Page 107 of Chaos Carnival

I brushed away her tears with trembling thumbs, every point of contact between us singing with our shared power. “Don't you understand? Before you, I was nothing but shadows and hunger, centuries of emptiness wearing a seraph's face. You gave me something to hungerfor.” My wings curled tighter around us, casting us in a cocoon of night that was ours alone. “You think I deserve better than your madness? Your madness is the only thing that makes sense to me in this godforsaken world.”

The mate bond hummed between us, carrying echoes of everything words couldn't express. “I would tear the entire universe apart to keep you. Break every law of creation to hold you. Bind myself to evil a thousand times over just to see you smile.” My voice dropped to a whisper, rough with emotion. “You're not a chain, my love. You're my freedom.”

She collapsed against me then, her sobs renewed, but different now, a heartbreaking blend of relief and grief, acceptance wrestling with lingering fear. I kept my wings around us, a place where she could fall apart in peace. Where I could hold every precious, slivered piece of her, cradling her close, until the storm within her passed.

As her cries gradually quieted, I pressed soft kisses to her hair, her temples, her tear-stained cheeks, silently promising that I would spend eternity proving those words true. My lips traced paths of devotion across her skin, each touch a vow.

She might not have seen this ending, might have been changed by forces beyond her sight, but she was still mine. My witch. My everything. And I would love her through every fragment of madness, every shard of chaos, every beautiful, broken moment our choices had wrought. The forces within me purred at her nearness, at the way her own power now echoed mine, different yet familiar.

Whatever storms lay ahead, whatever challenges this new existence brought, I would be her anchor, her safe harbor in the tempest of immortality we now shared.

Chapter 50: Eternal Carnival

Tess

Thevisionswerebehavingtonight, settling into a gentle hum beneath my skin rather than their usual cacophony. I leaned into the trailer's window, watching the sunset paint the carnival grounds in shades of gold and shadow.

A year had passed since my resurrection, since my family had bound themselves to darkness to keep me. The guilt still lingered, but it had softened, like a scar that only ached when storm clouds brewed overhead.

Sometimes I dreamed of those final moments when I'd wielded reality, when the threads had sung through my blood and bent to my will. But that power had died with my second death, leaving me with only echoes—these visions of possiblefutures, and an ability to sense the energies that flowed through our dark carnival.

Maverick's arms slipped around my waist, his chin resting on my shoulder. “What's in your head, monstre?”

I smiled, leaning back against his chest. The mate bond hummed between us, carrying echoes of his contentment. Even without the threads, I could feel the way our energies intertwined, a simpler magic but no less precious. “Fate is being kind tonight. Showing me gentle futures.”

“No impending doom? No cosmic horrors waiting to devour us all?” His tone was light, but I felt his relief. He remembered the bad days, when the visions had nearly torn my mind apart. We'd both had to adjust to this new normal, me learning to live with diminished power, him learning to trust that I was truly stable now. To some extent.

I traced my fingers along his arm, feeling the familiar warmth of his skin. “Just us. The family. The circus growing stronger.” I paused, letting the vision wash over me. “Though I do still see the raven witch coming.”

His hum rumbled against my back. “Some things never change.”

No, they didn't. We’d agreed not to bring it up to Lux again. I didn’t know when it would happen, nor what it really meant. Maybe he’d just fall in love with her and disappear. It did no good torturing him with it.

We weren't the same people who'd started this journey—me no longer the reality-bending goddess I'd briefly been, him no longer the protector who could shield me from everything. But we'd found our balance now, we’d built something beautiful from the corruption.

“Not tonight.” I turned in his arms, studying his face. Sometimes I still felt echoes of other possibilities – versions where I'd stayed dead, where he'd been forced to live withoutme. But this time, this place, was the one that mattered. “Glad Stone took care of those hunters in Milwaukee.”

His fingers traced lines on my skin, grounding me in the present. “Trying to track our movement patterns. They didn't expect him to be waiting.”

“They never would have found us anyway.” I caught his hand, pressing a kiss to his palm. “We're well hidden. But...” I waved vaguely at the air, which seemed to shimmer.

“You're becoming more at peace with it,” he pointed out, his free hand cupping my face. “My brilliant, monstrous mate.”

The hunger that bound our family together stirred at his touch, a pleasant warmth rather than the desperate need it had once been. We'd learned to control it, to channel it into our performances. To make art from our catastrophe.

“Sometimes I still wonder...” I began, but he cut me off with a kiss.

“Don't.” His voice was gentle but firm. “Look what we've built.” He gestured toward the window, where our carnival sprawled across the grounds. Even from here, the energy hummed through every tent, every attraction.

Protection woven from fear and wonder.

I pressed closer, breathing in his familiar scent. “I love you,” I whispered against his skin. “In every reality, in every possible future. I love you.”

He pulled me closer, wrapping his arms around me tight as he kissed me. When we broke apart, his eyes had darkened with emotion and desire. “Shows starting soon,” he murmured.

“Mmm. You should get changed.” I tugged playfully at his t-shirt. “The infamous Ringmaster can't perform in casual wear.”

“Says who?” But he was already reaching for the midnight blue coat that made the night dance.

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