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The Fairy Queen’s heart sank. They had arrived at the palace just in time to watch Odette collapse facedown on the ground like a crumpled doll.
“This is all my fault,” Lila breathed.
“No, Lila.” The Queen patted the heartbroken unicorn consolingly. “It’s not your fault, my dear.” The fault rests with me alone. She had failed Odette. As she had failed her Uncle, may he rest in peace. As she had failed the entire Enchanted Forest.
They watched Odette’s prince battle Rothbart, defending Odette’s body from- “Wait!” The Queen hardly dared to breathe. “Odette’s still alive.” There! The faintest of breaths still moved her. The Queen immediately sent her sprites to gently float Odette across the palace garden and into her carriage while Rothbart was occupied with the prince.
Lila raced away immediately, pulling the carriage swiftly toward the Enchanted Forest. Bringing Odette home.
The Queen cradled Odette in her arms, wishing yet again that her kind of magic could protect those under her care. She was tired of the ones she loved being torn from her, tortured by Rothbart’s twisted magic. Why did her Uncle choose her to lead his kingdom when she was so useless, so powerless?
Her magic had never stood up to her cousin’s twisted, dark magic. When he came back, years after his father had left the Kingdom to her, it had taken him only a few days to take the Kingdom hostage. He drowned her beautiful Forest into darkness, cursing her most trusted fairies into animal forms, mere shadows of themselves. She had hidden away, helping her subjects to live half-lives, transfiguring them back into their true selves during the nighttime. She had pinned all of their hopes on a prophecy, that a human would revive the kingdom’s magic crystal and defeat the dark usurper with the power of love and belief. Surely, if she wasn’t meant to be Queen, there wouldn’t be a prophecy about it.
Meeting Odette had felt like a validation of all of their patience and belief. Although Odette at first only stayed with them because Rothbart had cursed her, too, she quickly began to feel like she belonged with them. Odette learned every subject’s name, taking some on quick flights while she was in swan form. She asked the Queen constantly for stories of the Forest before Rothbart had twisted it into the decaying form it was in now. And most importantly, she fought for their freedom, learning to dance until her feet bled, braving the human world for the sake of that prophecy.
But now, as Odette laid eerily still in her arms, the Queen worried that Odette had put herself at risk for nothing. The Queen had doomed her people into pinning all their hopes into one easily thwarted prophecy. What kind of leader does that?
Lila raced through the hidden entrance behind the waterfall into the Enchanted Forest, and the Queen could feel the change in her bones. Even under Rothbart’s reign, the Forest was still full of life, and her magic surged accordingly. She directed her sprites to float the carriage, helping Lila dodge through the bracken.
But it was too late. Rothbart caught up to them, and the Queen watched, powerless, as he aimed at a tree right in front of them. The base of the tree rotted in seconds and crashed in front of them. Lila did her best to dodge, but the carriage wasn’t so lucky. The Queen and Odette were thrown apart in the crash.
“Now for the girl,” Rothbart smirked, stalking towards them aggressively. The Queen crawled toward her as quickly as she could, throwing herself on top of Odette’s inert body.
“No!”
The Queen turned to see that Odette’s prince had caught up to them. He fought Rothbart valiantly, with arrows and sword, but was quickly beaten down. The Queen struggled to her feet. She couldn’t bear for another human to be hurt in her land, especially not one who loved Odette so well. Just as Rothbart aimed his ring at the prince, she yanked his arm back.
“Stop! Your fight is with me.”
Rothbart yanked his arm out of her grip with a sniff. “Quite right, cousin,” he snarled. They backed up the ritualistic ten paces and raised their magical instruments. She glanced to the side and saw the prince helping Odette to her feet. She took in a deep breath.
Snap!
The Queen just barely ducked in time for Rothbart’s deadly blast to strike the tree behind her, the rotten smell of his magic filling her nose. She brandished her little wand, the one her uncle had helped her carve as a child, and aimed it at the vines tangled at Rothbart’s feet. He snarled as they yanked him flat on his back, but he recovered quickly, the smell of their burnt remains permeating the air.
She readied for his next attack and was shocked to see Odette stumble in front of her, brandishing the now-dull Magic Crystal like a shield. The Queen glanced to the side at Odette’s prince, quickly surmising that he must have recovered the crystal from Rothbart while they were fighting.
“Oh, please,” Rothbart scoffed. “I already broke that thing, when the prince broke your heart, remember? That little piece of rock won’t save you from me.”
“My heart’s not broken; it’s as strong as ever. You won’t harm the Queen or her subjects any longer,” Odette declared bravely.
“Little swan,” Rothbart mocked. “Why do you defend such a useless Queen?”
