Chapter 7

I'm still standing and looking at myself in the mirror when the door opens and Felix walks in purposefully. I open my mouth to protest his intrusion but he walks right up to me and puts his arms around me. It takes me by surprise and everything I have to say just floats away. I feel his lips press against my forehead and my hands, which are pressed against my sides curl into reluctant fists. I'm anxious that he might kiss me but I'm even more worried that he won't.

"Nice try, ice queen." He says in a small voice. "I can tell when you're lying, though." I bite my lip and move my eyes to the ground, so that when he lets me go and steps back to look at me, he can't see my expression. He turns around and shut the door behind him after he leaves the room. I stand processing this for a moment before slowly drawing a bath and undressing to step into it. I wash my hair and body first and spend what feels like hours just sitting and thinking. My stomach is beginning to settle and my head feels much clearer. Every now and then I add more soap product and hot water to create bubbles. Eventually my mind clears of thought and becomes calm and I rest my head back to welcome sleep.

A sharp knock on the door makes me jump to conciousness and I notice that the room is filled with a light blue light to indicate dawn. My bath water has gone still and tepid and my fingers are wrinkled from the liquid.

"Lena, I've made arrangements but it's time to move." Li's voice rings out.

"One moment!" I call, jumping from the bath and wrapping the bathrobe around my body. I wrap a towel around my hair and open the door to the master bedroom; which is now empty. A backpack is resting on the bed and it appears fully packed and stocked with clothes of mine from the estate. I dress quickly and apply minimal make-up. There is some sort of vitamin drink on the table for me so I crack open the lid and drink down it's contents, it's refreshing and helps clear my head. Placed next to the drink was the file Li showed me before. I cautiously flick open the front page and am confronted with the pictures of Peter kissing Laura. I bring the pictures to my hands and look over them curiously, studying them in detail. Laura's dressed in some sort of evening gown and Peter's in a suit, clearly this was part of Peter's attempt to find a way to recover his powers; they're possibly undercover. The pictures are made up of different shots of their kiss and the moments leading up to and after it. Laura has walked to Peter's side and has tugged on his sleeve to make him face her. She says something and looks around before moving her mouth to his. Peter seems to stay still the whole time and while they do it an old rich-looking couple approaches them. Peter talks to them while keeping an arm wrapped around Laura's waist. I put them back on the dresser and lay them side by side to observe them. Something about them feels off, their behaviour reminds me of the way I had to act around Li. It's then that I notice something odd about the pictures. In the very last one while Peter is talking to the couple Laura is looking elsewhere. She's not looking at the people or Peter but in the direction of the camera, in fact, it's almost like she can see the photographer. I'm not sure and I have to study it closely to notice it but it does provoke suspicion.

"What are you thinking?" I hear Felix ask from the doorway. It seems that he's been watching me for more than just a moment but I refuse to look at him just yet.

"Tell me again how you and Laura met." I say, putting away all the photos except for the last one.

"Why does it matter?" I can tell from the tone in his voice that he clearly doesn't want to talk about his relationship with Laura. I turn to look at him.

"It might not matter but I asked you to." I fix my eyes on him as I say it and he shifts his weight to his other leg nervously.

"After we left Neverland I met her in this world at a party. She seemed to know a little about magic and the life I came from so it was easy to talk to her. Pan encouraged me to get close to her, so I did. I guess I just missed being intimate with someone... I missed you." His eyes meet mine as he says it and this time I'm the one who looks away nervously. "Anyway, that's when Pan showed me the engagement ring and then Laura found it and that whole mess started." He shakes his head.

"By 'that whole mess' do you mean when you proposed?" I narrow my eyes slightly as I ask.

"Don't you remember me telling you? I never actually proposed, I just kept the ring. When Laura found it in my bag she assumed I was going to ask her and everything moved so quickly. I thought I had lost you so I didn't bother to stop it, I just wanted something real." I lean against the wardrobe and am about to continue our conversation when I hear Li coming up the hall.

"It's time to leave, you two." Li says as he walks in the room. I look up at Li but I don't move from my spot.

"Li, how did you know that Peter was the one I was seeing?" I ask him. He is beginning to zip up my backpack but stop when I ask, before looking at me with confusion.

"I never said his name while we were together, all of the gifts he sent me were from 'P'. So how did you know?" I raise an eyebrow and move to my feet, away from the wardrobe.

"I saw you with him at the ball." He says it with a shrug, "Come on, we have to go." He picks up my backpack and walks quickly out of the room with it. I move after him swiftly but Felix stops me at the door.

"What's going on?" He asks, clearly he can tell something isn't right. I shrug his hand off of my shoulder and continue walking after Li, implying that I'm still trying to figure this out.

"Peter wasn't with me at the ball. I only found him later." I call this to him when I reach the lounge but Li seems to be busy organising our bags. He seems to ignore what I've said and only responds to me when I walk right up to him and stand in front of him with folded arms and an annoyed expression.

"What aren't you telling me?" I tilt my head as I ask. He sighs and rolls his eyes.

"Lena, I must've found out at a different occasion then, just drop it." As soon as he says it he tries to walk away so I grab him by the arm and force him to face me. I focus on our eye contact and begin to feel that tug on my heart that alerts me that I'm using my charm. He doesn't respond how a normal man would, though, as he simply blinks and pushes my hand off his arm.

"You know that won't work on me- what are you doing?" He steps away from me and as soon as he turns around, Felix is standing there looking stern and bulky. Li is taken by surprise and clearly seems intimidated by the defined muscles in Felix' arms. The contrast between the two is made more apparent by the lean, skinny stature Li has. He sighs and turns back around to look at me.

"I'm just trying to keep you out of this." When he says it I can tell he's genuine; which just alerts me more because it proves my suspicions that foul play is at hand here.

"Keep me out of what?" I unfold my arms and raise an eyebrow. Li glances back at Felix, who's supporting me in intimidating him, before looking at me with a pleading expression.

"You know something and you're not telling me, Li, what's going on?" I ask again.

"They're not after you. You just keep getting caught in the cross-fire. You've made all the wrong friends in all the wrong places." Li says. This time Felix steps forward with a warning.

"Enough with the cryptics, Gao, is this about the witches?" Felix asks. It's then that the elevator suddenly opens and three of Li's bodyguards hurry in, their guns drawn and aimed at us. One of them fires two shots at Felix and he goes down, crashing against the dining table as he falls to the floor. Panic rises within me and it feels like ten different voices are telling me to turn into the harpy. I rush over to Felix hurriedly and it feels like time has stopped. Somewhere along the seemingly never-ending journey to move over to Felix, Li speaks,

"He's fine, Lena, it's just a tranquilliser." As soon as this processes in my brain I'm already down and kneeling by Felix, who looks asleep on the floor. Everything snaps back to reality and I'm once again aware of the guns aimed at me. I look up at Li as if he's just shot me in the heart and he's looking back down at me sadly.

"You should have just done what I'd asked and you would be happy. I'm just trying to keep you safe, Lena." He says. I hear the click of a gun trigger being pulled and time slows down once again so I can almost hear the tranquilliser dart whizzing through the air. I feel a sharp poke in my arm and I only have enough time to register the sight of the dart sitting in my shoulder before I too, fall to the ground; my senses all going numb. The last thing I remember before waking up is seeing Felix's unconscious face after I've fallen next to him on the ground.