Page 128 of Caging Darling

The Nomad smirks. “What if I told you she and I are supposed to fall in love and live happily ever after?”

I roll my eyes. “Even if I believed you? It wouldn’t change my mind. I’m tired of obsessive men thinking they own women’sfutures because of these stupid marks or something they were shown in a tapestry.”

The Nomad sets down his fork. Watches me carefully as he smiles faintly. “Fine, then. I should have known better than to think you’d be persuaded by fanciful tales of love. I’m sure life has made you too much of a cynic for such trivial things. So, you want the truth, Wendy Darling?”

I don’t answer. Don’t have to. Because I get the sense that the Nomad is going to tell me anyway. His version of the truth, that is.

“I am not from this world. Not originally, at least. I must say, it’s not my favorite.”

I cross my arms to hide the faint bit of flesh left bare between my gloves and sleeves, that way the Nomad won’t see the gooseflesh breaking out. “So you get to live a thousand lives like the legends say? How horrible for you.”

“I would have thought the girl who was planning to let her bargain expire would understand,” he says, and when I don’t react, shrugs and continues. “I’m stuck in a rather unpleasant cycle that more times than not, ends even more unpleasantly.”

“I thought the Fates favored you.”

The Nomad huffs. “That is how the rumor got twisted, isn’t it? I think they just enjoy seeing me falling into trouble, like an ox into a pit.”

“What does this have to do with Tink?”

The Nomad leans forward and props his elbows on the table, folding his hands together. “Did you ever stop to wonder why the Sister needed Tink’s voice to bind Neverland? Why her? Why go to the trouble of seducing a girl Peter would have to break out of a carnival, rather than seducing a free girl on the streets?”

“I’ve wondered,” I say, fighting the urge to fidget in my chair. “It didn’t seem like the kind of question she’d have the words toanswer. Though now I’m wondering if it was presumptuous of me not to at least ask.”

Something indecipherable flashes in the Nomad’s eyes. He returns to leaning back in his chair. “Well, without going into all the details, I have reason to believe that your friend has a gift. One that would help me with my predicament.”

“Sounds like something you could pay her for.”

The Nomad’s smile is knowing, more eyes than anything. “And I will, should she accept it.”

I straighten in my chair. “And if she doesn’t accept the job?”

“I’m confident she will.”

“Confident enough that we’re instructed to take her by any means necessary?”

“Only if your friend proves to be difficult to convince initially,” says the Nomad.

Irritation flares in my chest. “What makes you so confident she’ll be convinced eventually?”

“Just a gut feeling,” he says.

“She’s not particularly materialistic.”

The Nomad taps his forefinger against the silk tablecloth. “Everyone has a price, Darling. Thankfully, I’m particularly good at finding it.”

“So you don’t intend to traffic her then? Or harvest her faerie dust?”

“Do you even know how faerie dust is harvested?”

I shake my head, dreading what I’m sure I’m about to learn.

“On their own, a faerie’s wings aren’t aerodynamic enough to support flight. It takes something more than that, the magic that flows through the faerie’s blood and nourishes their wings. Typically, a faerie’s blood isn’t concentrated enough to be to anyone’s financial benefit. But…if you shear a faerie’s wings, they begin overproducing magic to compensate. It doesn’t fix the flying problem, of course, but it leaves their blood highlyconcentrated. After the blood is harvested, all one has to do is allow the liquid in the blood to evaporate. What’s left behind is…well, you know about faerie dust.”

I squirm in my chair, shame washing over me as I consider how often Peter must have hunted Tink down, sheared her wings, and bloodlet her, all for me to get high off of her pain.

“If it comforts you, I have no intention of doing such a thing,” the Nomad says, a bit too deliberately for my tastes.

“But you will if it’s necessary.”

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