“She’s not useless!” Odette lied, for some reason. “She spends her entire day with her subjects, making sure they are as comfortable as they can be under you! Nobody doubts that she loves them. She inspires loyalty from everybody! I feel like I could do anything, if it’s for her!”
Rothbart grit his teeth, obviously incensed. “Prove it,” he growled, aiming his next blast directly at her.
“No!” The Queen yelled, aghast at the idea of seeing Odette fall in front of her for the second time today.
Odette steadied herself in front of the Queen, still holding the crystal aloft. The red beam raced toward her and the Queen, but stopped dead in front of her. Like the crystal truly was creating a shield in front of them.
“What?” Rothbart gasped, before sending blast after blast toward her. The blasts hit the shield, exploding on impact but never hurting them. The crystal that Odette held out in front of her began to burn brighter and brighter before creating an explosion of light. Rothbart melted like candlewax, and all of his spells came undone, her subjects turning back into their true selves. The curtain of darkness that Rothbart had shrouded the Enchanted Forest in began to lift.
“Carlita! Ivan!” The Queen knelt down and ran her wand over both of them, checking to make sure every last bit of Rothbart’s twisted magic had gone. They jumped into her arms, and she hugged them close.
“Oh, Odette!” She stood to find Odette just behind her, and she clasped her hands in hers. “You did it! I don’t know how to thank you!” She turned to include Odette’s prince in her address. “Both of you! I’m sorry I doubted you, Daniel. The prophecy was right! Your love-”
“My love,” Odette interjected. “-for you.” Odette turned her hands inside the Queen’s grip so that she was the one holding onto her.
The Queen blinked. “But your prince-”
“It was my pleasure to fight injustice and restore your kingdom,” Daniel sketched a jaunty bow.
Odette turned slightly to address him. “Thank you for all your help, my friend.” Still holding the Queen captive with one hand, Odette offered the other to her prince. Er, the prince.
The prince kissed her hand lightly and doffed an imaginary hat. “M’lady. Your highness. I better get home. I’m sure we have many angry ball guests.”
Odette giggled. “Good luck.” She waved as he rode out of the Enchanted Forest, then sighed, turning back toward the Fairy Queen. “Now, where were we?” She grinned, holding both the Queen’s hands in hers again.
“Uh,” the Queen tried to swallow, but her mouth was too dry. Oh, where was a lake when you need one? “You said … love? Um.”
“Oh, yes!” Odette brightened. “Well, I understand if this is quite sudden for you. After all, we thought the prophecy said I had to love some prince or whatever. Well, the prophecy shouldn’t have trapped me with you for so long, if that’s what it wanted,” she reasoned.
“You’re not trapped anymore,” the Queen blurted out, seizing upon the one thing she could understand. “You can go home anytime you want.”
Odette quirked a smile. “I know. I’d rather stay here, though. It’s so much livelier here. And there’s so much space to dance.”
“And you love dancing.” This, at least, made sense. Odette said that she had loved to dance at home and had been ecstatic to learn all the dances the Queen could think of to teach her. Odette almost always made everyone dance in the twilight, as soon as they had their human bodies back. They had spent all of yesterday dancing. Odette said she needed practice for Daniel’s ball, although the Queen was certain Odette just wanted an excuse to dance. She didn’t think too hard on why Odette insisted on needing a partner at the time, but …
“I do love dancing,” Odette nodded. “But ever since you took me in, I’ve been falling in love with you.” She looked searchingly into the Queen’s eyes, but the Queen didn’t know how to react. Odette took a deep breath in and let go of her hands. The Queen had to squeeze her hands into fists in order to keep herself from trying to reclaim Odette’s hands. “Look, you don’t have to give me an answer now or anything.” She shrugged lightly. “Although, I’d ask you not to wait too long. We humans don’t live as long as you fairies.”
“But …” The Queen just had to make sure. “You want to stay here?” The Queen asked, heart in her throat. She can’t quite come to terms with an idea as intimidating as Odette being in love with her at the moment, or she’d burst. Just the idea of Odette sticking around or even visiting often made her too happy to think straight.
Odette picked up the Queen’s crown and dusted it off. She gently nestled it into the Queen’s curls, caressing her face as she lowered her hands. “As long as you’ll have me, my Queen,” she vowed.
The Queen was aware that she had begun glowing very brightly, but she couldn’t bring herself to care. She glanced around quickly, noticing that her subjects had very quickly set up a revelry to celebrate their newfound freedom. “Would you care to dance, my dear Odette?” she asked, taking one hand lightly.
Odette’s face practically shone, reflecting some of the Queen’s own light back at her. “I would love to.”
They danced until the dawn came and the sun sparkled across their lake.
And then they kept dancing.