Page 91 of Chaos Carnival

I couldn't help but smile against her skin, my lips tracing a path along the curve of her neck. “With you? Never,” I murmured, the conviction in my voice as solid as the stars. I spread her arousal, each stroke deliberate and adoring, circling her clit in tighter and tighter revolutions. Her gasps and moans, deepened and sharpened with every pump, every whispered promise.

As her muscles clenched around me, a vise-like grip that seemed to draw me even deeper into her very essence, the crescendo built within us. I drove into her with an intensity of destruction, our bodies moving in sync.

We crested the wave together, my roar mingling with her scream of my name. In that moment, we were no longer ourselves. We were a new elemental force, dreadful and dazzling, pure magic.

“I love the fuck out of you,” I groaned. My shadows danced with her light, and the platform swayed beneath us.

Afterward, we lay tangled together on the now-steady platform, watching everything drift back into normal patterns.

“We should probably get back,” Tess murmured, though she made no move to leave the circle of my arms. “The circus...”

“Can wait,” I finished, pulling her closer. My shadows curled around us possessively, trailing traces of her alchemy. “Unless you're in a hurry to face Stone's knowing smirk.”

She laughed, the sound ringing like a masterpiece of art to my ears. “He's going to be insufferable.”

“Let him.” I pressed a kiss to her temple, breathing in the scent of her. “Some things are worth a little teasing.”

If we stayed there a little longer, tangled together above a city that existed in three different timelines at once... well, that was nobody's business but ours.

Chapter 42: Sealed Fates

Tess

Isatinmyfortune-telling tent, the crystal ball in front of me dark and untouched. The strands danced around me now, countless colored streams that wove through the universe.

As I traced them with my fingertips, their familiar hum over my skin brought goosebumps to my arms. Except now the hum had teeth. Now it had claws. My newfound energy let me see these mystical connections as brilliant ribbons of destiny that could slice through time itself.

The convergence was stunning and severe. Where before the threads had been chaotic possibilities, now they merged into a crystalline lattice of inevitability. Each strand surged with purpose, bleeding colors I had no mortal words to describe.But there, at the edges of my vision—a peculiar absence. Not darkness, not even nothingness, but a void that the threads themselves seemed to flee from.

My hands shifted through the webs in a desperate search for any variation, any tiny divergence that might offer hope. But the more I grasped, the more they mocked me with their crystalline certainty. And that emptiness grew larger, a blind spot in the pattern that made my mind skitter away in instinctive dread.

What if Maverick moved this way? No—that path led to destruction, bodies strewn across my vision.

Stone and Lux combining their strength? The thread snapped like a whip.

Redirecting the forces myself? The threads simply... ended. As if something had severed them, leaving ragged edges that bled into that unsettling void.

The universe shuddered in warning.

My chest constricted as I watched the future lock into place, a single blazing pattern that seared itself into my mind. I brought my fingers to my lips, tasting salt as tears fell.

All my strength, and still I couldn't stop what was coming. That emptiness in the pattern—I told myself it was just my own limitations, my inability to see past certain points. But deep in my bones, I knew it was something else. Something worse.

Moving faster now, I checked the protective sigils I'd woven into the tent's fabric over months, disguised as decorative embroidery. I reinforced the wards at each cardinal point, ending at the northern ward hidden beneath a painted carousel horse.

“Everything's exactly as it should be,” I whispered, adjusting the heavy velvet drapes that separated my tent from the carnival beyond.

“My dear, I've observed enough human nature over centuries to recognize when someone is lying to themselves.” Oscar'scrystal skull gleamed from his perch next to a stack of worn tarot cards. “And you, my powerful friend, are practically drowning in denial.”

I traced another ward into the air, watching it shimmer and fade. “Since when did you become so perceptive?”

“I was perceptive long before you were born. Or have you forgotten who wrote 'The Picture of Dorian Gray'? Speaking of pictures, you look absolutely dreadful.”

“Thanks.” I stood from my chair, the ribbons continuing their relentless dance around me.

In my trailer, I retrieved seven sealed envelopes from my vanity's false bottom—one for each member of my family. Weeks of sleepless nights had gone into writing these words I couldn't speak aloud.

The ritual components were last.

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