Page 39 of A Flame of the Phoenix (An Heir Comes to Rise #6)

CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

Faythe

F aythe didn’t know how many more times she could withstand the ruin’s furious power tearing through her body. This was her eleventh—or twelfth?—attempt.

She came around, cheek pressed to a cold, unforgiving surface, after having no choice but to reach back to the grip of darkness that offered reprieve. Just for a moment. Faythe knew Reylan would be feeling everything she was. His own pain collided with hers, and the agony was like nothing she’d endured before.

Her gaze took a minute to gain clarity when she managed to peel her lids open. She wasn’t where she expected to be. Usually, she would see blurred colors of amber and brown from the blazing fire in the quiet hut Marvellas had chained Reylan in, high in the sky caves. Then, when she found the will, Faythe would see Reylan, bare torso and sweat-slicked, but utterly silent despite his agony at her attempts to break the ruin embedded in his flesh.

This time, everything was dark. Peaceful. Faythe’s breath rippled over a shallow sheet of water, but she wasn’t cold. In fact, her body felt weightless and free.

“You can’t give up, Faythe.”

Her eyes peeled open fully at the echo of that voice.

Her shock clashed with horror.

Had she failed? Was she dead to be hearing the voice of a dear lost friend?

Faythe found the will to drag her arms and push herself up. Watching the droplets fall off her hair and distort her reflection, her eyes flooded with the emotion that slammed into her chest at seeing another’s face in the water, standing beside her.

“Caius?” she croaked, finally turning her head.

When she found him, a whole and clear picture of him, Faythe sobbed as he smiled in greeting. That warm, boyish smile that had always made her feel comforted, which she’d missed so much.

“Did I die?” she said, voice hoarse.

Faythe couldn’t take her eyes from him, afraid he would disappear in a blink, as she pushed herself up slowly to stand. The pain of challenging the ruin was just a memory in here.

“No. But you could. You have it in you to achieve what she wants, but you’re resisting.”

“I’m not,” Faythe defended, but even though she believed herself, there was a note of a lie settling in her gut.

“Your resistance isn’t conscious, but there’s a part of you still hoping there’s another way. To keep the ruin intact and save Reylan.”

Faythe swallowed painfully against the marble forming in her throat. “Is there a way?”

“I wish there was.”

Faythe’s head bowed in defeat. “If I do it, how am I any better than Marvellas if it condemns the world?”

“The choice you have is a heavy burden, but it is yours to make.”

“What should I do, Caius?” Faythe wept.

He came a step closer. Every piece of him was exactly like she remembered, and it tore her with gratitude and agony to see him here, in this void she could only think was a careful warning before death’s true claim.

“You heart hasn’t led you astray yet. Don’t doubt it now,” he said warmly.

Faythe dared to reach out a hand, and when she didn’t pass through his form, a whimper escaped her, and she fell into him with an embrace.

“I’m so sorry for what happened to you,” she whispered.

“You should know I was prepared for the fate that befell me,” he said. “I knew the chances of walking away from it weren’t high. But it’s different…knowing you’re going to die and being in the moment of dying. I don’t think any amount of time can truly prepare you for that fear.”

Faythe pulled back, a crushing weight of grief threatening to buckle her knees. “You should be here, Caius, not me.”

He huffed a laugh. “I don’t think I could have survived half the things you have since. I’m at peace, Faythe. I knew what I had to do then, and I have no regrets. You didn’t let me be forgotten.”

“Never.” She sniffed.

Caius reached his hand up to swipe away her falling tear. “Nik named an entire city after me. I didn’t know I meant that much to him.”

Though he said it in humor, Faythe was fierce as she said, “You meant more to all of us than you know.”

Bittersweet joy pulled at his expression. His eyes glistened, but before tears could form, he straightened his posture.

“You can’t linger here, and we have to make sure you don’t return. I’m so glad I got to see you again, but you can’t join me. Do what you have to do, Faythe. Follow your heart and trust you can rise from the ashes you will burn. Nothing is without sacrifice.”

Faythe pulled Caius to her again. Her arms tightened when her body began to feel too light to stay grounded, and she wasn’t ready to let him go. To lose him all over again.

“I’m still with you. In here, remember,” he said, reaching between them and tapping her heart.

Faythe cried freely, grieving for him all over again and filled with terror to return to her world with the choice she had to make.

“Thank you for being my friend,” Faythe choked.

Caius turned to sand in her arms, and a breeze swept in to take him away from her. She didn’t get to drown in her sorrow when a sudden wave of dizziness slammed into her, sending her crashing to the ground. The sheet of water had turned into a deep lake, which she plummeted into.

He eyes flew open, and her body jerked up in the opposite direction to the one she was being pulled in. Faythe panted hard, shivering violently.

