Page 22 of Chaos Carnival (Cirque de Sanguine #2)
Chapter 21: Constricted Reality
Maverick
I guided Tess through the entrance of Fat Friday’s, my hands finding their home at her waist. My hands lingered longer than necessary, drinking in the way her energy hummed against mine. The rich aroma of Cajun spices and seafood filled the air, but all I could focus on was the faint odor of demon magic clinging to her skin.
“I can't believe we're here.” Her eyes lit up as she took in the rustic décor, the exposed brick walls lined with bold pop art photos of people and places.
“I know.” I squeezed her hip.
She turned, eyebrows raised. “How did you know I wanted to try this place?”
“You like every single one of their posts.” I smirked. “The food porn ones especially.”
“Oh my god, you're stalking my social media?” Her eyes narrowed, but the corner of her mouth twitched.
“Don't need to stalk you when you spend every night in my bed.” I leaned closer, breathing in her scent. Between the nightly healing and her daily lessons with Lilith, her natural fragrance was taking on an eldritch edge. “Besides, keeping tabs on my mate isn't stalking. It's instinct.”
The hostess led us to a corner table, tucked away from the bustling main dining room. Perfect. The less eyes on us, the better. These days, any stranger could be a hunter in disguise, and we couldn't risk interrupting the healing rituals, not when we were so close to purging the poison.
Tess slid in first, and I followed, deliberately crowding her space. After watching her drain herself with Lilith's training, I felt an overwhelming need to keep her contained, protected. Even from herself. The thought of her manipulating the same type of threads that bound wraithshades to their hosts made my jaw ache, but if this was our only option...
“You're staring.” She picked up her menu, using it as a shield.
“Can't help it.” I reached across the table, tugging the menu down. “You're distracting.”
“Not my fault you’re so distractible.” But her cheeks flushed, and her pulse quickened under my gaze.
“Only by the important things.” I winked, earning an eye roll.
The waiter approached with water glasses, and Tess straightened, all business. But her foot found mine under the table, a silent acknowledgment of the electricity between us.
He rattled off the specials, something about seared salmon and a ribeye special, but my attention stayed fixed on Tess. She was beautiful, brilliant and mine. The candlelight caught the amber flecks in her eyes, making them dance like flames. It was moments like these that made me forget to be a badass warrior. She turned me into an absolute mess with just a look.
“I'll have the jambalaya,” Tess said. “Extra spicy.”
“Seafood linguine for me.” I handed over the menus, then captured her hands in mine, stilling the magic. Those dark lines were still visible beneath her skin.
The waiter nodded and left us in comfortable silence. I traced my thumb over her knuckles, watching the way she tracked invisible patterns in the air. Her eyes had that faraway look that both fascinated and terrified me again.
Everything kept coming back to that moment, my impulsive decision that had changed our lives forever, leaving guilt and possessiveness to war inside me. I couldn't regret marking her—she was mine, would always be mine—but watching her transform, watching something ancient and insidious weave itself into her being...
Before I could spiral down that particular path of brutal thoughts, I squeezed her hand harder than I meant to. She was still here, still mine, even if these filaments were reshaping her into something new.
“Tell me how you see them.” Tell me everything, so I can protect you from the world.
She spoke softly about the threads, her free hand occasionally lifting to trace their invisible paths while I held her other hand anchored to the table. Time slipped by as she described the intricate patterns, the way they pulsed and shifted with each breath and heartbeat around us.
The waiter arrived with our plates, breaking the tension. Steam rose from Tess's jambalaya, but she hardly noticed, too focused on the filaments dancing around us.
She took a few mechanical bites, her skin growing paler with each passing moment.
“I need to understand them.” Her voice carried an edge of desperation. “Ivan's wraithshade is too strong, and I need—“
“You need to slow down before you become what we're fighting.”
She ignored me, raising her hands. The air around her fingers rippled like heat waves, dark veins writhing beneath her skin. “Just watch. I can show you how they bind—“
I grabbed her wrists, pulling them down to her lap. The contact sent sparks through my palms—her energy felt wild, tainted with dark energy. “Not here. Not now.”
“You don't understand.” Her pupils had expanded, nearly swallowing the iris. “These threads... they're the guide. To breaking Ivan's bond with the wraithshade, to understanding our own connection.”
“Yes and… I want you alive.” I lowered my forehead to hers, trying to ground her in the moment like in our nightly healing rituals. “Please, monstre. Just eat your damn jambalaya.”
The strands were taking root in her, fundamentally reshaping her from the inside out. The same forces that bound wraithshades to their hosts were now weaving through my mate, and there wasn't a damn thing I could do to stop it. My hands itched to grab her, to pull her away from this ancient magic, to keep her safe and unchanged. Mine.
As if sensing my darkening thoughts, she nudged my shoulder but maintained that cautious distance. “I'm being careful, Maverick. Lilith's showing me how to understand these bonds without being consumed by them.”
“That's what worries me,” I growled.
