Wendy lies on her side, body pulled in tight around itself, eyes closed. Peter. There isn’t even a window here to show her the sky or the time of day. She can’t fly away from here, from this. Maybe she never could. Peter, where are you? Why don’t you save me?

10: Make Believe

MAKE BELIEVE

The crowing call goes out across the island, echoing through the trees, seeming to come from every direction at once. A flare like lightning, like ice-cold water, runs the length of Wendy’s spine—joy and fear all wrapped into one.

His call. Not quite human, not animal either, and for a moment, it undoes her completely. The sound is home; she knows it as well as she knows her husband’s eyes, her daughter’s smile. It’s written in her bones. It means adventure. It means something terrible and wonderful is about to happen and she aches to rush headlong toward that call with all its promise and threat.

Even now. Even after everything. Peter. She wants to run with him. To stand at his side and conquer the world.

And in the same heartbeat, she wants to put her hands around his throat and squeeze until the light leaves his eyes. He took Jane away from her. He stole her daughter, and Wendy has crossed worlds to get her back.

Her boots sink into the sand. The call comes again and she turns, trying to pinpoint it. The boys are close enough for her to hear them shouting to each other, though she can’t make out the words.

The wild riot of sound bounces deceptively, first in front of her, then behind. Among the trees, then further up the beach. She runs a few steps, then stops. She backtracks, frustrated, and loops over her own path, erasing her footprints with new ones. The next time she hears Peter’s call, it’s faint, far distant, and she can’t hear the boys anymore at all. Neverland twists around her, confounding her and keeping Peter out of her reach.

Behind her lies jungle. Up ahead, birch trees, their bark peeling away in papery strips to reveal curls of pink as soft as sunrise. To her right, a massive willow trails long, silvery leaves into the clear waters of a pond.

As a child, she’d delighted in the way Neverland constantly changed around her. She would follow Peter up the beach only to end up in the skirts of a snow-covered mountain. Or they would trace the path of a secret river through pine trees to find the smoking peak of a volcano. Now, the fractured puzzle pieces of the island infuriate her.