Mere Phantasy

by Ashley Lauren

  “No need to do that yet, Lox. He has one more shot. As well as a whole lot of trust to gain back,” I told her before seeing Zane reach forward and slip a bottle of amber liquid out from under the cot he sat on. Exasperated, I yanked the bottle from him before he could bring it to his lips.

  “Too soon?” The corner of his mouth dipped like he was a three-year-old who’d just painted on the walls of his family’s new house.

  My eyes narrowed as I dropped the bottle in the trash. “Definitely too soon.”

  Zane was sighing as someone entering the tent hurriedly caught my attention. The female soldier motioned to all those available in the infirmary. “The traitor’s returned! And with a note from the enemy lines!”

  I blinked at both Lox and Zane before we were all up and bustling after the soldier as quickly as our wounds would permit.

  Amidst the creatures and many others crowded near the tent that had previously been the general’s, Zane, Lox, and I managed to push through to get a better look. Four pirates stood around the exalted traitor. In his hands was a declaration of some sort. And a very familiar locket was draped around his neck.

  “You aren’t welcome here,” Peter said evenly, tan arms crossed over his chest loosely as Jack faced him.

  The ex-general just smiled down at him. It wasn’t until then that I noticed the fact that Jack’s left arm was in a sling, covered by the cloak he wore. But it was definitely due to the weapon I’d lodged into his muscle the night before.

  Nice.

  “I’m here for business, Pan,” Jack practically boasted.

  My eyes narrowed, along with those around me. The soldiers were virtually vibrating with fury toward this kid. How dare he betray them all? After all they’d done for him.

  Peter watched the intruder evenly. “Go on, then.”

  Clearing his throat, Jack held out the piece of paper to read from. “‘My dearest opponents.’” After scanning over the crowd, soaking in the attention to the best of his ability, Jack finally continued. “‘I, Captain James Hook, have come to the realization this fight isn’t exactly fair.’”

  Whispering echoed around us, and I glanced over at Lox, who seemed concerned. We were outnumbered by the darkness, and if Hook knew it, then it really made it true.

  Jack followed with, “‘So I propose a deal. At the beginning of the battle, I’d like to negotiate some things with your newly…’” Jack stopped and glared up at Peter. “‘Awakened leader. There, if all things go as planned, we will decide whether we fight or not.’”

  An uproar of disagreement arose from the Neversoldiers, and it got so loud Jack couldn’t continue. After a few moments of letting their comments of disapproval ring out, Peter raised his arm for silence. They complied with their leader almost instantly.

  “Continue,” Peter demanded Jack.

  “Right. So… ‘After the decision is made, we will move from there. This is your only chance to change the outcome of this war, Pan. Make it count.’ Oh…” Jack’s eyes flashed while a smooth grin curled onto his face. “‘There is also one rule that I should make clear to you. Absolutely, under no circumstances, will the power of flight be permitted during this endeavor. Do not mess this up for Neverland, Neverking. Signed, Captain James Hook.’” Jack finished and scrunched the paper between his stomach and only good hand. “What’s your decision, Pan? Do you accept?”

  The crowd stayed relatively silent, everyone searching for Peter’s reaction. Would he negotiate with the captain? Or would a bloodbath be upon us in an hour’s time?

  Peter’s eyes appeared dark, though the morning sun cast down upon us. He didn’t move, didn’t even blink.

  “I accept.”

  And then the crowd went ballistic.

  Twenty-Nine

  “Are you ready?”

  His words startled me slightly. Not because he’d surprised me, but because my nerves were so on edge that I was practically dropping everything I held in my hands. That’s why Zane was tightening the armor over my chest and arms, because my fingers were trembling too much.

  Gazing up at him, I swallowed hard and nodded, but it was a lie.

  Pressing down on my shoulder, he tilted his head with a soft smile. “Why are you so nervous? We already have our plan.” He assured me, bending to grab my hand and squeeze it. “I’ll protect you if anything happens.”