She gave me a look that was more warning than affection. “We need this if we're going to save Addie. You know that.”
“That's not—” I started, but she cut me off with a quick kiss that felt like a distraction rather than intimacy.
“Here, let me show you,” she said, her expression set with a determination that took my breath away. “It's not corrupt. It's beautiful.”
Like a serpent , I thought, watching as she closed her eyes and reached for something I couldn't see. Glorious and bloodthirsty, and changing her in ways I couldn't control. The air around us thickened, heavy with wrongness.
Then I saw them, not gossamer strands, but writhing, serpentine tendrils of energy that made my seraph nature recoil.
Something twisted sideways. Tess's face contorted, fear replacing concentration as the streams attacked like predators scenting blood. They violently coiled around her throat, ceaselessly pulsing with sickly colors before burrowing into her flesh like parasitic worms.
Tess's eyes flew open, wide and unseeing. Her breathing turned to desperate gasps, each one more shallow than the last. Blood vessels burst beneath her skin where the lines had entered, creating dark rivers under her flesh.
“Can't—” she choked, clawing at her throat where the marks spread like poison. “Can't breathe—“
I moved with inhuman speed, yanking her from the booth and away from prying mortal eyes. Her legs buckled, and I caught her, my grip probably too tight as I pressed us both against the hallway wall. The demon magic crawling through her burned my hands where I touched her.
“Focus on my voice,” I commanded, letting some of my true nature bleed into my tone. “You're okay.” It was a lie. Nothing about this was okay. “You can breathe.” Another lie, but I needed her to believe it. “The threads are gone.” The biggest lie of all—I could still see them moving under her skin.
She shook her head violently, tears cutting tracks down her face as she fought for air. Her fingers dug into my arms hard enough to draw blood, and I welcomed the pain.
“Tess, listen to me,” I growled, taking her face in my hands with more force than gentleness. “Feel my breathing. Match it.” I pressed her hand to my chest, where my heart raced with barely contained rage at what this alchemy was doing to her. “In through your nose, out through your mouth. With me.”
Her eyes found mine, wild and filled with a terror that made me want to hunt down every thread of magic and destroy it. But underneath that fear was something else. A hunger, a fascination with the forces trying to unmake her.
Slowly, painfully, she started to follow my lead. Each breath seemed to cost her, like the webs were fighting to keep their hold.
“That's it,” I murmured, wiping tears from her cheeks while checking for any other signs of damage. “You're safe.” As safe as she could be with demon arcana literally threading through her veins. “I've got you.”
And I wasn't letting go, no matter what she became.
Minutes crawled by as I talked her down, maintaining that rhythm until her breathing steadied. She collapsed against me, but that transcendent energy still hummed beneath her skin, changing her bit by bit. Whatever was happening to her, whatever she was becoming, she was still mine. I'd make sure of that.
“What—” her voice was raw, like something had scraped it bloody from the inside. “What happened?”
“I don't know,” I said, my arms tightening around her possessively. “But we're going to find out.”
And then Lilith and I were going to have a conversation that would make Hell itself uncomfortable.
She shuddered, her skin still unnaturally cold where the strands had invaded. “It felt like they were alive. Like they wanted...” she quieted, pressing her face into my chest as if trying to hide from the memory. Then she jerked back suddenly, staring at something over my shoulder.
“Tess?” I followed her gaze but saw only the restaurant's plain wall.
“The threads,” she whispered, reaching out to touch empty air. “They're everywhere now. Like cracks in reality...” Her voice took on an unsettling sing-song quality. “Beautiful broken pieces...”
I grabbed her hand, forcing it down. Her eyes weren't quite focusing right, shifting between me and whatever she was seeing in the air around us.
“They wanted in. To unmake me. To... to remake me...”
She swayed a bit, and I tightened my grip. This wasn't just demon magic going wrong, this was something specifically about her.
“No more practicing without Lilith,” I ordered, my voice carrying the pressure of both mate and protector. “Not until we understand what happened.” Not until I could find a way to control these things.
She nodded weakly against my chest, but I caught the slight resistance. Even terrified, she was drawn to these forces. Her fingers traced patterns on my shirt that made my skin crawl. “I'm sorry. I just wanted to show you how everything connects. How we're all tangled up in their dance...”
“Shh,” I cut her off, gentler but firm. “Not your fault. But next time you want to demonstrate wraithshade theory, maybe stick to diagrams.” The attempt at normalcy felt wrong, especially as I watched her pupils dilate and contract, tracking invisible movements.
Her giggle didn't sound quite right, almost like multiple voices layered together. She pressed her face into my neck, but I could feel her lips moving, whispering numbers and coordinates that made no sense.
I held her until the trembling stopped, though mine had only begun. The restaurant's mundane sounds felt like mockery now, humans oblivious to the ancient forces reshaping my mate. One thing was clear. These strands were far more duplicitous than Lilith had admitted.
And I had some questions for our demon teacher.