A Captive of Wing and Feather A Retelling of Swan Lake - Melanie Cellier Page 0,22

more forces, the whole point was to make a surreptitious entry. I couldn’t put Audrey at risk with an open assault even if it had been within my capacity.

More flapping presaged the arrival of two more of my swans. When I saw it was Snowy and Sweetie, my mood lifted slightly. If they were back already, they must have seen something.

“Did you see Audrey?” I bugled.

Snowy tapped the water once. Yes.

“Did she look well?” I asked.

This time Sweetie was the one to give a single tap.

I let out a small breath of relief. Audrey was rarely to be seen in any of the Keep’s courtyards at this time of the morning, so I didn’t get regular updates on her condition. I wished I could ask what she had been doing, but the spy system I had set up didn’t extend to that sort of detail. It had taken me long enough to get the swans to understand the simple questions I asked them.

The rest of the birds swooped in one by one, reporting nothing more out of the ordinary. According to Shadow, the guard patrols looked normal for that time of the morning, Sammy had detected no potential new avenue for breaching the Keep’s outer walls, and Stormy had seen no sign of Leander.

Like Audrey, the local lord was rarely to be seen out at this time. Stormy had occasionally spied him through a large window at the top of the Keep, however, and we had managed to determine that it was his study. But that information would do me no good if I couldn’t find a way inside the walls.

An angry hissing broke the stillness of the morning, and movement flashed across the corner of my eye. I swung around to see Eagle flapping toward me. As soon as she saw me looking in her direction, she bugled loudly, swinging around in a tight circle. She circled twice while I scrambled into motion and then took off in a direct line back the way she had come.

I raced after her, my heart pumping and my body shaking. Eagle had only one role—to look for threats and sound the alarm. But she wasn’t urging us away from the Keep—she was urging us toward it. Audrey. I ran faster.

We weren’t making a direct line for the front gate—rather re-entering the trees at an angle that would bring us close to it. And as I wove between the trunks, I remembered an important point. Eagle hadn’t been with us this morning. Eagle had been given a different task.

Gabe.

I let out a strangled groan of frustration but didn’t slow down my pace. Eagle wouldn’t have sounded such an alarm unless time was short.

The road from Brylee to the Keep appeared ahead of me, and I swung my head, my eyes searching it. There. I angled my run, bursting out onto the road and directly into the solid bulk of the prince.

His head was turned in my direction—no doubt due to the sound of my approach—but he was otherwise unprepared. He staggered backward, and I drove both of us off the road and into the trees on the far side.

For a moment, I thought we would fall, but Gabe managed to keep his feet under him and me upright as well. He continued to clasp me close, however, even after we had both steadied, blinking down at me in surprise.

“Idiot!” I cried, not caring that the word came out as a hiss that sounded almost identical to the ones Eagle had been making as she flew.

“Adelaide?” He seemed to realize suddenly that his arms still encircled me, and he let go abruptly, stepping back. “What are you doing here?”

I could ask you the same, I said in my head, putting my hands on my hips and giving him two raised eyebrows combined with a glare that I hoped conveyed the sentiment without words.

He had the grace to look guilty, at least. I followed his eyes upward to where a flash of black showed in the air above the road. Eagle must be flying large circles around our position.

“I suppose I know who is to blame for your arrival,” he said, a hint of humor in his voice.

I just narrowed my eyes and continued the glare.

He shook his head. “Don’t be angry with me. I found you, Adelaide! I actually found you! And you’re enchanted, unable to leave Brylee—something you don’t want me to tell your brother. Which means it’s up to me to free