“Please, help me.”
“Why should I?”
“Because we are trying to take down the bad guys.”
“Good, bad—you speak like a child,” the Goddess tsked. “Gods are not to interfere,” the Goddess said, fading further into the background.
Hadn’t she burned a civilization down before? Why was interfering to help Nix any different? “No, wait! Don’t leave! Please. Just…”
“I should not be here. Time chose this for you.”
Nix cried as she begged, “Please. I—I am a phoenix. A favorite creation. I—”
“You are not our favorite,” the Goddess replied matter-of-factly. Nix felt the words slice through her heart like an arrow.“Do not assume that due to your mother’s status, you should be treated above others.”
“My…my mother?”
“You—” The Goddess shook her head. “—have been a disappointment to her.”
Nix could hardly breathe through the pain.
“You allowed yourself to consume poison every day, for years.” The Goddess closed her eyes. “You allowed yourself to be weakened and captured andhurt.”
Her eyelids swung open as she glared at Nix. “After all the pain carved into your bloodline—you beg for my help? It infuriates me that you seek permission.”
“Please, I just need help—”
“You have the power to fix your situation; you always have—but you do not believe it belongs to you. You—the most powerful shifter alive—cryand beg for help? Why?”
Nix clenched her fists and stared at the ground where the Goddess floated. Embarrassed and ashamed, Nix admitted, “Without these powers, I…I was only ever taught to be meek.”
“And meek you were. You listened when they told you that you were powerless and small. In your first life, you cowered. You apologized for taking up space that was carved for you by ancestors who were silenced, beaten, and dismissed. Ancestors who faced false protectors who struck them and laws written to cage them.”
The Goddess told her, “They survived a world that wanted them erased. Every bruise they carried, every injustice they endured—that is your inheritance. That rage. That resilience. That searing, inextinguishable spark.”
The Goddess continued, floating higher above Nix, so she had to crane her neck. “Long before you, they were told to quiet their voices, and yet they screamed. They were pushed to their knees, and yet they rose. They bled so you would not have to.”
She asked Nix, “Do you feel that heat in your chest? That spark behind your ribs? That is their fire. It has waited generations for you to notice it.”
Nix closed her eyes, feeling it. Deep inside her, between her lungs. A strong, resilient flame.
The Goddess snorted in disgust. “Your mother would be ashamed to learn she raised a daughter who swallows her screams. Who clenches her teeth instead of biting.”
“I…I want to, b-but the collar,” Nix whined. “It mutes my powers.”
The Goddess slapped Nix’s cheek with her ghostly, transparent hand. Nix’s face flung to the side, and she ground her teeth in anger.
“The blood running through you is ancient. There is nothing more powerful. You think aman-made piece of bewitched metal can extinguish the fire of your line? One was created by the gods, the other by fearful men.”
A tear trailed down Nix’s cheek as she strained, trying to use her powers that remained dormant.
The Goddesshmm-ed. “The daughter of my favorite… You could have been great, you know?”
Nix exhaled slowly. Daughter of the Goddess’s favorite? Did that mean Nix’s mother was the all-powerful phoenix shifter her mates had described earlier? The one who could slow time by heating the air?
Nix ground her teeth as she admitted, “I…I am not as strong as her.”
“Your mother was not killed because she was powerful. She was killed because she dared to teach others how to wield power.” The Goddess stated, “Being powerless is a choice. Do you choose it?”
