Calliope could hear them. Their feet pounded against the forest floor, the boys not noticing or not caring about the noise they made tearing through the trees. It had rained that night, the leaf litter still wet in the cold, dark dawn. As she huddled behind some bushes, mud scraped against her cheeks in an effort to stay hidden, she tried to breathe.

She'd been back for three weeks. In those three weeks, she'd come to realize how busy Pan had been while she'd sailed with Killian. There were boys all over the island. Pan kept a handful of the same close at hand. She'd learned a few names: Rufio and Felix the two closest to him. The others came and went, traveling between groups that took shelter in camps all over the place.

The Island still listened to her, at least a bit. The further from Dark Hollow she stayed, the less the Lost Boys seemed able to hurt her. Blood had spilled from her more than a few times in the weeks she'd been back, but nothing she hadn't been able to heal and it had taken only a few days for Calliope to figure out a spell strong enough to keep Pan from tracking her.

Calliope had lived on Neverland longer than any lost boy or evil child. She knew it like she knew her own mind, and though it had gone through many changes in her time away, it was still her home. The pounding of small feet against leaf litter just drove her fury forward. She hated cowering behind the bushes.

When they passed, she straightened up. The sun had just started to rise, casting long shadows where the light filtered in through the dense canopy. But what did make it through warmed her.

"You're not a Lost Boy."

Calliope spun around, flustered. Her right hand went to the cutlass on her belt, and her left conjured a golden light. But instead of Pan or one of his minions, she found herself looking at a woman, dark hair in two braids and clothes made of animal hides and furs. A quiver of arrows sat on her back, a wooden bow in hand.

"Who are you?" Calliope demanded.

The woman just shook her head. Echoing her, she said the same. "Who are you?"

"Calliope. This is my home." She didn't lower her magic, but stepped a bit closer.

At her name, the woman startled. She nodded, putting the arrow she'd notched on her bowstring back with the others. "The muse?"

"You know me, then?"

She nodded. "I do. I'm Tiger Lily. Forgive me, but I thought you were dead." She moved forward, looking at her closer. "Are you one of the boy's illusions?"

"No." Calliope let her magic disappear. "I survived. My sisters did not."

Tiger Lily nodded. "I believe you. Pan has never conjured you before, and there would be no reason for him to start now."

Hollering from the trees made them both crouch. The boys had circled back, whether searching for one or both of them, Calliope didn't know anymore. She'd assumed the boys had come for her, but perhaps they'd come for Tiger Lily. They had to get moving.

"I have a hideout," Calliope said. She glanced at Tiger Lily over the top of the bushes. "Are you coming?"

The woman gave her a quick nod. Calliope didn't spare her another glance, standing up a bit straighter to hurry. The Lost Boys avoided her well-spring, and there she had set up a home. She'd conjured a cave system, her waters running through it all the way from the small spring at the top. It flowed down over many falls and through passages until it reached the land at the bottom.

She'd heard the Lost Boys calling her home Dead Man's Peak. They spun terrifying tales of the dangers of the waters, of the way boys fell to their death who lost their footing. She didn't know if these were stories used to warn one another about real dangers, or if they sensed her magic and interpreted it as darkness. Either way, they stayed out.

"It's not far," she said, turning back after twenty minutes of slinking through the forest. Tiger Lily just nodded to her, so she continued on. With each step, she felt less and less malice around her. They were almost there.

When they reached the rock face, she released a deep breath. The sun bathed the grey stone in golden light. It made her smile. The Lost Boys had no idea that just behind the rock lay her hideout.

"A protection spell."

Calliope turned to Tiger Lily in surprise. She'd come to stand next to her, looking at the rock directly where Calliope had placed the glamour spell that masked the entrance. How the woman knew where to look, she had no idea.

"How do you know that?" she demanded.

Tiger Lily flashed her a tiny smirk. "I had magic once."

"What happened to it?"

She frowned. "I was fairy. I gave up my wings."

Calliope didn't ask any more questions. She saw the sadness, the deep regret in the woman's eyes. She'd met more than a few fairies over her lifetime, and a couple who had lost their wings. She knew how painful that was. So instead, she just offered her a small nod and a comforting hand on her arm before moving to the fake rock.

She placed her hand on it. The rock wall shimmered, dissolving into the magical barrier that had actually been present. It revealed a cave entrance just a few inches shorter than her full stature. She started in.

