Whilst staring at Sarasa, Nix snapped, “How dare you use the death of a young woman to shove your propaganda down our throats?”
The auditorium of students collectively gasped at her words.
“You are using her corpse as a fucking prop,” Nix yelled through her teeth. Her voice sounded different. Gravelly and deep and…old. Ancient. Powerful.
“You want us to believe a dragon killed her?” she asked. “That this was because she was stepping out of her ‘lane?’Iam the one who stepped out of the lane. I am the one causing the new tensions at the academy. So, why hasn’t any alpha shifter come afterme?”
“Nix…” Kellan said coldly. “From what I hear, you have alpha mates who protect you. She did not.”
“Because I have aman, I am safe?” Nix spat out the words in disgust and disbelief.
“Yes.”
“Do you not fuckingget it?” Nix’s skin tingled with pinpricks of heat. As Nix stared at Sarasa’s lifeless, pale blue eyes, more anger swirled andhummedinside her. “When you tell prey shifters to marry alphas for their protection, you are just telling the other alphas to target the unmarried females.”
“Nix.”
Nix’s fingers clenched the side of the cart, warping it from her newfound strength. Little flames emerged between her knuckles and burned brightly. “You are not eliminating the problem; you are selecting a group to experience the brunt of it.”
The flames grew over her hands as she gripped the side of the metal cart. She inhaled, trying to calm herself, but the air tasted like smoke. Was she supposed to hide her flames from them all?
Was she ready to tell everyone what she was—knowing Kellan led the charge for the mass extinction of phoenix shifters?
“Because you don’t care about anyone but yourself. Yourstories,” she added darkly. “Sarasa was not burned by a dragon, or she would be ashes right now. You are framing a species on purpose. Why?”
“Enough,” Kellan announced loudly. His voice cut through the large room via the speakers. Kellan jerked his head at the basilisk shifter before he looked back to Nix. “You, young lady, have said enough. Defending dragons after they murdered one of your own—”
Nix ignored the clear shut-your-mouth energy pouring from Kellan’s stiff stance.
She turned to address the auditorium, “Do you not see what he is doing? Or do you just not care because he has not come for you and your family yet? Dragon shifters are not evil. Phoenix shifters were not evil. He is trying to make you feel indifferent to the disappearances of and eventual extinction of dragons.”
She continued, “And you are sitting back and letting it happen because you’re not dragons. Because you’ve been told dragons are ‘bad.’ What happens when they label your species as ‘bad’ someday? When the dragons and phoenixes are no longer potential soldiers in your army?”
Nix’s breath shot out on a sharp exhale as her flames danced up from her hands, up her arms, and onto her shoulders. “He is openly vilifying and exterminating races of powerful shifters, and you areletting it happen.”
“This outburst is because you heard us saying all dragon shifters will be expelled.” Kellan explained to the audience, “I take responsibility for sheltering this dragon shifter.” He gestured to Nix.
He does not want them to know what I really am. The only reason for that was if Kellan still thought he could capture her and use her as he had in her past life.
He really thought he had the power to overcome her mates and take her again? To poison her so she was powerless again?
Kellan touched his chest and told the audience of students, “My heart was too soft when I found her as a child. I thought I could raise her to suppress her savage dragon instincts. But look at how she is threatening a fiery violence unless you listen to her and think the way she thinks—”
“Fuckyou,” Nix shouted at him.
Her flames now covered her uniform, spreading over her and incinerating her clothing. She really needed to look into a fireproof wardrobe. Even as her uniform turned to ashes and left her standing nude in front of the entire academy, Nix’s rage did not diminish.
Her flames burned brighter. Hotter.
Scorching.
In the past, Nix did not feel her flames as anything more than little pinpricks of sensation. Now…she felt themsting. The feeling only fueled her anger further.
“You have no remorse for those who have died due to your hateful speech?” Nix spoke directly to her adoptive father.
“Hateful?” Kellan’s mouth dropped open. He was such a good actor. “I am trying toprotect—”
“Sarasa was innocent. And you killed her to make a point,” Nix boldly accused.