  I was going to say, I don’t need anyone to protect me, but who was I kidding? Without my necklace… I was useless.

  There was a flash of hesitation on my part at the touch of his hand against mine. I was still trying to decipher where we stood, where things were going between us. Zane had admitted he liked me, but who knew what that meant in actuality?

  And how did I feel about him?

  This was honestly so wrong to think about when we were about to possibly lead an army into war, a war where people were going to die.

  “Tell me the plan again, Lace,” Zane offered as he dropped my hand and clunked over to the weapons we’d picked out this morning. Peter had made it clear to Hook and his men there were no guns allowed in this battle, but we could never be sure he would keep his word. So under the breastplate of Zane’s armor was the same pistol he’d wanted me to grab the day before when I went after Jack. Thankfully, Zane had gotten to it before Hook did, and Robin’s men fought off the rest of the pirates before they retreated altogether. As Zane described, the second he turned his back on the captain, he disappeared into the forest and didn’t return. Now we knew the whole thing had been a plan to divert us from the real culprit. Why Hook had to be there, I didn’t know. But I did know one thing for sure: Hook truly hadn’t been able to see that tree.

  I started to recite all I could remember of our plan. “Right.” I cleared my throat, feeling a bit nervous with the way Zane studied me steadily. “So I raise the flag at the beginning.”

  “Try to say something memorable,” Zane suggested while still watching my every move. My fingers grabbed the edges of my armor roughly. This stuff wasn’t very comfortable whatsoever. I felt like the ultimate tin man inside its confinements.

  “Yes…” I said uneasily. “Then… I lead my horse forward.” I looked at him for approval. “Even though I’ve only ridden twice in my life. Both times were not fun, Zane.”

  “What else?” He encouraged.

  Swallowing, I kept rubbing my fingers over the wall of my chest plate. “At the last second, I steer the horse toward the forest.”

  “Then?” Zane raised an eyebrow.

  “I wait for you.”

  “That’s right. You wait for me there, I do a bit of fighting on the field, and then we stay out of sight until the end of the battle. Together.” He moved to step around me toward the tent’s opening. It was only then I felt like I could take a deep breath. He made me feel so jumbled and hesitant, and I both hated and loved it.

  But one I didn’t think I wanted that feeling to go away.

  I turned to follow his lead, panting at the effort of walking with so much metal covering me from head to toe. “Does Peter know about this plan, Zane?”

  “Peter was the one who asked me to make it,” he responded over his shoulder, pacing through the milling crowd. Everyone was either being fitted for their armor or were already adorned with it, which I was thankful for. Didn’t want to be even more left out when I was already leading this army into war with no experience whatsoever.

  “What if they come up with a peace deal? Don’t you think there’s a chance the plan won’t really matter?” I peered around him on both sides, trying to catch up to him like a short-legged toddler.

  Zane turned sharply then, heading toward a tent with billowing black smoke coming from an open flap in its ceiling. I briefly watched it steadily slither into the crisp, blue sky before having to scurry after Zane again.

  He answered, “I think all that matters to me is that we keep you safe.” His smirk made my cheeks ignite with unwanted heat. “I owe you that much.”

  I stopped just out
side the canvas shelter, blinking at the new smell hitting my nose—burning metal.

  Zane was about to walk inside, a place I quickly realized I had no urge to visit, so I caught him by the arm. When I felt his warm skin through the black material between the armor plates, I pulled away. Clumsy.

  His voice hummed with amusement, eyes bright. “Touching my arm is not a sin, as much as those rosy cheeks might portray otherwise.”

  That just made it worse, so I had to take a step back to make myself feel better about being so close. “I-I know.” I cleared my throat, shaking my head. I needed to start over. “What I’m asking is…why does Peter want to protect me so badly? I thought…” I looked at the ground. “I mean, I assumed—”

  “That he believed you could fight?” Zane cut me off, but he was practically reading my mind. Yet I didn’t like the suggestive tone that came with it. He folded his arms over his chest. “Lacey, he asked you to raise the flag. He didn’t ask you to become Battle Babe and save us all.”

