Page 29 of Chaos Carnival

She left the book open, then reached into the case below and produced two rings. Ancient, carved with symbols that hurt my eyes to look at, the metal so dark they may have been forged of pure evil. “Once placed on your fingers, they can never be removed. They'll bind your souls together permanently, anchoring the healing magic of the moonlight ritual. Without them, the poison will eventually overcome even your combined power.”

My head spun as I stared at those rings, their corruption seeming to pulse with malevolent intent. The walls of the shop pressed in, making it hard to breathe.

First Ivan's control, then the hunters, and now this.

Like the universe was determined to strip away every last shred of my freedom.

“Bind our souls? More permanently than they are already?” I shrieked, my voice cracking with hysteria. The room temperature dropped as frost spread across Maverick's skin.

Celeste's face remained impassive, those ancient eyes boring into mine. “These rings have witnessed countless binding rituals over millennia. Some participants tore themselves apart trying to remove them. Others went mad from the constant awareness of their mate's presence. But they always, always work.”

The casual way she described such horror made my skin crawl. I glanced at Maverick, the same dread reflected in his eyes. We were already connected in ways I scarcely understood, and now this? To be bound forever, to never have a moment's peace from each other's presence?

The rings sat innocently on Celeste's palm, but the magic felt old, hungry. They'd consumed others before us, bound them together until death or madness took them.

And now they were being offered as our salvation.

My stomach churned as I remembered Ivan's control, how he'd violated my mind, my will. These rings promised a different kind of infringement—consensual perhaps, but no less permanent. No less intrusive.

Maverick grabbed my hand, entwining his fingers with mine. His skin was frighteningly cold. The gesture should have been comforting, but it only reminded me of how tangled our fates had become. How each step to save him, to save Addie, seemed to require sacrificing another piece of myself.

In response to everything we were learning, Maverick's laugh was hollow. There was no humor in his voice, only a bone-deep weariness that echoed through our bond and reflected in me. “How fucking romantic. Just what I’ve always wanted, a dark and delirious wedding to save my life”

Celeste's smile was all teeth. “Romance has nothing to do with it.

She pushed the book toward me, and my stomach tumbled, but I reached for it anyway, desperate for a solution. The moment my fingers touched the cover, ancient energy erupted through me—a hungry alchemy that recognized something in my soul.

“More than power.” Celeste's eyes swirled like storm clouds, reflecting centuries of accumulated knowledge. “It demands sacrifice.”

The book throbbed against my palms in time with my heartbeat. My fingers trembled as I held it, but I couldn't make myself let go. Behind me, Maverick's pain and exhaustion through our bond was a constant reminder that we were running out of time. The poison was spreading faster now, turning his immortal blood to ice in his veins.

The book's pages hummed beneath my fingers, each word seeming to writhe and pulse with dark promise. I looked up from the grotesque tome, my heart racing as magic thrummed through my blood, dark and hungry. “What kind of toll are we talking about here?”

“Each curse demands its own, ma chérie.” She tilted her head, a gesture both curious and threatening. “Blood will have blood.”

The words sank into my bones like arsenic. I bent over the book again, drinking in its forbidden knowledge. The pages surged along my skin, but I couldn't stop reading. Each revelation pressing deeper, promising answers if I just kept going. I had to know more.

Maverick’s slouch echoed the heaviness in my shoulders. All those lives, all that pain.

But when I glanced up, he wasn't looking at me at all. His eyes locked with Celeste's in some silent exchange that sent a wave of nausea rolling through me.

The knowing look she gave him spoke volumes. Whatever darkness lay before us, she knew.

“And what do we owe you?” I clutched the throbbing tome tighter, trying to ignore how its pulse matched my racing heartbeat.

“Your firstborn, of course.” Her laugh shattered like ice at our expressions. “Oh, don't look so stricken. I gave up collecting children centuries ago. Too much trouble.” Her expression shifted to something more predatory. “No, what I want is far more precious. Ten years of each of your memories. The good ones only. Sweet dreams make the best currency, after all.”

My stomach lurched at her words. “Our memories? You can't be serious.”

Celeste just smirked, her ageless face betraying a satisfaction that made a cold dread settle in my chest.

“Better than a firstborn.” Maverick's voice dripped with ice, but his revulsion pulsed through our bond. “Though I wouldn't put it past you to collect both.”

“Knowledge has always demanded sacrifice, ma chérie,” said Celeste, her voice like honey dripping over rusted metal.

Her eyes glittered with wisdom and dark amusement—the look of someone who knew exactly what price to extract for their secrets.

“Even I have limits to what prices I'll accept,” she mused, absently stroking the book's writhing cover. “There are older things in the spaces between realities, things that existed before magic had rules. And then there are... gaps.” Her fingers stilled on the book, and for the first time, true fear crossed her ageless features. “Places where nothing exists— not darkness, but pure negation. Even magic fears to go there.” She shuddered delicately. “Their prices... well. Let's just say some knowledge isn't worth the cost of learning it.”

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