Page 28 of Claiming Chaos

“It wasn’t nice.”

“I wasn’t trying to be.”

I kicked my boot through the salt ring, freeing him, and tugged my phone from my back pocket. Whew. It was still intact. If I’d set my whole body on fire, it would have melted and we’d have been screwed.

“Let’s get back to the hotel. We’ll head for the airport first thing in the morning and try to get on an earlier flight.” I texted Ember, telling her to be on the lookout for Chrys.

“You aren’t worried Chrys will summon Mayhem tonight?”

“She won’t do it here. Taking over Salem is her goal, so she’ll want to have him there. She thinks I’m dead, which would mean you’re vanquished. It would be a helluva lot easier to control you both if she didn’t have to transport you fifteen hundred miles.” I led the way out of the back alley, and we crossed Canal Street before heading into the French Quarter.

“She has a head start and the sigils. She could make it to Salem and summon my brother long before we return if we wait.”

Crappity crap. He was right. After everything that just went down, my mind was reeling. I couldn’t think straight. But I’d set my arms on fire! “We’ll grab our stuff and head there now.”

Chaos took my hand. “I hope you know I didn’t mean a word of what I said back there.”

I waited for a horse-drawn carriage to pass the intersection before darting across the street. “Didn’t you though?”

He held his thumb close to his pointer finger. “Maybe about your behavior, but I have never believed you’re useless.”

“I know, and apparently, I needed to hear it. Though it freaks me out to think it took absolute fury for me to unleash it. That’s not a good quality in a light witch.”

His brow furrowed, but he didn’t offer an answer. I didn’t have one either, and we didn’t have time to ponder it. Maybe after we saved the world, I could try to figure it out.

We made it to the hotel without incident—thank the goddess—and grabbed our bags. Well, I grabbed my bag of clothes. Chrys had, once again, taken my satchel full of spells. At least she didn’t destroy it this time.

Then again, she now had an arsenal at her disposal. Not that she needed the help. She’d managed to arm herself against Chaos’s brain-scrambling magic and nearly killed me. Twice.

I cast a longing look at the comfy, king-sized bed and allowed myself a moment of regret for not letting Chaos be a bad demon when I’d had the chance.

He wrapped his arms around me and brushed his lips to mine. “We will have another opportunity to play.”

“Will we?” I rested my head on his shoulder. “Seems like everything will be nonstop from here.”

“Everyone has to sleep at some point, and I will make certain you’re relaxed enough to slumber when that time arrives.”

The feel of his strong arms wrapped around me and the warmth of his embrace made me ache all over. I wanted him more than I’d ever wanted anyone in my life, and not just in a playtime kind of way. He complemented me in a way I never dreamed anyone could.

Yeah, he’d royally pissed me off back at the library, but it was exactly what I’d needed to save us both. He always knew what I needed.

Chaos made me a better witch. A better woman.

I swallowed the lump in my throat and pulled from his embrace. “We should go. I don’t have the ingredients to cloak us on the way to the airport, and I’m certain the local coven we ticked off is looking for us.”

I swiped open the Uber app and called for a ride. “Should be here in five. Let’s head down.”

Outside the hotel, a cast-iron table with two chairs stood beneath a magnolia tree. How nice it would have been to enjoy a nightcap in the warm fall air before going inside and letting this Prince of Hell bang my brains out.

We passed the table and stepped outside the fence to wait for our ride. A group of women wearing hot pink sashes walked by, two of them helping the one with a white veil remain on her feet. Across the street, a man with a scraggly beard sat against the building, balancing a cardboard sign against his legs as he dozed off.

Both New Orleans and Salem were tourist destinations teeming with magic, yet the atmosphere, the vibe, couldn’t have been more different. A fist of regret tightened in my chest because I would never get to explore the magic and wonder of this city with the man by my side.

Oof. I had to stop thinking about the end. Regret was another one of those useless emotions Chaos mentioned. It did absolutely no good, so I needed to make like Elsa and let it go. We’d be home in Salem before I knew it, battling a dark witch for a demon skull and literally breaking Hell loose.

Goddess, help us all.

I checked my phone. The Uber sat in traffic a block away. I was about to suggest we go to it when a fog rolled over us, casting the world into grayscale.

“Shit.” My heart hammered in my chest, and I clutched Chaos’s arm, dragging him toward the car. “Is it Chrys?”

“You tell me.” His gaze darted around the shadow spell’s perimeter.

Right. I could locate people close by as easily as objects now. With a deep inhale, I focused on Chrys’s energy, searching the area for her vibration. “I don’t sense her.”

The Uber stood four yards away. Just a few more steps…

My muscles seized mid-stride. A heaviness pressed down on me, squeezing, making me completely immobile. I cut my gaze to Chaos. He was frozen too. The Uber turned the corner, heading toward the hotel, and I tried to shout. My voice didn’t work. My vision tunneled. The only sound I heard was my pulse whooshing in my ears.

Then silence.

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