  Slightly discouraged, I dropped my eyes back to my shining shoes. Did what he claimed have some truth behind it? Was everything I’d told myself before his awakening an unintentional lie? Had Peter ever even had hope in me to begin with?

  Before I could say anything else, Zane ducked inside the tent, a nice slap of smoke hitting me with the effort. I fanned it away so it would stay out of my lungs, sighing. Patience, as well as controlling my temper, were two characteristics I didn’t possess.

  Beyond the wall, there was a clattering of hammering metals and blacksmithing, obviously implying this was where the weapons were made. I was just thinking about stepping inside, just to say I did it, when Zane came back out and stopped me.

  “I thought we already picked our weapons?” I asked, glancing at the tent when I heard a loud explosion of falling metals, followed by a groan. It was probably better I’d stayed out here.

  Zane, hands behind his back, looked up at the sky with a suggestive smile, waltzing toward me now. “I wasn’t in there to get weapons.”

  I raised an eyebrow, leaning forward to see what he had. “What are you hiding?”

  Shaking his head, Zane moved around me, keeping his back facing the other direction the whole time. “Guess.”

  “Just—” I jumped forward and tried to grab behind him. But due to the weight of my armor, I ended up stumbling past him, having to grab a tent beam to stop myself from falling.

  Zane’s laugh was something I didn’t think I’d ever experienced before. Or at least his real laugh. The laugh that made him close his eyes and throw back his head, grinning wildly. The laugh that sounded like a million best songs being played at your favorite restaurant, surrounded by the people you loved. And you sing it off pitch and dorky because that’s just who you are. Zane’s laugh was like that—beautiful.

  And deep down, I realized…

  So was he.

  As soon as the moment came, it was over. I was caught staring at him longer than normal. Longer than I should have. Longer than friends gazed at one another.

  Longer than I wanted to.

  But I couldn’t stop it, either.

  Zane’s expression had grown serious, as if he anticipated my next move. He did that a lot, analyzing me like a chessboard he just couldn’t decipher. Did I find this endearing? Yes.

  “Come here so I can give you your present,” he said sternly, voice low, as his chocolate-browns flickered over me.

  When I stood before him, he tilted his head with a soft smile, gaze burning down on me. “Guess.”

  Biting my lip, I said, “Something metal.”

  Zane gave a hefty eye roll. “No, that’s not possible.”

  I smiled. “Something metal that you had made.”

  A glittering in Zane’s eye gave me the answer before he did, calmly. “Better.”

  Then before I could guess again, he held out his hand for me to see.

  Brow furrowed, I pinched the object from his palm and held it up in the light of the sun. “Is this…?”

  “A ring.” He beamed, which made my heart do a few jumping jacks.

  I mean, logically, a girl’s first impression when a male specimen hands her a ring is to jump to the “marriage” idea. But that wasn’t what this meant, obviously. Duh, Lacey.

  “It looks like two pieces of scrap metal welded together,” I pointed out blandly, apparently oblivious to the sincerity of it.

  Zane shook his head with an amused smile. “That’s because it is two pieces of scrap metal welded together.”

  I tried putting the handmade ring over my right hand’s ring finger. When it didn’t want to go on, I hesitated, feeling awful for a split second. He’d gone through all the trouble to make me something nice, and it didn’t even fit me. Curse fat fingers.

  He stepped forward to stop me from forcing it on. “No, no. It’s for your necklace.”

  “My necklace?” I reached up out of habit to touch the gold chain, covered by my armor, but of course, it wasn’t there.

  Zane nodded and took the ring back, stepping behind me. “Yeah, your necklace. But since we don’t have that right now…” His fingertips brushed the sensitive skin on my neck, sparking shivers along my spine. When he finished, he followed the chain of a new necklace so I could see the amateur, rugged-looking ring in front of me, next to where the heart belonged.

