Chapter 17: Black Bird Singing In the Dead of Night

Derek swallowed.

Was it real? What was that? He watched in awe as Odette's friends seemed to act as if this swan was important…as if that strange event was tragic…as if…that was …Odette?

"What's going on?" He turned to see Odette standing in front of him.

He swallowed hard and looked expectantly to her.

"Who are you?" He asked coarsely.

"Me?" She said, trying to hide a terrible anger of fire behind her eyes.

Suddenly she saw the mangy pet animals dragging the white bird out of the water.

She tried to grasp for Derek's hand but instead he went to the swan, out cold on the ground and looked at the necklace. It was the necklace he gave her.

"Let me see your locket." He turned to Odette.

She bit her lip. She couldn't. It had the gem in it. She needed it as a home for the dark arts…an orb was never transportable…a little bit longer and she could attain the dark magic all herself.

"It's an illusion…that swan doesn't have it…Der-"

"Let me see it." He suddenly sounded threatening.

She closed her eyes for a minute and sighed.

Derek watched as the eyes of Odette changed. Not the violet eyes of Odette. They turned a dark redish brown.

"Oh dear, you poor boy you've gone and done it again." Her voice had changed. Strangely familiar.

"Who are you?" His voice was shaky. "How would you know about all this? Rothbart is long gone, and all of his allies."

"Tell me are all men as shallow as to only see women for their appearance? I guess you're not really the Prince you tell yourself you are." He watched as some strange illusion of Odette spoke the bitter words he'd felt his stomach irk to. "Oh and I guess you are also wrong to think that all of Rothbart's allies are dead… I mean quite frankly all I did was mix up a few letters and I had you by the neck…" She twisted her fingers as sparks flew to the ground where the letters of Robhartt seemed to write themselves in the sand before they rearranged themselves into Rothbart.

"Veronica… Rothbart… who are you?" He reached for his sword.

"The daughter of the man you slayed. More importantly the daughter of the man who became so engulfed with proving his true worth to the King who publically humiliated him that he left his family. Frankly I'd blame the sad excuse for a goose over there but on the other hand, men really are all ego aren't they? You know I wish I could have had an easy life, playing princess beside a strong dashing man such as yourself…but then unless I have blonde hair and darling violet eyes I can't imagine you'd fancy me much would you?"

"Give her back. She doesn't deserve to be a swan any longer…and that shadow…"

"Oh you see I can't. For spells to be broken there has to be a trade: A moon's light for a human form… killing my father to get your princess back? A proclamation of love for release of an evil spell? Well my trade this time was to sacrifice her to the dark arts so that I could attain this body as my own… its only so good without a soul, and frankly I don't need her messing up my plans anymore. It won't be long before the dark powers have hit their maximum and nobody can stop me"

"You didn't just change into her?"

"I realized my father's mistake. Fooling you was the easiest game, but it was too soon revealed that his false Odette was fake. Too soon did he give you the chance to fix what you had done by giving you a chance to kill him. To create, to change and to destroy…well I'm using his powers all at once, and when my spell is complete, and my little orb of power is full, all three of these things will solidify my true right to become princess…" She swirled her fingers as a mix of purple, red and yellow magic emerged from her fingers.

"How is this your true right? Your nothing but a monster…" Derek squinted at her. He noticed Swan Odette was beginning to cough up water. He felt broke on the inside that this was the second time he had been to blind to realize that he'd never been with the real Odette.

"My father would have become King should he have just killed this princess instead of giving her the chance to live as some bargaining chip. He would have came back for me and made me Princess. I could almost forgive you for killing him…he gave you that chance wide open…men are blind to their own mortality…but no…Odette was the woman who made things complicated; she didn't marry my father. She was born at the same time my father was supposed to have killed the King. She was the loose end, and you were the perfect fiddle to play; so easy to fool, so blinded by aesthetic ideals of love. Tell me King Derek, how does it feel to know you're going to be the cause of Odette's death twice? Or more so that from the start you were just a shallow fool entranced by some white swan's beauty and fooled by another!" She laughed as suddenly she took the locket between her hands and it melted into the red jewel that Veronica had worn. It glowed an awful reddish orange color, that reminded Derek of the Orb they had once destroyed.

"IT couldn't be…we destroyed it…" He backed up.

She smiled deviously. "You can burn paper, but you cannot burn a memory. Nothing makes me happier to know that this night, is the night I can finally attain my father's power and avenge his death…while becoming Queen of a Kingdom…" She glowed as she began to say the hauntingly familiar words.

"Formula non grata kayatus melvarta.

Formula non grata kayatus semper.

Vola bid tu ana binaye contora innextre koxus.

Let the powers of the Forbidden Arts flow into me."

Derek found her words bitter, as her laugh and taunting manner did recall her father's nature. He felt something inside him break further. Even if he fought it, for Odette's sake, did he truly deserve her after everything? Or was it always his entrancement with her … becoming a swan…becoming beautiful…was that all there was?

He felt suddenly a pull on his leg.

The white Swan Odette looked at him with sad eyes and shook her head.

Veronica smiled. It was pitiful. What more, was that the power she needed in this jewel was all hers. "Now that that is done, lets me return to my true form for a short while." She turned herself back to Veronica. This time her dress recalled the one the original fake Odette had worn, but the red sash around the shoulders turned to a sharp edge and between her bust sat a red gem. The black material fell down with a slit up the leg that hadn't existed before.

"And that of course means, if the white swan is still alive, the black swan of the Lake has returned to take what is it's to destroy." She rose her hand, looking past him.

Derek turned to see a large black, ghost-like shadow, version of a swan with red menacing eyes hovering over him and Odette as if it emerged from the water, like a great animal, a great shadow, emerging from the power to destroy, a demon of dark art and revenge.