Pandemonium ensued. The princes were swooping low, attacking with wings and beaks. Elise’s guards, having finally succeeded in securing her, jumped off the pyre and tossed in the burning torches before running toward Lindy.
Elise screamed.
The shirt’s not finished, but there’s no time. I’ll just have to hope that it’s enough.
“Corbin!” Lindy shouted. The swan banked toward her on his way to Elise, and she pulled the knitting needles from the last shirt and tossed it at him. The moment it hit his back, he transformed, dropping to the ground in a tucked roll and jumping to his feet.
The crowd gasped as he sprinted to the pyre, clearing the growing flames in a single, desperate jump. Elise melted into him with tears of relief as he clawed away at the ropes that bound her.
“Your Highness!” A man stepped forward from the crowd and tossed him a knife, proving that perhaps not all the citizens of Cygnus were useless.
In the meantime, Lindy was pulling nettle shirts from her bag and throwing them at the princes. Owen leaped to help his brother, while Lukas and Lance started yelling for water to douse the flames. Jacques, to Lindy’s utter and complete astonishment, yelled and started swinging his fists at the guards who were trying to grab her. She ducked under their reaching arms, tossing the remaining two shirts to Alvin and Pierre.
The crowd around her had turned into a mob, with people shoving and shouting over one another, voices raised in both joy and suspicion over the princes’ suddenreappearance. Owen and Corbin succeeded in freeing Elise from the stake, and the eldest prince swept his love into his arms and jumped down, barely avoiding the soggy wood and dying flames. Elise buried her face in his neck as her entire body shook violently.
Lindy’s heart filled with a relief that was short-lived as the pressing mob caged her in, and her arms were seized from both sides by iron grips as a heavy boot kicked her legs out from under her, forcing her to her knees. Someone struck the side of her head, and she tasted blood in her mouth as her ears rang, drowning out the princes’ demands that she be let go.
Shiny, polished boots appeared on the ground in front of her, and her head was yanked up roughly by her hair. A sneer curled Haldrick’s lip as he looked down at her.
“Well, well, well. Look what the swans have dragged in.” He shoved her roughly to the side and barked at the guards holding her, “Take her to the dungeon.”
Chapter Twelve
LINDY
Lindy wasn’t sure how many days had passed in the windowless cell, only that enough time had passed in the outside world that her jailer had deemed her worthy of dry bread and water three times. Each time he delivered it with a kind of gleeful anticipation, as if expecting her to balk or turn up her nose at the meager offering.
Instead, she smiled, accepted the plate as serenely as if she had been offered a tray of rich, decadent food at a royal feast, and took great satisfaction in the frustrated scrunch of his brow. She refused to let him see her weakness, but her bravado lasted only until the heavy door slammed behind him.
With one such plate in front of her, Lindy slumped to the cold, damp floor and leaned back weakly into the wall of rough stone. The rash on her hands had subsided, but though some of the blisters had scabbed over, the worst of them had turned hot to the touch, with angry red streaks extending out like wicked sunbursts. Shepicked up her bread with the heels of her hands and nibbled at the hard crust, thankful to have something to distract her mind from the throbbing pain in her fingers and the equally excruciating pain in her chest.
For the first few hours after her imprisonment she had stood by the door, firmly believing that one of the princes would come to release her. When that didn’t happen, she held out hope for her giant. She regretted asking him to stay behind, but surely once he realized that she was delayed, Atlas would come for her. His promises couldn’t have all been empty words.
But as time stretched on and no one but the vindictive guard appeared, Lindy began to accept the fact that no one was coming for her. Corbin had Elise, the rest of the princes had their human bodies, and Atlas had his goose. They no longer needed her.
She was alone.
A key jangled in the lock and she startled, not expecting to have another visitor so soon after her meal was delivered. The thought crossed through her mind that she should stand, but just as she decided that she didn’t much care anymore what the guard thought, the door creaked open and Corbin stepped into the cell.
He blinked, no doubt adjusting his eyes to the almost non-existent light that seeped in through the narrow barred window at the top of the door. “Lindy?”
“I feel I should be offended that you didn’t dress for dinner. I have obviously failed in my duties as a mother.”
He let out a low curse as he finally registered her presence and dropped to his knees beside her.
She tsked and shook her head, unable to summon theenergy to lift it from the wall. “And now you’re swearing like a common sailor. I should have my motherly duties revoked. Oh. Wait.”
“Lindy, I’m sorry. They told me they were treating you well.” Corbin’s voice was filled with regret.
“I’m sure they are treating me just as well as they would any other prisoner. There might be a little extra animosity in the bread, since I’m sure Haldrick still has them believing that I killed their king, but other than that, it’s likely standard treatment.”
“But they…you’re not…” Corbin shoved an angry, frustrated hand through his hair. “You didn’t actually do anything wrong.”
Lindy hummed and dropped her bread, and it clanked like a rock as it fell back to the plate. “I did curse you.”
“Which was an accident, and it wouldn’t have happened if we hadn’t been such…bird-brained ninnies.”
She snorted softly. “Very creative. I like the theme.”
