Page 19 of Beneath Swan Lake (Deadly Endings #2)

Ban might be in pain, but I truly don’t think anything can curb his sarcasm. I’ve watched him fail twice so far to make anything with his ice magic, and I think that the heat in this cave is making it impossible for him to use any of his powers. “Please tell me you killed the fucker.”

Unlike me, he doesn’t hold back. And unlike Zarev, he speaks his mind first and considers later. I’m still trying to find the right combination of power to get the bars to give and let him out. Whatever Dima did to keep him in, I can begrudgingly admit he did a good job.

“Yes, Ban, I killed him.”

I pause what I’m doing to glance over my shoulder. Of course now is when Dima decides to reappear, somehow looking more bitter than earlier. His ghostly eyes look between the two of us before he sneers. “Oh no, it looks like your friend is suffering.”

Ban scoffs and returns his attention to me. “He only put me back here because he knew I would kill him otherwise.”

I eye my friend. That sounds exactly like something the Ice Mage would do, but I still don’t understand what he’s doing way down here in Swan Lake. Even utilizing shadow hopping it’s still a long trip, and getting through Icicle Pass is hard in any form. “Why didn’t you?”

His lip curls, white hair falling into his blue eyes. If Dima still had any color to him, instead of the ghostly outline of a spirit, their eyes would be similar. “He was going to give me the needle.”

This again. I’m starting to think Ban is delirious. How long has he been trapped down here? I don’t see his staff, the curved purple heart wood giving his weapon a distinctive look that’s usually easy to spot. “What needle?”

Ban just shakes his head, wrapping his knuckles on the bars. A little zap sparks from the contact, and he sneers. “I’ll share when we don’t have company.”

I give up on the bars for a moment to stare at Dima. He looks so damn proud of himself. “You have a lot of precautions in place to keep him trapped.”

“I wasn’t stupid enough to leave an opening for him to kill me,” Dima snaps back, looking down. “I wish I had thought to put a limitation spell on you; I’d still be alive.”

Rolling my eyes, I focus on the bars again. “I only followed your lead. You tried to strike Odette, so I had to take you down. Your death was a happy accident.”

“Ooo, sinister,” Ban says, his eyes brightening as he sits a little straighter. He still looks as if all of his energy is sapped, but I suppose now he’s happy and exhausted. “I like it. You’re finally going for the death blow first, huh, Arrows?”

Dima ignores him. “I only went for the princess because the King forced my hand.”

I groan. “You went for Odette because you couldn’t get Leonardo to give you what you wanted. So you chose to attack. You know your mother got banished for that? I don’t know her, but I doubt she’s as bad as you.”

He’s quiet, and I glance back again. Something dark flickers across the spirit's face before it disappears. “Yes, my mother is such a saint.”

I don’t care if there’s sarcasm in his voice. Ysanna isn’t around to hurt Odette when she returns home, and that’s my priority. Lifting my chin, I continue to glare at Dima. “Why did you trap a Reaper?”

Dima bursts out laughing, and it’s always a strange thing to hear from a ghost. “Why? Why? Because I saw an opportunity and I took it. He desperately wanted the needle, and I offered it to him. Enough Flowerborne can restrain anyone, and I needed one of the weapons of Death.”

My eyes drift back to Ban as he shakes his head. He not only controls the shadows, but he can control ice as well. Flowerborne don’t stand a chance with someone like him, and I’m just not buying it. “You’re lying.”

“Of course he is,” Ban grunts. “He has the place rigged to trap people who snoop. I wasn’t hiding in the shadows, I was walking. That creepy bird thing over there tried to take a bite out of me and I got attacked by the damn Flowerborne. He only managed to catch me because he changed the heat in here to something so hot my ice stopped working and I couldn’t breathe.”

So Ban found his way down here before he was captured? Frowning, I eye Dima again before looking around the cave. Heat would suck the moisture out of the space, and while it's cool now I could see heat manifesting quickly in a place with little air flow. “And there’s magic in the bars?”

Ban shrugs, and I turn my attention back to Dima. His snide expression makes me wish he had flesh, so if I punched him he could actually feel it. Instead I stand, narrowing my eyes as I reach for an arrow.

He’s not at all concerned, but behind me I can hear Ban struggling to shift around as he begins laughing. Dima might not realize the damage my weapon can do to a spirit, but my Hell Brother sure does.

Approaching Dima, he lifts his chin and looks at me like he’s won. “Finally going to reap me and save us all the trouble?”

I don’t respond, walking closer while spinning the arrow. At the last moment I let my shadows stretch over the length of the weapon before impaling it into the side of his head.

Dima screams in his ghostly form, shock and terror mirrored in those white eyes. Pain is a strange thing to see in the eyes of the dead, but it’s clear from the pitch of his ghostly screams that the pain is agonizing. “I bet you didn’t see that one coming, wizard.”

