Page 17 of Beneath Swan Lake (Deadly Endings #2)
I keep my eyes on Birdie the entire way to the lake the following day, even when she’s stuck to my side as we hop through the shadows. No one is going to hurt us this way as we travel, and she’s comfortable holding tight as we move, the entire length of her body pressed to me. She tried to distract me this morning with her hands and her lips, and I ended up brushing her off and walking the perimeter of our little camp while she got ready.
As much as I want to crush her to the nearest tree and fuck every hole she’ll give me, I can’t. I keep shaking out my hands, feeling my magic pulse uncontrollably each time I let my mind drift to anything that’s pissing me off. I’m wound tight, and if I let go I’m not certain I can keep from hurting her.
It’s not about the scars, although I’d like to learn how to bring the dead back to life to deliver some torture to Dima’s living body. I saw his spirit in the trees just before we left camp, and I don’t care that he’s chasing me to try and pass on. He can suffer for all I care. Zarev’s warning echoes in my head, but Dima hasn’t been dead nearly long enough to worry about him changing. That happens over weeks to months, not days.
My mind drifts to my conversation with the King, adding on new problems to my already growing list.
“You killed a wizard,” he says, his voice full of wonder. Standing across from him I keep my hands on my bow, mostly so that I don’t go back and start plucking out Dima’s eyes. Spirits have a very hard time passing on if their bodies are not whole. Burning body parts, limb separation, and extreme torture can lead to spirits being trapped on this side of forever. It’s much harder to reap, and Zarev told me about crossing Gretel in Sherwood not long ago. Poor thing didn’t have her eyes and went mad being stuck in limbo.
“You don’t expect me to believe that a man living on the other end of your kingdom slipped around unnoticed all this time?” I growl, and the King narrows his eyes on me. I might be Death, but we are still within the walls of his domain. I can question but not mock the King within the walls of his kingdom. “He wanted to wed your daughter and ascend the throne, yet it seems you did little investigating and knew truly nothing about the man.”
Leonardo grinds his teeth, and I can’t help wondering when the last time was that someone stood against him like this. I’m the only Reaper who travels to Swan Lake, and although I occasionally bring along a few of my siblings if we’re in the middle of peaceful times, I haven’t seen another ruler visit in all the years I’ve been doing this.
Unlike Camelot, Thornton, and the palace in the Mad Queen’s domain, Swan Lake isn’t near any other kingdoms. The closest place outside of the village now known as Swanling might be the villages up in the Frostlands, but ever since the Queen there fell into a deep slumber, the kingdom has ceased to exist. Leonardo stands mostly unchallenged on this end of Mystica, and it shows in the way he scrambles for a response that this is a King who is out of practice.
He blows out a breath, lifting his chin before he responds to me. “Not that I owe you an explanation, Reaper, but Ysanna is a member of my court. She’s always had a say in the rules of Swan Lake, and Lord Dima participated in the voluntary guard that would patrol the outskirts of our kingdom. He never gave any indication that he had magic, simply that he wanted to marry my daughter and take the crown. There are few kingdoms in this land that have children who are of age to marry. Alliances are weak. King Arthur likely had the best candidate in himself or Modred, but we heard through the whispers of our citizens that the Golden Princess killed Modred during a visit.”
I skip right over that. I’m not going to air out Rapunzel’s dirty deeds to this King, not when he’s making me question exactly what he stands for. “You want to arrange a marriage for your daughter that badly? Then open trade with the Kingdoms across the Endless Sea and speak with the rulers in Ander Son’s Way. Who knows if the lands are thriving or dying anymore.”
Leonardo barks a laugh, his eyes narrowing on me. “Such a thought out plan, Reaper! Perhaps you think I should reach out to Pan too and see if his Lost Boys still like to hang bodies from their gates?”
