“Myflóga,” Persius told her softly, moving slowly up from behind her and weaving his fingers around her wrist—the wrist lifting the kitchen blade. “You are not making sense.”
“You dreamed us locking you in a cage?” Ryker asked in a voice just as soft and tender as Persius’s.
“I amsopissed at you all!” she snapped again as she let Persius lower her arm and take the knife from her. “You talk down here about what to ‘do’ with me without even consulting me—”
Thierry touched the bridge of his glasses. “You were sleeping—”
“And then you lock me in that cage—”
“What cage?” Persius asked, petting the back of her head to comfort her.
“Nix,whatare you talking about?” Thierry asked, no guilt on his perfectly sculpted face.
Maybe Nixshouldn’thave chosen to go back in time. It was frustrating. What had the Goddess called it? The “guilty knowledge” of the gods.
“I’m talking about what you did to me! Er, what you will do to me.Today. You haven’t done it yet, but youdiddo it! And I deserve an apology.”
“The cage…was not a dream?” Ryker growled.
“Wait, wait, are we saying the cage is something that happens in thefuture?” Bael questioned.
Thierry shook his head and stated slowly, “But if you traveled through time again, that means you…died.”
CHAPTER 32
“Phoenix shifters only move through time when their fire is extinguished before they reach full immortality age.” Thierry connected the dots. “Thus, when they die—” He cut off on the realization.
“You fuckingdied?” Bael exclaimed.
The men all exhaled choppily. Nix bristled at their sudden apparent pain and dread. Cue the guilt.Good, she thought.
“How did you die?” Persius asked huskily.
“We were…responsible?” Ryker asked brokenly.
“That doesn’t sound like me,” Bael said. “Did I get killed first? Cause I had to be dead to let you die.”
“You let them—” Nix pointed to the others. “—put me in a cage,” Nix deadpanned.
“In a sexy way?”
Her eyes narrowed. “No.”
Reading her murderous expression, Bael raised his hands in the air. “Whoa, don’t hate Present Bael for something Future Bael did. Honestly, baby, he sounds like a real asshole.”
Nix turned to Thierry, the main leader of the “lock Nix up” group, and told him, “You.”
Thierry pointed to himself, his face silently asking, “Who? Me?”
Nix jabbed a finger into Thierry’s hard, muscular chest. The force of her pointer finger jostled his black-framed glasses.
“You think you aresosmart.” She glanced around at all of her alpha mates. “Youallthink you know better than me. Why?”
“We don’t—”
“Yes, you do. You may pretend to respect me, but you aren’t willing to prove it when I say something you don’t agree with. You can pretend to listen, but if you always do what you want, then what does it matter? Why do you think your thoughts and ideas are better than mine? Truly, I want to know.”
“I am older than you; I’ve seen more of the world—” Thierry began.
