Chapter 16
Chapter Sixteen
JAX
“Guest from another realm or not, there better be a good reason you’re dragging me out here before dawn.” Dmitri grumbled around a wide-mouthed yawn as he followed Jax down the path from the palace gardens to the lake. “I could be sleeping right now.”
“And you can go right back to sleep as soon as we’re done,” Jax answered cheerfully. “I promise it won’t take long.”
“Is there a reason this particular outing couldn’t have waited until a reasonable hour of the day?”
Jax put his hand to his ear and craned his neck, as if straining to listen to something. “I hear no arguments. It sounds to me like the hour is being perfectly reasonable.”
Dmitri stared at him. “You’re a menace,” he stated blandly.
Jax looked up at the clear stars of the pre-dawn sky and quickened his step.
There was just the faintest hint of light on the horizon, and he wanted to ensure that his efforts were not in vain.
He had asked and prodded for the prince to join him at the lake for nearly a month now, and despite Dmitri’s final capitulation, he had no confidence that the prince would agree to a second outing if they happened to miss the transformational event he was hoping to see.
“No, I’m a Bird Catcher.”
“Jax, if you’re bringing me out here to look at an owl or something…” Dmitri’s words trailed off. “I have guests arriving tomorrow and far too much still on my list to do if my mother is going to be satisfied.”
“We might see an owl, but that’s not why we’re here.
” The path widened in front of them as it spilled out onto the shores of the lake.
Jax followed the shoreline to a clump of tall grasses where they had a clear view of both Odessa’s cottage and the majority of the lake.
He crouched down, motioning for Dmitri to do the same.
“What are we doing?” To his credit, the prince joined him in the grass.
“Waiting for Odessa.”
“Dessa? Why? Don’t tell me you’re dragging her into whatever this is as well.”
Jax chuckled. “I’m not dragging her into anything she isn’t already a part of.” He kept an eye on Odessa’s cottage as he waited, knowing that she would step out before the transformation took place rather than getting caught in the house without opposable thumbs to open the door.
“Is this about her dragon? I keep trying to convince her to just ask Boris for help. He’s the Keeper of the Menagerie. I doubt he’s going to turn down the chance to say we have a dragon on the premises, even if it’s only for a little while.”
The reminder of his temporary residence left a sour taste in the back of his throat, but he ignored it. He laughed darkly. “I have no doubt Boris would offer to help by taking Bean off her hands.”
Dmitri’s brows furrowed. “You say that as if he’s malicious or something. He’s her father. Of course he would want to help her. He arranged for Katrin to come, didn’t he?”
Jax hummed noncommittally, choosing to change the subject before he let his feelings run away with him. “What do you think of her?”
“Of who? Dessa?”
“No, Katrin.”
“She’s a sweet girl,” Dmitri answered readily. “A bit on the quiet side, but there’s nothing wrong with that. She does seem to spook easily, though. Why?” He looked at Jax askance, his brows lifting with implication. “Are you interested?”
“Nope,” Jax answered quickly, popping the p. “I was just curious.”
I guess this isn’t going to be as easy as I hoped.
Movement ahead caught his eye, and Odessa stepped through her front door and locked it behind her.
Her platinum hair hung long and loose, unbound from the usual practical braid she wore, and her white dress seemed to glow as it caught the light of the full moon.
She laced her fingers together over her head like a dancer preparing to spin, and stretched, extending her arms in graceful lines as they slowly fell to her sides.
She was breathtaking.
For a brief moment, he allowed himself to wonder what it would be like if he were to break her curse, if he were to leave behind his family’s legacy and forge a new one here with her.
Offering her undying devotion would hardly be difficult when she had held his heart since the night they danced beside the lake.
She was brave and beautiful and brilliant, and every day he spent with her left him wanting to know more.
Being with her was easy. Comfortable. Like putting on a pair of his favorite boots that had already stretched and molded to fit his soles perfectly.
Ha. She’s like a sole mate.
He laughed internally at his own joke, using the humor to distract himself from the inevitable yearning that would follow when he reminded himself that he would eventually need to return to Faerie. As much as he felt the pressure to live up to the expectations of his family, he did love them.
Though Father is probably already lamenting my lack of responsibility and wishing that he had a different son.
If he doesn’t approve of Dragon Charming, I doubt he’s going to approve of Curse Breaking and Assisting the Assistant Keeper.
