Chapter 30 · Mind Hijack

"Get your hands off the wheel, Kael. You're lagging," Nyx’s voice sliced through my skull, sharp and cold as a surgical blade.

I didn't answer. I couldn't. My left arm was twitching, a rhythmic, violent spasm that sent my grip slipping off the steering wheel. The car drifted, the tires screeching against the rain-slicked asphalt of the lower district.

"I'm fine," I gasped, though my lungs felt like they were filling with wet concrete. "Just... a little dizzy."

"Dizzy?" Nyx scoffed. I could feel her presence expanding in the back of my mind, a digital tide pushing against my consciousness. "Your heart rate is spiking, your neural pathways are frying, and you're currently driving us into a reinforced concrete barrier at eighty miles per hour. You aren't 'fine.' You're crashing."

"Shut up!" I yelled, fighting to yank the wheel back. "I can handle it!"

"Can you?"

Suddenly, the world tilted. Not the car—me. It felt like someone had reached into my brain and flipped a switch. My muscles locked.