She was soaked in ice water, but drowning she was not. The shock of the frozen water lashed her consciousness to clear faster, and she found Zaiana staring down at her, an empty bucket in her hands. They met wide-eyed stares, and Faythe had never seen such panic within the purple depths.

Her expression quickly shifted to absolute rage, and Faythe jerked when she dropped the bucket and crouched, seething at Faythe.

“You are not allowed to die,” she snapped.

Faythe blinked, not expecting that to be her reprimand.

“After all this, you don’t get to leave this gods-forsaken world so pitifully, so get up and get yourself together.”

Her teeth bashed together as Faythe rolled onto her hands and knees. She almost left her dignity behind to crawl toward the blazing fire across the cabin, but Zaiana was right. She was being pitiful. So Faythe forced herself to stand, limping over to it.

She cast her sight over her shoulder to Reylan while she warmed her body.

“Did I come close?” Faythe asked Zaiana.

“I think so,” Zaiana grumbled, watching her with a sour glare. “When I can hardly stand the sound of it, the feeling of it clawing at my skin, that’s when you must be close to splitting it apart. Your heart stopped before you could push your magick a final time and win.”

She’d come so close. Faythe recalled her vision of Caius with a heavy heart. Was what he’d said true? Had Faythe yielded right at the last moment before it broke without realizing? A piece of her subconscious hesitating out of morality.

Zaiana studied her intently, and it was like she could read Faythe’s thoughts. “You’re two halves of a whole—that’s always been insufferably clear,” she said. “Save him and damn what comes after. You can figure out the rest together.”

Faythe’s burden lifted off her shoulders a fraction as she slipped her attention back to Reylan, who kneeled with his back to her. She watched the fire glisten off his map of scars, aching to have him back so much her soul had been slowly dying ever since they were parted in Rhyenelle.

“I’ll try again,” she said.

“Not today.” Marvellas’s voice came from the shadows. When the darkness cleared to reveal the Spirit, Faythe didn’t think her body would ever stop seizing with dread. “Look at you, my dear. You need to replenish your strength. It’s no matter. It gives us more time together before the next part begins when the ruin is broken.”

Her teeth gritted when Marvellas extended a palm toward her, wanting to steal her away from Reylan again. Faythe’s heart cried at having to move toward the Spirit and leave him here bound and alone until she could return.

“Can’t I stay with him? I’ll rest here and try again.”

Marvellas’s darkening gaze spoke of her impatience, Faythe reluctantly crossed, and Magestone was clamped around her wrists—a measure to contain her magick enough until she was taken to have it embedded into her flesh again. Sparing a last look at Reylan, she was taken away in a plume of smoke.

Back in the castle, they didn’t get far before Captain Daegal fell back a step from Marvellas, following like an obedient dog. He cast Faythe a disdainful sidelong glance, but she didn’t react to it. His presence reminded Faythe of her theory with Nyte—their agreement for Faythe to try to plant the thread of his consciousness into Daegal instead.

Her pulse skipped at the thought. If she waited for the right moment when they removed her Magestone chains, she would have a chance to try. Hopefully, she had enough strength to attempt it.

They brought her to a chamber, where a stone chair appeared to be crafted from the ground. Marvellas usually took away her pain, but still, they strapped her down in case the Spirit wasn’t feeling merciful or Faythe rebelled.

She held out her wrists to Captain Daegal, who held the key to her shackles. He glared at her with the desire to hurt her swirling in his brown eyes. Faythe couldn’t muster her usual glower back.

Was she really about to attempt this plan in front of Marvellas?

Faythe decided she might not get another chance like this, and somehow, she believed Nyte having the ability to roam their world was important in their war against Marvellas.

She flicked a look toward the Spirit, who was oblivious that the child she’d started this war for, because he was taken from her, would get to witness all she’d done.

“Your Grace, you’re needed in the drawing room. The scouts of Rhyenelle are back,” a masked soldier informed her.

Faythe’s interest was grabbed, but Marvellas’s eyes flexed in ire to be pulled away. Would they be reporting news about her friends there? She felt sick not knowing if they were safe or if they’d been taken captive despite professing their alliance to Marvellas.

“Take her back to her cell when you’re finished,” Marvellas instructed Daegal, then her fiery sight shifted to Faythe. “I’ll come for you soon. Rest your body and heal your power. We’re so close to breaking that wretched ruin I can feel it, and then our real work begins.”

With that, Marvellas slipped away like a snake on fire.

Faythe barely processed what Marvellas said. Her own spur-of-the-moment planning was swirling her mind now she was alone with the captain. Aside from Zaiana, who stayed.

Daegal was never gentle, pulling her toward him by the chain between her wrists and making her hiss at the chafing stone.

“Maybe I’ll have fun with you before I take you back,” he said, disgustingly low in her ear. “Payback for that little stunt you pulled in the cells before.”

His hand slipped around her waist, and Faythe’s whole body surged with repulsion. Instinct took over as her bound hands reached over his head, then she crossed her wrists, strangling him with the chain.

