He’s flung himself into the black cloud that always haunted him in the past. Hooked, I can see he’s addicted to the darkness that consumes him. He’s stayed there, in his nightmares, the same way I’ve been living mine.

Jas Hook has a death grip on the only man I’ve ever loved. Just like I always feared.

I know, because I’m the only person alive that knows the secret most don’t.

Peter & Hook?

They’re the same man.

Except, I see only one staring back at me right now. The one that I always feared would win if the Peter I once knew allowed him in.

“Years,” I choke out when he doesn’t respond. “Years you could’ve come back to me. Years we… Years that are lost.”

His eyes hold steady. Cold. Detached. But his palm shakes on my neck, giving me a break into the devil lurking inside him. He’s affected. He tries to hide it, but I swear I can see a little bit of the Peter I once knew hiding in the shadows of his eyes.

“Why now?” I demand. He searches my face, just as I search his. Time stretches in a torturous way while I wait for a response.

“I grew up lost, Darling,” he whispers with a wicked smile. “I wasn’t going to come for you before it was time.” He gestures over my shoulder at the picture frame. “One lost soul doesn’t justify making another.”

My daughters. He stayed away because of them. I shiver as his grip on my neck loosens. His left-hand falls to my hip as his right raises between us, brushing lightly across my lips, almost tenderly, and somewhere deep inside, despite me, I feel my heart begin to ache.

We stand in silence a moment, the air thick between us while I attempt to study him more closely in the moonlight. He’s a boy who is so much more a man than any I have known since he’s been gone. He’s still the same yet changed. His body is broader, built on muscle and strength. His jaw is stronger than I remember. His dark hair is longer, falling into his eyes, yet short on the sides. He’s forever seventeen. Forever ingrained in my heart, in my mind, the way he was when I first saw him. However, something’s different. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but in a way, he’s changed.

It’s more than just the hook Jas has in him now. An alter ego he once liked to play around with when it suited him with the lost boys. He seems older. Hardened. Aged in a way simply growing up could never have changed anyone.