I suppose I could ask Odessa to come with me, but, despite her odious father, she has friends and a life here.
She’s also never given any indication that she might feel the same way.
She ran away at the lake. If I break her curse, I’m essentially condemning her to spend the rest of her life tied to me.
“Jax!” Dmitri’s whispered hiss cut through his morose thoughts. “What in Kovskia is happening right now?”
Jax blinked, bringing his mind back to the present, and he looked across the lake.
A swirling black mist surrounded Odessa, and her face twisted in heart-wrenching pain as she dropped to her knees, pulling her arms over her head and curling into herself.
The mist slowly dissipated, and Odessa, once more a swan, staggered toward the water.
Jax’s teeth clenched together and he curled his fists, burning with rage toward the miscreant who would put his own flesh and blood through so much pain. “Odessa’s cursed.”
“I still can’t believe you didn’t tell me!” Dmitri paced back and forth across his study, wearing a track into the thick carpet while Jax sprawled in one of the chairs.
“I told you before: I couldn’t. Odessa said it’s one of the stipulations of the curse.”
“You could have at least tried!”
“I did. I’ve been asking you to come with me to the lake for almost a month now.”
“I would have come if you had said she was cursed.”
“I couldn’t,” Jax repeated. “You can’t either. Go try.” He gestured to the heavy wooden door that led to the hall. “Go throw it open and announce to the world that Odessa is a swan.”
Dmitri glared at him, then marched to the door and threw it open. He took a deep breath, as if preparing to shout, and then promptly started coughing. He closed the door behind him as he doubled over. “What is this?”
“A particularly nasty curse.” Jax crossed his arms and his ankles and followed Dmitri with his eyes as the prince slumped down at his desk in defeat.
“And Boris did this?” he asked weakly. “But why?”
Jax shrugged. “Odessa couldn’t tell me exactly. We can only discuss her curse because we both already have knowledge of it; I wonder if that secret is also protected in the same way.”
And if it’s connected somehow to Katrin and Sonya’s curse.
“What about Katrin? Does she know?”
“Yes,” he stretched the word out. “She’s quite familiar with it. She is, after all, a deer friend.”
“So you’ve said.” Dmitri closed his eyes and pressed his fingertips to his temples, rubbing them in slow circles. “I can’t believe I didn’t notice anything. We’ve been friends since we were children; we see one another at least once a week, and lately every day. How could I have been so blind?”
“To be fair, she couldn’t tell you about it. And unless you happened to be in her presence at either sunset or sunrise, you wouldn’t have seen anything.”
“But I did see something. Seven years ago, she just…disappeared. She stopped popping in for tea in the afternoon or meeting me for lunch or dragging me out to look at whatever new creature had been born. But my mother had just gone through a traumatic experience, and then Father died, and when I learned she had apparently started working the night shift, I just accepted it as normal. I never bothered to ask why.” Dmitri’s hands fell to the desk, and he looked at Jax with a guilt-stricken expression. “I should have asked.”
“I don’t think it would have made any difference,” Jax offered gently. “She knows you care about her.”
He blew out a long breath. “I’m assuming this sudden need for a husband has something to do with breaking her curse?”
“To break it, her curse requires a man who has never loved before to pledge undying devotion.”
“That’s it? It seems a little too simple, don’t you think?”
“Only because she has us to help her. With Odessa trapped as a swan during the day and tied down to the Menagerie at night, it’s not likely that she would have much success finding someone on her own.
” He paused for a moment, leaning forward in his seat.
“While we’re on the topic, do you happen to know anyone who might be abnormally fond of deer? Or boars?”
Dmitri’s brows furrowed in confusion. “That’s an oddly specific question.”
“Yes,” Jax answered slowly, willing Dmitri to understand. “It is. I, for one, am always looking for people who possess an undying devotion for deer friends.”
He watched the moment as recognition dawned in Dmitri’s eyes, and if he weren’t so strongly opposed to roosters, he would have let out a crow of triumph. He leaned back in his chair with a satisfied grin.
“Katrin and Sonya aren’t just visiting friends, are they?” Dmitri’s jaw hardened.
“Friends, yes. Visitors, no. Though it wasn’t until a few weeks ago that they were able to return to their human forms at all.”
The prince muttered an unsavory word under his breath. “Sonya is a child.”
“I know,” Jax answered grimly.