not she was more than fond of the villainous Hook.
Whistling softly to herself, she nodded.
Miriam had been right after all.
Chapter 13
Hook tore into his hair, frantically stomping the length of his deck from one side to another. They’d sailed to Chief Flying Eagle’s camp, who’d denied seeing Pan in some time, next he’d traveled to the Western realm of Kingdom, neither the trolls, nor the dwarves had seen them. The only part of Kingdom left unexplored was the Seren Seas and the cloud realms. The sea because they would never welcome Peter, the clouds, because it was so vast it would be near impossible to find anything or anyone within it.
“Captain,” Smee tapped his shoulder.