Wing Clipping/5

She was a goner.

"Quiet in the Library!"

Actually she was surprised she hadn't been kicked out already.

Opal dusted herself off, rubbing her head where a really big and heavy book had just decided to land.

"Princess!!" Larkin cried, earning a shush and an "I'm watching you" gesture from the Evil Step-Librarians. Used to it by this point, he ignored it. "Are you okay? What are you doing here, you've been here for like, four hours?"

"I'm okay." Opal reassured him. As for why she was here...could she tell him? Larkin was great and all, but part of what made him so great was his overprotectiveness, something that could very well backfire on her if he heard about the Black Swan and decided she was in danger.

"Op...you look like a deer in the headlights. What are you hiding?" Larkin's voice was gentle, but his face was stern as he placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Lar..." She bit her lip, trying to figure out the best way to word this, when something caught her eye. A skinny, black book crusted with dark blue jewels. Without a second thought, she snatched it up. This book seemed like it was the right one.

"Op..." Larkin tried but she held up one finger.

"The Black Swan is the mythical helper of the Wicked Queen. It does not show up in each retelling of the story, and there seems to be no logic and reason when it does. It is more powerful than the Wicked Queen, though if the queen would ever want to, she knows how to destroy it with a spell.

'' It has no form in particular, it has taken the form of, among other things, a bat, a gargoyle, an ogre, and a old man. With such varying forms, you may wonder how to tell it is the Black Swan. Well, good news, the Black Swan always has one thing in common amongst all it's forms. A broken feather mark under it's eye."''

Opal slammed the book shut. "Opal, Opal what's wrong?" Larkin was growing frantic. The look on his girlfriend's face was worrying.

She didn't react. "Opal..."

He finally had to shake her to snap her out of it. "Blakemore." She whispered.

"What?" What did their spooky cousin have to do with any of this.

"It's Blakemore!!!" Opal seemed triumphant, then she realized the full extent of what it meant. "We got to find my mother's spell book." She told him before running out of the library.

"Opal, seriously, would you please tell me what's going on?" Larkin called.

The Evil Step-Librarians slammed their fists down on the table. "I'm leaving, I'm leaving you old bats." He reassured them.