The Fae Princes (Vicious Lost Boys #4)

PETER PAN

When I was a boy on Neverland, I was terrified of the night. The howling wolves and the long shadows that grew longer in the woods. The shadow helped get me through the nights.

Then I found Tink and Tink’s golden glow would banish the dark and I was no longer terrified.

Later, when I lost my shadow, I was terrified of the day. Of the burning heat of the sun and the power taken from me, the hollow carved out of the center of me.

There was always something. Something to make me feel weak, and a crutch to prop myself on, to make me feel less so.

I know now.

The lagoon gave me the Neverland Shadow because I needed it.

I needed that crutch until I knew how to walk.

Balder’s memories are still vivid in my head. The memories of two gods on the lagoon’s beach, watching the spirits of the water carry me under.

I should be dead. Several times over.

And yet, I am burning with life. Glowing with it.

Drenched in darkness, terrified of light.

Always so fucking terrified and looking to someone else, something else to make me feel less so.

Until now.

I break through the clouds, one singular mission guiding me.

No shadow, but I’m flying.

The cloud cover disappears, and the stars glitter in the night sky.

In the distance, I hear shouting, fighting, the clashing of steel, and the voices of my chosen family. The one that never abandoned me, never traded me for another, and would never betray me.

I’m coming, I think to them, and I know they hear it.

Somehow, through shadow and light, we are all connected now.

And no one, not even Tinker Bell, will stop us.