Grabbing her nightgown from the floor, I urgently place it over her head as she shuffles to the side of the bed. She pulls it down as the smoke increases and starts to fill the room faster than before. The sound of wood cracking and popping can be heard, coming from the other side of the door.

“What’s happening?” she inquires.

I urge her from the bed and grab her hand, pulling her behind me as I quickly make my way to the door. She starts to cough, the smoke thickening around us as I place my hand on the doorknob and curse, pulling back quickly as it singes my skin.

Turning and glancing over Wendy’s shoulder, I nod towards the bathroom, and she gets the hint. Taking off quickly, she bolts from the room. I run after her as I try to make an escape. Entering what I thought of as my own private oasis, I’ve suddenly never felt more trapped in my entire life as she spins and looks back at me with fear in her eyes.

“What do we do now?” she screams in terror.

My eyes lift and catch the waterfall. The only way out is up. Swiftly, I pick her up in my arms and carry her to the shower. She grips me tightly as I come to a stop at the base of it and take a deep breath.

“You can’t carry me up the rock wall,” she laughs. “Just fly. What are you waiting for?”

“I can’t,” I confess finally, turning and watching as her face drains of color. “I haven’t been able to in years.” She urges me to put her down and I reluctantly let her fall out of my arms but keep her close.

“What? But how? Why?”

“I don’t know,” I shrug as the crash of wood crumbling to the floor breaks free from the other room. “After the first time we were together, intimately, I started to feel the magic leave me. It didn’t all happen at once. Just, slowly faded over time.”

“How did you get back and forth from Kingston Gardens to Neverland?”

“I stole pixie dust, from Tink, when she’d come and stay the night.”

I swallow hard not wanting to confess any more than I have to. From the look in Wendy’s eyes, I would say she gets the hint.

All of a sudden, I can feel the heat from the other room and turn just in time to see flames engulfing the door to the bathroom. Wendy turns and notices the same. She takes a step closer and grabs my hand.

“I’d say you didn’t so much as steal it, more like she let you take it in exchange.”

I look back her way and frown. “I don’t like the way that sounds.”