Page 292 of A Flame of the Phoenix

She squared her defense, waiting for the trick. “Why would you say this now?” Faythe accused.

“There is nothing left for me to do. I was wrong in thinking Mordecai’s forces are mine. They answer to Dakodas now. My son…he will not see me. He does not want to know me. And you…you despise me, and I can hardly bear to look at you with how much I want to change that. I realize now it will never be.”

Faythe wanted to torch the pity that rose in her with the defeated sight of the Spirit of Souls. The Goddess of their stars. All she’d known was Marvellas as her vicious enemy. So she didn’t know how to respond to this version who showed vulnerability.

This wasn’t her surrender…it couldn’t be.

A chill so icy began to creep over her skin. “What are you going to do?”

“End the world’s suffering. I will stop this war. None of you will have to lose another loved one again…your souls will fall as one. There is no greater eternity for you all. You won’t see right now, but this is my last blessing to you. My atonement for all I’ve done.”

End the world.

That was all Faythe heard.

Her thoughts spun with how such a catastrophe could be achieved.

“How?”

“All I need is the Light Temple Ruin. Once I place it into the podium of the Temple of Darkness, the opposite clash will break apart the world enough for me to use myself in my own temple. Placing my power back into the podium in place of the ruin will incite the final collapse.”

Horror doused her. They had been fools to think Marvellas hadn’t come until now because she was afraid of their defenses. She didn’t care about her own ruin anymore. She didn’t need it for this new catastrophic course of action.

Faythe pulled Lumarias free with a song of determination. “This is my world. And I won’t let you destroy it because you couldn’t get what you wanted.”

Marvellas’s jaw worked, bringing back a flicker of her frightening resolve. “This world is in a state of ruins. I amliberatingall the souls upon this wretched land. It is a mercy inplace of the horrors you will face to no end. You cannot win this war against Dakodas and Mordecai. And I cannot bear witness to a world shrouded in darkness and blood.”

“Then leave,” Faythe seethed. “Let us fight. Let us lose, if that is our fate. It is what wechoose,and I won’t let you take that from us.”

“Oh, my dear. Your brave, resilient heart will always fight, but it is tired. I didn’t expect your acceptance, but it is what I must do. And though you will not thank me, I’m doing it for you.”

“No. You’re doing this because youlost.But I have not. While I still stand, I have not lost.”

Faythe threw out a flare of light as a distraction while she lunged with her sword. Marvellas deflected her magick but lost her in the light, which granted Faythe the opening to slice with her blade. Marvellas cried out at the cut along her arm, twisting just in time to avoid Faythe’s path to her torso next.

Twisting, she lowered to avoid Marvellas’s whip of light that cut deep through a bookcase behind her instead. Faythe winced at the scars she had to make in this library, but Marvellas had to be stopped.

Faythe ran down the aisle of books. As Marvellas followed, Faythe’s magick wrapped around the bookcase to her left, and she strained with the force it took to pull it down. The heavy case groaned as it toppled. Marvellas cast her sight up as heavy books rained down on her. Faythe jumped, rolling at the end to avoid being trapped under the mountain of books and the wooden case that slammed into the one beside it with a resounding boom.

More started to topple, and Faythe pained over the destruction of such a gentle and sacred space.

“You always were so ungrateful,” Marvellas hissed, so close Faythe didn’t expect it.

An impact slammed into her chest, soaring her body through the air before she crashed into something hard.

Faythe felt a sharp, forceful intrusion trying to pierce her mind. She coughed dust from her throat, blinking through the clouds of the wooden wreckage she lay in. Her skin cut on broken pieces, but all her focus rushed to enforce her mental barrier.

“If you won’t tell me where the ruin is, I’ll find it for myself,” Marvellas said, so calm, creeping closer.

Faythe was slow to defend her body while she focused on guarding her mind. Marvellas’s magick wrapped around her, lifting her from the rubble and holding her to the wall.

The closer she approached, the more intense her drilling into Faythe’s mind became. Pain screamed through her head—she could hardly see straight—but she didn’t give up. Marvellas’s eyes glowed brighter, piercing into hers so acutely she felt herself close to passing out.

“Join us,” Faythe wheezed out. The pressure in her mind eased a fraction. Faythe scrambled to keep her attention. “Help us defeat Dakodas and Mordecai. That is how you atone for what you’ve done.”

“My actions are not forgivable.”

“You’re wrong. All you’ve done, all your evils, they’re from a place of pain. Something all of us have let consume us before. It doesn’t have to be the end for you.”

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