My eyebrows lift. Neverland isn’t a place I have a lot of knowledge of, and travel became illegal there long ago when Pan decided to turn the land into a dictatorship. “Hardly. I’m saying there are options outside the kingdom if you truly care for your daughter, ones that don’t include a man who would as easily abuse her as he would manipulate her.”
“Dima is dead,” Leonardo growls, clenching his hands. “You realize what you’ve done?”
“Killed a man who would harm your daughter?” I remind him. Less than an hour ago he was elated that I was in the castle when this happened. Now he’s doubling back on that, which is increasingly annoying.
Everything he says that contradicts Odette being his top priority, even as the King, makes me want to shadow hop into her room and steal the princess away. If her family won’t watch out for her here then I don’t want to leave her behind. Maybe that’s how Dima got a hold of her to begin with.
“No,” he growls. “You’ve put a target on yourself, and on my daughter.”
I frown, thinking through who might be interested in targeting us now that Dima is dead. I had just enough time to listen to Dima’s spirit go irate before I grabbed the spirit by the shoulder and shoved him. With the shadows, it’s easy to banish a spirit away from me for a limited time. I never really do it since it defeats the purpose of my job, but I couldn’t deal with him and the King’s watchful eye without coming undone.
Leonardo disappeared for a short while, and I spent the time in the shadows trying to compose myself. He only appeared a few minutes ago, requesting to speak with me.
“What target?” I ask him, sliding the bow back in place along my back. I have half a mind to toss my weapons into the shadows so I’m less tempted to shoot something, but resist the urge as the King finally decides to share.
“I kept Ysanna and more importantly, Dima, close to me to keep an eye on them,” Leonardo says carefully. “I didn’t realize that Dima had any magic because he never once showed signs. He kept that secret close to the vest.”
I think of the monstrosity of a bird that Dima walked around with in Sherwood. If he never brought the bird here and never lost his temper, maybe he was able to keep up the ruse after all.
“He also had an affair with Morgan le Fay,” the King continues. “She’s a connection in Camelot, and I prefer to speak with her over the King. Arthur always wanted my daughter to marry him, or one of his distant family members.”
Since learning about Modred I can believe that. Camelot just wants to marry into any royal family it seems.
“Morgan has a direct link to Dima,” the King goes on. “He was supposed to be a spy for us across Mystica, communicating with Arthur’s confidants to see if he is truly aligning himself with the Mad Queen. Lately I began to worry that his interests were more geared to Morgan herself than to the actual purpose of the mission.”
“And how exactly did Dima communicate with someone across Mystica?”
“Seeing stones,” the King replies, like it’s obvious. They are supposed to be rare, and aside from Lucius who was born into a rich life, none of us who became Reapers had access to something like that until we became Death. I struggled until I could obtain one so Mum could reach me when I’m out reaping. “I ensured Dima had one so I could reach him, and he could reach both myself and Morgan to dig for information.”
I don’t buy it. Dima must have used the store for other means, but that isn’t my problem right now. “He’s dead. He won’t be contacting Morgan or anyone else again.”
Leonardo drags his teeth over his lip. “We searched the body. His stone is missing, probably back at his home. I have my men searching now, but something tells me it won’t turn up.”
I groan, jumping to conclusions. “You think his mother has it? How?”
The King sweeps his hands out in front of him. “I don’t know. But the stone always traveled with him but perhaps Ysanna held onto it for one reason or another. If we do not find the stone tonight, it’s safe to assume that she has it. And if she does, she will reach out to Morgan so the woman knows of Dima’s passing.”
“Why does that matter? He was supposed to be your spy.”
“Dima grew close to Morgan.” His eyes grow distant. “Too close. He told me recently that Morgan always has butterflies in the background when they speak.”
I narrow my eyes. “Butterflies. Like…”
“Like the Queen,” he agrees, the tension on his face slipping away. He just looks tired. “If Morgan is connected to the Mad Queen, that’s the information I wanted to gather. But if she learns that Dima is dead, and she’s connected to the Mad Queen-”
“Then the Queen will know,” I finish, my brows knitting together. “Will that change her approach to Swan Lake?”
