Read Pan's Revenge for Free Online Page B

torch, until it lands in my palm again. The clap echoes in
the cave as I smack that hand onto the back of my other. Grinding
my teeth, I frown and will it to be heads.
    Slowly lifting my hand, I tilt my head and
peek underneath. “Goddammit!”
    The coin runs through my fingers again. Then
I snap it up. “Be heads!” Quickly, I lift my hand to see what I
got.
    By
Davie Jones’ locker, this can’t be true! A low growl erupts from my throat.
    I go for a
third try, but this time with altered rules. Heads means I won’t
find Angelina McFarland, tails says I
will. My lip threatens to pop between my teeth as the coin spins in
the air. I catch it and smack it on the back of my other hand.
Tails came up twice. It has to do so again. “Be. Tails.”
I move my hand away. “Damn little bastard!”
    I fling the
coin against the rock face from where it rebounds and lands in a
water puddle. Kneading the spot between my eyes, I squint and
decide to go on this journey nevertheless.
    Voices drift to me. The crew returned to move
the next load of gold. I buck up. Together we refill the gunnysacks
until not another single coin fits in there. Some hours later, the
entire treasure is gone from this place. The only thing that stays
behind is the empty chest. It waits in the corner for Peter to find
it when he comes here next time.
    Grabbing the last torch from the clamp in the
wall, I wind the rope around my other hand and let the crew pull me
out of the grotto. The men close the trapdoor and place the stones
back on it before we leave.
    Under the additional weight, the Jolly Roger
has sunken a few inches deeper into the water. She appears like a
lazy old lady, pleased to be loaded with a fine meal. I stroke my
hand over the railing once we’ve returned, feeling the cold of the
dawn creeping up at the back of my neck.
    When I turn to walk into my quarters, I run
into a creature with hair as pale as her skin and mystic turquoise
eyes which pierce mine. “Hello, James,” she coos.
    “Remona.” It’s a plain surprise to find her
on my ship—if not a shock, to tell the truth. Now I realize, the
cold I felt wasn’t the breaking morning after all, but her fingers
tapping my neck. “How did you get here?”
    “I’m a fairy. How do you think?” She smiles
and shrugs. “I swam.”
    I lift one
brow at her, calling her out on her lie since her milky white
dress, her skin and her hair are perfectly dry. At that moment,
however, a flush of water swishes out of her…body. It splashes on
deck, leaving her drenched from the top of her head to her bare
feet.
    “See?” Remona grins like a sprightly child,
although she’s alleged to be older than the mountains of
Neverland.
    “Fine. You swam here.” I still don’t believe
her. “Why did you come?”
    “ Bre
sent me. Said to give you these.” She
holds out her hand. In her open palm are three beans.
    My brows knit together. “What’s that?”
    “ They are
called beckon
beans .”
    The vision of a tag with that name on it in
the fairies’ garden surfaces in my mind. My lips stay closed as I
tilt my head, prompting her to tell me more.
    “If you eat one, it’ll lead you in the right
direction.”
    “What direction?”
    “No idea. Left, right, north-north-west…” A
smirk appears on her face.
    I wonder why
Bre sent her sister. She must know how this woman loves to play
games and be cryptic—excessively so even for a fairy. Is it to
torture me even more? “I meant in the right direction to where ?” I
drawl.
    “Oh. Why didn’t you say so at the beginning?
They will lead you to Angelina McFarland of course.”
    Of course.
    “It’s our gift to you for releasing Neverland
from an annoying charm. Beckon beans work like a magnet. You think
it, they lead you there. Oh, little warning: think about Angelina
and not about a one-eye troll with bad breath when you eat one.”
Her face crumples into a knowing grimace. “You’ll know which way to
go then.”
    I take the beans from her