For the next couple of weeks she held Peter like a secret in her heart, lying right under her necklace. I could see him written on her face, and Tik Tok, too, seemed to catch...

Tiger Lily made an attempt at a smile. After having felt the need to glower at other children for most of her life, smiles never came easily to her face. But this one was half...

Did you know I always thought you were braver than me? Did you ever guess that that was why I was so afraid? It wasn’t that I only loved some of you. But I wondered...

It was like this sometimes, and I felt I should look away, but I couldn’t. I wanted to be there, having my face touched, defeating a heart like Peter’s, but the next best thing was...

She did not believe he could have really gone, because for her, to leave the person you loved was impossible.

People say I’m not much of a girl either,” Tiger Lily said.She thought of Tik Tok, who was fond of saying that people were all bits of each thing, boy and girl.

But Tik Tok believes everything’s circular, including men and women. He says nature seems to go around and around, and that we all have bits of everything.

You looked strange climbing in the tree like that.”Tiger Lily pulled her braids between her fingers, her sudden self-consciousness feeling foreign and strange to her. “I didn’t do it to look nice,” she said.”But you...

He tousled Baby’s hair, then looked up at Tiger Lily. “The woods have rules.” He put Baby down gingerly in his trough with his bottle. “But the rules are ugly.””It’s nature,” she said, thoughtfully.”I have...

It’s the injustice that I hate, more than anything,” he’d said to Smee one night, his eyes red and glassy, slurring his words, his head lolling as he tried to focus. He’d vomited, and then...

I began to see that Wendy had something Tiger Lily hadn’t even known she was supposed to have. Of all the things Tiger Lily had thought she might have to be for Peter-strong, brave; to...

To not do what you can to protect someone, that’s cowardly.

I think we could be friends,” he said, falling into step with her. “It’s perfect because I wouldn’t fall in love with you, like I do with the mermaids. Girls always seem so exotic. But...

I’ll teach you,” Tiger Lily offered with a shrug of her shoulders.”Did your mother teach you?” he asked.”I don’t have a mother,” she said. “Like you.”For some reason, Peter was glad to hear it.

Forget him. Forget him.

You may think my jealousy would have been enormous during those days after Peter gave Tiger Lily the smallest kiss on the neck. And you would be right. But these moments were swallowed by a...

Everyone will think I’m ugly.”Tik Tok smiled. “That’s true. But we are a small village. We have narrow tastes. There’s no telling who else in the world would think you’re beautiful.

And always, I could see that, despite his weakness for her or because of it, he seemed uncatchable, as if he might slip away at any moment.

As they grew sloppier and less alert, the twins argued too loudly about whether Tiger Lily was ugly or beautiful, and finally agreed that she was “ugly beautiful”.Tiger Lily pretended she hadn’t heard, but her...