Devourer of Men: A Captain Hook, Crocodile, and Wendy Darling Reimagining

I hurry from Roc’s bedroom. They’ll be looking for me now. They may already know I’m missing.

This isn’t good.

It’s very, very fucking bad.

“Wendy,” Roc calls as he follows me out the door.

“Go find James and get out of this castle,” I hiss at him over my shoulder. “It won’t be safe here for you.”

“And it is for you?” he counters.

I grumble to myself and turn the next corner and nearly run right into Asha and Theo.

To avoid crashing into them, I stumble back, but trip over my own feet and Roc has to catch me.

Theo’s attention immediately goes to Roc’s hands on my waist.

“There you are,” Asha says.

“I know how this looks,” I say. I don’t want Theo turning on me now. Asha couldn’t care less how I spend my nights, but Theo will.

“I was lost,” Roc says. “I’m absolutely hopeless with directions.”

Even though he’s behind me, I can hear the self-deprecating smile on his face.

Theo steps forward, putting his hand on my arm, steering me away from Roc. “Come, Your Majesty. We need to get you to a safe location.”

“Of course. The king is…” I trail off, because I know how that sentence ends, but I want to hear it confirmed.

“Yes.” Asha nods. “We should go.”

Roc is suddenly in front of us. “I’m not leaving you now.” Then he hastily adds, “Your Majesty.”

“I’ll be fine.” Asha and Theo will have my back. “You have to go. You have to make sure James is okay.”

He grumbles in frustration. He knows I’m right.

“Where will we find you?”

Asha and I share a glance. She was supposed to be working on an escape plan for me in the event of something disastrous. I would have to say the king dying is disastrous. Especially now with Roc and James here. Hally will be looking for any way to overthrow me, including murder.

“I’ll send for you,” Asha says. “When it’s safe.”

“Please,” I tell Roc. “Go.”

His jaw flexes and then he nods before turning in the opposite direction and disappearing around the next corner.

Theo and Asha guide me down the third-floor stairs and then down a series of back hallways usually reserved for servants. I can immediately tell they’re taking me to the unmarked, hidden exit on the west side of the castle. It’ll be closest to the western supply gate. It’s the easiest way out of the castle.

My heart thumps wildly the entire way there and I keep telling myself we’ll make it, and Roc and James will make it, and everything will be okay.

But my stomach is churning and I think it’s trying to tell me something.

Theo stops us at the end of one of those unused hallways and puts his finger to his lips.

The panic escalates.

“What is it?” Asha whispers. “I don’t see⁠—”

Theo pulls a thick, stubby baton from his belt and whacks Asha in the head.

I shout, then clamp my hand over my mouth.

Asha’s eyes roll back and she crumples to her knees, blood flowing freely from a large split in her temple.

“Theo! Why did you do that?”

“She was working against you.”

“What? Asha? No. That’s not right.”

Theo grabs my wrist and yanks me in the opposite direction.

I look back at Asha’s unconscious body as Theo pulls me into the shadows.

Have I had it all wrong?

Every day I spent in this court, I questioned people’s motives, whether or not they were using me, working against me, or worse, plotting against me. Never once did I question Asha.

Theo pulls me through a doorway that spills into a spiral stone staircase. Down, down we go.

“Where are we going?”

“You’ll see,” Theo tells me, his grip on me tightening. His pace is maddening and I’m barefoot and in my nightgown. I didn’t dress for a clandestine escape.

The stairwell has no windows, only iron torches staked into the stone, the flame flickering with every draft that steals in.

There is nothing in the stairwell to orient myself, and I realize too late that we aren’t headed for an escape; we’re below ground.

When the stairwell ends, it spills us into a narrow, low-ceiling tunnel. A tunnel that I know leads to the castle’s dungeon.

The churning in my stomach magnifies until I fear I may vomit.

No.

There are three waiting guards at the end of the tunnel.

Theo yanks me forward, delivering me to them.

I bolt in the opposite direction, but Theo hooks me around the waist, lifting me off my feet. “No! I won’t go. I won’t go back!” I fight him with everything I have, but it’s not enough. I was taken by surprise. Unprepared. Distracted. Naive.

Theo deposits me into the arms of the guards. It’s three large, brawny men wearing leather uniforms that protect them from my flailing and clawing.

I’m screaming, feral. I can’t breathe. I can’t think. I just want to run. I want to run far and far and fast and far.

I won’t go back.

I can’t go back.

“Theo!” I shout. “Don’t do this!”

“Apologies, Your Majesty,” he says. “She paid me more than you ever could.”