Searing, lancing pain gripped at her heart. She cried out but the wind stole even that, so she gaped wordlessly like a hooked fish as it pounded against her.
The rot.
Worming branches of something wrong something bad-
She tried to hold back a cough, black spittle against closed lips, until the feeling bubbled up too incessantly. She retched into her cupped palms.
What came out was tar. Sticky, viscous tar that wept into the cracks in her hand. She grimaced, trying to wipe it against her pant leg, but it clung fast. Like the blackened eye of a storm it peered up at her from between her own fingers.
And then it disappeared.
And so did she.
-----------------------------------
Neverland is breaking.
Jolie Hook is dying.
Peter Pan is mortal and magickless.
Thrown through an unstable star portal and into a universe that wants to see Peter pay for his past sins and Jolie pay for her father's crimes, the Lost Boy and Pirate Captain are far from home. Flitting from world to unknown world, they face a desperate and nearly impossible task: attempt to reclaim enough precious star fragments to rebuild the portal and find their way home. But with Damien, Tink, and a Mer spy named Dorryn along for the ride, Jo can't help but rip herself in two trying to do it all. Save her friends. Outwit the bounty hunters on their tail. Return to Neverland.
The stars were always meant to guide her way home, but now they just might be leading her to ruin instead.