“We either go on the run or…maybe we find a way to mute her powers while she is at the academy?” someone suggested.
“Fuck that.” The hostile voice of her incubus mate rang clear.
“Just until graduation. If she doesn’t burst into flames or show her wings, she can fly under the radar. She can finish her education, and we will all move her someplace remote and safe after graduation.”
Remote and safe? Nix was suddenly reminded of her old cage and the idea of beingkept. Her skin glowed as her rage threatened to light fire over her skin.
She took a deep breath and held back the rising heat. Her skin dimmed without ejecting flames. She smiled at herself.I’m learning.
“Hideher away?”
“For her safety.”
“Again, I repeat, fuck that.”
“What do you suggest then, Baelfire?”
“How about we burn the whole academy down with the corrupt dean inside and then start a new school? One that doesn’t fucking suck and convince female prey that they need to fuck alphas for favor and safety. While we’re at it, how about I send every last member of the shifter council to Hell, and we start a new council too.”
There was a moment of silence.
“Maybe no more ideas from the heir of Hell for a bit.”
Nix’s eyebrows shot up at that. Bael was theheirto Hell?The nightmare prince.
“Muting her powers could work.” The male voices went back to the topic at hand. “Maybe a potion?”
Nix ground her teeth as she heard them discuss how to protect herwithouther opinion. Had the men learned nothing about how alphas making decisions for prey shifters pissed her off?
My mates have much to learn. She eased herself off the mattress and took silent steps to the door.
“She won’t need her powers anyway. We’ll be there to protect her. Always.”
“The second others find out what she is, we will have an angry mob screaming for her death. The council found phoenixes to be too powerful to be allowed to exist. Her powers are putting her in danger. Don’t you care about her safety?”
“All I know is, you guys are going to get your pussy-touching privileges taken away, and I’m going to enjoy it,” Bael told them.
Okay, Nixdidlove the incubus. She smiled at Bael’s words.Yes. Stand up for me. Tell them how stupid and ignorant they are being by trying to make a decision like that for me.
“Nixjustrealized what she is. She hasn’t been in history classes or heard about the phoenix stories. They kept her in cygnus classes like cooking and house making—”
“Again, let’s vote on burning the academy down and starting a new one?”
“Nix does not know about the thousands of deaths caused by phoenixes. Theriskher powers pose to others. Trying to control the powers of a phoenix shifter is like humans with their nuclear bombs. How do you think she will feel when she accidentally wipes out a city?”
What?Nix stopped right outside the door, listening from the top of the steps. She looked down at her small hands, which appeared harmless. That much power lurked inside her?
No wonder her captor poisoned her every day.
“How do we do this?”
“We need a potion from Bowen. I will ask for it.” Thierry’s voice delivered the final blow.
They were really deciding to mute her powers, to dim her light, and dull her ability to protect herself. Without. Her. Opinion.
Screw them.
Just because fate said she was uniquely tied to each of them did not mean she had to obey them. For so long, thinking she was a weak prey shifter, she thought she had to obey alphas like the ones in the living room.
