“Or it will be your salvation.”
“You just want the power, is that it? Chaos always wants more.”
“The Chaos always has what it wants, and it will chain both of us.”
“Then I will stay away, and that will include you. I will never claim you, Past. Never. You betrayed me!”
Agony forced her spine rigid, and she cried out. She’d hold on to this, her nails piercing his skin as she clung to his chest. Not these words. The conversation, held so many times, finally completed in her head. A thousand variables of Carlo, having gone by so many names but carrying the same soul, turned and walked away from her and she’d been snatched back to Ashes to see how the future would become past once more.
“Nanshe, leave it.”
“No!” she screeched.
“Then tell me how to help you.”
“Claim me.”
He growled, but even that sound sang within her. “I know you are in pain. Is there no other way to stop this? Is what you’re trying to tell me that important?”
It’s what shewasn’ttrying to reveal this time. She couldn’t say anything to alter the future, but that also meant she would be punished for not allowing it to play its course.
“Will ...” He swallowed. She could feel the press of his throat against her. “Tell me truthfully, Chaos witch. Will mating stop this?”
“Yes,” she hissed.
He lifted her into his arms, cradling her jerking form against a hard chest that in other moments would make her breathless for a good reason. He stalked up the stairs, closer to the space she knew was his. When he reached the door, he shifted her so he could turn the knob, and even that small movement made her feel like her skin was ripping from her muscles.
“Hold on,tesoro. Just hold on.” They stumbled into the destruction of his room and he cursed. “I’d forgotten.”
With a hiss, she flung her arm out at the space and screamed. She didn’t have to look at what that did. Carlo’s disbelieving gasp told her she’d succeeded. She was the past, and within reason, she could restore pieces of it.
“My room is fixed.”
“Not the best skill, but it helps some things.”
“You made it like it was before I messed it up.”
“Just a moment before. It doesn’t work on everything, and only if I’ve seen it before it was broken or ruined.”
She jerked again, her teeth slicing into her cheek and filling her mouth with blood. With a curse, Carlo laid her on his bed, the softness nearly too much in counterpoint to the pain. He leaned over her, his chest pressing against hers again, and she wailed.
“I can’t claim what I can’t touch, Nanshe. I can’t bring you this sort of pain.”
“Please,” she begged.
But he moved again, hovering over her now, but the moment his teeth touched her neck, just a breath, she was split in two. Fire burned her organs, twisting them into molten forms of lava scalding her from the inside out.
“Dammit, Nanshe.”
“Please, Carlo. I can’t let this go. I can’t. Not this. It will shatter me.”
His dark gaze captured hers until he turned blurry, tears filling her eyes.
“Don’t cry, Nanshe. I’m unable to brush them away.”
“Please.” She didn’t know what she begged for. An ending, a release, her chance of losing before things really began. She wasn’t so sure.
“I’m here. Help me as much as you can. Lift your legs,tesoro. Open them wide.”
