Fuck. I should have been here. If I had not left, I'd have been here to protect her from being taken.
Arturo came running. “I thought you left.”
“I did, but then I felt something happening, so I came back.”
“Where's your mate?”
“She was taken.”
“Excuse me?”
“She was taken by Skuld. I just watched. I couldn't get to her in fucking time.”
“We’ll get her back. Wait a minute.” Arturo tapped the earpiece in his ear. “What was that? Dominic? Wait, what do you … slow down. What is going on with Fabiana?”
Carlo looked to Arturo. “Tell me.”
Arturo frowned. “I don't know what this means, but Dominic says Pasquale came to him and told him to let you know Fabiana has painted again. And Carlo? In that painting, Nanshe is being murdered by Skuld.”
Chapter Twenty
Nanshe’s body ached, and she didn't know what to do. Everything hurt from top to bottom, but she was more worried about her fate right now. Skuld had achieved capturing her, and there was no telling what she wanted to do.
She noticed the black interior and immediately knew she was in the depths of the Forgotten Tower.
“Are you awake now, sister?” Skuld called out.
Nanshe looked around and realized she was lying on a bed. “Why did you bring me here?”
“Oh, sister,” Skuld started with a laugh, “you know why I brought you here.”
“Don't play games with me.”
“Well, it seems I'm going to have to begin to. Tell me, Norn of the Past, how did you get around those pesky rules that keep us all locked in. I know I'm considered the bad twin.”
“Now you want to remember our familial connection?”
“I never forgot. Of course, I knew we were twins. I never could forget something so important. Could you?”
“It seems like you have forgotten all the things we learned. The rules we were supposed to abide by. You even forgot the gods who entrusted us with this information.”
“The gods?” Skuld laughed scornfully. “We were forsaken by the gods long ago when they put us down this never-ending path. Past and Future. What do they expect after endless lives and deaths, over and over and over again, pitting us against each other in a war neither of us can ever win? I, for one, am tired of it all.”
Nanshe shook her head, forcing herself up from the bed and standing so she could face Skuld on her feet. “We loved the gods once. We worshipped them. And because of that connection we were queens in our own right at one time. You were fine with that. You understood what we gave up by going into their duty.”
“Oh, is that how you feel, sister? It doesn't seem so. It looks like you're trying to fiddle with the past a little, aren't you? I saw how you helped that idiot.”
Nanshe glared at Skuld. “What do you mean?”
“You think I didn’t notice it was you who helped make that imbecile’s mind right when he came into Chaos?” Skuld tsked. “Of course, I noticed. No one else would have been able to alter the Chaos in that way. You sped up time a bit when you did that, Nanshe.”
No, Nanshe hadn't done that. If she had been the one inside the Chaos to fix Carlo’s mind, they would have connected then. It wasn't until he was whole again that their connection was felt across the timelines.
Skuld must have noticed Nanshe’s hesitation. “Ah. So am I to believe Chaos chose him to be our King of History? Who cares about history when we should worry about the future?”
“I should have seen this in you a long time ago, sister. I should have been able to notice how you hate the place you've been in, and eventually you would chomp at the bit to be the leader. Is that all you're angry about? There has to be a King of the History.”
“He will never be a king I will bow to. He shall never be a king I’ll follow. He is a past.” Skuld laughed again. “Don't you just like that play on words? I know, I'm a bitch. I learned from these current millennials. I kind of like them. They're moving to cause great things to happen in the war as I play with their minds. The more they spark such brilliant, creative thought processes—unlike the old boomers who’ve been around for some time—the more they surprise me.”
“We're not supposed to interfere with humans, Skuld. You know this was part of our charge.”
“And yet, sister, for all of your bolstering about rules and doing what's right, you jumped in yourself, didn't you?”
“For the balance!” Nanshe argued.
“There is no balance between us. We may have come from the same womb, we may have lived as blood relations in ancient times, but we were never balanced. I may have watched you fall in love with the boy of my heart, while he saw you and nothing else. I may have seen how he worshipped you and needed to be by your side. And yes, sister, I may have been the cause of it all.”
Nanshe froze. “What are you saying?
“Oh, I'm sorry,” Skuld added, covering her mouth and feigning a sense of surprise. “Did you not know?” She smiled. “Before we took all these opposing appearances when we accepted our position as Norns, we looked just alike, didn't we? The same coloring, the same complexion. You looked better when you had dark hair, by the way. But something about the Norn power made you look so different, no trace of our old blood.”
“We did this for Ishtar, Skuld.”
"Do not say her name in my presence.”
“Oh? Did you forget the goddess we did all this for?”
“Who we did this for? We turned our backs on her to follow the gods in order for us to gain our position as Norns. Don't fool yourself into thinking you were better than me.”
Nanshe shook her head, knowing her sister would not listen. “We did not turn our backs on Ishtar. It doesn't matter how you try to turn your words or change anything. We could not follow her to where she went to, and she made us take over the flow of time, so we always have a woman's touch in a world that was gaining the control of men. It simply was. It was our turn for control. We are like water, ever-flowing, ever-powerful, slipping through fingers that tried to clinch too hard. We were there to temper the gods, not take their place.”
