Page 68 of Chaos Carnival

“Wait—” he gasped, but Tess just smiled, her black eyes gleaming with merciless satisfaction. The wraithshade tried to protect him, inkiness bubbling up beneath his skin, but her threads devoured it like hungry serpents. I'd seen him laugh while he tortured her, seen him revel in her pain. Now he was the one screaming as his signature tattoos began to peel away like burning paper, taking chunks of flesh with them.

The webs wove faster, creating a cocoon of writhing shadows that emanated with sickly light. Where they touched him, he bubbled and bled. First skin, then muscle, then bone, comingapart like a poorly knitted sweater as the ribbons pulled him into component pieces.

“Mmmm, your fear is delicious,” she whispered, head tilted back in ecstasy as she breathed in his terror like fine wine. “And I've been fucking famished.” The streams responded to her hunger, quickening their feast. They pulled him apart cell by cell, each one bursting like a ripe grape as she consumed his very essence.

I tried to stand, desperate to reach her, to hold her here with me before the forces consumed her completely. But I collapsed under the blessed metal burns and broken bones. Through darkening vision, I watched as Ivan's form lost coherence, becoming nothing but screaming void as the strands devoured him completely. His final wail echoed through the wrecked funhouse until there was nothing left but vengeful silence and the lingering odor of carnival grease paint.

He became a pile of bloody pulp at her feet, and then with a flick of her wrist he was ash, blowing in the wind.

“Maverick!” Tess's voice was suddenly streaked with fear, the sound shattering my heart. The black faded from her eyes as she ran to me, dropping to her knees in a rain of mirror shards. “No, no, no...”

Her hands hovered over my body, trembling as she tried to find a place to touch that wasn't covered in burns or blood. The fierce energy that had consumed her moments ago was gone, leaving behind something raw and fractured, like a circuit blown from too much current. The threads writhed beneath her skin, no longer moving in that ominous harmony but fighting to break free. Fuck, I hated seeing her like this, especially over my sorry ass.

“I'm okay,” I lied through blood-stained lips, reaching for her face. My stunning, fierce mate, free at last, but slipping through my fingers like smoke. I could feel it—the price ofthat magnificent, monstrous control coming due. “You did it, monstre.”

“The magic...” she whimpered, and my soul ached at the terror in her voice. The webs were visible now, pulsing through her veins like dark lightning, demanding payment for the control she'd claimed. “It's too strong. I forced too much. I can't—“

Energy buzzed around her like a breaking storm, reality bending and warping under the impact of what she'd unleashed. The bond screamed at me, sensing what was coming. She'd pushed too far, tried to contain an ocean of energy that was never meant to be controlled, only channeled. Now it was breaking free, taking her with it.

“Tess, stay with me—” I reached for her desperately, the shifting murk stretching weak and useless. Don't leave me. Don't go where I can't follow. But I knew, even as I tried to hold her, that this had always been coming. You couldn't force control over something like this without consequences.

She was already fading, the tendrils pulling her apart like ephemera in the mind. The last thing I saw was tears streaming down her face, each one reflecting the madness and obsession that had bound us together.

“Find her,” I choked out before oblivion claimed me, the words tasting of blood and desperation. “Please...”

But we all knew it was too late. My beautiful, broken mate had vanished into the ether itself, leaving only shattered glass and bitter regret behind. She had embraced her power, claimed her vengeance, and now the magic had claimed her in return.

Darkness took me then, but I swore with my last conscious thought that this wasn't the end. I would find her. I would follow her into Hell if I had to. Because she was mine. My mate. My monster. My everything.

And not even the vastness of the universe could keep us apart forever.

Chapter 31: Priestess of None

Tess

Nothing.

Then... something.

A spark of awareness pierced the void, a fragile glimmer of existence. It was faint, like the first star at twilight, but it was enough. I existed. Somehow.

But I was without form. Without sensation.

No eyes to see. No ears to hear. No skin to feel. Just... consciousness, untethered, adrift in an endless, infinite expanse.

Panic ignited, blooming like frost on glass.

Where am I?

What happened to me?

The questions echoed through a mind that wasn’t even sure it was real anymore. The thought sent me spiraling. I tried to scream, to claw at the emptiness, but there was no voice, no hands, no lungs to breathe.

I floated, helpless, a fragment of awareness in the void.

Then the memories came, rushing back in jagged flashes:

Addie.

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