Chapter 38: Shadow Dance

ELLE'S POV

"It's difficult to remember, princess, it has been so long," the Shadow reasoned. "Do you remember being born? No. I don't remember being created, except darkness and pain and then, suddenly, I could move, and there was no pain, and I was here, and he was standing before me, panting and shaking but smiling triumphantly."

"So you don't know before that?" Elle asked, a bit disappointed.

"No," the Shadow said simply. "You would have to ask the mermaids, they were created with the island, long before the fairies or he or I."

Elle opened her mouth to ask more, she was trying to learn of how Neverland came to be. There were no stories of it, not even legends, in her library in the tower. Then again, those had always been limited due to the mistress not wanting her to get ideas about escaping.

"Wait here," the Shadow ordered suddenly, floating completely still in the air, hand raised, voice almost a growl. His glowing eyes narrowed, and Elle stopped her aimless saunter inside his enclosure. She stared up at him, eyes wide and heart beating fast. He seemed agitated, alert like she had never seen him.

"Stay hidden," he called as he swooped toward where the entrance was. The two had been climbing and twisting in the branches deep in Dark Hollow, in the dome of twisted, dead tree limbs. Two shadows swooped out of the ceiling, making Elle shriek in surprise. She knew he had victims, their shadows imprisoned in his home, but she had never seen them. They looked exactly like him, but with different builds and their eyes didn't glow. They had no eyes at all, it seemed. She had never seen him call them…someone must have come. Someone important. She knew more people were in Neverland, Felix had completely forgotten to realize that him seeing her meant she wasn't dead, because he had immediately insisted that she hide. Perhaps the Shadow was off to stop them from something, or they had come too close.

Elle slipped on her hood, pleased Felix was so much taller than her since the cloak covered her entire body down to her knees and the hood fell down past her eyes. Keeping quiet, cloaking spell secure, she kept her footsteps quiet but fast as she followed him, trying to go faster every time she heard a faint yell from ahead.

She was slower, so by the time she climbed over the last wall of fallen tree trunks, the two shadows were flying back towards the depths of Dark Hollow. The Shadow was nowhere, she didn't even hear him. She felt his magic around her, of course, but it all seemed normal. She was sure it would have changed somehow by now. Standing upright on top of a pile of trees, Elle's mind went blank in shock and confusion.

The grown-ups, three of them, were pulling themselves up from the ground. A blonde woman, a man with dark brown hair, and a man in black leather with his back to her who made Elle's stomach stir. The woman looked up and yelped, clutching a coconut with one hand and pointing straight at Elle with the other. Elle's own eyes widened, probably matching the size of hers, but she snapped out of it when the leather-clad man turned. Him. Elle turned to the side and threw herself from the pile, sprinting away with no direction except away. Her cloaking spell was just barely covering her magic, and she was far too panicked to try to pull it back up over her whole self. She needed to run. Now.

She heard their footsteps after her and their voices shouting at her. As she flew over the line between Dark Hollow and the rest of the forest, it occurred to her that her hood was still up, and it was Neverland's usual darkness. They thought she was a Lost Boy. She stumbled but didn't trip, caught off balance by the thought. Elle thought of them every day.

The second of hesitation was enough for her to lose her lead and her focus, and she skidded to a stop as she felt it so strongly. Her cloaking spell, the decades old thing, had slipped off completely. Elle felt her magic, exposed and unhindered and agitated from the long suppression, ripple out around her. But that wasn't the only reason. Her magic was loud and full, and she felt the magic of Neverland flood through her as she flooded through it. She was about to realize how weak it truly was, when she felt his magic. She was about to realize how weak his magic was too, when she felt his presence. There was no weakness in that.

Elle finally fully stopped, ice ran through her veins as she listened to the plants mere yards in front of her be shoved aside, and whipped her head around as she heard the bush behind her crunch. The man in black leather met her eyes, a few strands of her hair falling into her face from under the hood. That was all he needed, as his piercing blue eyes widened and so did hers. The pirate stepped closer, but Elle reached out, grabbing his hook and tugging it to her just as he stepped out.

The pirate caught on immediately, stiffening and yanking her closer to loop his sharp hook around her neck and his other arm across her chest. The motion made her hood slip off, her brightly glowing hair spilling out of it and around her shoulders. Elle didn't protest, just stepped back and closer to him as he pulled a bit more, and kept her eyes down. She knew they both recognized her, but she didn't want to look into his face. Into either of their faces. She couldn't meet the burning brown eyes directly in front of her.