I leave it in place for a moment before ripping the arrow out, the shadows slipping away as Dima continues to scream. He’s holding his head, glaring at the floor, and I wait patiently for him to calm down. As I do, I drag my gaze around the room.

Where is Odette?

“This is why you’re destined for damnation,” Dima growls from his place near my feet. “Even in death you still try to torture me.”

“Like you tortured Odette?” I snap, and I hear Ban hum in the background. He’s going to have a lot of questions when I get him out of there, and I have some of my own. “Tell me, what good did torturing the princess do? Did you get to spy on the King and Queen, planning the perfect time to try and sneak in to steal the crown?”

Dima glares, still holding his head. “Come now, wizard. A little pain isn’t the end. You tore her eye from her face and dragged Odette back here for three days to torture her. My weapon barely touched you. You deserve much worse.”

His eyes narrow curiously as he stares up at me. “She remembers coming here? Hmm. I thought she would forget due to the pain.”

My blood boils at his words, but I can stab shadow-fueled arrows into him for the rest of time and I still won’t have answers. I want him gone where he can’t taunt me about Odette anymore, or gloat about failed plans. “She remembers enough. Enough that she would never marry you, even if you did manage to slide into the King’s good graces. You were never going to be King.”

His curiosity melts away, leaving behind only anger. The emotions twist his spirit, his lips pulling into a sneer that is unnatural and too large for his face. He’s starting to splinter. “You know nothing. The crown was rightfully mine. I did everything to become the new king. I made the connections. I found Swanling.”

“Yes,” I drawl, peering around the cave. No second lake, but he sure did make a mess of the cavern. “Up until recently, I would think you’re referencing the little village between the kingdom and the lake. But you aren’t, are you? You went on some wild search to find the lake beneath Swan Lake. A looking glass if I’ve heard the right rumors, hmm?”

“A looking glass?” Ban mutters behind me.

I sweep my arms wide, doing a little circle. “I don’t see another lake, wizard. Your search looks unsuccessful. You claim you found something, so where is it?”

The spirit snorts, and it makes his face twist for a moment. He’s really starting to break apart, which means I’m running out of time for more torture. “You don’t know anything about the lake then.”

I glare. He’s being coy, but there are enough hints pointing towards the truth that I’m truly beginning to believe Swanling is a looking glass. That would explain why it’s so well hidden, but I don’t see it in this cave. “I know it’s supposed to be here. And there might be answers about Odette beneath the lake.”

“Answers?” Dima narrows his eyes. “What answers? She was bitten by a Flowerborne, cursed to her fate. There are no answers. This isn’t a spell or a plot twist. This is her life. She might hate being the bird, but it’s become a part of her.”

“Like controlling her became a part of you?” I sneer. “You let her get bitten when her suitor died. You did nothing to stop this either, and being bitten by only a Flowerborne wouldn’t cause her to change into a swan. You know this.”

He shrugs, shifting around so he’s sitting up instead of lying at my feet. It makes his form flicker in and out, the ghostly wisps losing form. His grin is feral when he looks at us again, his ghostly teeth missing from the dark smile. “I suppose that’s true, isn’t it? As I said, a Flowerborne bit her. Then I let my sweet Aggie take a bite, too. A Flowerborne and a beast changed because of the flowers? I’m a wizard, Raymundo. A researcher! I wanted to know what might happen to someone bitten by both.”

“So she was an experiment to you?” I hiss.

“Odette served a purpose. Yes, I liked seeing what became of her after the bites. Those first few transformations were hellishly spectacular while her body learned how to contort like that. She was an excellent test subject.”

“Then why did you even need her eye?” I snap.

Dima smirks. “I had her eye so I had her secrets. She was foolish enough to not tell the King and Queen herself about her fate that night in the woods, so I didn’t need to make up any excuses. I made threats, and she was frightened enough to believe them. Once I had the eye of the princess I could see into the kingdom at will, so long as she had her other eye open.”

That explains why she slammed her eyes shut at times. He had her eye, but nothing else. I don’t exactly understand how that works, but I think if Dima starts breaking down his experiment step by step I’m going to stab arrows through him again.

“You did tear her eye out,” Ban says unhelpfully, his voice carrying through the room. My eyes dart around again, but still, no sign of Odette. “Why wouldn’t the princess believe you could do worse? Fear is a powerful motivator.”

He’s right, and that uneasy feeling grows. I don’t understand where Odette went, and I don’t like it.

