She had spent the entire journey brainstorming what to say when she saw him again. But at the moment, her mind was blank. “I’m sorry about what happened on the bus,” she blurted. “You’ve been trying to save me ever since we met, and I haven’t made your job very easy.”
His answering smile was crooked and cocky. “I’ve always enjoyed a challenge.”
“Well, I’m here now. So I guess that means you’ll have to find a new challenge.”
His dark brows came together. “Does it?”
“Does it?” she repeated, issuing a challenge of her own.
Deacon was the first to look away, but his smile remained. The city lights faded and the buildings shrank as they moved into the suburbs.
“Did you find it hard to leave Ohio?” he asked, all hints of teasing gone.
Vivienne pursed her lips and bit the inside of her cheek. “I didn’t really have a choice.”
“Care to explain?” A small wrinkle formed between his eyebrows as he searched her face. His stare grew more intense the longer it took for her to answer.
She turned away from him to catch her breath. Raindrops bubbled on the window, glowing like Christmas lights powered by each passing car’s headlights.
What had they been talking about?
Oh, right. Ohio.
When she turned back to him, her hood slipped off. “HOOK showed up at Lynn’s, so it was either stay and take my chances or come find you.”
Deacon sucked in a breath. He reached toward her cheek, then dropped his hand. “Did HOOK do that to you?”
“No. I fell on the way to the bus station.”
His hands flexed into fists. “I told you they would come for you.”
“You were honest with me about the other stuff too.” Vivienne tried to focus on the dark landscape drifting past the vehicle. She and Deacon were sitting close enough that their knees could touch. Did she want them to?
The driver brought them to the middle of a stretch of road with no streetlights, where a set of imposing wrought iron gates sat between two brick pillars. Beyond the barrier stood a line of trees that could have been the start of a forest.
Deacon paid the driver and grabbed Vivienne’s bag for her. The man drove away, leaving the two of them alone with the night.
“It’s so dark.” She felt a sudden and overwhelming urge to bolt. The fire in her chest sparked to life.
“We don’t want people seeing what’s happening beyond these walls.”
“And that’s supposed to make me want to go inside?”
He chuckled.
She traced the letters on the bronze Kensington Academy sign fastened to the wall. “You didn’t tell me Neverland was a college.”
“The whole college thing is a ruse.” He leaned over a silver keypad beside the sign. “But it makes it easier to explain why a bunch of teenagers are hanging around together.” Deacon typed in a code and the bricks opened to reveal a glowing square.
When he pressed his palm against the square, the gates clicked, jerked, and slid open. Inside, a sleek black car sat parked in a lot. He withdrew a set of keys from his pocket, and the vehicle responded with a chirp. The trunk popped open, and he laid Vivienne’s bag into the recess.
She looked back at the closing gates. “That seemed too easy.”
He opened the passenger door and ushered her inside. “That’s because you can’t see the cameras and signal scrambling devices.”
She searched for signs of additional surveillance equipment but found nothing. Deacon settled into the driver’s seat and pressed a button. The car roared to life.
“Before we go, can I ask you a question?”
“Of course.” His hands dropped from the steering wheel and he turned, giving her his undivided attention.
“Why didn’t the PAN come and get me if they knew my parents were gone?” In a sea of questions, it was the one that mattered most.
“It’s generally against protocol to pick up a child whose Nevergene hasn’t activated. If you had grown up in Neverland, it wouldn’t have been an issue. But because you didn’t…” A shrug.
“Why didn’t my parents raise me in Neverland?” That sounded like the best childhood ever.
“They wanted you to have a normal childhood.”
She snorted. Moving from one foster home to the next with people like Lynn serving as her guardian wasn’t normal. It was sad. And lonely.
“Growing up in Neverland,” he went on, running his hand along the leather gear shift, “isn’t always what’s best.”
“Are you speaking from personal experience?”
“We’re not talking about me.” He twisted away and shifted into drive. “We’re talking about you. And you are late.”
Driving away from the gates felt like leaving the world behind. She stared into the darkness, wondering what was on the other side of the forest.
For the first time she could remember, Vivienne felt like anything was possible.
The car followed the gravel driveway winding its way through the trees. The wilderness parted, and elegant iron lamps circled the driveway in front of a brick structure that looked like a manor home straight from the pages of a novel.
The building was several stories high, with multiple rows of windows on each level. In the middle was a portico and a magnificent arched black door. The whimsical facade stretched high into the sky until it arced in two different directions like the wings of a bird poised to take flight. The imposing structure shielded the rest of the campus from view.
Deacon leaned forward and followed Vivienne’s gaze through the windshield. “Impressed?”
“More like intimidated.”
“It’s just a building.”
Deacon was wrong. It was a chance for a new life.
After retrieving her bag from the trunk, Vivienne followed Deacon up the flagstone stairs to the carved wooden door. Tiny fairies were etched into the panels, their arms and wings outstretched to whatever magical realm slept beyond the barrier.
Deacon lifted the brass knocker shaped like a rooster and knocked twice.
The building remained eerily quiet.
He pounded again, this time with more force. “Come on, Julie! Open up!”
There was a scraping noise from the other side, and the door flew open. A teen with frizzy red hair appeared in a whirl of warm cinnamon-scented air. “You are late,” she snapped, narrowing her eyes at Deacon. When she saw Vivienne, her face lit up. “And you are very welcome.”
Julie brought Vivienne into a balmy reception hall with black and white tiled floors, arched windows, and painted coffered ceilings. In the center of the cavernous room, a sweeping staircase encircled a crystal chandelier that looked like it belonged in a palace.
Deacon’s hand fell to the small of Vivienne’s back, sending shivers up her spine. “Vivienne, this is—”
“I’m Julie. She’s Vivienne. Introductions done. Now tell me what happened to your poor face.” Julie may have been speaking to Vivienne, but she was glaring at Deacon.
“Don’t look at me,” he said, dropping his hand. “I had nothing to do with it.”
“It’s true,” Vivienne told her. “I fell.”
Julie’s features softened and her smile returned. “My goodness, girl. You look just like your mom. Sound like her too.”