“How did he even get on this ship?” one muttered, his voice sounding as starched as his uniform. Gwen still wasn't used to these black, naval suits the invading soldiers wore. Even the brass buttons seemed darker than they should have been.
“Nevermind that—unless you want to ask the CAO, lieutenant.”
“No, commander.”
“Good—then you can get to your launch station and prepare to accompany SLAT team.”
The lieutenants took off in one direction, the commander in the other, but neither looked back at the door they'd left behind, or the girl above it. The shadow egged her on, all but shoving her through the door. Gwen reluctantly watched it, but did nothing. Something felt wrong. The shadow gave up on her, and dove into the room alone. Uncertain what she would find, Gwen dropped down and opened the door. The room was not empty. Her shadow had betrayed her.
But in the same moment she realized the treason, she forgave it.
It was strange to arrive in a room where everything was metal. The pipes, the chairs, the machinery, the floor… although very different from a classroom, it lacked as much warmth and comfort as a high school math class. So maybe it wasn't so strange after all to find a young man bent over trigonometric equations.
The door latched shut behind her, but it felt a mile away. She stared at Jay, and he stared back. A legless metal desk protruded from the wall, but Jay took his attention off of his longhand equations as soon as he heard the door open—expecting, no doubt, more officers and more orders. At the head of the room, the sunlight rushed in from the windows behind him, reflected off the glittering sea.
The shock melted off his face into a smile. Gwen couldn't manage the same. “Gwen!” he called. He rushed over to her, and although she headed toward him, too, she moved much slower. She felt like she was trying to walk on the bottom of a pool. She couldn't breathe, and she wanted to just float away. She didn't drift anywhere. Jay enveloped her in a hug she was too stunned to reciprocate. “What are you doing here?” she asked.
“Lasiandra told me everything,” he replied, assuring her of nothing. He seemed under the impression that his presence would be a comfort to Gwen; that somehow she should have expected and delighted in his arrival.
“What—”
“How you've been trapped here,” Jay continued. “We came up with a plan to rescue as soon as I found out Peter Pan wasn't letting you come back. Lasiandra said—”
“Lasiandra hasn't been here,” Gwen erupted. “She went missing that night at the lake. I haven't seen her since I've seen you.” Gwen didn't know what her own words meant. How long had it been since that night in reality? Jay looked older now, but anyone would, in a stiff, mature uniform and stance of a military officer.
Jay's faltering smile fell at this remark. “I thought you said I could trust her—what happened?”
Gwen pursed her lips and simply shook her head no, trying to ward off tears. It didn't work, and when she felt them rolling down her face just the same, she told him, “I was an idiot. I never should have trusted her.”
Jay looked like Gwen was warping his reality beyond comfort. “You mean, you haven't been trying to come home?”
“No,” Gwen exclaimed, “Lasiandra's lied. She's lied to all of us.”
“If Peter Pan hasn't been keeping you here,” Jay asked, his voice losing confidence, “why haven't you come home?”
She wanted to explain that Peter was keeping her here—just not against her will. Her sister, the lost children, Peter... she loved them all and she would leave them all behind the moment she left paradise. Her mouth couldn't move as fast as her thoughts, and when she opened it, all she managed to say was, “I just wasn't ready yet.”
Jay, alarmed and confused, still pulled Gwen back into his arms. He tried to instill some security in her, but with his own sense of security fast diminishing, the gesture could not console Gwen.
“What's going on?” Jay asked. “What do we need to do?”
“I don't know,” she answered. “What are you doing here?”
Jay pulled back and looked her in the eyes. “I came to save you. Lasiandra said that you gave her a mirror so that she would always be able to find a way in the stars to help you, but she needed my help, too. She said we could find the Anomalous Activity Department and make a deal with them to help us beat Peter Pan and rescue you. They're helping us; they just want one tree off the island.”
He trailed off as he watched Gwen shake her head, contradicting everything that came out of his mouth. “Everything she said after she got her legs was a lie, Jay, and anything before that was duplicitous at best. I never should have given her that mirror. Mermaids are honest, it's people that aren't.”
“Everything?” Jay asked softly.
“As far as I can tell,” she replied, exasperated with this web of lies, and furious with herself for giving the deceitful mermaid everything she needed to spin it. She didn't understand why Jay seemed more wounded than aghast at this.
“She said you missed me,” he told her. “She said you loved me.”
Gwen stammered, trying to address that issue in a speedy and truthful manner. In her hesitation, Jay kissed her.They weren't basking in some late night rendezvous, though. Gwen couldn't put the rest of the world out of mind just because Jay had arrived here. She broke away. Too much stood at stake; she didn't have time to waste on her
