Remember Me *Book 3 Of The Remember the Rules Series*

The Life You Left Behind

"You two are much stronger than you look," Tommy muttered, clearing his  throat. "So... Fancy seeing you here."

I narrowed my eyes, glancing back and forth between him and the now-shattered bow on the ground. "Dude. Are you really going to pretend that that didn't just happen?"

"I realize how this looks, but I had to do it." Tommy held up his hands in a what can you do? gesture. I realized that he could run at any time and restrained his feet magically.

Beside me, Felix spun on his heel and stalked back toward the party angrily. I watched him go, dumbfounded. I'd never seen him so livid, even when Pan had told us about the boys' betrayal on Neverland. Peter stopped me as I moved to go after him, putting a hand on my shoulder.

"Let him go. We have more pressing matters to deal with it." Don't push, his expression said. 

I didn't; Felix may have been my brother, but Peter had known him longer. It was likely that he'd seen him angry a few times. I turned my attention back on Tommy, who realized that I was looking at him. The guilty look on his face when he'd been looking at Felix disappeared when he looked at Peter defiantly. 

"No hard feelings. You found me out, and I can't trust you to keep a secret." He glanced at me. "Any of you."

"Ironic that a double agent would be so concerned with trust, isn't it?" Peter didn't even try to sound threatening. He didn't need to, with the arrow still spinning dangerously near his head. 

A double agent... Tommy was working for Arthur? That didn't make much sense, given what he'd said about losing his mother. "Yeah. I guess it is ironic. But it's also counterintuitive. Does Guinevere know that you're working against the rebellion?"

"I'm not!" he burst out. "At least, I don't want to be."

I raised an eyebrow and looked to Pan for an explanation, which he gave, of course. "Thomas is under the impression that his mother is being held hostage by the king."

"Makes sense, I guess."

Tommy's eyes widened in surprise. "I-- You-- What did-- How do you know about that?"

I laughed along with Peter. I supposed that Tommy didn't actually know Peter well enough to know what had been going on with the game. Hell, I barely knew half of what was going on; Peter had been working in secret for a lot of it. I got the impression that it had been a while since he'd had a game like this, where he could play instead of coaching. I caught glimpses of him slipping into rooms and around corners every day, but we barely spoke. 

Still, the fact that Tommy was so shocked was hilarious.

"You're not the only person who's been gathering information," Peter said. "And in this case, I know something you don't."

Knowing what I did about Peter and how he spoke, I understood what he was saying long before Tommy. So when Tommy looked irritated at the cryptic words, I elaborated. 

"Your mother isn't being held hostage. You've been lied to."

Peter gave me a rare, real smile. "Good job, love. That's exactly it. In fact, it's the exact opposite of what you think, Thomas. She's working with Arthur."

"I saw her with my own eyes! She was chained in the dungeon, and he wouldn't let her out unless I worked with him. I saw her," he repeated emphatically. 

My heart actually went out to him; if Peter said that his mother was working with Arthur, then she was. Whatever Tommy had seen, it was a trick. "Let's go to the dungeon, then. If she's really a prisoner, I'll even apologize for being wrong."