Page 65 of Chaos Carnival

I spun, trying to track her location, but her voice bounced off metal and canvas in a maddening echo. The mate bond pulled in every direction at once too, as if she existed everywhere simultaneously. The thought of her lost in that state, vulnerable to Ivan's machinations, made my power surge with violence.

“Split up,” I ordered, barely recognizing my own voice. “Find her bef—“

A carnival worker lunged from behind a game booth, moving with impossible speed. I phased through its attack on instinct, materializing behind to slam it into the ground with enough force to crack ribs. More emerged from the darkness like a chaotic nightmare, their warped bodies moving with an unnatural grace that set my teeth on edge.

“Go!” I shouted to Stone and Lux, inky tendrils coiling around my arms like living weapons. “I'll handle these.”

They hesitated only a moment before moving deeper into the carnival grounds. I turned to face the approaching defiled workers, letting my rage fuel the corruption within me.

“Come on, then,” I snarled, baring teeth that felt sharper than usual.

The first one rushed me, its mouth stretched in a grotesque parody of a smile. I caught its arm, using its momentum to throw it into two others. They went down in a tangle of twisted limbs, but more kept coming, their dead eyes boring in on me with a corrupted hunger.

“Maverick?” Tess's voice again, closer now, fragile and afraid. “It's so dark...”

The sound of her fear clawed at my soul. Every fiber of my being screamed to run toward her voice, to tear through anything between us. The bond flared, demanding I protect what was mine. But these things needed to be dealt with first.

I just prayed I wouldn't be too late.

I phased through another wave of corrupted workers, their figures leaving oily smears in the air. The bond seared hotter, she was near. So near I could almost taste her magic on my tongue. But her voice kept echoing from different directions, bouncing off metal and mirrors until the carnival became a hellish maze of her desperate calls.

“The strands are screaming,” her voice wailed, the sound cutting straight to my core. “Can't you hear them?”

I caught glimpses of her between the tents—or thought I did. Dark hair whipping around a corner, the flash of her jacket disappearing behind a funhouse mirror. Each time I gave chase, she vanished like dreams through my fingers. The game of cat and mouse was making my power spike dangerously with each false lead.

A grotesque figure stumbled into my path, his face a mask of carnival paint and writhing despair. I slammed it aside with feral satisfaction, my patience fraying beyond my abilities of control.

My mate was lost in this madness, her mind fractured by forces she was never meant to control. And Ivan was out there, waiting, ready to reclaim her through their old blood bond. The thought made my vision bleed red at the edges, my shadows stretching like claws.

No. She was mine now.

“Oh good, you made it.”

Ivan's voice sliced through the chaos like a poisoned blade, dripping with cruel amusement. His arm was slung around Addie who leaned into him with that same unnatural grace, her movements liquid and wrong. Her eyes glowed with that familiar empty white light as she gazed up at him with puppet-like adoration. I spun to find him perched atop a carnival booth like some freakish ringmaster, looking exactly as I remembered, except for the void writhing beneath his skin like maggots.

“Addie, get away from him. Where is she?” The words came out as more growl than speech, my power surging with lethal intent.

Addie threw her head back and laughed that thin, high-pitched sound that wasn't hers, her spine arching at an impossible angle. He smiled, that clown makeup drawing the ends up too far. “My dear Tess? She came home, of course. Back where she belongs.”

Pure, primal rage blazed through me, turning my vision red. “She was never yours!” The fury in my voice could have shattered glass.

“No?” He tilted his head with mock innocence. “I had her first, angel. The tether may be fake, but I marked her. I trained her.” His grin widened, cruel and knowing. “And now that she's enhanced, well. The possibilities are endless.”

I lunged for him with a roar that shook the carnival structures, shadows streaming from my hands like living weapons. But they both vanished in a swirl of darkness, his laughter echoing through the fairgrounds like a curse.

“Come find us, seraph. If you can.”

The sound of Tess's scream ripped through me like a blade to the heart, the mate bond flaring with her pain. I ran toward it, phasing through obstacles with reckless abandon, following the burning in my chest that pulled me toward her. The funhouse loomed ahead, its mirrors reflecting a thousand distorted versions of my rage-twisted face.

Stone and Lux's voices flared in my mind about something they'd found, but I couldn't wait. Couldn't think past the need to reach her, to tear Ivan's hands off her. Tess was close. So close the mate bond sang with it.

I burst through the funhouse entrance into a maze of mirrors and madness. The air itself felt wrong, tainted by Ivan's corruption.

“Maverick!” Tess's voice bounced off shattered glass, fractured and desperate. “The strands are in my blood. Make them stop shrieking…“

I pressed forward, my reflection fracturing into a thousand shattered pieces. She was lost in this labyrinth while Ivan circled like a vulture, tainting what was mine.

And I was walking straight into his trap, knowing it, not caring. Because the alternative was leaving Tess in his hands for one more second.

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