“Well, better to retire than to be forgotten. I will no longer die for these peons of humans that don't care for us. I will no longer have to be reborn and strangled by this power connecting us. Could you imagine being free? Could you imagine no longer being tethered by this skill? It's why I tried to free you. I knew if you fell in love with that man and gained your happy ending, you would have blissfully fallen into the trap of becoming annoying. You would have gladly died life upon life, over and over again, while making him our king. I knew that wasn't for us, so I took him back from you. You see? Even though you stole him first, I returned the favor only to save you.”
Once more, Skuld had hinted at something more involved when it came to Carlo’s past incarnations. “Speak plainly, Skuld. I’m growing tired of your games.”
Skuld stepped forward, her black dress swishing around her legs, her cherry-red lips spreading into a crooked smile. “Oh, he enjoyed my flesh as well. He enjoyed how I felt.”
Skuld took more steps toward Nanshe, her hips rolling with each movement, flowing with sensual seduction. “And then I raced over to another timeline, and another and another, making sure he could hear every word.”
Nanshe’s heart stuttered in her chest.
“By the time I was finished, dear sister, he knew he was worth nothing to me but a roll in the hay. He was unimportant. My love for him was delivered with the same words I said to others who gave me what I wanted.”
“Is that what you made him think? That I betrayed him because he saw you with other men?”
“Oh, Nanshe. You should have told him you were a twin sooner in every timeline. By the time you did, it was already too late.”
“I never thought you would do something like that to me. I believed some witchcraft had been done to him.”
“Well, maybe one of us is naïve and
the other one deserves to have both powers. I wonder what should happen in the future. Future should finally kill the Past.”
“It is impossible. It is why this position has been held by us for so long. We’re two halves of the coin that could never be separated.”
“If you know I cannot die, you know I can return. So what makes you think this war will turn out in differently?”
“Because he has recognized himself as the King of History.”
“Bravo, sister. One battle won. But one day, whether or not in this lifetime or the next, he will end you. It is written.”
“Let's see if we'll make it this time around.”
“I think I'll make sure he dies permanently if possible. I've seen the future, don't you now? I know of ways that have not even been invented yet. I can make sure his soul can never return. Trust me. He will not remain our King of History. You and this fucking system are going to be replaced.”
Nanshe bellowed her rage and ran at her sister, intent on bloodying her.
“Oh, you want to get physical? Why don't we?”
Skuld tossed back her dress, and it fluttered around her legs, her hair whipping at her face as she called on her black smoke. Nanshe wasn't to be outdone and gathered her golden smoke around her. The sisters fought, clashes of time spewing a multitude of timelines around the room.
Scattered moments of future and past blended and twisted until they were nothing but rainbow stripes slipping across the surfaces like dripping blood. They slammed into each other over and over again, flung back like magnets repelled each time. Their powers were exact opposites, yet they did not attract.
“Remember, you can never do anything to me.”
Nanshe knew Skuld told the truth. She had to tamp down on her anger, she had to escape. No matter what, she needed to keep Carlo safe. He was the balance to this world, just like the other pairings within Encantado brought together like divine intervention. She understood there was a reason such power was accumulating within the Portal Cities. But without Carlo, they would not have free rein to come and go and fight the way they needed to.
He was the most important piece, and if they lost him now, all would be for naught.
But he ran away from me. He ran from what we are.
Nanshe shook her head to dispel the thoughts. She couldn't focus on that. She needed to survive against her sister. She jerked back, sending a tinge of gold from behind her back and over to her sister, trying to create space between them.
“Oh, you can't get that far away from me. Come back here!” Skuld screamed.
Skuld lifted into the air, flying at Nanshe as quickly as possible, grabbing her sister by the throat and digging her claws into her neck. “I’ll strangle you if I have to.”
Suddenly, Skuld was tossed backward and slammed into the wall. The crunch of bone met Nanshe’s ears, even as Skuld cried out from the pain. “Damn the rules! You will let me kill her.”
“You have lost your way, Skuld. We were never meant to fight like this. We’re always meant to stay on different sides, separate, but this power took everything from us.”
Skuld screamed. “I didn't have you. I didn't have my family. I had nothing. The world deserves to suffer what I felt. I deserved to remake it into my image after eons of being punished the way I have been.”
And maybe the true problem was that Skuld had been truly wronged. That her power, though it corrupted her, had also broken her. It was a lonely existence she couldn't get away from, and she couldn't break the cycle.
“Sister, why didn’t you come to me sooner?”
Skuld forced herself to her feet, a badly twisted arm hanging uselessly at her side. “Nothing you could have done would have saved me, and now it's too late. I have put us on this path of destruction.”
“You can stop now, sister. It doesn't have to be this way.”
“But it does.” Blood-red tears filled Skuld’s eyes. “We cannot change the past.”
“What did you say?”
“Very simple. We cannot change the past. Our lives, our fight. Ironically, it was all written in the skies long before the gods took us, and they did not tell us this. They lied. I will rend the sky open. I will destroy all of them who attempted to destroy us. I will never again bow to anyone.”