“She didn’t tell anyone because without proof her ramblings would be madness,” Dima says with a laugh. “Her parents would think that her curse truly overwhelmed her and there was no going back. I held options out in front of her nose, and she followed like a trained dog. She even tried to-”

He screams again when I leap forward and shove the arrow through the front of his face. It’s still not satisfying, but better than listening to his words. I’m at the point where severing his limbs sounds like a fantastic idea.

“Tried to what,” Ban asks after a moment, filling the silence when Dima stays on the ground moaning piteously. I glance back at him, and his eyes widen before he makes a beckoning motion with his fingers. “Hey, toss me an arrow.”

I don’t even question it. I simply grab one of my arrows and throw it at him. The weapon passes through the ward on the bars, and Ban grins with delight. Looks like he can break his way out with that, trapped or not.

I kick at Dima, barely managing to connect my boot with his ribs. It shifts his body, but the pain I want doesn’t arrive. He can’t feel it this way.

Leaning over him, I get right in his face. “What did she try to do?”

He spits at me, which he immediately learns does nothing as a spirit. When he tries to slip through the ground and escape me I push my hand into the earth, letting the shadows slither beneath him and cut off his retreat.

He groans. “I wanted one of your weapons. I ended up getting one for myself when Frosty over there decided to swing by on a fool’s errand.”

“ Don’t call me Frosty,” Ban growls.

“Once I had the staff, I didn’t need another weapon. But forcing her to drop down and try to fight two Reapers was a delight. Thanks for shooting her out of the sky.”

I hiss, the sound slipping out between my teeth. A renewed sense of hate fills me that he’s pleased I shot the princess down. I’m not going to argue my peace with him when Odette’s opinion is the only one who matters. “She’s different from a regular swan, wizard. You did something to change her.”

“Hardly,” he snaps. “I simply experimented on what already was. The shift came from the Flowerborne, and her shifted form took on a life of its own from the cursed flowers. She is the swan. That’s the form she’s meant to take. I simply tried cutting and stabbing away at the monster to see what did or didn’t affect the princess. ”

A growl climbs up my throat, and he throws up his hands. “You planned to marry her after torturing her?”

“Others have married despite crueler realities,” he says airly, and I have no idea what he’s trying to hint at. “It didn’t really matter if she wanted me or not. I just needed the lake to recognize me as the King.”

The lake…

I look around again, noting that there’s a strong blue light on the far side of the room. There’s still no sign of Odette and if I had to take a guess the lake is probably down in that direction. I’d bet my arrows she decided to wander off that way alone. My gaze drifts upward.

At the top of the cavern there’s a blue hue, and if I focus past all the junk Dima piled in here I can see the outline of water. We’re beneath Swan Lake, but I don’t think that’s what he means.

“Swanling only recognizes a royal,” I say, sliding the pieces together in my mind. Dima snarls, and I’m certain I guessed right. “I’m surprised you didn’t try something with the princess when you had her here.”

He glares. “I couldn’t get enough blood and keep the pool still with her in a delirium. It didn’t work. Turning her into a swan was an unfortunate side effect of the bird’s bite. I didn’t want a mutant wife.”

I take a step back. Blood.

The pieces fall into place. Dima wanted to be King so he could access the pool without needing to bring along something as difficult as a wife. When he became King, the pool would recognize him as such if he had the crown.

If there’s one thing I know about Swan Lake, it’s about the crown the King wears. The opal in the gem is infused with the ruler’s own blood, and remains until his successor takes on the role. Becoming King meant Dima would have access to the pool, and if he’s this adamant about finding Swanling he has to have some idea what the pool does.

A snap draws my attention, and I turn to find Ban kicking out the bars. He groans as he stands, tossing the arrow back to me. I catch it, watching as he stretches and pops his neck, ice crystals appearing around him when he shakes his head.

“Gods, it’s good to be out of there,” he says, giving Dima a sinister smile. “Now that I’m not trapped behind that magical bullshit, I think it’s time you tell me where you hid the needle.”

“You may as well kill me,” Dima snaps back.

Before Ban can argue, the light on the other end of the cave grows brighter, and I have to hold up an arm to block the brightness. The lake has to be down there, and I’m going to guess Odette is messing with it. Better her than anyone else.

Dima is back to his ghostly feet, floating above the ground. “She isn’t allowed to touch that! I’m the one who’s going to call the Queen!”

Immediately, my eyes find Ban. Even beaten up and scarred he looks better than Dima ever did, and his eyes narrow until I’m certain he wants to strangle the wizard too.

There’s one word we hate in that sentence more than anything else, and it’s Ban who speaks. “You wanted to reach the Mad Queen?”

Dima’s grin is feral when he looks back at us. “Wrong, Reaper. I had everything set in motion, so, so perfectly. I would bring the Queen here, through the looking glass. And whether I used my own blood or bled Odette dry, she was going to help me take over Swan Lake.”