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So she leapt off the branch and continued on.
Another day. It was a silly hope—one more day wouldn’t do anything. But she had to try. Surely if the swans could lead her back to the pond for one and a half days, two and a half wouldn’t be a big deal.
She didn’t know why she was connected to that particular pond. Only that any other body of water wouldn’t work for her transformation. She’d tried. Somehow, Rothbart had tied her to that little spot in the middle of nowhere.
As the light of day disappeared, the night became chilled, but her layer of down and feathers warmed her. She checked the sky, noting that the moon would soon be out over the pond.
The fiery glow of the stick went out.
Odette’s heart dropped.What in the world?She angled her wings so that she flew in a circle. When she faced back in the lake's direction, the stick flared.
That couldn’t be right. She’d been observing the ground carefully for signs of life. Not to mention her sense of hearing told her which direction the smallest squeak came from. There’d been no sight or sound of humans below.
How in the hell could the prince be behind her? Could Yessly’s spell be defective? Maybe she’d been going the wrong way the whole time. She needed to return. She might as well go now and stop risking her sanity on a possible lost cause.
Odette flew back in the direction she had come, glaring at the stick that flared brighter and brighter. She’d have rolled her eyes if she could, and she considered dropping it. There was no way that the prince could be—
Human voices floated up to her from below.
Odette pulled up, completely shocked. Then she dropped into the branches of a tree.
Four men were in the forest below her. The stick glowed brightly. Where had they come from?
“Well, my prince? Perhaps we shall fare better in this spot?” One man spoke to another handsome, blond-haired man.
“Yes. Let us hope.” The prince patted a leather pouch at his waist. “I only have a few portal beans left and I should like to keep at least one for the return trip home.”
Portal beans. Odette was suddenly on alert. This must be Prince Torsten that Rothbart served. So he hadn’t sent her outside the kingdom when he’d bound her to the pond. She ducked into her feathers, worried that the sorcerer might be with them.
She’d left the necklace he’d given her in the bushes by the water before she went on her journey because she was afraid he’d track her with it. But she couldn’t imagine her bad luck if he was out here with Prince Torsten anyway.
After several minutes of watching the men, she determined he wasn’t with them and relaxed a little. Pulling her head out of her feathers, she looked down at the scene, hope building in her. This was perfect. Instead of getting him to follow her for days on end until they arrived at the lake, she just needed to get a hold of one of those beans and get them both through the portal…
She looked at the bow and arrows carried by Prince Torsten and his men, her stomach twisting.
… Without getting killed.
She waited, unsure what to do. Her anxiety eased as she watched the men set their bows and arrows to the side and make camp. It was getting too late to hunt.
They moved about in their plain brown clothing and several days of scruff on their faces. Only the prince remained clean shaven, as if even in the forest he couldn’t stand to be seen in a slightly unkempt form. He was handsome in an unblemished, proper sort of way, though he held none of the intensity and threatening allure that Rothbart naturally possessed.
So the prince enjoys hunting, does he?As a child, she had learned the basics of hunting from an older woman in the group. Of course Odette’s mother had noted the gain in it and commanded that Odette learn the ins and outs of hunting people instead of animals through the woods.
As always, the mixed feelings crashed through her when she thought of her dead mother, leaving her wondering whether she loved or loathed the woman. Perhaps that was love—some crazy mix between selfless caring and self-preservation. But things hadn’t been like that with Bash. A tremor ran through her.Don’t think about that. Not ever.
She refocused on the men below her. She’d need to get rid of the stick in her mouth soon. The darker it got, the more likely one of the men might notice its glow.
Wait, someone was missing. Looking around the camp below, panic grew inside. Where had Prince Torsten gone?
The stick sparked to her right. She spread her wings and flew. The sight of a man a little way into the woods brought her to a halt. Prince Torsten’s back was to her and a thin stream shot out onto the trunk of a tree. Odette nearly dropped the stick, wanting to laugh. The prince was relieving himself.
The small pouch still nestled at his waist. Taking the prince straight to the pond was a precarious venture. Rothbart might be there. But the risk was low. Besides, Rothbart tended to show up at the gazebo first, not by the water itself.
She observed the prince, alone, his weapons nowhere in sight.
It was now or never.
She dropped the stick and dove. He glanced up, seeing her and smiled, but his expression quickly turned to horror as she banked up, aiming straight for his face.
