A Captive of Wing and Feather A Retelling of Swan Lake - Melanie Cellier Page 0,33

birds all swarming toward me. Even Eagle came over—albeit more slowly than the others. The way they clustered around gave me the impression that each one wanted to reassure herself that I was fine. I greeted them all by name, murmuring reassurances, surprised by how much their presence and affection warmed and calmed me. After the upheaval of the last twenty-four hours, the stability of their presence was unexpectedly comforting.

“I saw them this morning, didn’t I?” Audrey said, watching us from several steps away. “At the Keep.” She sounded subdued, none of her earlier high spirits in evidence now.

I flashed her a concerned look, but she quickly shook her head.

“I didn’t mention it to anyone, and I don’t think anyone else noticed them. I’m sure no one else would have thought anything of it if they did.”

Without thinking I turned to share a concerned glance with Gabe. We both knew that at least one other person at the Keep had a particular reason to take note of any swans.

“I’m sure he hasn’t seen them,” he murmured, but he didn’t sound entirely convinced.

Now that I stood here at the lake with nightfall so close, my enforced silence irked me even more than usual. Sighing, I walked away from the others, talking softly to the swans as I crossed over to my shelter. The two of them let me go, turning toward each other and beginning their own conversation. From the way they kept glancing around them, I suspected they were discussing my strange prison sanctuary.

I took several long breaths, facing the water and attempting to block everything else out. I struggled to absorb anything of the tranquility of the setting, however. A weight pressed on my shoulders. After six months with almost no progress, I had Audrey back—I should have been feeling elated. Instead I had the dizzying sensation that everything was spiraling rapidly out of control. I had been the one to stumble into Leander’s trap, and my one hope had been to avoid ensnaring the others at the haven—but now they had all come forcibly to his attention. And the prospect of a party at the Keep—if he did indeed mean to keep his word—only filled me with more dread. I couldn’t fathom his plan, but that it must be nefarious I was sure.

Nothing in my strange history had prepared me for this, and it was all too tempting to turn and throw the burden onto someone else’s more capable shoulders.

So many times I had nearly poured it all out to Cora. But she had taken me in, and loved me, I believed, when I had no one else. She owed me nothing now and had many more than just me looking to her for support.

No doubt Gabe would have happily received the burden. But I shuddered to think of the mess he would make of it. No, I knew better than to trust him with such an important task. Despair swirled in my belly.

As my thoughts consumed me, the last of the light faded. I felt the change in me, like a slight release of pressure that I never noticed until it disappeared each night. Turning with a soft sigh of relief, I spoke.

“So, tell me what really happened.”

Audrey and Gabe both looked up at the sound of my voice, hurrying toward me as my swans scattered for the lake. They looked comfortable together, smiles lingering on their faces. Did they not feel the same burden I did?

“It truly did happen as I described,” Gabe said. “I arrived, the guards at the gate fetched Leander, and he would allow me no further than a few steps into the courtyard.” His tone turned darkly satirical. “For my own protection, of course.”

“And what about you?” I turned to my friend. “What happened, Audrey?”

She didn’t smile or laugh or turn my question aside, and I got a glimpse of something in her eyes that looked even more suffocating than my own dragging weight. But then she turned to Gabe with her usual smile, and I could only assume it had been a trick of the light. She seemed so much her normal self despite her six-month absence.

“Prince Charming here rescued me, of course.”

Gabe snorted. “It was all very heroic. I inquired after her—on her family’s behalf, of course.” I winced at his words, but he didn’t notice, his attention on Audrey. “Given I’m the crown prince, Leander could hardly refuse my request to have her accompany me back, so he fetched