Devourer of Men: A Captain Hook, Crocodile, and Wendy Darling Reimagining
Chapter 39

I’m not sure if I’ll ever get used to watching the Crocodile transform.

One minute he is man, the next his edges are made of darkness and mist.

He devours the witch whole.

The prince is rendered stupid, watching it happen, then he’s sputtering orders and the guards make a valiant effort defending the castle against the Devourer of Men.

It doesn’t take Roc long to make his way through the line.

Their screams echo through the foyer and up around the mezzanine filling the castle with terror and carnage.

Bone by bone, Roc devourers them all and everyone in the foyer is powerless to stop him.

When it’s over, his formless silhouette is before me, two glowing yellow eyes in bottomless darkness.

“Captain,” he says in a voice that is ancient and chilling, and then he’s man again, collapsing into my arms.

We go down together. He’s dead weight, somehow heavier than he’s ever been even though his size hasn’t changed.

“Monster,” the prince starts, then his voice gains volume. “Monster!” He charges at Roc, blade drawn.

I squirm under Roc’s weight, trying to get my feet out.

I don’t know if he can withstand a knife wound. I don’t know the rules of a beast but I don’t want to replace out.

I manage to get out from beneath him and instinctively reach for my pistols before remembering I don’t have them and haven’t since they arrested us.

I scan the surroundings, spotting the witch’s abandoned sacrée.

I scramble for it as the prince charges.

Wendy rushes forward and careens with the prince. They clatter to the floor. The prince loses his blade. He gets up on all fours and slips over the bloody marble to retrieve it.

With the sacrée in a firm grip, I stalk over to the prince. I don’t really know anything about him other than he wants to kill Roc. That’s all I need to know.

The prince gets the blade and messily climbs to his feet, his balance unsteady on the wet floor.

When he turns around, he slips in the blood again and I take the opportunity to introduce him to the crude point of the sacrée.

He spills forward, stumbling into me, his blood splashing down my front.

I shake him off and he falls over, eyes watery with unshed tears as the life drains out of him.

The first rays of sunlight flare in through the windows.

I look over at Wendy clutching at her shoulder where a blade is sticking out of her.

Beyond the castle, shouting of the townspeople has reached a crescendo.

“We need to get Roc to my ship,” I tell her and she nods.

I grab Roc beneath the arms and Wendy tries to grab his feet, but her left arm, the one with the blade protruding from her shoulder, is pretty much useless.

Wendy drops him and grits her teeth against a wave of pain.

“It’s okay,” I tell her. “I can drag him.” Except whatever drug the witch gave me is still making its way through my system. Every time I look directly at Wendy, I see her in double.

“We don’t have time for that.” Wendy curses beneath her breath and sucks back tears. “Maybe we⁠—”

A girl jogs into the foyer. She’s covered in blood, as if she fought her way through a slaughterhouse.

“Asha!” Wendy calls. “Thank god.”

The girl comes over and surveys the situation.

“I can’t lift him,” Wendy explains.

“What’s wrong with him?”

“He does this,” I tell the girl. “He’ll be out for a few days. We have to get him to my ship.”

The girl, Asha, nods. “I can help you if you have room for one more on that ship.”

Wendy and I share a look. Does she trust this girl? The expression on her face leads me to believe she’d beg for the girl’s company whether she helped or not.

“Of course,” I tell her. “You help us get him to safety, I’ll take you wherever you want to go.”

I carry Roc beneath the arms while Asha takes his legs, leading the way out. She guides us through the castle to an unloading dock where an empty hand cart is letting off steam in the early morning sun.

“Was this always your plan for me?” Wendy asks Asha. “Stuffing me in a handcart?”

“It’s as good as any other escape.”

“Not as dignified,” Wendy mutters and Asha laughs.

We deposit Roc inside. I don’t think he’d have the same opinion as Wendy about being carted off like a sack of potatoes. He’d probably love it. He’d only love it more if it was a royal litter.

At Asha’s suggestion, we’ve put on cloaks belonging to delivery boys while hiding Roc beneath a pile of hay.

No one stops us on the way out and when the castle is far behind us, and we pause to catch our breath, I turn to the women. “What will come of the court now?”

