“You know Blackbeard took our treasures, but you don’t know the reason he came to us in the first place. He wanted a son, or someone he could love like one. And that is what we gave him; you, in exchange for taking that coat to the shop in Eaton Square.”

“You’re telling me that he lived his life in torment, suffering never to rest, only to die after he found the love of a son? You’re a wicked woman, Lucinda. I’m sorrier than ever I’ve made a deal with you.”

“You had no other choice. It was already written. We cursed Blackbeard with eternal life for taking our treasures; had we not done so he would have never found you, and brought you to us so we might show you the way to Never Land. It’s all worked out nicely, wouldn’t you say?” Lucinda looked very pleased with herself.

James wished more than ever he had kept the Book of Fairy Tales, or asked Circe to share his story with him. Since the day he fell from his pram he felt as if he was being ushered along a path that would lead him to his dream, but now he saw that it was the Odd Sisters who had schemed and meddled like the very hands of the fates themselves. He wondered if he should have listened to Circe’s warnings, and he was starting to fear she was telling the truth.

“My daughter knows nothing of fate,” said Lucinda, reading James’s mind. “She thinks fate is changeable, even though all of time and its stories are written on her soul, and to change those stories would be a breaking of her core. You saw how tortured she was, how sad and tired, because she is trying to change stories that are already written, but we’ve learned after so many years of heartbreak and destruction of trying to do the same. It’s our duty, my sisters and I, to make sure events play out as they are written. You have been given a gift, James. You have the means to find Never Land again. Will you let your fear of realizing your dreams keep you from that and your fondest wish, your true wish, what you want most of all, once you get to Never Land?” she asked, looking rather serious and serene, and in the moment he saw how this woman was Circe’s mother.

“How do I use the powder?” he asked, holding the vial up to the lantern to get a better look. It was a beautiful thing seeing it glitter in the light, dancing within the bottle as if it were longing to be released. He decided in that moment he couldn’t escape his fate; whatever the cost he would go to Never Land, and he would get his dearest wish.