Jax straightened, his whole manner perking up at the question like an eager puppy. “Did I really forget to mention? I’m a Bird Catcher and a Dragon Charmer. In fact, if you ever need help with any of your feathered residents…” He let the end of his sentence trail off hopefully.
Boris’s upper lip curled in a sneer of distaste. “I believe I’m more than capable of handling my creatures without the help of a…bird catcher.”
“I figured that was the case, but it never hurts to put oneself out there,” Jax responded cheerfully. “Well, I’ll just be on my way then and see if she’s home. It was nice to meet you, Bart.”
Odessa’s snort of laughter came out as a honk, and her father glared at her. “Boris,” he corrected Jax, forcing the words through clenched teeth.
“My mistake. Apologies, Boris.” Jax saluted him with two fingers and continued up the path to Odessa’s cottage. He made a show of knocking on the door and waiting before turning around and strolling back. “I guess she’s not home right now. Would you mind letting her know that I stopped by, and that Prince Dmitri would like to talk to her at her earliest convenience?”
“I’ll pass the message along.” Boris watched him with narrowed eyes as his tall, lithe figure retreated down the path, then turned back to Odessa. “It seems the prince has decided to surround himself with fools.”
She pretended nonchalance, though every instinct in her demanded that she defend Jax. He could play the fool, certainly, but he was far more intelligent and wily than she had first suspected, and more than that, he waskind. He scattered smiles and friendship like birdseed, leaving sunshine in his wake.“He’s not so bad. Harmless, at the very least.”
“Harmless indeed.” Boris laughed derisively. “A grown man who claims to be abird catcherdoesn’t have the mental capacity to do anything nefarious. All the same, stay away from him.”
“That’s going to be rather difficult if Dmitri is specifically sending him to find me.”
“You’re a smart girl; I trust you’ll find a way.” He leaned in. “Don’t forget about the lions, dear.”
She fought against the sensation of tears gathering in a painful lump in her throat.“You would really murder your own daughter?”
“I think you already know. I will see that justice is carried out, no matter the sacrifices required.” He turned on his heel, leaving her with a final word of warning, “The lions aren’t picky. They would hardly complain if they were served a dinner of swan…or wild boar.”
Chapter Thirteen
ODESSA
Odessa’s stomach was still churning when Jax reappeared, having approached so quietly that she didn’t even register his presence until he was right beside her. His smile was gone, and rather than playing with the rock, he held it in his fist with a white-knuckled grip. He crossed his legs and dropped to the ground beside her.
“Your father is meaner than a chicken, and I don’t use the insult lightly,” he said darkly. “How he ever managed to convince a woman to marry him and produce a daughter as delightful and stunning as you is truly a mystery for the ages.”
She couldn’t answer him, of course, but she settled for leaning against him. The fact that he was there made her feel safer and more relieved than perhaps it should, having just met him, but she couldn’t deny the fact that her stomach and heart settled as soon as he arrived.
She wasn’t going to examine the fluttery feeling in her chest when he called her “stunning.” That was likely just the result ofnot having eaten enough during the day because she was chasing a spunky hatchling.
Jax’s warm hand ran gently over her feathers. “If he tries to feed you to the lions, I will sic the emus on him. I have a feeling it won’t take much to incite them to violence.”
Odessa let out a quiet honk of laughter.I can’t lie, that’s something I would like to see.
“I tried to get Dmitri to come.” Jax’s gaze was drawn up to the sky, which was streaked with orange and pink. “I was hoping that if he were here during your transformation, it would be proof enough for him to have your father locked up in one of his own cages. I see what you mean, now, about it being impossible to talk about.” He pressed his hand to the side of his head. “It was like tiny little gongs bouncing around in my brain out of tune.”
She felt the moment the sun hit the horizon, and she lurched away from him so that she wouldn’t end up halfway in his lap after the change. Though it was less painful to return to her natural form than the other way round, her bones still ached, and she required a few seconds to breathe through the discomfort before pushing herself up to a seated position.
Jax was watching her with wide eyes. “That…does not look like fun.”
“The evenings are better than the mornings.” Her voice was rough and raspy, and she cleared her throat before continuing. “It’s just like horrible growing pains, rather than breaking and squeezing to fit into a container that’s at least four sizes too small.”
His jaw tensed as he pulled his panpipes out of his satchel. “I’ll call the emus.”
Odessa laughed, feeling the last of her hurt soothed away with the simple show of support. She put a hand on his arm, slightly surprised when her fingers landed on the warm skin ofhis forearm rather than his sleeve. “Don’t. They don’t deserve to have him ruin a perfectly nice evening.”
The muscles in his arm twitched under her touch. Jax sighed. “Oh, alright. I still don’t know how someone so odious managed to procreate—not that I mind your existence, of course. Buteugh.” He twisted his face and shuddered dramatically.
She withdrew her arm and twisted her hands together in her lap. “He wasn’t always so bad,” she said softly. Her heart twisted at the memories of shared laughter, of late evenings around the fire and early mornings with the animals, of trailing behind her father and pestering him with question after question while he taught her everything he knew.
Or rather, almost everything—he had kept the knowledge of curses to himself.
“What happened?”
