❝Never fight fire with fire.
Everything you love will burn.❞
➳
Adi Morris has fire. Peter Pan likes fire. But she's prepared to use that fire against him if it means keeping her freedom. Adi has never been one to follow the rules, and not even a man...
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"You and I walk a fragile line; I have known it all this time, but I never thought I'd live to see it break." Haunted - Taylor Swift
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ADI SAT NUMBLY by the fire, her hands empty and her magic suppressed. Her bow rested over her shoulder and her knives were sheathed at her sides, but she reached for neither. No weapon would do anything to combat the rush of helplessness that had taken her over. All this talk of fate left her reeling. Was there really nothing she could do? Were she and Pan fated?
No. She would not allow that to be true. It couldn't be.
Around her, the adults argued, but their words meant nothing to her. They were talking in circles: what to do about Henry, what to do about her.
Killian sidled next next to her, not sitting but opting to tower over her.
"When did you choose them as brothers over me?" he asked, tilting his head in the direction of the sleeping Lost Ones. Strangely, he sounded hurt.
Adi continued watching the fire slowly burn out. "It's more of a question of why than when. They didn't abandon me."
Although she had abandoned them once before, he didn't need to know that.
"Yet," Killian said, sipping what she supposed was his rum. Adi was overcome with the urge to snatch his flask and hurl it across the island. "Don't put too much trust into them. They've killed more of my men than I can count."
"Like I trusted you?" she asked, her voice uncharacteristically soft. "Don't pretend like there's a point to talking this out. I've made up my mind about what kind of person you are."
"Why? Because Pan told you so?" The words were taunting enough to strike a chord inside Adi, and she stood with murder in her eyes.
"You of all people should know that I don't bend easily. Do you think I'd stoop so low as to let Pan bully me into believing things that aren't actually true? Do you think I can't think for myself?"
"I think it's amazing that even after the boy has lied to and manipulated you, Fallon, you're still able to trust him."
"If it's him or you, then my choice is clear," Adi hissed, and then, sensing that if she didn't walk away now, it might get bloody, used every ounce of self-control she possessed to turn away.
She was tired. Tired of being manipulated and played. Tired of being told what to do. Freedom here was such a perfect lie. Adi hadn't been free from the moment Pan had given her the water from Dead Man's Peak.
Henry's family was locked in a heated discussion. At any other time, Adi might've been amused, but with her magic gone and them discussing her fate, she wasn't laughing.
"We can't force her to sacrifice herself."
"It's not like she deserves to live after what she's done to Henry."
