He gave her the book he had kept in the parchment.
Odette's eyes widened hugely at the sight of this book as she saw its cover. It was the same book that Derek and Bromley had burnt in the fire.
But now? It was whole again! How could this be?
"How...?" She whispered, amazement sounding in her voice, "Just... how?"
"I looked through the castle's library for days and I found a copy,"
She looked at the book now in her hands and couldn't hold it back anymore. Tears began to gather in her eyes, but again they were happy tears and she ran her fingertip down the cover, touching it to see if it was really there.
"I suppose you expect me to say 'thank you',"
"No, not really..." Derek replied with a smirk and she glanced her eyes back up at him, "I owed you this, princess..."
"Yes," She said back nervously then, clearing her throat nervously as she finished, "You did."
"C'mon, Odette.." Her father called for her as he walked the ramp onto the ship. She nodded fast, saying quickly.
"Coming!" and looked at Derek again, shy now as she said, "Well... goodbye, Prince Derek."
"Goodbye, princess." He only responded in a distant voice now. He bowed awkwardly and she gave a tense curtsy before following after her father and entering onto the ship.
Derek had gotten onto the carriage again, not thinking of watching them head off but suddenly a tomato smashed into his face, and he jumped back on his seat, shocked and also mortified. He looked quickly over to Odette as she tossed her slingshot into the sea, getting rid of evidence of her prank and he was so angry for a few minutes before grinning amused by it all.
She was more than just some woman.
She was a princess... an ice-cold queen.
Odette walked down the ship's stairs into her boarding room and leaned against the glass window, watching the queen and prince wave goodbye to the large boat. She smiled softly to herself.
She picked up the book and opened it to the part she was last at, reading the words in her head.
He promised he would fight for her, that he would give his life for her. And she would do the same for him.
Love was entwined within the two, true love circling them and making them one. A soulmate is what they found in each other... and no one else would ever compare. No one else...
She sighed heavily after reading these words, picturing in her head a handsome knight fighting for his maiden. If only she could find a man that would fight for her... if only she could.
She just could not see who had been there right in front of her all this time.
The trip across the sea took two days, and she continued to read on, finishing the book by the time they were back in their own kingdom.
She placed it carefully away in her luggage with her other precious books and as she travelled by carriage to her family's castle, her father cared to ask.
"Will you miss him...?"
"Will you miss her?" Uberta asked Derek as he had his head in a book in the living quarters and he hummed back, not listening.
"Hmm?"
"Well?" King William asked his daughter and Uberta asked her son.
"No..." The two replied softly to their parents. A truth they really believed.
The two of them could not see love for the other, but they were so much closer in bond than the two even realized.
Odette used to always come home from Derek's kingdom with anger and sadness deep in her core. Derek, always with annoyance and frustration.
But this time? The two had had a small rapport, even if it was only a string length in the relationship.
The king and queen however had seen the small silver lining on the cloud. Derek and Odette had been kind to one another...
Derek had let Odette win the game in the end, and he was not bitter about it anymore.
The two still didn't love each other... no, that would come in time, in years to come.
But they were maturing, and they were seeing things more clearly now than any time before.
"Are you excited to go back next year?" William asked Odette then, and she glanced at him. She was reading a book on a chair and said back.
"Hmm?"
How she and Derek just could not see how much they were alike.
"Well, Derek?" Uberta asked her son and the two young teens both shrugged again in response to their parents.
Memories ran through both their minds of all the times they had been together. Forced together. All the times they had no one but the other... and they had become soft. At least a little.
But they would never let this small infinity that was growing in the other two of them to show.
No... they didn't need the other.
They didn't need anyone.
But Derek's smile didn't irritate her like it used to do. Odette's laughter didn't annoy him like it used.
She was growing more beautiful and him a handsome man.
There had never been a spark though, a moment between the two where they felt a connection.
One day, their parents hoped, one day, please!
"Well?" The queen and king asked their children again and Odette only grinned. Derek smirked at his mother.
"This? This time?"
"Yes...?" The two parents asked in need to know, so intrigued and nearly splitting hairs from the tension.
"It wasn't my idea of fun."
The queen and king could not believe what they heard.
For the first time, the two old royals felt doubt in their hearts for Odette and Derek.
Why couldn't the two youths see what they had seen all along? Why couldn't they just open up their eyes?!
Years from now Prince Derek and Odette were pushed together again, forced to share space in the hall.
And Derek saw for the first time what he had been blind to see all his life. Odette, saw the same...
She was it... how had he never known?
Every moment he had with her now seemed to finally make sense. She wasn't a bratty kid anymore... she wasn't cold as stone.
Her soft smile shot arrows through his own heart and his gaze, Odette thought she would get lost in it forever.
Every bad action the two had shared all throughout their lives finally made sense as it led up to this moment.
A kiss...
And we all know what happened after this.
The rest of history.
A princess forced to be a swan. A prince forced to see more than he did before.
Love captured the two finally for the first time... a vow, of ever-lasting love.
A fate Odette never knew could be.
That night of her wedding she sat in her honeymoon room and held her locket in her hand. The locket that had been given to her as a babe... a locket that had played such a huge part in her life and fate.
The words she and her deceased father had spoken to each other as her as a teenager when she had believed her fate would be a sad one... it didn't matter any more.
Fate, she now knew, was what a person chose to believe in... to always have hope.
To believe there is always better out there for the world... to believe destiny was not just what happened, but how one perceived it in their mind. In their hearts.
She opened her locket up and saw an inscription she had never seen before.
The letters... O& D.
How had these letters been written without her even knowing? How..?
She smiled with tears as she put the necklace back around her neck and her husband came in.
True love for her in his eyes. True love.
"Derek...?" Odette asked him gently and he nodded sitting next to her as he replied.
"Yes, Odette?"
"Do you..." She said, tears coming to her eyes and she slowly stood up then, walking to the balcony of the room and looking up to the sky full of stars like she had done years ago with the queen, "Do you think he is still here... just hidden in the stars?"
Derek wasn't even confused about who she was speaking of. Her father...
The king that had been killed... Derek had come too late to save him... a king that was like a father to himself as well.
"I do,"
He touched Odette's hand and squeezed it softly. A tear slipped down her cheek and he wiped it away with his finger's knuckle -
Just like her father had done years ago when she had been in so much pain.
And she only burst into a joyous smile at this touch... such a warm familiar touch.
The two looked onwards from the balcony of the castle and the many lands that were kept in the kingdom's territory and grounds.
They were finally mature... wise in themselves and the way of the world.
The loss of a loved one could do that to people... make them finally see what really matters.
"For longer than forever?" Odette chimed with a weak grin and Derek side hugged her warmly, responding.
"I don't think that is long enough, Your Highness,"
She smiled at him and replied, "Your Majesty?"
They laughed together before holding the other's hand and kissing a hidden kiss in the darkness of the night.
And that was that.
Young loathing turned into mature love.
But every step mattered... every loss and victory, every one-upping the other and testing the grounds of courtship.
The kingdoms were finally united. The two youths finally lovers.
And the many sequels that would come after this moment in their lives. So many, many sequels.
The night sparkled with stars. Their hearts united.
For far longer than forever.
Forever, indeed.
The End.