“Your Wendy?” Visola echoes. “Oh, please.” Her fin breaks free from the water, causing a wave to course towards where Wendy stands, as she props it up on a rock and throws her hands behind her head. “You tire of things so easily, Peter. It won’t be long before you’re back to playing games. Back to joining us in a swim at the grotto.”

“Not likely.”

Tinker Bell chimes in harshly in her fae voice, masking her words from Wendy and the lost boys.

“Is that what you’ve been telling everyone?” I ask, astonished, as the lost boys finally make their way down to the bottom of the lagoon. “That she’s nothing but a toy? Something I’ll one day grow tired of?”

The women in front of me don’t speak. But they don’t have to. They stand off against me and the only woman that matters, the only one I’ll ever care about. It’s in this moment, I finally see the women in front of me want me to care about them, and I feel Wendy grow tense behind my back.

“Nothing, and no one will ever captivate me like my Wendy.” The words fall from my lips effortlessly. There was a time they might have scared me. But not anymore. “And that’s saying something.”

I look at the world around me. The magic that once held my attention and realize it’s nothing if Wendy is not in it.

“Does that include me?”

My eyes land on Tiger Lily’s. I feel Wendy take a step back, retreating away from the evil that lurks just under her eyes. I reach back and grab her hand, pulling her forward and to my side. I’m confident now, in whatever I have to do to keep Wendy in my life, even if that means changing our world as we know it.

“It includes all of you,” I hiss and then watch the smile grow on Tiger Lily’s face. “What she gives me, what I have with Wendy, can’t be replaced.”

“Hm,” Tiger Lily smirks. “Irreplaceable? My dear Peter, nothing is irreplaceable.”

Clouds close in and darkness grows. I look up at the sky just as rain begins to fall. “Peter,” Wendy’s voice calls to me and I glance her way. Her startled eyes grow wide, and I look quickly to see what they are staring at.

Indians. Hundreds of them. Closing in on every side.

“You see, you’re not king of Neverland, Peter. You never were,” Tiger Lily continues. “There are several here that don’t agree with your new way of thinking. The new things you want, instead of the life we were once living.”

Wind kicks up out of the East and instinctively I pull Wendy closer. John and Michael protect my right and left, and other boys stand close behind.