“Then it’s settled,” James said, smiling. “I was going to ask if you have everything you need, but it looks like we have more than enough.” James looked at the piles of provisions Smee had picked up while they were in the Many Kingdoms. “Ask as many men as you need to help you with the preparations for the party. Smee, I want this to be perfect.”

“Don’t you worry, sir. I have it all well in hand.”

They had three days before the big party, and James knew Smee would do everything in his power to make sure it was a success, even if he did have his concerns. The fact was, James shared them. He couldn’t stop thinking of the ladies of the Dead Woods. He kept seeing Circe’s face, and felt a deep sense of shame in betraying her, but she couldn’t give him what he truly wanted—she had said so. It made sense to him that her mothers would be more powerful and it would be within their grasp to give him his greatest wish. But Circe’s warnings about her mothers kept creeping into his mind, and he worried he had made a terrible mistake. The fact was, the longer he was in Never Land, the more uncertain he was about everything. He wished he could feel the way he had when his ship was making its descent, when he didn’t have a care in the world, but now fear was creeping into his heart—and he had a deep, abiding sense that it had been lingering there far longer than he would have liked to admit. Ever since he put on his boot buckles.

Was Blackbeard right? Was James afraid to realize his dream? Was he truly afraid of getting his wish from Lucinda for fear it wouldn’t meet his expectations? Things certainly hadn’t gone as he would have liked so far. Peter and the Lost Boys weren’t at all happy to see him, and now he was going to trick them so he could kidnap Tinker Bell.

Maybe Smee was right. Perhaps he was going about this all the wrong way, and the fear of how it might go all wrong was mounting within him, making his heart pound like a ticking clock.