  “It’s just a placeholder for when you get the real one back, which we will. I just wanted us to have something to hold on to when we got scared.” He held up his inner forearm. There, on his bow guard, woven into a cut in the outer fabric, was a different-looking ring but still made out of two pieces of scrap metal like mine.

  My voice got quieter as I watched the ring shine in the sunlight. “But you don’t get scared. And who are you to say I do?” I mock flexed my muscles, but it was just to make the mood lighter. Besides, we both knew I was so scared I was shaking.

  Zane shook his head but didn’t say anything about it.

  “It’s cliché, but I wanted you to remember me with it, too,” he told me. “For, you know, when you go back home.”

  “So you’re saying you want me to leave?” I joked, moving to push him lightly.

  He just gave a halfhearted raise of his cheek. “No, I don’t. But it’s inevitable, Lacey, and we both know it.”

  Suddenly, I felt kind of… sad. I was homesick and tired; it was true. But now that I had something worthwhile to leave behind, whatever this and my other friendships were, did I really want to leave so quickly? When, and if, I made it through this war, did I want to go back home after all the friendships and memories I’d made here?

  Zane reached forward to grab the chain from me, looking me in the eyes as he played with it against the pull of my neck. “We’ll have to part ways, but at least this lame hunk of metal will make sure you don’t forget me.”

  I let out a breath. “I doubt I’ll forget you.”

  “Everyone does.” Zane’s eyes were sad, dropping the stand-in locket so it clanged on my armor. “Eventually.”

  Opening my mouth to say something, I stepped forward just in time to be stopped by the sounding of a loud trumpet, coming from somewhere in the camp. Zane cleared his throat, pushing away his vulnerable side almost just as fast as he’d let himself open up to me, replacing it with his usual sly smile.

  “One more sleep until you lead an army, princess.”

  I didn’t want to leave without talking more, didn’t want to leave this conversation on such a deep note for a later time. There was no guarantee there would be a later time. Seeing this side of Zane, I liked it. He actually seemed like a real person when he exposed all his emotions, not just a passive, brooding mystery.

  But I didn’t get the chance to tell him because he was already stepping away from me, his thumbs hooked around his armor, whistling a soft tune to himself.

  Zane made me think even the most complex puzzles have a weakness. This one was just covered with a better image than the others.

  And,
man, did I want to solve it.

  I hated confrontation. It was uncomfortable and most definitely not something I imagined myself doing right when I was about to drift into sleep before the biggest day of my entire life. But alas, my eyes still shot open, and I groaned with the realization.

  I had to talk to Peter.

  Now I stood before his tent opening. He was awake; I could tell by the sounds of shuffling inside. No shadow, but the flickering of the lantern could be seen from where I stood hugging my shivering body. It was cold for someone in only a flimsy undershirt and pants. Briefly, I scolded myself for not wearing a jacket or at least a small blanket to cover myself, but at least I’d had enough sense to shuffle into my untied boots.

  And here I was, yet I couldn’t make my presence noticed.

  What if he was permanently mad at me? What if he didn’t want to talk?

  Either way, he didn’t give me the option of running.

  “I know you’re out there, Lacey.” He sighed. I froze, trying to swallow down the childish embarrassment of being caught snooping around like some sort of creep. “Come in,” he said blandly. Nervously, I finally pushed back the flap of the tent.

  Scanning over everything, I noticed most all of Jack’s things had been removed, replaced by other, new objects of Peter’s. A sword here, a goblet there. Knickknacks and things I had no idea would’ve been of meaning to someone like him.

  When I looked up at him, I was startled to notice something about Peter I’d never seen before. The shine, that gloss that usually sang around him, it was gone. His face was lit up by the flame of the lamp on his desk, but besides that, there was no light about him. Or maybe I was just seeing things.

  “A-are you all right, Peter?” I asked.

  He leaned over his desk to study the maps placed over it, as if in deep thought. But when his eyes flashed up to meet mine, I bit back my breath.

  They were dark.

  “I’m fine.” He ran his hands over his hair with a sigh. “Just got a lot on my mind.”