Still Waters hide the deepest secrets

What did I sign up for?

Nixie

Dillon and Sebastian burst into our room where I'm just getting out of the shower. "Princess? Alpha just saw the tape. Why didn't you tell us?"

Muscles relaxed by the hot shower and emotions buoyed by Lydia's assurances the pack would welcome me as Luna, I am able to answer them without anger. "How do you start that conversation? Oh, by the way, the judge likes me and told me he'd have claimed me as his own if not for Sebastian's mark?"

"What?!" two male voices squeak.

"Is that the scent I smelled on you?" Dillon asks, "The one I can't place?"

"He kissed me." I explain. "After he told me he can't kill me."

"Why not?" Dillon asks.

"He's a god-descent?" Sebastian demands at the same time.

I sigh, I hoped to avoid overly explaining Ciaran. "I told you he was."

"Name?" Sebastian growls.

"Do you know every god-descent?" I ask him.

Sebastian glares at me, his eyes narrow as they assess me. "No, I don't know every one of them. I only know a handful. But what do you know that you aren't saying?"

"I can't tell you," I confess but relent a little as I feel his frustration. "He told me his name, but made it clear I can't share it." I look over at Dillon, hoping for some help only to find him glaring at me, his arms crossed over his chest.

"Can you tell me anything else about him?"

I make a face as I think back. He only forbade me from telling his name to anyone as far as I remember. "His dad is Hades."

Sebastian hisses. "That explains it. He hates anyone knowing his name."

"Do you?" I asked in surprise.

He chuckles. "No. But I know of him. Why didn't he kill you?"

I give them a more detailed summary of our interaction than I could in the car.

"And you popped how again?" Dillon asks.

"The new voice in my head. It told me to say a spell, one of my mother's. I told it I don't have the ingredients. It told me I don't need them. Apparently, my mother's witch powers fused with my sprite and I'm a stronger than average minor goddess now."

"What?" Dillon chokes.

"Apparently, besides being a direct descendent nymph, which makes me a minor goddess, I absorbed my mother's witch powers in-utero. Making me stronger."

"So, you are a witch?" Dillon asks with a scowl.

"Yes...no...not really. I have power but not in the same way. My sprite bound the power so it can never be used with blood."

"Making you stronger in a way she can't take at least not as easily," Sebastian drawls. "But what does that have to do with your goddess-hood?"

My eyes look inward, pondering. "Are all gods and goddesses equal in power?"

"No." Sebastian snorts.

"Well...so it's just means I'm stronger."

Dillon purses his lips. "Stronger than the gods intended? Is that safe?"

"I don't think the gods intended me at all," I correct him. "You didn't see his shock at my existence."

"Stop calling yourself a mistake," Dillon roars. "You are my gift from Selene. You. Are. Not. A. Mistake."