Page 4 of Beneath Swan Lake (Deadly Endings #2)
Odette stops fighting us, and when she drops her head to one side and takes a few deep breaths I exchange a look with Zarev. When she doesn’t start struggling to fight us again I pull back the shadows and ease up off of her. She keeps breathing heavily but doesn’t try to attack anyone. Zarev removes his hand from her head, the skin a little red from the pressure. She twists and fidgets, and after one more glance we let her go and step back.
Rapunzel glares at the two of us, like we’re the bad guys here. Technically we did bring a healer to help her, and the only reason we held Odette down was so Rapunzel could use her magic. Maybe if Odette doesn’t return to her kingdom banged up it’ll be less of a scandal.
There’s no reason the Swan Princess should be over here in the ruins of Tressa. I know her parents, King Leonardo and Queen Florence, well enough from traveling through their kingdom, collecting their dead over the last decade. I usually check in every so often when I sweep through, and occasionally I would spot Odette but usually from the shadows. There’s a lot of rumors surrounding what happened to the princess to cause her to lose an eye, and even more about the rumors that she can shift. The inner workings of Swan Lake are tight knit for a reason. The royals want to protect their daughter and her reputation, no matter how many rumors it creates.
I knew the princess could shift into a swan because I’ve seen her when I was walking through the shadows. It didn’t happen often, and she usually would leave the castle grounds, but I have seen her take flight. I didn’t realize her swan form was quite so beastly, and I’ve never seen the razor-sharp teeth before. Keeping my distance always seemed like a good idea, but now I wish I knew a little bit more about the Swan Princess.
Until today, I’ve never seen Odette in the wild as a swan. Zarev mentioned crossing paths with a gigantic swan north in Sherwood, but he couldn’t catch up to her back then. Zarev only met Odette once previously, and it was back when we were still adjusting and learning what it meant to be Reapers. Odette is memorable with only one eye.
“What are you doing out here?” I ask her, echoing Rapunzel’s unanswered question. Odette remains lying on the ground, but she’s not unconscious. Her eye remains closed but she’s messing with her hair, pushing the thick bangs over until they cover the empty socket. I always wondered why she never used something more permanent like a patch, but if she’s sitting still the bangs seem to work okay.
Briefly my gaze lifts to Rapunzel. Zarev mentioned that she was used as a convenience by her parents, bartered for her powers when they barely scratched the surface of what she could do. They were possessive but careful with her, lacking the love the girl yearned for. Odette’s parents on the other hand are doting, and they are so concerned about her future they rarely take suitors for her anymore. She’s always being watched and doted on, so to see her out here bleeding in Tressa is bizarre.
Odette coughs, squeezing her one eye tightly closed like she’s avoiding looking up at us. She still hasn’t answered, but groans and rolls to her side. Zarev’s backed up, watching her curiously, and without the wings she looks normal now.
“I was out for a fly around Mystica,” Odette groans, and my eyebrows shoot up. I’ve never heard of her leaving the safety of Swan Lake when shifted, and I don't recall her swan form looking like a monster. Even at a distance she always seemed like a larger, human-sized swan.
“In Tressa,” Zarev replies, his voice full of doubt. “On the other end of the continent.”
Odette coughs again. “There is no Tressa anymore.”
That sounds like a jab, and I glance up at Rapunzel. She moves forward quickly, and Zarev makes no move to stop her when she bends down beside the other princess. Odette seems to be finished fighting us for now. I almost expect her to fire back at Odette, but I guess Goldie is too curious for her own good. “Your eye. It’s got gold that reminds me of my father. Maybe you're happy the Golden King is dead.”
Odette scoffs at the little jab, pushing up to her hands as her eye opens. Rapunzel backs away, sweeping her golden hair up over the crook of her arm protectively. I doubt Odette really cares about her magical hair right now.
“You should be glad he’s gone,” Odette replies, lifting her head. That unique eye shines in the fading light, and it’ll be dark soon enough. It’s gold just like Rapunzel said, but I always thought Odette’s eye was green. There’s no reason it should change unless there’s magic involved. “My father says Midas was a cruel king-”
“You don’t know my father,” she growls.
“Didn’t,” Odette argues, shaking her head. It gets some of the loose hairs out of her face before she starts swatting them away, and it’s then I notice the tremor in her hand. Her calm voice hides what her body cannot. “He’s gone now. And from what I hear he wasn’t kind while he was among the living.”
