The Fae Princes (Vicious Lost Boys #4)

PETER PAN

I can feel them watching me, wondering.

I’m not usually the one that takes care of the carnage after a fight, but I have to do something to keep my hands busy.

Power is still beating through me, but behind it, hovering on the horizon, there is grief.

I must be patient with unraveling it all, but right now, doing is better than thinking.

Vane comes up beside me as I drag a dead Lost Boy to the cart someone summoned.

“What happened?” he asks me.

Darling is with Bash several dozen yards away, but they are watching this exchange, whispering amongst themselves.

I try not to listen to them and instead focus on the air in my lungs and the whispering edge of sunlight.

I always wondered why I couldn’t go out in the daylight when I lost my shadow. As far as I could tell, no one else had that problem. If they lost a shadow, they returned to themselves. There was no ailment that remained.

Now I know.

In a metaphorical sense, stars cannot exist in the daylight.

Which means, when the sun rises, I will have to go below ground once again.

I’m okay with it now.

In fact, I am looking forward to it.

All of the best things happen in the dark, so long as there is light to counteract it.

“I’m not sure you’d believe me if I told you,” I say to Vane.

“Try me.”

I heft the dead Lost Boy over the cart’s railing. He joins the pile. “Your brother helped me figure out a few things.”

Vane laughs, but his mouth is closed, so the noise comes out his nose. “Don’t fucking lie to me.”

“I’m not.”

“Roc helped you? Roc? My brother? The Crocodile?”

“Yes, that one. Do you have others you didn’t tell me about?”

He huffs out a breath. I turn away to retrieve another body.

“What did he do?”

“He helped me see who I really am.”

“A glowing orb of light? Some kind of rare fae?”

I stop so I can face Vane. I know I can trust him with my secrets. But how do you sum this up? How do I even put it into words?

I meet Darling’s eyes across the meadow.

When she arrived on Neverland soil, I immediately softened to her. I didn’t want to admit it. She was water that seeped into my hard cracks.

“I am a better man because of her.” I shift back to Vane. His gaze is narrowed, searching me.

“We all are,” he admits.

I nod and slap him on the shoulder. “I am a better man because of you too.”

“Shut up,” he says.

“I’m serious. Take the warmth from me, Vane. Accept what it is.”

His jaw flexes. He finally nods. “I love you too, you fucking asshole.”

Across the clearing, Darling mouths to me, I love you three.

Bash draws a heart with his fingers. I love you four.

I laugh and return to the dirty work.

There is no way to measure love, but if there were, I know I would be full.