Daegal choked and hissed, grappling the chain, which burned his skin with the Magestone.

“Help me,” he spluttered to Zaiana.

“I don’t think so.”

Zaiana took up a casual lean against the wall, but Faythe needed the shackles off to reach enough of her power to attempt to infiltrate his mind. Daegal pushed her, sending them crashing into the wall. A jolt of pain lanced up her spine, slackening her grip, which was enough for him to drive his knee into her gut, causing her to let him go.

Faythe fell to her knees, winded and gasping for breath. He kicked her again, and Faythe slumped in a pitiful heap. Her sight focused across the dark stone she lay on, catching on a glint of metal. The key for her shackles.

She couldn’t give up.

Faythe crawled for it, but Daegal dragged her back by her ankle, flipping her onto her back and straddling her. His eyes were wild are terrifying as he gripped her wrists and yanked her hands above her head.

“I actually quite like your fight,” he said gutturally.

Nausea roiled in her stomach and burned in her throat.

She couldn’t give up.

Faythe clamped her knees onto his hips, and with a battle cry, she threw every ounce of her rage and adrenaline into her core. The momentum flipped them, sending Daegal slamming onto his back. In Faythe’s next breath, her fist flew into his temple once, twice, and by the time she pulled back for a third, she noticed his head rolling back limply.

She panted above him, and when the adrenaline to survive started to cool, tremors racked her body. Tears stung the backs of her eyes, but she would not cry.

“Impressive,” Zaiana commented.

A rattle skidded against stone until it hit her knee. Zaiana had kicked the key to her.

Faythe’s glare couldn’t be more hateful slipping up to the dark fae.

Zaiana rolled her eyes at it. “He wouldn’t have gotten much further than pinning you had you not fought back.”

Her anger tried to cool, but it was difficult around Zaiana’s unpredictability. Did Faythe really believe Zaiana would have intervened before Daegal could violate her?

“You could have helped sooner,” Faythe grumbled, swiping up the key.

“All I’ve seen is your fight for others. I wanted to see how determined you could become to fight for yourself. For once, you didn’t disappoint.”

That almost sounded like a compliment.

Faythe fiddled with the key, gritting her teeth against the stinging and burning that grew worse from the Magestone with every slight movement.

Again, Zaiana let her struggle, not offering to help remove her shackles. When they finally clanged to the ground, Faythe sighed in relief, examining the thick red torn skin.

“You could try to run now there’s no Magestone stopping you. Though I’d recommend waiting at least a few minutes for your magick to stir.”

“You wouldn’t stop me?”

Zaiana shrugged. “I think it would be more entertaining to watch the chaos that would ensue before you were inevitably caught and brought back.”

Faythe couldn’t figure Zaiana out. What she wanted or sought to gain from being here.

She banished the thoughts from her mind, Zaiana was not her concern. Instead Faythe’s attention fell back to the captain, remembering what she needed to attempt to do. Now he was unconscious, would Nightwalking achieve the task better?

Falling asleep on command would be impossible, and she didn’t have much time before someone noticed she hadn’t been returned to her cell and came looking.

Internally, she groaned that she had to ask the dark fae for help without arousing suspicion.

“I don’t suppose you have mercy enough to get me a sleep tonic?”

Zaiana lifted a brow, but she seemed to find her own conclusion without asking. “Who do you want to Nightwalk to?”

She was too damned perceptive for her own good.

“I want to see if my friends are safe while I have this chance,” she lied easily, but once again, Zaiana wasn’t even remotely convinced.

“You’re a fool by many accounts, but you wouldn’t waste such an opportunity for a wellness check.”

“Does it really matter to you?”

“You’re asking the enemy to aid you with the greatest ability you have.” Zaiana crouched on her haunches to level with her.

“You’re not my enemy,” Faythe dared to declare. Zaiana’s cruel smile should have proved her wrong, but Faythe didn’t balk. She added, “You’re no one’s enemy but your own. You’re here, but you’re not wholly working for Marvellas. I don’t know what your agenda is, but it’s not in full allegiance to Marvellas or Dakodas like you want them, maybe even yourself, to believe.”

Zaiana’s smile faltered slowly like a withering black rose. Her eyes tilted down, looking through her with a piercing warning.

The dark fae rose then stalked the few steps to Faythe. What she didn’t anticipate was the quick strike of her hand lashing around her throat, pulling her up. Faythe was pressed against the wall, while the metal guards on Zaiana’s middle and pointer fingers dug into her flesh like the fangs of a serpent.

“This is far quicker than fetching a tonic,” Zaiana said, her voice like sin-filled shadow. Pressure was added through two of Zaiana’s fingers and her thumb at a precise pressure point.

The twin cores of Zaiana’s amethyst eyes were captured in her mind before darkness swallowed her.