“Then I cannot save you.”
“You cannot.”
Tears matching Skuld’s flowed down Nanshe’s face. Even as she was protecting those of Encantado, a part of Nanshe always hoped and wished she could also save her sister, no matter what occurred.
“No, you can't save me, Nanshe. We can't save each other. We never have been able to. Know that my hatred has given me fuel to survive. Forget any past connections we’ve had. Once you have gone from my sight, I will never think of you as my sister again.”
Skuld’s shoulder popped and her arm jerked and twitched as it aligned. “This is my farewell, sister. Just as easily as I could reach out and touch you, I will do so to him. Run. Run as fast as you can, try to save your man. Oh, and do give my regards Asherah and Silva. I will be seeing them soon enough. Goodbye.”
A portal opened up below, and Skuld tumbling her sister into the Chaos.
“No!” Nanshe screamed and reached for something to grab on to, the portal slowly closing over her head as she watched the smile and the mask drop from her sister for the first time.
All that was left behind was a sad, broken girl who was terrified.
“I love you, sister. I always will. But I hate what we've become so much more.”
Skuld’s whispered words were snatched away into the Chaos as Nanshe tumbled around lost in the chaotic storm.
No.
She’d lost her sister forever.
Nanshe tumbled back and forth toward Encantado, gripping to the tether of a man who had run away, hoping he would be there when she landed.
She also had to accept he may not be there.
“You are all I have left, King of History. Do not fail me now.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Carlo met her in the Chaos. Nanshe’s body floated in the miasma, her dress tangling around her legs. Delicate tears flowed down her face, staining her cheeks. He pushed harder to get to her as she flailed, but an invisible pull flung them together, even as he reached his hands out to reach her.
He was close, so close.
She slammed into him, and he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close, breathing her scent deep into his lungs.
“I've got you, mate. I'm right here.”
“Skuld,” Nanshe cried.
“Did she hurt you?”
“More than you will ever understand or know.”
“Let's get you home and then we can talk about it.”
Nanshe shook her head. “I can't go back to Ashes right now. We need to get to Encantado.”
Carlo’s cheeks burned hot with shame and embarrassment. By walking away from her, he’d made her feel like his home wasn’t hers too. “I meant Encantado when I said that.”
“Oh.” She looked up at him and blinked, more tears spilling from her eyes. “But you know I can't stay there forever.”
He nodded. “I know, but we'll worry about that when the time comes. Let me take care of you right now.”
Nanshe tucked her head into his chest. She had never looked more fragile than she did in that moment. She appeared more like a woman rather than a Norn with great power and even greater responsibility. Right now, she was simply his mate, Nanshe, a woman he loved from his past, from a land he couldn’t remember. She needed him—he could sense it. His wolf went wild with the need to protect his mate.
We will have her, Carlo promised his wolf. She's here, she's safe.
Carlo directed them through the Chaos, pulling them toward Encantado as he’d practiced. He firmly held the current timeline in his head to make sure he landed where he meant to. The portal opened and dropped them directly onto his bed, and they bounced on the surface.
Her silent tears and shaking should
ers broke his heart.
“Tell me.” He traced his fingers up and down her spine.
“Skuld is my sister, my twin.”
“I figured as much after seeing some of the elements of the past. Continue,” he whispered.
“For so many years we were close, but I didn't see the darkness in her. I couldn't see she was hurt by the responsibility that was forced upon us. We were like goddesses, acolytes of the gods. We were commissioned to hold the flow of time. It was a great honor, one we thought we would never turn away from. But slowly, things changed, and we realized the gods had lied to us. They didn't tell the whole truth of what we were meant to go through. And because of that, my sister suffered. She struggled against her bonds. And it became more and more painful for her to be locked inside the walls we were put in. Enough so that when I met you from the past … Well, you've seen it now.”
Carlo nodded and gently motioned for her to continue.
“When I met you in the past, I wanted you immediately. We were drawn to each other, physically unable to stay apart. You were the only thing that made me believe that maybe, just maybe, I didn't want to be ignored. But my responsibility was too great, and you seemed to be accepting of my place. Because of my fear, I did not tell you about Skuld. I wanted to keep you to myself.”
Carlo shifted, remembering some of the past he had seen. “I thought you betrayed me. Did it have something to do with her?”
Nanshe nodded. “She slept with you, but you didn't realize it wasn't me. At that time, we had the same coloring. It was before we took on our positions. Then she also slept with other men. I never knew about that when I came to you. I just found out, but it was enough to anger you. Your rage was something I couldn't quell, and I couldn't explain. How could I after I had lied to you after I hadn't told you the truth of who I was and what she was to me.
“The lies between us were enough for you to strike out. And so our past was etched. The moment you killed me, my Norn powers activated and the past we’d created occurred over and over again. Always at odds. Always a rival for my sister. Always against her. That was what we created, all because I didn't tell the truth. It is all my fault. And the reason Skuld turned out to be who she is today is because of me as well.”
Mated to the Chaos (Portal City Protectors Book 5) Page 16
