Not only is the ocean unknown, it's one of the most dangerous, unpredictable places in every realm. Stay away if you can avoid it.

It was pretty much life as usual after that. Felix still joked and laughed with me, and I still had magic lessons with Pan every few days. Sometimes, the world seemed a little off, but usually I managed to act like nothing had happened that night. Now, though, I knew a little bit more.

Felix had a secret, for one thing. I didn't expect him to be direct and spill every part of his life story with me, but I admit I also didn't expect him to be actively keeping things from me (and everyone else, it seemed). It had to be something important, otherwise why would Pan have gotten so protective when he'd apparently almost let it out into the open?

Protectiveness. I realized that that was what I had mistaken for anger the other day. Pan wasn't angry with Felix; he was worried about him.

So what could make Peter Pan that worried about someone? I have all the pieces, but they aren't fitting together.

I shook my head. It wasn't important. Whatever it was, Felix would tell me in his own time. I wasn't the nosy type. If I never found out, then so be it. I had other matters on my mind.

A few days ago, I'd discovered the color of my magic. Apparently the fog only appeared for a physical or large-scale spell, so I didn't know I had any until Pan started working with me on water magic.

"You seem to be somewhat in control over your music," he'd said. "Dangerous as it is, I don't think you could really hurt yourself with it. Water, on the other hand, is deadly if untrained."

And that's how I ended up in the middle of a forest, trying to make water appear out of thin air. The first time I did it, I blinked in shock as a royal blue fog crept out of my hands and a small raincloud hovered at chest level. Tiny flashes and louder sounds confirmed that I'd made a small lightning storm, right here on Neverland.

"Good work," he'd said. "I'm not sure why I'm still impressed, but you managed to bypass the weather wards I've had up."

I was still entranced by the small cloud in front of me. It crackled and sparked with electricity, and a tiny bolt of lightning stuck whenever I wanted it to, charring the ground below it. "Weather wards?"

"I'll explain later. For now, let's just keep practicing."

Now spells like that were easy. Sometimes, if I got bored and no one was around (which was often, since the singing incident; most of the boys were too cowardly to face me), I would make little shows with the water I created, mixing it with the fog and making little shapes and liquid sculptures. My personal favorite was the dolphins, especially when I had them "swim" in and out of the dark blue fog. I imagined this was what childlike amusement felt like.

I played this game when I had some downtime, like today. It was Sammy's turn to hunt, Felix was fairy hunting, and my lessons were over for the day. I'd taken a quick bath while everyone was gone, because opportunities like his never came around, and I'd already picked up the tent that morning— ugh. I sounded like a housewife. Anyway, I'd basically done everything I could to occupy time and there was nothing left but to amuse myself for a while, and this was the first thing to come to mind.

Not the first thing. You considered finding Pan.

Ugh. You again.

I'm you. And admit it, you're just refusing to admit that—

Don't finish that thought.

My point exactly.

"You seem to be thinking a little too hard for a girl your size." Think of the devil and he appears.

"Was that a slur on my height, little boy?" I snapped jokingly. He seemed to be doing that more and more these days; luckily, he wasn't that much taller than me.

"That it was." He nodded a tiny bit, stroking an imaginary beard. "I have a job for you."

Finally. Something to do.

"Alright," I said. "I'm so bored I'm pretty much willing to do anything."

He looked me up and down warily. "I get the feeling you aren't going to like this one. You're coming with me to check on our pirates."

Wait, what? "We have pirates?"

He laughed and nodded. The green fog wrapped around us. I barely noticed it; I didn't have the capacity to fear magic anymore. When we landed, it was on a ship.

Holy crap, we really do have pirates.

One of the crew noticed us and yelled for the captain. I noticed that the ship was in perfect order: the deck was swabbed just enough to stay wet, but not enough to rot, the patches on the sails were perfectly stitched, and every man's shirt was tucked neatly into their dirty waistbands. Hey, they were pirates— some stereotypes still had to apply, right?

"The captain does get in a mood when we don't practice good form," a short man with a red beanie said. "I make sure everything stays ship shape, if you'll excuse the pun, ma'am."

Pan smiled scarily at the man and I looked down at the floor in embarrassment. "Did I say you could speak to her, Mister Smee?"

"N-No, sir. The c—captain'll be r—right out," he stuttered, almost shaking in fear.

"Actually, the captain is here," a snarky British voice— not Pan's, for once. How refreshing —snapped. "Smee, man the wheel while I deal with this." The man in the beanie scurried away, reminding me inexplicably of a rat. "We have your cargo, Pan. Don't know why you wanted something like that, but it's belowdecks whenever you feel like popping your undergrown arse down there." Who's the new lass you're keeping prisoner?"

I looked up sharply, intending to set this asshole straight. "I'm not— Killian?"

He blinked, then his eyes widened in recognition. "Ellie?"

What was he doing here? I'd always known he wanted to sail, but he was a privateer the last time I'd seen him. What made him go rogue? And where was Liam? More and more questions flew through my head, demanding answers.