“I don’t know. There’s only one thing that I believe the Mad Queen might care about in Swan Lake, and it’s lost in a network of caves.”
Somehow, even in death, Dima is still ruining my day.
“Ray?” Odette says, squeezing my arm. I focus on her face, realizing that she looks worried. I guess I got lost in my thoughts for a moment. “Are you okay?”
“No,” I tell her, turning to glare at the lake we just arrived at. It should be serene, but between the chilly wind and the daunting task ahead I just can’t make myself care how pretty it is. “The sooner we get beneath the lake the better. Where are these caves?”
I should’ve told Zarev about Morgan. I forgot about my conversation with the King when I was listening to him.
She’s still frowning when I refocus, shaking the thoughts from my head. The point is I forgot to bring it up, and Zarev already mentioned he’ll be hard to reach while they are in Camelot.
Odette eyes me for a moment before answering the question. “The caves should be just beyond the trees—in that direction. If I ever went beneath the lake he past, I don’t remember the way, but I’ve seen the cave entrances before. Once inside, the tunnels branch off in countless directions, making it dangerously easy to get lost.”
I glance around. There’s nothing indicating that the caves are level with the ground, so they must descend beneath the earth rapidly. Looking in the direction she indicated, I don’t see anything that resembles a cave. “Lead the way.”
She hesitates, and I’m reminded of what we talked about last night. “Are you sure that you want to go down there?”
I turn and stare at her. “Yes. Even if the wicked wizard was Dima, whatever he left behind is down there. And most likely, so is Swanling.”
“Right,” she grumbles, shaking her head as she starts walking. “Whatever that means.”
~~~
Finding the caves is easy. I expected it to be hidden, but if you really pay attention, the entrance is easy enough to find. It’s small, and we have to slide into the space one at a time which kicked my claustrophobia up a few notches, but we made it inside the caves without a hitch.
It reminds me a little bit of being trapped beneath the stones, and I focus too much energy on keeping my breathing even so Odette doesn’t realize I’m panicking. I’m sure if she saw a Reaper worrying it would cause her to follow suit and we both need to have our wits about us. The cave finally opens up after a few short minutes and the ceiling is three times higher than I am tall. We can’t touch both sides even if we stood next to each other and reached with our fingertips. It’s vast, stretching far beyond what the eye can take in. If this comes down on us the network of caves will likely make the trees and lake up above cave in, and my friends won’t have to wonder what happened to me.
Being crushed a second time is not on my bucket list.
Reasonably, I could fade into the shadows and escape the claustrophobia, but I don’t really know how long this is going to take. We can’t talk in the shadows, so for now even if I find it uncomfortable, it’s better to remain as is.
We look around the large space, different entrances branching off in all directions from this point. Some of the openings are above others, and there’s nothing indicating anything about where each cave might lead. Most of these could result in dead ends.
Looking back, I realize behind us there are also a series of caves with entrances all more or less the same size. It would be easy to get disoriented and lost in a place like this.
Odette swallows, her hands gripping the pixie dust. I have enough to help us through the darkness here, and if all else fails I am the shadows. We’ll just hop around until we find a way out of here. “Okay, this is where I’ve heard people get lost.”
“Yes, it’s great that we’re basing everything off of rumors,” I tell her dryly. “Is there anything at all you remember about this place?”
She stiffens, and I wonder if she just hoped I would skip over what she told me. But nothing Odette does escapes me, and the way her fingertips reach to press on the skin of her leg draws my attention.
“No,” she replies after a moment. “I told you everything I remember. My eye hurt the entire time, and I barely remember what he did. For all I know, it wasn’t Dima at all.”
I give her a look. “Wishful thinking, Birdie.”
Shifting past her I study the different entrances. These could branch off into more tunnels further in, and hopping around will speed up the process but not cut down on time. I let my shadows swirl around me, looking to see if anything makes them bend like a breeze. There’s absolutely nothing.
