Page 224 of A Flame of the Phoenix

A hand lashed around her throat, and Zaiana choked, caught completely off-guard in her vulnerable spiral. Harsh brown eyes came into focus. Nyte.

He kept a vicious front but spoke to her mind with a sense of calm.

“Keep yourself together.”

She thought she was a master of composure, but her steel walls were softening. She’d come here fueled with anger and scorching resentment, believing she could end Marvellas.

But she was nothing.

The clanging of chains wasn’t from her. She couldn’t move. Kyleer was struggling against two guards to reach her.

“What do you want me to do with her?” Nyte asked in a cold tone, not looking at Marvellas.His mother.

Yet the Spirit was still completely oblivious to her son wearing the skin of her trusted captain of the guard.

Zaiana focused on her breaths.

Her son.

Her mind started to spin with that fact all over again. Marvellas could only be killed by something she was made of… Nyte didn’t have his true form in this realm, but could he still be valuable?

“I haven’t decided what to do with her yet,” Marvellas said, bitterness coating her words. She looked at Zaiana like a festering plague.

The feeling was more than mutual.

“What else do you know?” Marvellas asked her.

Nyte let go of her throat, and Zaiana rubbed the tenderness growing there. She gave nothing away on her face, but her curiosity was grabbed. What elsewasthere to know about the curse? She was reminded of the male in her subconsciousness. The memories he’d dragged forth, which had been blocked somehow.

Marvellas had been there. So had Mordecai.

“What do you know of my parents?” Zaiana blurted.

She’d never cared to know before. They’d given her over to the masters, and she’d suffered an upbringing in their merciless custody. The dark fae didn’t hold sentiment to their offspring, so why would she care about her parents?

“I don’t know why I’m wasting my time on this exchange,” Marvellas said.

Zaiana’s skin crawled as she came closer, and Nyte was forced to back away from her. She didn’t trust him,but regardless of what she thought of him, she couldn’t deny an unexplainable feeling that he was safe at least. He wouldn’t truly hurt her.

“I can find out everything I need from you,” Marvellas taunted wickedly.

Her gold eyes pierced into Zaiana’s, and she gasped, slamming her lids shut, but it wouldn’t help. Zaiana was powerless to stop Marvellas from infiltrating her mind, and the invasion was vile.

“Stop,” she breathed, but her plea was like a rock thrown to stop a broken dam.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve been in your mind. How quiet and innocent it was back then compared to the storm of darkness that rages now.”

“Show her me.”Nyte’s voice filtered through the wild pounding in her head.

Zaiana doubled over, fighting the forces in her mind.

“My real face. It will distract her enough to stop,”he added.

An image of an ethereally beautiful dark-haired fae passed through her mind. His eyes were as striking as the sun. His tall, broad build made him a statue of powerful authority. A scar ran from his right temple to his cheekbone, giving him an edge of danger. She could even hear the smooth, silvery tone of his real voice, with an accent not of this world.

Rainyte Ashfyre had been so criminally downgraded in the body of Captain Daegal compared to his real self that he almost didn’t seem real.

Marvellas retreated all at once. Zaiana’s palms flattened against the cool marble, and she panted, relieved of the swarming presence combing her mind.

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