Rapunzel snarls, her hair beginning to glow. It’s wild to experience, as I have never seen Rapunzel burn with her full power. Zarev claims she could fight pretty good when fueled by rage, but who knows if she has any real skills behind her magical hair. If she can steal the life from someone as easily as give it, there’s got to be a level of danger surrounding her magic.
Which is exactly why we don’t need the two of them getting into it. I don’t know why Odette is in the mood to pick a fight with Rapunzel of all people, but Zarev’s girl the nicest out of the three of us. She sure didn’t pin the princess down, she just healed her wound.
The one I shot into her arm.
There’s a howl in the distance that distracts the four of us, and I narrow my eyes. Tressa didn’t have wild beasts before, but with the wall gone it’s free reign for anything that makes it this far south. I can’t imagine a shifter being interested in this place since the ruins are basically rubble, but there’s worse monsters out there than a friendly pack of werewolves.
“We need to head back,” Zarev comments, dragging me from my thoughts. The sun is disappearing behind the horizon, and the bits of twilight are going out with it. If he’s not interested in running into wolf shifters, then it’s better that we aren’t here once they arrive. “There’s nothing else to find here.”
I cut a look towards Odette, but there’s no reason to keep her out of the loop right now. “And the hand?”
Zarev sweeps his arms wide with a scowl. “Do you see a body?”
Rapunzel shivers, and this is exactly why we didn’t bring her along in the first place. Returning to Tressa to cut off the hand of Midas isn’t exactly something his daughter wanted to participate in. That was the whole point of trekking out here today, but we’ve walked over the ruins and through what’s left of the village and I haven’t seen a single body. Even when we swept past the fountain, Zarev mentioned there wasn’t a body. And there’s no signs of scavengers or beasts eating the dead. Everyone and everything is simply gone, like it never existed to begin with.
Supposedly the fountain he saw was the Fountain of Youth, Midas’ prized secret in Tressa. Something he appeared to value even above his magical daughter. There’s fractured stone that we found while looking that might belong to an ornate fountain, but any water within is all dried up.
“I suppose there’s nothing to be done about that,” I grumble, catching Odette’s gaze. She’s looking curiously between the three of us, trying to puzzle out what’s going on without asking anything. The white bodice of her dress is back again since her wings are gone. It’s strange, the garment seems to shift with her and other than the blood, it doesn’t disappear or change from one shifted form to the next.
I remember when Zarev first got bitten and became a wolf. He would lose clothing constantly, and he could never quite find anything that stayed true to his form that didn’t cost an outrageous amount. Before we became something like immortal, none of us really had the luxury to spend a ridiculous amount on clothing that shifts.
Well, except perhaps Lucius.
She narrows her one eye when she catches me staring, and ignores my hand when I try to help her up. She’s stubborn to a fault for no real reason, struggling stiffly up on her own and ignoring the soreness in her body.
Once she’s upright, Odette dusts off her hands on the skirt like the four of us weren’t just rolling in the dirt. Her distrustful eye looks at each of us in turn like she expects us to strike. Rapunzel glares at her from the other side of Zarev, and I don’t see these two getting along anytime soon.
She’s barefoot, but that doesn’t seem to bother the swan princess in the least. “Well, good luck on your travels.”
Pivoting on her heel, she spins and takes off. I don’t think she realizes we’ll all be walking in the same direction, since the passage into Tressa is a rather thin section of land, and after exchanging a glance with Zarev I jog to catch up with her. “Princess!”
“I’d rather you didn’t call out for me,” she grumbles, continuing to march on. If the rubble and rocks beneath her feet bother her she doesn’t let on, and I eye the sky as we move. The twilight is gone, and it feels like so long ago since I shot her down when it’s probably been less than an hour. Night is all but here.
“It’s getting dark. Sherwood is no place-”
“For a princess?” she mocks, turning to glance at me. “If you didn’t notice, I’m a swan half the time. I can hide where and if I need to.”
My eyebrows rise as I stare at her. “All the way across Mystica?”
She shrugs. “I can make do. Thank you for your…” her voice trails off, her eye looking from my bow to my hands and back again. “Help. After you shot me.”
“You looked like the type of beast I’d shoot,” I reply with a shrug.
Odette frowns before she starts walking again. “If you say so, Reaper.”
