Mated to the Chaos - Georgette St. Clair Page 0,63

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,