With a flick of her wrist, Calliope lit the dozens of torches she'd lined the walls with. To the right of the entrance, which closed back over when Tiger Lily join her inside, a spiraling carven staircase wrapped its way up the mountain. Natural columns of stone held up a rocky platform not far up. Through the center of it, shimmering, falling water cascaded into a pool at the very center of the bottom floor. Calliope moved over to it. The waters glowed from within, and she sat on the natural stone barrier that bordered the pool. She put her hand in the water and took a deep breath. She could hear her sisters' songs in the falls.

"How long have you lived here?" Tiger Lily asked. She walked along the edges of the cave, taking in every inch with her eyes as she did so. "I'm surprised I never met you before now."

Calliope let out a small huff. "I left. I spent a year aboard a ship, away from Neverland. You must've arrived after that."

She nodded. "I came here about six months ago. I'd heard about the magic of this place, hoped I could lay low. I didn't know it had been overrun with these children." Turning to Calliope, she folded her arms across her chest. "I expected to find you and your sisters, if I found anyone. Not the darkness that's consumed this island."

"It's not consumed it," Calliope snapped. She pulled her palm out of the water and stood, pacing. "I still hold sway over this island. It's my home, and Pan would do well to remember that."

"Why did you leave?"

An innocent enough question. Calliope turned to Tiger Lily, the pain of losing Killian still fresh even weeks later. She still remembered his silhouette turned away from her as she'd looked back. Why had she left? For that man, and for his cause.

She looked away for a moment. Once she'd gathered her thoughts, Calliope turned back to Tiger Lily. "I owed someone a debt."

"Once it was paid, you returned?" Tiger Lily stepped closer. She looked at her, then frowned. "No, I don't think that's it. It was for love."

Calliope scoffed. "It became that, perhaps. But it doesn't matter anymore. What matters is that Pan has stolen my last connection to what it is that I love most. My sisters." She unbuckled the belt that held her sword sheath and her small dagger with scrolling gold inlay, placing it on a wooden table along the wall. Then she turned back to Tiger Lily. "I want it back."

"Revenge, then?"

"I thought you weren't a fairy anymore, Tiger Lily. I don't need you to be a conscience for me," she snapped. Moving back to the spring, she used a cloth to wash off the mud from her face.

Tiger Lily joined her, placing her hand in the falls, letting the water pound her skin as it tumbled over falls far above them. She took a small sip. With a tiny chuckle, she shook her head. "There is much magic here. You might just be able to take this island back."

"Either I do so, or I'll die trying. And then I'll join my sisters in death." She turned to Tiger Lily, looking into her brown eyes. She wondered, for a moment, if this woman could be more than just an ally. Maybe she had found a friend. "Are you with me?"

Her arm fell to her side, hand still dripping. Before answering, Tiger Lily moved away, looking around again. Her gaze fell on the cutlass and dagger. "Tell me more about why you left." She turned back. "I need to know who I'm helping. I've helped those I shouldn't have before, and it led only to darkness."

She stopped breathing for a moment. She didn't want to speak of it. She didn't know this woman, this former fairy. Calliope owed her nothing. But as the woman looked closer at the black leather sheath, she sighed and nodded.

"About a year ago, a king sent a vessel here, a ship that could fly." She recounted the arrival of the Jones brothers, how they'd been led astray by Pan and how she'd tried to save Liam's life only to fail. "I couldn't leave Killian alone, not after I'd been left alone without my own siblings because of the Shadow here. Not when it was my island. So I stayed with the ship as they rebelled against the king." She sighed. "They turned to piracy. I stayed as long as I could, but the price became too high. I had to leave."

"And this Killian Jones, he didn't stop you?" Tiger Lily guessed. At Calliope's silence, she just nodded. "I'm sorry. But it's good you returned when you did. Any longer, and Pan may have grown too powerful for you to stop."

"If he isn't too powerful now," Calliope reminded her. Then she flipped the question on Tiger Lily. "Why did you lose your wings?"

The woman frowned. "I was responsible for someone once, for keeping them on the right path. I failed them, and a great darkness grew because of it. I gave up my wings after that."

Calliope looked at her face. The woman returned her stare, and again Calliope could see the sadness that she was all too familiar with, seeing it in her own eyes and Killian's too. Regret. Guilt. Loss.

"Well, I suppose we won't know if Pan can be stopped unless we try," Calliope said. She moved over to the roughly hewn stairs, taking them slowly. As she heard Tiger Lily follow, she just smiled. "Make yourself at home. We have an island to reclaim."