Asha bites off a piece of dried meat and then hands the rest to Wendy. “Eat,” she orders and Wendy takes the snack eagerly.

“To be perfectly fair,” Asha says, “the Everland court has been in need of a reset for a very long time.”

Wendy rips off a strip of the dried meat with her teeth. “She’s right. I helped Hald hold onto power much longer than he should have. There were rumblings. It’s going to be messy before it gets better. I don’t know who will fill the void left by the Grimmaldi family and I don’t really care.”

More bells chime through the city.

“I have my suspicions,” Asha says and nods at a creaking wooden sign across the street.

I realize we’ve come up on The Tipping Well.

“The fae?” I guess.

“They’ve secretly been buying up property here for years. You can see their fingerprints all over the city records if you look deep enough.”

Perhaps the city could use that same calming energy I experienced in the tavern.

Good leadership can make all the difference. The question is, will the fae want peace or power?

When we finally make it back to my ship, my sister, Cherry is there waiting for us on the deck.

“I was almost going to come looking for you,” she says.

“Cherry?” Wendy shouts.

“Wendy Darling?!”

The two women collide in a hug. Wendy lets out a groan of pain before Cherry steps back realizing she’s injured.

Asha and I struggle getting Roc up the plank on the handcart, but together we finally get him over the edge and onto the deck.

“I didn’t know you were here!” Wendy says to my sister.

“Jas made me stay on the ship.” Cherry cuts me an annoyed look. “I’ve about run out of wine, Jas.”

“Apologies, Cherry. It isn’t like we were fighting for our lives or anything.” I remove the hay from the cart exposing Roc. The sight of him unconscious and covered in blood is a bit of I.

Though he’s been rendered unconscious, he is no less monstrous.

But he’s my monster now.

With Asha’s help, we get him into my bedroom as my men ready the ship. I’m exhausted but I want to get as far away from here as possible. When my new quartermaster asks where to set sail to, I tell him, “Anywhere but Neverland.” The next closest islands are Pleasureland and Darkland and either will do as far as I’m concerned.

When the anchor is pulled and we set sail, I finally relax, pulling a chair up beside my bed. One of my men brings me roasted meat and a bottle of rum and a sweet smelling cigar.

I take a bit of the meal but the food sits like a weight in my stomach. I drown it out with rum.

Wendy comes in sometime later freshly dressed and her wound tended to.

“How is he?” she asks and gingerly sits down on the end of the bed.

Outside, the waves lap softly against the hull. It’s a glorious day for a voyage. I wish I could properly enjoy it, but I don’t think I’ll feel settled until Roc wakes up.

“He hasn’t stirred,” I tell her. “Vane said they’re usually out for several days. We’re to mix blood and water and pour it down his throat.”

“Vane.” Wendy laughs to herself. “I’d completely forgotten about him. How is that asshole?”

“He tried to kill Cherry.”

“He what?”

“She put the other Darling in a compromising position and⁠—”

Wendy’s eyebrows lift. “The other Darling?”

I meet her eyes. There’s so much she doesn’t know, so much she has to catch up on. “It’s a long story. Perhaps for another time.”

She sighs and rubs at her eyes. There are dark rings beneath, and her skin is paler than normal from blood loss.

“Why don’t you get some rest?” I tell her.

She blinks and nods to herself. “Maybe I will.” She gets up from the bed.

“No,” I tell her, cutting her off. “Here. I’m not letting you out of my sight.” I glance at Roc. “Neither of you.”

Wendy gives me a weak smile. “You were always the best of us, James.”

“I’m just a pirate who⁠—”

She comes over and swallows my objection with a kiss. Warmth spreads through my chest.

“You are not just a pirate,” she says. “You are one of the most caring men I’ve ever met.”

For the first time in my life, I believe it to be true.

The ship follows the swell of a wave and Wendy jostles in my arms. She laughs. I hoist her up and pat her on the ass. “Off to bed with you.”

I guide her into the bed beside Roc where she curls into his side. I pull the blanket up for her, tucking her in.

And before long, she’s sleeping too.

Wendy and Roc sleep soundly, both of them unmoving for hours and hours.

I doze in my chair at the bedside as night descends on the ocean. The sway of the ship on the waves is a comfort I didn’t realize I needed.

For one blinding moment, I am happy and content.