Page 106 of Wings of Ashes
Nix’s brows furrowed as she fingered the edges of the peculiar, annotated map. She lifted it and saw a flyer for an academy assembly.
Each year, Council President Oadess came and gave a keynote speech to the academy student body. Flyers had been passed out during the first day of the semester, so everyone knew the exact date and time in advance.
What struck Nix was the large red “X” drawn over her adoptive father’s photograph and the words “Phase Seven” written over it. She dropped the map and watched as the thin paper fluttered down to cover Mr. Oadess’s photo once more.
Why did Ryker and Bael have a map of the school and a picture her adoptive father crossed out?
Suspicious now, Nix snooped some more. She moved as quietly as she could, knowing that Bael would come looking for her if he heard she was awake and conducting a one-woman search of Ryker’s room.
When she rifled through Ryker’s desk, she found a rectangular box and opened it.
Unable to stop herself, she gasped.
A long, thin needle laid inside the box and looked exactly like the kind her captor would inject her with each week to keep her too weak to fight back when he performed experiments on her in her cage.
The same shifter poison that Nix smelled traces of in the Oadess cygnus shifter illusion elixir.
Nix bent and sniffed the needle.
It was the same scent.
What the hell are they doing with a needle of shifter poison?The same dosage as whatheused to use on her.
Were Bael and Ryker somehow connected to Nix’s future captor? Did they know her future torturer? Were they…working with him?
Suddenly nauseous, Nix dropped the box and rushed to the door. She needed to get out of their house immediately.
Do they know what I am?Had they gotten close to her in order to help in her future capture? She had never known them in her previous life, but what if they worked behind the scenes?
Nix’s thoughts shot back to the image of her adoptive father. Did Bael, Ryker, and Nix’s future torturer hold her captive and torture her to hurt Council President Oadess? What did “Phase Seven” mean?
What am I to them?
Nix needed answers, but her instinct was to run. Now.
Swallowing, she quickly retreated downstairs, trying to take each step as quietly as possible. If Bael and Thierry were distracted in the kitchen, there was a chance Nix could cross through the living room undetected and escape through the front door—
Bael and Thierry sat in the living room, blocking her straight shot to the front door.Damn it.
“I’m just saying, don’t fucking do it again,” Thierry was telling Bael in his usual slightly pretentious tone.
“You liked it,” Bael shot back. “You came eventually.”
“I—” Thierry saw Nix over Bael’s shoulder. “Nix,” he greeted her, pretentious tone gone and replaced with one of nervous excitement. “Sleep well?”
Cue the embarrassing blush. She had starred in a shared sex dream with her professor and a sex demon who had questionable links to Nix’s horrible future.
Bael cocked an eyebrow at her apparel. “You’re wearing Ryker’s uniform shirt as a dress?” Hot desire and hot jealousy shone in his red eyes. He made it sound like she was completely naked.
She glanced down at herself—all the important bits were covered. Due to Ryker’s massive build, the shirt ended about where her normal uniform skirt length laid. “All of my uniforms burned to ash last night.”
Bael looked up to the ceiling and muttered in astonishment, “Goddoesanswer prayers.”
Was that just a typical incubus response, or could Bael have been responsible somehow for the fire in her room? Nix strode by where the men sat and made her way to the door.
“Whoa, whoa, you’re leaving?” Bael asked and jumped up from the couch. “What about breakfast?”
“No thanks.”
