“He brought them peace, and soon there wasn’t enough suffering for me to feed on. I grew weak and was bound to him!” The limbs of the tree shuddered. The shadow rolled its shoulders and popped its neck. It closed its eyes for a moment and took a deep breath. “But all of that will be over soon,” it said calmly with a grin. “I will destroy your precious Peter, and nothing will be able to stop me.”

With a flick of the shadow’s wrist, the black tendrils holding up Peter snapped. His body fell to the ground with a heavy thud. His arms sprawled out on either side of him like broken wings.

“Peter!” Wendy ran and fell to her knees at his side. “Peter, open your eyes, you need to wake up,” she said, frantically shaking his shoulder. She pressed her palm to the side of his face. Her thumb grazed the gold trailing from the corners of his mouth. It was warm and sticky against his icy, pale skin.

He was so pale—was he still alive?

Peter groaned, a guttural sound from deep in his chest.

Something between a sob and a sigh of relief burst past Wendy’s lips. His chest rose and fell in quick, shallow breaths. “Wendy?” He tried to open his eyes to look at her, but they kept rolling back into his head, unfocused. The cobalt starlight had vanished from them, replaced with nothing but yawning black pupils. His hand, heavy and with little control, fell to the side of her face. His cold fingers pressed into her cheek, his palm on the hammering pulse at her neck. “No,” he moaned, thick with grief, catching on a sob. “You have to—you have to get them out of here.” Peter’s eyes tried to find Benjamin, Ashley, Matthew, Joel, and Alex in their cage. “You have to take care of them.” Another shuddering breath. Peter’s face crumpled. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry,” he murmured.

Wendy put her hand over his and squeezed it tight. “It’ll be okay, you’ll be okay,” she told him. A hot tear fell from her chin. “You just have to hang on, okay?” She couldn’t lose him, she wouldn’t. But how could she possibly stop the shadow on her own?

“This is actually quite poetic!” the shadow announced. It smiled, pleased with itself. “You’ll be able to watch as I suck dry what’s left of Peter, and his last thoughts will be of how he failed to save you,” it cooed. Its black, hollow eyes shifted to the children, who shrank back from the bars. “Mmmm.” Craning its back, it inhaled deeply through its nose, mouth splitting into a wicked smile as it refocused on the children. “Delicious.”

Peter’s eyes were wide and pleading. He was too weak to say anything more. His hand chased after Wendy as she pulled away.