The Swan Princess

Chapter 31: You Can't Have Your Cake and Eat it Too

"Odette," he breathed.

Odette? He knows the swan is me.

"Shift back, birdie," he kisses onto my wing, sliding the arrow out.

"That didn't hurt, did it? I had it enchanted so that it would pull you down toward me, not hurt you."

I shift back to human, shocked. No, the arrow didn't hurt me. It was like a magnetic pull had surrounded me instead, a gravitational pull towards where Lukas cradles me. My head curled into myself.

He kisses my hair. "Are you alright, Odette?"

"How did you know it was me? How did you get here?" I'm so tired, I have no idea how he recognized me. I don't see a horse, either...

"I've always known, princess." He pulls me against him. "You don't let me hold you enough," he complains, smoothing down my hair with his hand.

His metal is cool against my aching flesh. I bring my head up, then tumble out of his lap.

"Odette—"

"Prince Siegfried!" I sputter.

"What the hell? What are you doing in Lukas' armor?"

His brows raise. "Little bird, this is my armor." He reaches for my hand, and I swat him away.

"What?" I crawl back on my hands and knees. "Your... armor?"

He sighs. "Yes, sweetheart. Come back." He extends his arms out. "I know you like me. You've admitted to it many times before."

I recoil.

"You..." It all makes sense now. Every rescue, every tease...

"How could you not tell me? How could you do this to me?"

"How could you pretend to be a princess half the time and a maid the other? You have no room to judge me." He reaches for my face again. "Don't cry. I cannot bear it."

I continue sniffling. "You... made me run around in circles, pretending to be me, pretending to be Insun—" I yell with frustration into the sky and fall to my side. "I was so in love with you! So in love with Lukas!"

Fat, heavy tears stream down my face.

"Was?"

Lukas— no, Sieg's— choked interruption forces me to lift my gaze.

"How can you sit there, so— nonchalant, so calm — when I'm falling apart!"

"This childish infatuation you had with Lukas, despite having barely had any conversation together—"

"What other secrets are you hiding from me?" I gasp. "What else do I need to know about you?"

He pauses, his body shimmering. A dark, black shadow overtakes him as he becomes the beast, then quickly returns to the knight, then the prince, holding a golden bow-and-arrow in his hand.

"That's all, Odette. I am a prince by birth. A knight, by choice, to see how my servants perceive me. A beast, by family lineage — the family secret of how we hold power here. All of us are wolves, capable of slaying an incoming army with only a few swipes. The arrow was a gift from my mother— she was told it once belonged to an old god, someone who could enhance the feelings of true love if the sparks were already there."

"So you would force me to fall in love with you by arrow?"

"You admit that you loved me, when I was Lukas. And you also admit you loved me, when I was the beast, and you were referring to my princely counterpart."