To his dismay, Odessa refused to meet his eyes as he approached.
The corner of Boris’s smile twitched, and he spoke through clenched teeth. “It’s Boris.”
“Right, Boris.” Jax smacked the heel of his hand to his forehead. “Sorry, my memory is horrible.” He made a show of looking around. “Your domain has never looked better.”
“Thank you. I take it you’ve met my daughter, Odessa?” Boris placed a hand on the small of Odessa’s back and nudged her forward. She finally looked up, giving him a polite smile that looked as if it required more effort than convincing Bean he wasn’t actually a swan.
He hid his confusion and disappointment with a bright grin. “I have. We’ve worked together quite a bit the last few weeks to prepare for this party.”
I thought Odessa said he didn’t want her to come. He must have changed his mind and is really trying to sell the whole ‘doting father’ thing.
“So I guessed.” Boris murmured the words quietly, as if they were meant more for himself. He cleared his throat. “Well, I seesome old friends that I would like to greet. Odessa, perhaps you would prefer to keep Jax company?”
Suspicion prickled down Jax’s spine.
For someone who knows that her curse can be broken by a declaration of love, he seems oddly comfortable leaving her alone with me, especially after having admitted that we’ve already spent time with one another. He’s been far too careful for this to be a mistake. Something is off here.
He opened his magical senses, sorting through the cacophony of sound until he focused on the strain of music coming from Odessa.
It wasn’t hers.
Jax managed to keep his smile in place as he held out his hand. “Would you like to dance?”
Panic and uncertainty flashed in her eyes as she tentatively placed her hand in his, and he gave her fingers what he hoped was a reassuring squeeze as he led her away from Boris and to the dance floor.
“I should warn you that I’m absolutely terrible at dancing, and I apologize in advance for any injury your toes may sustain.”
A brief smile flashed across her face before it was replaced by barely concealed terror. Had he not known she wasn’t Odessa, it might have offended him, but as it was, he set his hand on her back and gently guided her to an opening in the middle of the dancers where their conversation couldn’t be overheard by villainous Menagerie Keepers.
“Katrin, where is Odessa?”
Katrin’s gaze snapped to his, her eyes almost comically wide. “How did you know?”
“I can hear magic, remember? You might be wearing Odessa’s face and speaking with her voice, but you don’t sound like her at all. Where is she?”
“I don’t know,” Katrin whispered brokenly, her eyes darting across the courtyard to where Boris was standing with a fellow member of the court, a drink in his hand and his head thrown back in a laugh. “He just told me that I needed to come tonight and pretend to be Odessa or he was going to feed Sonya to the lions.”
Jax’s jaw tensed in anger. “The man needs to find some new threats. Did he say why?”
“He wants you to propose to me.”
His anger turned to confusion. “Won’t that break your curse?”
Katrin said nothing, her lips pressed together into a thin line.
Jax blew out a long breath before remembering that they were supposed to be dancing. He carefully started guiding Katrin through the steps before realizing that she knew even less about dancing than Odessa had. He took pity on both their feet and gestured toward one of the tables of refreshments. “Would you like a drink?”
“Not really.”
Her blunt answer drew a chuckle, and he answered in a stage whisper as he escorted her to a quiet corner of the courtyard, “That was supposed to be a discreet way of saving us both from becoming casualties on the dance floor.”
“Oh.” She laughed nervously.
He filled a glass with some kind of pink, sparkling juice and took one himself. “You don’t have any idea where Boris might have put her, or why he would want your curse to be broken, but not hers?”
She shook her head. “But he spends most of his time in his library, and Odessa says he takes meticulous notes for all his records. That’s how she knew about our curse in the first place—she read one of his notebooks.”
Jax nodded slowly. “How long do you think Boris is planning to stay tonight?”