As I pace the length of the cavern, the coppery tang of death assaults the air. Immediately I glance back at Odette, but she’s just watching me curiously in the light of the lantern, shadows painting her features. It doesn’t look like she can sense what I do. If the aroma of death isn’t obvious in the air, then it’s probably old.
If people died down here I didn’t sense a spirit above, which means something has been repressing the dead. I should be able to sense Death above or below the earth if there’s anyone who needs to be reaped. I rub at my chest, unable to sense the dead but a feeling of foreboding settles over me.
I nod to the entrance of the cave that emits the odor, and she tightens her hold on the lantern. “This way.”
The scent grows stronger, and each time I glance at Odette it’s obvious that she’s none the wiser. We walk for a time, my senses leading me more than anything else. I think she expected to spend all of our time hopping around in the shadows, and she doesn’t seem to know what to do now that we have all the time in the world to talk.
We take a fourth tunnel, and I can’t hold back my questions anymore. “Tell me something, Birdie.”
“I think I preferred when you were still calling me Princess,” she grumbles.
I ignore her. “What caused the scars?”
“I told you, Dima. He brought me here.”
“And you’re remembering some details?” I press, glancing back over my shoulder at her.
“No,” she admits after a moment. “Just the pain.”
“Why did he cut your legs?” I ask, leading us along.
“Because I told him I wasn’t going to marry him.”
We stop walking when I turn back to face her. Her one eye widens, the green of her iris flashing in the light of the pixie dust. “You said you didn’t remember anything.”
“I don’t ,” she hisses, emphasizing her point. She hesitates, her steps faltering, and one hand reaches up to rub the back of her head. “There was a man.”
“Go on.”
She looks away from me. “After Dima ripped out my eye, I thought it was the end. Something bit me in the forest, and I was bleeding and I had broken bones. I thought I was just imagining things, but then this man of shadows stepped out.”
My eyes narrow. “A Reaper like me?”
“Maybe.” She shrugs. “I know what Zarev looks like, and I know Ban has white hair and the other one is supposed to look like a monster.”
“Lucius,” I correct. “He’s not a monster.”
“Well, neither was this man. He was…” her voice trails off as she thinks. “Willowy. Kind of like you are when we’re in the shadows”
Licking my lips, I debate what to say. Odette already described the shadow man to me, and I’m just trying to piece together what to do with the information. “Did anyone else see him?”
“I thought I imagined him,” she answers. “I must have passed out, because the next thing I remember is the pain, and the cutting, the wounds.Dima was enraged that I wouldn't marry him so he took it out on me.”
My mind jumps all over, trying to decide what to focus on first. “Dima, when he had you all to himself, did he ever do more than cut you?”
She shivers. “From what I do remember, he didn’t. It was hazy, but I remember shifting back and forth between human and a swan. I was disoriented most of the time. Dima may have been perverse, but he doesn’t have a thing for feathers.”
I snort. It’s not a definitive no, but maybe I’ll piss off the spirit when he comes back and I can get some real answers. She might have gaps in her memory, but Dima certainly does not. “The man you saw, was he tall?”
She shrugs. “I suppose. I was lying on the ground, and I only saw him for a moment. He looked tall from down there.”
I hesitate, using the silence to follow the trail of death. “Did he do anything aside from speak?”
“He put his hand on my chest and over my heart and pushed. I passed out after that. He was muttering something before that.” She pauses, and I keep my eyes focused ahead. It was a long time ago, so who knows if she’ll remember. “Like I said, it was something about not being ready to go with Death. I didn’t die, so I suppose he was right.”
Glancing back, I see the little crease between her brows as she puzzles it out. If she truly saw a man of that description eight years ago, it sounds like she saw the shadow man. I’ve only seen him once, on the day we became Reapers. He’s never once shown his face again to the four of us, but if Odette saw him eight years ago…
That’s after we were changed. So he didn’t fade completely out of existence like we thought.
