“I’m… I’m sorry,” Nix said genuinely. “The last several hours have been a lot to absorb.”
“Hours,” the Goddess scoffed, snorting again. Apparently, the concept of hours being a long time was laughable to her.
Nix swallowed and asked, “Could I…um, not die? Please?”
“That is your preference?” she asked. “If you die, you will wake up earlier. You could undo what has been done. I would allow you…one day.”
“Wake up one day earlier?” Nix repeated.
“You would know what is about to happen. It could serve you as an advantage. Would you like that?”
Nix contemplated it, scowling at the ground as she thought. “If I wake up a day earlier, my mates…they wouldn’t remember what they did. They wouldn’t havedoneit to me yet—”
The Goddess quirked an eyebrow. “And this displeases you?”
“Because they need to fuckinggrovelfor my forgiveness,” Nix growled between bared teeth.
“So much rage…” The Goddess mused.
“I promised to never forgive them,” Nix said unevenly.
“You wonder how to forgive those who hurt you in a future that does not occur.”
Nix hesitantly nodded.
The Goddess floated closer to Nix. Her auburn hair shone in the orange haze light streaming through the trees.
“People forgive those who hurt them inonetimeline. You will walk several in your immortal life. Time is…vast.” She added another bit of Goddess-ly wisdom, “Immortality is purgatory if it lacks but one thing.”
“Revenge?” Nix guessed.
The Goddess smirked again. “Love.” The Goddess sighed. “Your mates are a gift. Would you rather we take them away from you?”
Lose them?Ryker, Persius, Bael, and Thierry.They were willing to walk away from me—left me in a cage.
Nix ground her teeth as her heartbeat skittered. “My first go around, I had no mates. No alpha protected me, and I died all alone. Still without mates, I lasted six years longer than when fate gave me four this time.”
“You believe revenge is the only thing you want, then? You would trade the men for vengeance?”
Trade?“Can I not have both?”
The Goddess cracked a smile. “So, you do want them? You want to forgive them.”
“Is that what I said? Maybe I just want vengeanceonmy mates.”
The Goddess rolled her eyes. “Phoenix shifters.”
Nix thought through her options. “If I choose not to die, my future captor remains dead.”
“If you choose to try the day again, many worse possibilities can occur,” the Goddess warned. “Maybe your mates putting you in the cage was the best thing thatcouldhave happened in that timeline.”
Nix’s eyebrows furrowed. “Was it?”
“That is the guilty knowledge of the gods, Phoenix. No matter the pain, it canalwaysbe worse. Many phoenix shifters havetraveled through time, reforging their actions, trying something new.”
She continued, “Many of them went mad from the turmoil of things getting worse. Their fire grew…cold. Sometimes choosing your set path and facing the unknown is the better choice.”
Nix deadpanned, “So, if I choose to go back in time by one day, things will be evenworse?”
