Page 18 of Crazy as Hell

He gritted his teeth and fought to remain conscious as the waves of intense pain tried to pull him under. As if she could sense what he was feeling, the stream of magic abruptly stopped flowing into him. He went limp with fatigue, but his system was still reeling with aftershocks from the influx of new magic.

“You…know…” he wheezed.

“That you’re my mate? Yeah, I know. It’s nice to meet you and all, but it kind of sucks that it’s under these circumstances. But that’s why I thought you might be able to break free of the shackles if I gave you some of my magic.”

He smiled weakly. “It was a good try. You are very powerful.”

She nodded in acknowledgment. “But you can’t sense it. I know. I’m an anomaly.”

“I would say you are unique.”

She snorted out a laugh. “Sometimes an overload of magic will weaken the enchantments of magical restraints, so I thought it might work this time.”

“You sound like you have some experience with that,” Cassian stated suspiciously.

“I do. Last time, it worked. This time, it obviously failed.” She shrugged. “Different restraints, different results.”

“Why were you restrained?” Viktor growled.

“Which time?” She shook her head. “Never mind that. That’s not important at the moment. Right now, I need you to tell me something that you’ve never told anyone before.”

Viktor frowned over the drastic subject change. “Why are you asking me that?”

“Because I need you to tell me something to prove that we’ve met before.”

Perhaps she had hit her head when she’d been injured because she wasn’t making any sense. “I don’t understand.”

“You don’t have to. Now, hurry up, and tell me something important that no one else knows.”

His mind spun at the seemingly random request, but he still felt compelled to answer. It wasn’t easy to come up with something that suited her criteria, so he blurted out the first thing that came to mind.

“Viktor is actually my middle name. My real name is Aurelius.”

Her lips twitched. “Seriously? Like the Roman Emperor?”

He nodded solemnly. “Although I laid claim to the name before him. And now, you are the only being in existence who knows that.”

“And me,” Cassian reminded, then he tried to hide his face behind his arms. “Actually, forget about me. I’ve temporarily gone deaf…and blind. I know nothing.”

Ignoring him, Viktor shook his head. “I don’t understand any of this.”

“I will explain next time.”

Before he could comment on that, he was distracted when she suddenly coughed and hunched over in pain. This time, she spat out enough blood to make it clear she was critically wounded. Even though it was no use, he began struggling against the shackles holding him in place. He couldn’t bear to watch her die in front of him without trying to do something, even if it was a useless attempt.

“Naomi! You need to get out of here and find a healer!”

Even though she was hunched over with pain, she turned her head and flashed him another smile. “Don’t worry. It’s going to be fine.”

“Fuck that. It’s not fine. Nothing is fucking fine about this!”

“It will be once I reset everything,” she wheezed out. “We will see each other again soon.”

“Wait, what are you doing? Naomi, no!” Viktor roared.

Helpless, he could only watch as his mate stumbled forward, then his world shattered as she jumped straight into the pit of devil fire.

Chapter Seven