“I hate to break it to you, Beanjamin,” she said with a watery laugh. “But I’m not actually your mother. I’m just the swan who happened to be there when you hatched.”
“Whether or not you’re responsible for producing my egg makes no difference. You’re mine. Jax told me not to claim ahoard until I found something that would last.” He lowered his neck, leaning forward until their foreheads touched.“I choose you. You are my family and my treasure, and I love you. I will spend the rest of my life keeping you safe. If Boris tries to hurt you, he’s going to have to go through me.”
Odessa’s eyes filled with tears again at his words, and her heart filled with warmth at his words. She whispered, “I love you, too, Bean.”
The heat in her chest—what she had assumed was just an emotional reaction to his touching declaration—continued to build. She threw her hands over her heart and staggered backward before falling to her knees.
“Odessa!”
The burning sensation spread along her limbs until it felt like her whole body was on fire. She squeezed her eyes shut, certain that she was going to burst into flames, when suddenly a loud crack filled the air, and suddenly the fire was gone. She took in a deep, gasping breath.
“Odessa? Are you alright?”
Odessa pushed herself to her feet, feeling strangely light, as if she had cast off a heavy weight. She hadn’t felt so free in years, not since…
“Bean!” Her eyes widened. “I think you broke the curse!”
“What?”
She laughed in disbelief as she held her arms and hands out in front of her, turning them over and examining them. “You broke the curse. When you claimed me, you promised undying devotion—not in so many words, of course, but the meaning was the same.”
The dragon tilted his head.“Your music has changed. It’s…balanced.”He gave her a toothy dragon grin that would have been terrifying had she not witnessed his awkward hatchling years.“The curse is broken.”
Odessa threw her arms around him again, then jumped back with a gasp. “The party!”
“Honestly, it was kind of boring. Lots of standing around and talking, and nobody was eating any of the strawberries.”
“Boris is using Katrin to trick Jax into proposing.”
“So? You don’t need him to break your curse anymore.”
“Yeah, but that doesn’t mean I want to watch him marry Katrin instead.”
“Really? I thought pining from afar was the plan.”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “You’ve gotten sarcastic in the last 24 hours.”
“I am but a reflection of the manners my mother has taught me.”
“Are you going to help me find him or not?”
“Can I choose not? He wouldn’t let me have strawberries.”
She propped her hands on her fists. “Bean. I love him. I tried to deny it before, but I guess being dangled from a tree knocked some sense into me. I love him, and I won’t let Boris steal his future the way he stole ours.”
Bean sighed, blowing out a cloud of smoke.“Fine. But we should probably go around the back ways.”
“Why?”
“To avoid the emus.”
Odessa opened her mouth, then closed it with a shake of her head. “I don’t want to know.”
Bean jumped up and over the wall while she let herself out through the back door. It felt slightly surreal to be walking along the same path that she took every night, knowing that it was the last time she would be forced to tread it in the dark. Bean walked in front of her, his eyes bright and alert as he kept watch for danger.
“Odessa!”
Jax’s panicked voice came from somewhere on the other side of the wall.
