“I can’t affect minds, only birds,” Jax offered. “It’s part of the whole Bird Catcher training.”
The queen’s next question was directed at Odessa. “You’re saying that you’ve been a swan the last seven years?”
“Only during the day.”
“And,” Jax added, “Odessa wasn’t the only one cursed. Some of her mostdeerandboarishfriends were also targeted.” He beckoned Katrin and Sonya closer. The sound of their hooves seemed to echo in the bated silence of the courtyard.
“Are you trying to tell me, young man, that those creatures are also cursed?”
Jax smiled brightly. “Exactly! You catch on much quicker than your son, Your Majesty.”
Queen Ivana put her fingers to her temples and sighed. “Dmitri, you knew about this?”
He answered dutifully, “Yes, Mother.”
“And you believe him?”
“I believe him.” Dmitri confidently raised his voice. “I believe that Boris has been scheming against the throne of Kovskia for decades. I believe that he has committed unforgivable atrocities in his cursed climb to power, and I believe that the only way to make things right is to here and now formally renounce my claim to the throne.”
Gasps of shock and surprise rippled through the crowd, and the queen’s face turned white as her knees nearly gave out from under her. A nearby guard quickly offered his arm in support. “Dmitri, what are you doing?”
He crossed to Katrin and Sonya with calm, measured steps and knelt on the ground in front of them. Odessa could hear the strangled sounds of Boris’s dismay.
“I am offering my allegiance and loyalty to the true heirs, Princesses Katrin and Sonya.”
Murmured questions of his sanity were just beginning to rise when a blinding white light suddenly surrounded the deer and the boar. A loud crack split the air, and then the light vanished, leaving behind Katrin and Sonya, hand in hand in their human forms.
There was a moment of suspended silence, and then chaos ensued. Queen Ivana let out a startled cry. Sonya raced to Odessa and threw her arms around her waist, burying her face in Odessa’s skirt. Boris tried to escape but was quickly flanked by two of the guards he had ordered to keep Jax in line. They drew their swords, and though they were obviously leery of touchinghim, he seemed to accept his fate with a resigned sigh and clasped his hands behind his back.
Dmitri rose and offered his hand to Katrin. She took it with a shy, hesitant smile, and he gently led her to the queen.
Queen Ivana looked as if she had seen a ghost. “Dmitri…what…? What is this?”
“Your Majesty, allow me to present your daughter, Princess Katrin.”
Standing side by side, the resemblance between the two women was undeniable, down to the shape of their noses and the curve of their lips. The queen’s eyes filled with tears, and she reached out a trembling hand to brush her fingers against Katrin’s cheek. “How is this possible?” she whispered.
“My mother switched Dmitri and Katrin at birth,” Odessa explained, feeling a sense of profound relief at finally being able to speak the horrific, heavy secret that she had been forced to carry for years. “Dmitri was born just a few days before, and when she and Boris saw that your baby was a girl, they took their chance.”
“Anja did this?” The queen asked brokenly, referencing the healer. “She was my friend. She knew how badly I wanted a child, how many times my heart was broken until I feared that the day would never come. I had never been able to carry a child to term before. And…and only once since.” Her eyes widened as they landed on Sonya, and she fell to her knees. “Is that…?”
Odessa took Sonya’s hand and turned her around, walking with slow, patient steps until they were before the queen. “This is Sonya.”
Queen Ivana’s red-rimmed eyes lifted to Odessa’s. “My Sonya? But they told me she was born still.”
“Once Boris and Anja had Dmitri in place, they didn’t want to risk the crown passing on to anyone else. They assumed theywere safe, that another child was out of the question. When Sonya was born, Anja stole her away and Boris cursed her.”
“But why?” The queen’s attention had returned to Sonya, her eyes drinking in the little girl as if she wanted to memorize every feature of her immediately. “We’ve always been good to them.”
“Because the throne was meant to be Dmitri’s!” Boris shouted, his careful control now long gone. “And I will see that justice is served, that what was stolen from my family generations ago is restored.”
“I’ve heard of sore losers,” remarked Jax, crossing his arms. “But this is taking it to a whole new level. Cursing babies?” He tsked. “Not a great way to prove your suitability to run a country.”
“We didn’t lose, we wererobbed!”
Odessa rolled her eyes, having had years to perfect the words she wanted to say. “You do realize the irony in the fact that your claim is based on the fact that the childless king should have passed on the crown to his nearest relative, and instead he gave it to a young man from an unimportant and inconsequential family? The difference here being, of course, that the young man actually proved his worth by retrieving an enchanted sword, whereas all you’ve proven is that your word and your love mean nothing. Our family wasn’t robbed; it was a grace of the Almighty that prevented you from ever becoming king.”
Boris’s eyes were burning with rage. “If that’s the way you see it, of course I can’t change your mind,” he said snidely. “You’ve thrown your loyalty in with them. But that won’t stop me from ensuring that you remember that they may have the crown, but I hold the real power.”
