Checkmate

42. Honesty

The next morning, I awoke with Thomas in my bed, the item a little larger than it had been the night before. We were still in our pyjamas, the fabric of his top gentle on my face as I rested my head on his chest. I indulged waking up in his arms once again, unaware of how much I had missed the feeling.

The beat of his half heart was slow in my ear as his chest rose and fell beneath me, his breath soft as it danced through my hair. I sighed deeply and squeezed my eyes tightly as the early morning sun crept into the room, my mind racing from my dream.

My dream that night had been a vivid memory of the morning Thomas and I had spoken about, the morning on the cliff.

Felix had interrupted us, coming out of the bushes to stand as firm as he could, Pan's heart in one hand and a dagger in the other. "I have Pan's heart and I will destroy it," he called, his eyes fixed on me. "Come with me, Annie," he begged, the pain in his words pulling at my chest.

"Neverland will fall without me Felix, you don't want to take that chance," Pan called back, causing the taller boy to flick his eyes between the both of us as. Slowly, the sun rose higher, the temperature rising with it.

"I just want her," he demanded in a shaking voice, the dagger moving nearer to the slightly beating organ as he shook.

"Felix," I urged, my palms towards him, showing I was unarmed as I took a step nearer. I faltered as a second face emerged from the bushes, a face I now knew to be of Rumpelstiltskin's.

"Take another step, deary, and watch your king fall." I froze, my gaze flitting between the boy and the man, unsure of how to proceed. Pan luckily stepped forward to speak, causing the man to take a small step back, a sign of his fear despite him refusing to show it on his face.

"You don't want to make me angry, laddie," Pan spat, his gaze darkening to match the island sky that too had sunk into darkness despite the early morning warmth a second prior. The storm whirled above us as the four of us waited for the other to advance.

"All I want..." Rumpelstiltskin began, "Is the star."

"Come with us, Annie," Felix pleaded, his eyes brimming with tears.

"You want the Neverland star piece as much as I do, lad," Pan admitted. "But I will not release it to you."

I knew exactly what they were speaking of, but Felix did not. Rumple had sunk his claws in, told the boy lies. "Felix, what do you think is going to happen here?" I asked, my eyes flitting between the dagger and the blond, unsure if my plan would fully work. "You think you and I are going to walk into the sunset together, while these two fight over a star?"

"Stupid," Pan scoffed, not entirely under his breath.

"Come with me. We can leave here," Felix begged, his bottom lip beginning to quiver. "In another life can be this life. He has another way of taking the star from you."

"There is no other way. I chose Pan. I love him."

"NO!" Felix screamed once, silencing me to slam my mouth closed. "You loved me first. You love me, me and you against the world."

"Felix," I sighed, but still he continued.

"We can leave Neverland. It can just be you and me. It can."

As I looked at the boy I had once felt love for, I felt only pity. "Felix, whoever he is, he lied to you." My eyes flicked to the stranger who I knew now to be Rumpelstiltskin. "What he said about removing the star, it's a lie."

"You can have her once I have the star and Pan is dead," Rumple snapped, his yellowing teeth catching my eyes for half a second before they rested once more on the dagger above Pan's heart.