The blonde woman and the other man stumbled out of the bushes just as the pirate spoke up. "Well, well, hello lad," he addressed, sounding far too cheerful. Elle could hear the snicker in his voice, and it annoyed her. "For once, I can honestly say these are lovely circumstances to meet under."

"What?" a woman's voice hissed, the blonde woman. Elle glanced to the side at her, and had never seen her before. Both were looking between her, the pirate, and him with obvious confusion. The other man, however, spent more time looking at Elle, and his eyes narrowed the more he did.

"Hello Hook, Savior, Baelfire," his voice came, sounding smooth as silk but Elle, after all this time, could still hear the tightness of it. "Now, what are you doing roping a poor little girl into all this?" he asked mockingly. Always mocking. Elle's heart ripped, and she bit her lip to hold back a groan.

"Now, now, you and I both know that you know this little girl very well," the pirate chuckled. Then, he tightened his hold on her, making Elle's head tilt back against his chest as the hook pressed painfully into her throat. Her jaw tightened, refusing to cry out. "You might want to take a few steps back."

Surprisingly, she heard footsteps in front of her. Forgetting herself, she directed her eyes from the sky to him, seeing him actually take four steps away. Her eyes met his, for the first time in decades, and Elle was thankful for the pirate's grip on her because all her strength poured out.

The pirate chuckled again, making his chest move under Elle's head. "Yes, I remember how much you care about your little pet."

"What?" the woman demanded again, this time louder. Elle felt the pirate's head tilt to look at her, but her eyes stayed on Pan and his eyes stayed on her. His burned, she could almost physically feel fingers wrapping around her arms, her ribs, her neck, pulling her to him.

"What does a little girl have to do with this?" the other man asked, shaking his head at the pirate and at Elle.

"Don't you remember her, Baelfire?" the pirate asked. "Girl with the magic hair? C'mon, she was with her for years," he seemed a bit annoyed, or disappointed, or both. Elle looked over at him. The other man's eyes widened, and Elle furrowed her eyebrows. Baelfire, Baelfire…that was familiar. Somewhere, in the back of her mind, in the dark crevices, someone had said the name.

"Oh my God," the other man—Baelfire—trailed, stumbling back one step. "This is her! The Lost Boys told stories, but I never saw—I didn't think she was real. I thought just a story or myth," he stuttered. He was a Lost Boy…that was where Elle had heard the name! He'd been there, sometime when she wasn't….

"Princess," an unexpectedly soft, accented voice cut through her thoughts, jerking them back to him. Elle rolled her head slightly to look back at him. His jaw was tight, lips a thin line, but his eyes were different. They still burned into her, but they were both soft and hard, and something flickered in them. She didn't respond other than meeting his gaze, and managing not to fall onto her hands and knees. "Come here."

Elle shook her head, not quite biting back a whimper at the pirate's hook making a shallow cut from the motion. She felt hot blood trickle slowly down her neck. The pirate must have seen, because she felt his sharp intake of breath and the hook fell a small bit away from her skin. His jaw hardened further, blue veins starting to appear on his neck.

"Transport to me, I know you remember how," his voice was still unexpectedly soft, and the three grown-ups were silent. She barely even felt the pirate breathing under her. She shook her head again, slower this time so the hook didn't hurt as much. A thin trail of blood still slipped down her neck. She still didn't trust her throat, or her voice, or her mind. Her heart, in jagged pieces jammed in her chest, beat hard and fast, stabbing the edges into her ribs and stomach.

He sighed, closing his eyes for a moment. Elle felt a small bit of relief in that moment. "Fine," he huffed, opening his eyes and glaring. Still, his eyes flickered. "Go to camp, go away, go anywhere," the words came out faster, and his voice thinned further. "Just come back, princess, this isn't safe."

The pirate chose then to laugh, and Elle was quietly grateful for not having to answer. She probably would have gone to him, let him have her and her magic again. "She's not going anywhere with you, mate," the pirate mocked. "She's staying with us." He pressed the hook into her skin again, and this time Elle did flinch and groan because the blade pressed into the already open cut. "Now, as I suggested earlier lad, go away," he threatened, voice low and completely serious.

Elle closed her eyes to not see Pan's expression. A few seconds later, though they felt like years, she felt his presence and magic disappear. She opened her eyes and he was gone, leaving her alone with them. The other two grown-ups stepped toward her, and the pirate dropped his arms from her and stepped back, keeping a jeweled hand on her shoulder to turn her to face him.