Free Hook's Pan by Marie Hall

you.
     
    It shouldn’t surprise him she’d known. She’d known with Wolf too.
     
    Turning toward a still glowering Tink, Danika nodded. “Now we are even. Go back to your boys and leave mine alone.”
     
    Baring her fangs with a loud, sibilant hiss, Tinkerbell streaked off in a golden orange blaze.
     
    Sitting, he leaned against the rail, with his legs bent and spread, hands dangling between his thighs as exhaustion lay claim to his body. “So tell me, fairy.”
     
    Nibbling her lip, she buzzed her dragonfly wings excitedly. “When I learned what Tinker had done, I knew I couldn’t tell you, because there was truly no hope. Not then. She saved Talia’s soul, but Peter’s strike had been true. She could do nothing for Talia’s body. Had she not acted when she did, Talia would have died well and true.”
     
    It didn’t take much to deduce why Danika had chosen to keep the truth of the matter from him. Talia’s soul had been sent to Earth, she’d been born a babe with no memories of seas or him.
     
    “And you did not tell me of her because you knew I’d go seeking.”
     
    The Jolly Roger was a special ship, it could sail wherever he commanded it to, even Earth. He’d have spent a millennia, or more, following her around like a besotted fool, attempting always to get her to remember him, to bring her back.
     
    “She never would have come with me, would she?”
     
    Danika lifted a plump shoulder, her briarwood vest bunched around her bosom. “The soul trapped within the body is as immortal as yours or mine. I visited the body through several incarnations, always trying to see if any memory of her truth had finally been unlocked. Always to no avail. And I thought the trauma of trying to get her to recall, or to bring her back even, would be more than she could take. The body had always been abysmally weak, the strain of disbelief would have killed it over and over and over again. So I left her alone, always waiting and watching.”
     
    He thought of the woman in his cabin. His lips twitched recalling the tongue on her. Her clothing was less than desirable, but when the mass of golden spun hair had fallen over her shoulders, his heart had clenched in a most irritating way. His body had hardened, not because he felt anything akin to love, but because she was a beauty and his lust had responded. But that was all he felt when he looked at her. Lust.
     
    “Is there anything of my Talia in that body now?”
     
    She sighed, her face looking sad. “Several lifetimes worth of memories are locked deep, deep inside. But I must warn you, Hook, the maiden you loved, she is long gone. Each life left an indelible mark, but Trishelle—for that is her name now—is your mate.”
     
    He snorted. “I do not want her. If I cannot have Talia, I’ve no need of another.”
     
    Huffing, she flitted to his finger. Turning his hand over, she daintily stepped onto his palm. “She is a good woman who’s known terrible darkness in this life. For the sake of the maiden you loved, try to know her. It would not kill you to show you’re not the monster the world has made you out to be.”
     
    “I’ve no desire to show that side to anyone. That is my secret to know.”
     
    “Then she will leave in three days and you will surely die. That was the prophecy, you know, the reason why I was forced to finally bring her here. Because if the Bad Five didn’t find their mates, this would be their last year of life.”
     
    He shrugged. The fear of death had long since lost its sting.
     
    Looking up, she frowned. “I must leave soon, I cannot follow into the drop. But may I ask a question?”
     
    “What?”
     
    She flitted off his palm, and he curled his fingers back.
     
    “Why aren’t you mad at me? Wolf was furious. I must admit, I’m flabbergasted you’re still talking with me.”
     
    Picking at his nails, he shivered as the tingle of the drop rushed through the breeze, encasing his ship in a skintight bubble.