Before I can respond we step into a larger section of the cave, and off to the right of us there’s a skeleton. I pause at the same time Odette gasps, and my eyes sweep over the corpse .
There’s little bits of skin leftover, so this body has been here for quite a while. She’s gripping my cloak behind me as I lean in closer, inspecting the bones.
“R-ray,” she whimpers, her fingers moving up to dig into my shoulder. “Leave it.”
I look back and give her a look, reaching up to squeeze her hand but I don’t move. “I have to see if there’s a spirit down here, Odette.”
She swallows, and I peer around the body. Depending on how long it’s been, the spirit might be splintered. If no one came to help it pass on it could’ve gone to the Barrens, or traveled somewhere else in search of a Reaper. Sometimes the spirits stay fixated near their bodies, mourning their deaths and the life they lost.
When I look up again, I find the person. It’s a man, probably fifty or so, with a beard and wrinkles, his hair long and tied back. The billowy form is mostly translucent, and his eyes are hollow and empty as he watches me.
“Reaper,” the spirit says, and I stand and stare at him. Odette’s nails dig into my skin as she looks around. She can’t see him, and I can feel the unease rolling off of her in waves. “Here at last.”
I reach back into the quiver, drawing out an arrow. “Why were you in the caves, spirit?”
Odette hisses out a breath through her teeth, digging her nails in harder but she doesn’t interrupt. The spirit watches her for a moment before refocusing on me. “The wizard brought me here.”
“And what did he do?” I ask, twirling the arrow.
He shudders. “Terrible things. He fed us flowers of poison, and cut to see what was left of us inside after.”
Great, another spirit losing his mind. He speaks in riddles, another thing too many souls seem to fall into if they’ve been dead for a while. “What flowers?”
“The ones that walk and talk,” the man hisses. “It makes the mind go mad.”
“Flowerborne?” I ask, genuinely surprised. Those things take on a life of their own. They are full of black magic and aren’t meant to be consumed.
He nods too many times, and his ghostly head separates from his body. I’ve seen that before, but the spirit looks around in confusion before he manages to grasp his head and pull it back. “Yes, the talking flowers. Horrible things.”
“What’s it saying?” Odette whispers, but not quiet enough for the spirit to miss it.
“What’s she?” he asks, pointing a finger at the princess. “Some broken beast you’re bringing to put out of her misery? What a wretched face.”
I sneer. “This is Princess Odette.”
He shrugs. “The princess is hideous.”
I have half a mind to stab the spirit with my arrow, but what good will it do? I don’t want to be forced to speak with it any longer than necessary, and if he stays around too long the anger that built up from Dima will be delivered to the wrong soul.
Shaking my head, I drag the tip of the arrow through the air. It’s not as dramatic of an experience as it is when Zarev or Ban opens the door to the afterlife, but the rip forms despite my lack of theatrics. The space beyond glows white, beckoning the spirit in.
A calm settles over him. “Thank you. You are much more helpful than the last one.”
At that, I slam my arrow in front of the door. “What ‘last one?’”
The man blinks. “The last Reaper who came through here. He was bound in magical cuffs of blue and carried his weapon. He couldn’t reap me.”
My mind spins. No one should be down here in my domain except for me, and there are only two of my friends who I haven’t spoken with lately. Lucius can’t leave his castle…
That leaves only one.
I drop the arrow, and the spirit calmly steps through to the beyond. I don’t stop him, my mind spinning as I try to figure out what the hell is going on down here.
When I look back at Odette, she’s completely confused. I didn’t think about how it might look to her. She wouldn’t see the tear or the spirit since she’s among the living, so to her I just had a conversation with myself and stabbed at the air.
I swallow, shifting away from her stabbing nails to continue down the tunnel. I can explain on the way while I try to figure out if Ban’s somehow trapped down here. “Let’s keep going.”