“You can’t just go wandering off into Sherwood,” I argue, keeping pace with her. She glares, and I give her a grin in return and try to act charming. “There’s Flowerborne- ”
“Manageable-”
“Hunters-”
“I am not a swan right now-”
“Spies for the Mad Queen-”
“I will turn into a bird then-”
“And not to mention,” I continue, huffing at the amount of times she’s interrupted, “that you’re a princess. It’s foolish to not help you get home safely.”
“Why?” she mocks. “Afraid you’ll upset the King and Queen?”
I shrug. Visiting to collect the dead doesn’t exactly make me an integral part of their kingdom. Half the time I linger in the shadows while inside the kingdom so I don’t have to formally address anyone and I can do my job. Being inside any kingdom is suffocating, and I’d rather be in and out quickly. The woods are what call me home, and I prefer the freedom out here to the oppression in there. “Your parents aren’t my biggest concern.”
“Then why do you care?” she asks, true curiosity lighting up her face.
“Because it’s foolish for anyone to travel alone in Sherwood,” I tell her, narrowing my eyes. “And if you’re this far from home, surely your parents have noticed your absence and want you to return safely.”
For a moment, fear flickers across her face. I have no idea what that means since I always viewed her parents as being kind, but perhaps I missed something. “I can manage just fine on my own. My swan is durable and I can fly great distances at a time. ”
I eye her arm. Rapunzel’s magic is truly spectacular, but this afternoon had to sap Odette’s energy. “I’m not saying you’re incapable, princess. I could do with a visit to Swan Lake as is. I haven’t been in a while.”
Odette scoffs. I was there not that long ago, but I tried to stay under the radar. Two of my sisters decided to tag along, which turns a quick trip into a long adventure. I can travel a good distance if I shadow hop, but it’s hard if I have to bring more than one person along. It takes a great deal of power and magic to do that, and if there’s any chance I might need to fight I don’t like to have my reserves that low.
But my siblings yearn for adventure, and when it isn’t risky I try to bring a few of them with me. We can’t stay anywhere too long but it breaks up the repetition of their days.
“It’s not a bad idea,” Zarev chimes in behind us, and the princess spins so fast her hair momentarily shifts, revealing that hole in her face. Just as quickly, she adjusts it again to hide the spot. “Now that Tressa is gone, the kingdoms are going to be restless. We don’t need to upset any of the rulers because a princess disappeared temporarily.”
Rapunzel flinches at the reminder, and Zarev smoothes a hand down her arm. It’s an innocent enough touch, but I know my friend despises human contact. She’s special indeed.
“My parents are fine-” Odette begins again.
“You aren’t up for a long trip,” Rapunzel interrupts, and there’s a bite in her tone. “You don’t have much energy after being healed and I can tell you’re fatigued. I would recommend resting for a night. Swan Lake is on the other side of Mystica?”
It’s an innocent question, but I don’t miss the way Odette gives her a strange look. Few people know where Rapunzel is right now, much less that she thought Tressa was an island nation until a few weeks ago. Her parents did her an injustice keeping her so isolated and alone, instead of letting her know anything about the world.
“We could stop at the tavern,” I say, and Odette leans away from the three of us. Unlike Rapunzel’s curious wonder, Birdie over here has no interest in seeing the sites. She wants to be home already, and I’m not sure if it’s because of her parents or something else.
“I don’t need to stop,” Odette snaps. “I can get home myself. Faster too if I fly.”
“I wouldn’t… shift,” Rapunzel says, looking around like she’s unsure if that’s what she means to say. “I healed you, but I don’t know if it makes a difference if I healed you as a human or a swan-”
“We’re one in the same,” she says quietly. “It should make no difference.”
“Right.” Rapunzel clears her throat again. “I would still be careful. If it were your leg walking could be difficult until your body adjusts. I don’t know how wings will work.”
“You don’t know much of anything, do you?” Odette snaps, and I turn to glare at her. She’s making this more difficult than it needs to be.
Odette shrugs, continuing to wander on. “I didn’t ask for anyone to ruin my day, you know. I was just fine flying.”
“Eating birds,” I mutter, jogging again when she starts to move faster. “You two go back! We’ll catch up with you!”
I don’t look back to see what they have to say. If Zarev needs me, my Hell Brother can find me in the shadows. But ensuring that I don’t somehow lose a princess, and upset an entire kingdom, is the most important thing right now. There’s enough unrest. I already messed up and shot her out of the sky. I don’t need to help make anything worse.