Page 157 of A Flame of the Phoenix

“You doubt me,” he said, feeling her emotions more acutely in here.

“I don’t have much to trust you with. This is all a leap of…faith,” she said.

“Then all you can do is trust you’ll fly this time.”

Faythe had taken a life-risking leap before. Literally. Off the side of the Fire Mountains, with nothing but pure belief that Atherius would catch her. Deep down, Faythe could feel a similar inkling toward Nyte, but it didn’t make the decision to trust him any less terrifying.

“Do you really think you can kill your mother?”

“I don’t know,” he said honestly, and she believed him. “I haven’t met her, and all I know are stories of her from her enemies.”

“Every villain has their own story that justifies their evil actions.”

“I agree. But does that mean they shouldn’t be heard?”

“So, what if you hear her side and decide to turn on us?”

Nyte took a few steps closer. “My war isn’t with you. All I want is to get back to my Starlight. I need this body you will give me to start looking for a way back. Whatever I learn of my mother and my origins here in the meantime matters naught to all I have waiting for me. So you see, you could never be an enemy worth my efforts even if I come to sympathize with Marvellas.”

That consoled some of her terrible anxiety to give power to one who could drastically shift the scales of her war against the Goddess of Stars for better or worse.

“Then let’s give this a try,” Faythe said, taking a deep breath and squaring her shoulders.

Focusing on the viscous Captain Daegal, Faythe gripped the thread to his mind, which was exposed to her through a web of endless subconscious roads she could follow. With all her focus, Faythe hoisted the anchor keeping her there and let go to project into Daegal’s subconscious instead.

She landed with a familiar weightless grace, immediately wrapped in the presence of Daegal’s thoughts and feelings. His subconscious was dark, with streaks of bloodred—a sinister contrast befitting of his personality.

“Do you ever wonder which minds are born so vicious and which turn this way?” Faythe asked Nyte, scanning the void that brought on a chill.

“I don’t think any are born this way,” Nyte said. “Whether things happen to people to give them a thirst for violence and a scarred moral compass or they simply build a desire out of sampling such things, I don’t believe a cruel mind like this was always inevitable from birth.”

Faythe agreed with him.

In a mind that didn’t harbor the Nightwalking ability, Faythe would usually have to be vigilant. Any wrong move in their subconscious could cause irreversible damage to their brain when they awoke. This time it was Faythe’s objective to drag Daegal’s awareness here with her. She’d schemed various methods to achieve their task with Nyte while they were in the cells; his skill and knowledge of the Nightwalking ability surpassed even what Nik knew and had experimented with. The ability could be conveyed simply as an invasion of a person’s sleeping mind, but there were far more layers and chilling possibilities no one could imagine the extent of.

Like the concept of what Faythe was about to attempt. Killing a person’s consciousness and implanting another’s.

“You’ll only get one precarious chance at this, which could end badly for us if you make a wrong move,” Nyte rehashed.

Faythe shivered. “A boost of confidence would be better right now.”

“You don’t need that. Youknowyou can do this. You’re just as much her heir as I am—the origin of this ability. You are strong enough, and your potential is limitless.”

I am strong enough, and my potential is limitless.

Faythe repeated those words to herself over and over, gathering the strength she needed to put her plan into practice.

She dissolved the rampant thoughts of her mind one by one, steadily falling into a collected calm that focused on nothing but her magick, channeling it all through her Nightwalking. Reaching through Daegal’s mind wasn’t without pain and resistance. His confusion slashed into her, recognizing an invading force and trying to cast her out. She battled him for dominance only for a few seconds. It was too easy to take control. Faythe reached out a physical hand, grabbing his consciousness and dragging it to join her in this space.

She looked down at him, his brown eyes wide, terrified, and helpless. He couldn’t utter a sound. She only had seconds before his brain would shut down completely, killing him.

“Do it now!” Nyte yelled through the storm that raged. It was Daegal’s mind, fighting with all it had against her.

Her head throbbed with the countdown.

Faythe closed her eyes, straining to reach for the quickly fraying thread of Daegal’s mental being. She grabbed it in one hand, then she felt for the end of Nyte’s, which lived in her own mind. The pounding in her head amplified, slipping her control.

“You’re almost there,” Nyte said, but his voice was so distant now.

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