I looked at Pan. "Explain."

"Well, this is the job I had for you," he said. "I need you to accompany the good captain into another realm on an errand. The cargo he's retrieving this time around is highly valuable and extra security couldn't hurt."

"Not a problem," I said automatically. "But explain to me what's happening exactly?"

Pan raised an eyebrow. "I'll let you know when you get back. Deal?" When I nodded, he addressed Killian. "Her coming with you shouldn't be a problem, right, captain? I assure you she doesn't take up that much space."

When Killian kept gawking at me and didn't answer, he seemed to take it as a confirmation. "Good. I'll see you in a few weeks, then, Lily." He vanished into a puff of green smoke, leaving me alone on a pirate ship.

"Wait... A few weeks?" I exclaimed. I was so used to the weird time magic on Neverland that the concept of having a definite deadline was terrifying. Not to mention that I hadn't been away from the island for god only knew how long.

"Ellie..." Killian's dazed voice snapped me out of my reverie.

I tucked a stray piece of hair behind my ear. "Hi. Good to see you again, Killian."

He shook his head and looked at the floor with a small smile. "So that's where you've been all this time... Right under my nose, and I never even knew."

"All this time? How long have I been gone?" I asked. When he looked confused, I clarified. "Neverland time is weird. It's only felt like a couple of months to me."

Understanding clarified his gaze. "Let's talk more privately. Mister Smee! Weigh anchor and cast off!"

"Yes Cap'n. You heard him!" Smee yelled from the deck above us. "Get movin' ya lazy swabs!"

Killian held out his arm to me; it barely came up to my face. I looked at him and raised an eyebrow. He shook his head ruefully and put a hand on my shoulder instead. "Follow me. I'll give you the grand tour of my vessel."

I flopped down in a chair hours later. Killian was awfully proud of his ship; we'd gone over pretty much every inch. Twice. It was exhausting.

I was getting tired of hearing myself think, though. "So how long has it been, really?" I asked. "And how did you meet Pan? Why do you work for him? Do you owe him something? Where are we going? Why did you go rogue? Where's —"

"One question at a time, love," he laughed. "I'm not much sharper than I was before the Crocodile took you away."

"Who's the Crocodile?" I asked. That didn't sound too good.

He looked at me in surprise. "The Dark One? Rumpelstiltskin? The man who ruined your life?"

Oh, him. "Why do you call him that?"

Killian looked pretty shocked at this point. "It's what you used to call him when we were kids, don't you remember?"

I shook my head. "I didn't remember anything for a long time, until Pan unlocked my mind. I owe him a lot."

"You didn't remember anything?" he asked.

"I woke up here and I remembered my name, but no. Otherwise... nothing."

Killian paced the room agitatedly, then stopped. "You said he unlocked your mind... what did you promise him in exchange?"

Huh? "What do you mean?" I asked.

He gestured vaguely around the room. "Pan doesn't just do things like that. You had to have promised him something, right?" When I shook my head, he looked slightly annoyed. "Then how did you end up working for him? Is that how he's collecting?"

At this point, he wasn't the only one getting annoyed. "I don't work for him, and he's not collecting anything. I live here."

"You what?"

"I. Live. Here." I repeated slowly. "Did you not understand me the first time?"

"So he's keeping you here?" Killian asked.

I shrugged. In a sense, he was. But if Pan was letting me go on an errand like this, it was for a reason. Speaking of...

"Can we just not talk about this?" I asked. I was exhausted, and I didn't really want to fight for once. "Where are we going?"

"Actually, back to where we grew up. Or rather, where I grew up. We have to go to the Enchanted Forest to get the job done, but it should be a short trip, a couple of weeks or less." He shrugged slightly. "We'll leave in the morning and be back as soon as possible, since I'm sure you don't want to be there for too long."

We sat in silence for a while. The ship rocked slowly from side to side, but the waves were so small that it didn't make much if a difference. I looked out the small porthole and saw that it was almost dark; the water sparkled a million shades of blue and purple. I yawned quietly.

"Before I let you fall into your bunk, love," Killian said, "I have a question of my own."

"Shoot." I was exhausted, but it was only fair.

"Why did Pan pick you of all people as 'extra security'? Don't get me wrong, Ellie, I'm absolutely thrilled to see you again, but these circumstances are a little strange, even for me."

My eyes widened. "I guess it is. I think... I think he picked me because I'm best suited for a magical fight if worst comes to worst."

I could almost hear the gears in his head turning. Some kind of immunity? Maybe something psychological?

I laughed a little maniacally. "It's not what you're thinking, Killian. I'm actually close to rivaling Pan himself when it comes to magical power."

He raised an eyebrow. "You?"

"Me."

"Alright then, how about we make a bet? If you can prove to my crew that your new... powers... can be useful to us, you can sleep in the captain's quarters. My treat. Until then, you'll be bunking belowdecks with my crew."

"Deal," I said immediately. This was a good bet. And I already knew how I was going to win.

After all, it would be impossible to spend as much time with Peter Pan as I did and not learn to appreciate a good game.