His steady blue gaze meets mine, a challenge if I’ve ever seen one. But a challenge to what?
“There’s a way to stop it?” I ask. “To save Neverland from destroying itself?” And from destroying everything and everyone within it, I realize.
“I believe there is,” he says, his expression steady and calm. “And by saving Neverland, I shall save us all. Would you not pay any price to do the same?”
When he says it like that . . . Maybe he’s right. Maybe we’re not so different. I’d pay almost any price to get home, wouldn’t I? To make sure Olivia gets home too?
But Pan misreads my silence for disagreement, and his expression changes. His earnestness is replaced by a look so intense, so unflinching, I can’t seem to find the words to explain.
Not that I have time to anyway. From the length of tunnel ahead of us, a rapid patter of footfalls draws Pan’s attention away from me.
In an instant, his dagger is out and ready. But this time the danger is only a small boy, one not even as tall as I am. But Pan doesn’t lower his knife. “What is it?” he snaps.
The boy stops short and eyes the knife before he looks up and meets Pan’s eyes. “We’re under attack, milord,” he says breathlessly. “Hurry.”
“What?” Pan grabs the boy by the arm before he can take off again. “What are you talking about?”
“Pirates,” the boy says, his uneven teeth glinting in the flickering light of the orbs. “Attacking the fortress.”
“Impossible.” Pan’s expression is a mixture of denial and fury. “They wouldn’t dare, and even if they did, they’d never get past the trench.”
“They already have,” the boy says. “They’re at the gate, and I don’t know how much longer we can hold them.”
The boy wanted to tell his brother that he did not need to be protected, for he knew that was why his brother was there, in that place with him. But when he went to speak, he was struck by how his brother’s face reminded him of home, and he could not find the words. All at once, he saw clearly how far he’d ventured from the safety of that other world, and he wondered why he had ever left. . . .
Chapter 21
PAN SENDS THE BOY OFF immediately to rally the others before he turns to Olivia and me. “I’ll return you to your room,” he tells us. “Their breaching my defenses means there’s a traitor among us, and I need to be sure you’re safe.”
Around the corner ahead, the tunnel widens and then, after another turn, opens into the Great Hall. The usual chaos has been replaced with something more frantic. No boys lounge on furs now. Everywhere they gather their weapons and dart off in all directions. But despite the frantic energy around us, Pan is strangely calm as he pulls us through the muddle of bodies, pushing aside any child who dares to get in his way.
When we reach the far side of the hall, Pan presses his hand to the rock wall. A moment later a great rumbling sounds through the fortress, shaking the ground with such a violent aftershock, I have to reach out to steady myself. The entire wall is moving—ragged shards of stone begin to protrude to form a steep, uneven staircase up to our room.
Pan takes Olivia’s hand and helps her mount the first of the large boulders so she can begin the precarious climb. When she’s well on her way, he pulls me forward. But I hesitate.
“You’re just going to leave us there without anything to defend ourselves?”
“You’ll be safer there than anywhere,” he says. “Once you’re up, I’ll retract the stones, and no one will be able to reach you.” Lifting me easily by the waist, he sets me onto the first step. Then he takes my hand in his and presses his lips to the underside of my wrist. Heat flares at the place his lips touch me. “I’ll not let him have you, Gwendolyn,” he says with a determination that has my cheeks flushing hot. “I never let him take what’s mine.”
For a moment, I don’t pull away. I feel as though all I can see is the clear blue of his eyes. For a moment, I feel that same tug toward him, that overwhelming urge to just agree with whatever he demands of me, to give him anything he wants.
But then he glances up, breaking our gaze. Without the steady intensity of his attention, I feel almost lost.
The intensity of that feeling is enough to bring me back to myself—to make me realize how quickly, how easily I fell under his thrall again. And enough to scare me.