Page 40 of Coerced

Everyone laughed.

“Ha ha ha.” Jax made an ugly face. “Anyway, the peregrine falcon is one of the world’s best hunting birds, and it’s the fastest animal anywhere. It’s been recorded stooping, which means diving, at more than 240 miles per hour. It’s a raptor, which means it eats other birds, and, due to its courage and intelligence, it’s one of the best birds to use in falconry. That’s a sport where you train raptors to hunt for you.”

“You don’t need to explaineverybig word to me,” I snapped. “I can figure out a lot on my own, you know. Look, I’m not gonna hurt it or anything. I just want a closer look.”

“Sure. Wait a minute.”

He disappeared into his tent, then came back with two long, thick leather gloves.

“They aren’t the right gauntlets for this, but we’ll have to make do.” He slid one on and tossed the other to me. “Even with me controlling him, he’s going to have to balance himself, so his talons may pierce through.”

The others wandered over as he called to the bird. Gemma stopped next to me, and I smiled down at her. My heart did that squeeze thing when she smiled back.

“Look at all the colors in its feathers!” she said. “I’ve lived my whole life in a big city. I’ve never seen a bird so close before except pigeons. Their feathers are pretty, too, but not like this.”

The falcon landed onmyhand and, surprised, I looked at Jax.

“He doesn’t trust me because I’m holding him against his will.” He shrugged. “He doesn’t like that any more than you would.”

“You can talk pretty clearly to him?”

“It’s not like ‘Bird’ is a language or anything, but we can understand each other.”

The falcon jerked his head around and looked at each of us.

“Tell him I respect his grace and speed,” I said.

“What about his fine feathers?” Tara asked. “Gemma’s right. His coloring is beautiful!”

“Predators don’t care about what they look like.” I rolled my eyes.

“Okay,” Jax said, “I told him all that. He’s pleased and curious now.”

“Ask him to stretch his wing as far as he can so we can see it better,” Gemma said, her eyes wide with wonder, so I kept my trap shut about it being silly.

The bird stuck out the wing on the opposite side of my head. It measured just shy of two feet, I guessed, and curved like a boomerang.

“Those stripes are so startling!” Maddy said.

“They’re called bars on birds,” Jax corrected her.

“He’s so gray and plain on the backside,” Gigi chimed in, “and hiding all that under his wings like a secret.”

“Ask him how he breathes and sees when he dives so fast.” I tilted my head when the bird did.

Jax explained the bird had a thin, clear eyelid to shield his eyeballs. The falcon raised a yellow foot to point a wickedly sharp talon at a small hole at the very top of its beak. Jax said the hole was something like a valve that redirected or slowed the air or something.

“Jet engines have a way of controlling the airflow that may be similar.” Travis nodded. “I can find out more about that, if you want.”

“So, Jax, you can’t see through his eyes or anything?” I asked. “You can only talk with him?”

“That’s right.”

“What are you kids doing?” Clem, eating an apple, joined us.

“Saying hello to the neighbors,” John told him.

Meeting the bird was cool, but, if Jax couldn’t do what I’d hoped, my idea wouldn’t work.

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