In a split second, Bael went from manhandling her to touching her so softly and gently that Nix’s inner organs all seemed to melt for him. He petted a warm thumb over her bottom lip.
He told her, “The rarest of shifters have been disappearing from this school, never to be seen or heard from again. The second that people find out you are a phoenix shifter—”
Thierry cut off Bael. “The Oadess family alreadyknows. They nicknamed her ‘Nix’ as if they needed the reminder.”
“More reason to get her the hell away from the academy.”
“No,” Nix said adamantly. “I am staying and helping you find the person responsible for Ryker’s brother’s disappearance.”
“The Oadess family created a potion to make you appear as a cygnus shifter, didn’t they?” Thierry asked Nix, stepping forward and caging her in with Bael as the men ate up her personal space. From his tall height, Thierry told Bael over Nix’s head, “They were hiding her in plain sight.”
Nix stiffened. “Could they be protecting me?” Maybe the reason they gave her that potion had not been nefarious at all. Maybe—
“Kellan Oadess was the one to lead the charge against the phoenixes.”
“We already have someone looking into the Oadess family,” Bael said.
“Someone?” Thierry asked. “There are more of you dedicated to your ‘cause?’”
“If by ‘cause,’ you mean certain species being disappeared during the night, yes. There are several heirs of families whohave been tracking the changes to the shifter council in the last few years. Specifically, regarding the rights and protections of rare shifters like dragons, incubi, sphinxes, pegasi, and—”
“A pegasus?” Nix’s voice cracked. Persius. Someone looking into the Oadess family?Oh Gods.“Persius? Is his name Persius?”
Bael narrowed his red eyes onto Nix, looking suspiciously at her for the first time since he realized she wasn’t bewitching him to be attracted to her in the beginning of the semester. “How the fuck do you know that? No one knows what he is. How do you know Persius?”
Uh… “He is dating Elle. He is taking her to the dance tomorrow.”
“Yes, he…” Bael shook his head. “But how do you know what he is? Does the Oadess family know?”
“I, well, um—”
Bael stiffly asked again, “How do you know what he is, Nix?”
“He, um, told me.”
Bael gave her an incredulous look. “Hetoldyou? The one secret that could get him instantly stolen into the night. He justtoldyou?”
“Um, yes,” Nix said and swallowed. It was not technically a lie. Hehadtold her. In the past future.
Bael’s hand shot out, and his fingers wrapped around her neck. She coughed around the sudden assault but breathed through the firm grip on her throat.
Thierry growled violently at Bael, but Bael’s red eyes never left Nix’s face.
“Baby, I will only ask you this once,” Bael said. “You were adopted and raised by the Oadess family. Raised by the cygni clan leader,who is directly responsible for encouraging dragon huntingandcampaigning for the extinction of phoenix shifters. A clan leader who has acquired a suspicious amount of wealth inthe last several years and is very powerful in enchanting the fuck out of his followers.”
Bael brushed his thumb over her jugular. “You know what Persius is and say that he told you, which is extremely fucking unlikely.” He leaned forward and kept eye contact as he spoke onto her lips. “Are you loyal to the Oadess family? Did you enroll in our classes because Kellan Oadess knows we are looking into him? Yes or no.”
Nix gripped Bael’s wrist, where he held her by the throat and told him definitively, “No.” Her wings flapped once behind her when she added, “The Oadess family has been giving me a potion with Evernell poison in it for the last ten years to weaken me. If what you said is true, then they are responsible for the death of my parents. I am not loyal to any of them.”
Nix pursed her lips and continued, “What I don’t understand is why, if they wanted all phoenixes dead, they would keep me alive.”
Thierry grabbed Bael’s forearm and yanked his hand from Nix’s neck. The gargoyle shifter bent and kissed the area where Bael’s fingers had squeezed her throat.
“I believe,” Thierry said. “They kept you close, waiting for you to mature into immortality, because phoenix shifters have something every paranormal wants.”
Nix frowned. “What?”
“The most powerful goddamn feathers in the world.”
