Mei returns to that wretched lake. And waits. She becomes herself and sleeps, she does her best to comfort Haylee, who is realizing the narrow boundaries of their cage.
Haylee staggered from the lake that night and tried to strangle her half-brother(Dan), only to gasp for air herself, eyes wide like a fish as she began to understand exactly what Mei meant when she told her their lives were tied.
It’s a bad night.
“I have to get to Roni(Veronica) ,” Haylee whispers to her in the cold morning, both of them waiting in the frigid water for the blazing fingernail of the sun to slice over the mountain and transform them with pain.
“I have to tell her somehow. She will perform the act of love, whatever’s necessary. People think she’s weak, but she’s the opposite.”
“Dan will be watching her,” Mei cautions, mindful of Sasha glaring tiredly at them nearby.
“We can’t let him win,” Haylee grits out, tears in her eyes as the sun finally rises and they both lose themselves in the agony.
Mei stays on the water after the last of the pain shivers away, and she’s left with her feather skin and soundless voice.
Haylee launches away with a hiss, off to find her wife, but Princess Mei , for the first time, does not begin her flight to Hayden. She floats on the water, finding a melancholy peace on it.
From the shore, Sasha scoffs.
“The great Her Highness,” she sneers. “Finally tamed.”
Mei watches Sasha go, wanting to thrash the skin from her face with her own sword.
Later, she takes to the skies and enjoys flying without the rigorous panic of beating the sun.
Lake shines, gold and white, and Mei climbs until her prison lake is just a sliver among the green below.
Her sister would love flying, she thinks, inexplicably. And the thought makes her heart plummet. And then she herself is plummeting, but with more grace, until the roofs of Manor blind her and she descends into a peaceful, cool courtyard.
This is Veronica's courtyard, Mei realizes. It’s the lotuses in the little pond that give it away—that and the white banners of mourning on every pillar, every wall.
Veronica sits at the pool’s edge. She’s wearing white, and she smells faintly of smoke, and she knows she has come to take a respite from the mourning services.
Mei might not be as silent as she thinks she is
because Veronica looks up with red-rimmed eyes and spies her in the afternoon shadows.
“You again!” she says, almost angry, but not entirely. “Will you never leave me alone?”
This is the first time Mei has been mistaken for anyone else, much less Haylee, but she can’t really correct her.
Mei keeps away, not wanting to frighten Veronica .
“They’ve started to say you’re courting me,” she says with a wry, tired laugh.
Mei blinks at the implication.
“A swan. They say my wife has reincarnated to a swan and wishes to marry me again.”
Marry Hayden's sister? Mei lets out a snort and turns her head before she realizes that this might seem like an insult.
Veronica stares at her, then starts laughing. “It’s almost like you understand me!”
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Romance"Did you hear the terrible news? The Dark Patriarch has gone beyond the pale! He has murdered the Her highness!" This is the first thing the swan hears flying over North, and it sets her to hissing. It's the kind of sound she would never make as a h...
