Unchained Beauty (Deadly Beauties Live On Book 5)

by C. M. Owens

  “You guys have such complicated family histories in your group,” Kya says, massaging her temples.

  Day one, not much progress is made.

  Day two starts out pretty much the same, even though we’ve started piling up the new variables and trying to do the math with them to see how things stack up.

  But then we all argue about the math, and about what is or isn’t possible, since I don’t actually know how to do math or science like Kimber, and Kya just has her own way of thinking about things with a shrewd, accessing manner. Me? I’m the one they keep yelling at for being impossible, when they’re the one’s shouting—

  “Because that’s impossible, Ella!” they both shout, making my inner thoughts seem redundant and complete in the same instant.

  “No, it just means it’s magic if you don’t understand how to do it,” I argue, which never seems to work.

  It’s my only argument, since I don’t actually know how to do the things I suggest.

  “I think nothing like Slade, but Kya, you were basically his protégé.” She sits just a little taller. “You’re a badass who never even really got to exercise her powers until the first time she was free, and you knew how to do everything as if you’d been able to do it all along. Surely you can figure out a way to make the impossible possible.”

  I turn to face Kimber.

  “And you, I sometimes wonder if you and Slade weren’t siblings in another life because of how scarily similar you are when it comes to wanting damn answers to every little question. Stop saying he’s so much smarter than you. Just because he hasn’t figured out how to do something, it doesn’t mean you can’t figure it out.”

  I point at my chest.

  “I’m not the smart one. I don’t have to be smart. I’m the deadliest one in this room, and arguably the deadliest one alive, depending on just how much this new darkness he introduced as a variable has changed me from then to now. Just tell me what to do so I can save him, us, and the rest of the damn world from this psychotic bitch who won’t stay dead any other way.”

  They both heave out a groan.

  “If you could control yourself one thousand percent, and if you could channel all that extra power you get when you actually do lose control, it still wouldn’t be enough power to kill her, based on what I’ve seen in every single one of those visions. It’s almost easy for her to kill you, Ella. From the inside, you’re simply not as strong, and you can’t push her out the way you can a normal demon. All your strongest weapons are external,” Kimber tells me, holding her hand out.

  “And Hannah is an unnatural anomaly to defy our immortal principle—survival of the deadliest,” Kya goes on. “Demons aren’t supposed to be this powerful.”

  “Then teach me to channel the power from the forest.” I can’t believe he knew about the forest all along, when he worked so hard to get information. “Teach me to channel it like he will that prison. My blood is Mom’s blood.”

  “You saw how that worked out in the vision, Ella. You don’t have a conduit with the same blood for you to siphon it. You’ll die immediately, and you won’t sacrifice Calypso or Alyssa to channel it.”

  “That forest gave him the idea for the prison. I have to be able to use it somehow,” I go on, starting to sound desperate now. “He taught me to siphon in two different timelines.”

  “Both of which you died during the process of, and it still wasn’t enough to kill Hannah. It’s not a workable variable,” Kimber says firmer.

  I slump to a chair.

  “It’ll all be for nothing if you can’t survive,” Kya points out unhelpfully.

  “If she has to be the brains and the brawn, then what good are the two of you, exactly?” Dice asks, scaring the shit out of all three of us as we dart a look toward the door.

  “It sucks when people just pop in without warning, doesn’t it?” he asks, grinning cheekily as he jogs down the stairs sideways.

  “How did you find us?” Kimber snaps, just as I ask, “How much have you heard?”

  “Caught a lift from Chaz, since I was irritating the hell out of him,” he says, sipping his cup of coffee from a “#1Dad” coffee mug. “He said he owed Kya this.”

  Kya just glares at him, then we glare at her.

  “Shit,” she mutters. “I had to tell Chaz. It’s hard to lie to him,” she finally confesses. “But I just told him we were trying to find a way to help Slade survive this. Not the other stuff,” she adds.

  I groan as Kimber looks around the room like she’s trying to expunge her own guilt somewhere before I see it.

  “Damn it, Kimber. You told Gage?”

  “How did you know that?” she hisses.

  “Really? You think you aren’t obvious?” Dice muses.

  “Gage won’t tell anyone, because I assured him we’d do nothing, but he’s now focusing more on killing Hannah’s minions than worrying about the portal that doesn’t really matter anymore.”

  “It explodes,” we all three tell Dice in unison just as he’s about to ask.

  “Hashtag, spoiler alert,” he says with a frown.

  “Well, Roslyn’s parents and my mother are with Karma and Kicera, so I have a few hours to kill. Chaz said you’re looking at new variables, but I can help with the little things most people overlook.”

  He sounds so helpful that all three of us just look at him like we’re waiting on the anticlimactic punchline. It’ll probably start with a hashtag.

  “What? I’m the king of little things,” he says, then frowns. “Scratch that. It’s entirely misleading, if you know what I mean. Did you see the size of the baby I put in Karma?” he goes on.

  And…the moment is over just that fast.

  “He definitely fixates on the little things,” Kya mutters under her breath before gesturing over to all the boards on all the walls. “Get caught up.”

  “Slade doesn’t learn about this. And neither does Dad,” I tell him.

  “Or Drackus,” Kimber adds.

  “Don’t tell the three most overprotective, murderous psychopaths I know that I’m helping you find a way to save the scarred menace, but that it might still cost you your life, despite this apparent hell he’s undergone to keep you safe. Hashtag, no fucking worries,” he says without ever turning back around, his eyes on the board.

  “I didn’t tell Chaz about that,” Kya quickly tells me, hand in the air like she’s swearing it.

  “I didn’t tell Gage that either. The love story is still a secret, since I’m worried this version of Slade might kill someone for knowing,” Kimber adds.

  I run a frustrated hand through my hair.

  “Thad killed Roslyn’s mom in most of these timelines,” Kya goes on.

  “Hashtag, trouble in paradise,” Dice chirps.

  “If you start doing that, I’m going to turn your voice into a meow,” I threaten.

  I stare at his back, waiting on a retort, but he says nothing. My eyes go back to the board we have laid out between the three of us, and I start marking off possible ways to connect the other new variables.

  “It’s crazy to think that I was just excited, believing that Slade was planning for a future, and that we were finally going to come out on top,” Kya says softly, looking down.

  “That day he finally stopped fighting me, I’d shown up to the Trout massacre, and I thought it happened then. The spark of wanting to live. I think it did happen, until he sat down and read his journal, forcing himself to remember why he couldn’t deviate from his plan,” I say softly.

  “I get that,” Kya sighs. “Chaz came with me, and I…I think I fell in love with him even more.” She pauses and glances over at a grinning Dice. “Tell him that and I’ll castrate you.”

  His smile falls away.

  “Anyway,” she goes on, “I didn’t even realize how much I needed that. To finally see someone who actually hauled me into that place. Someone who played a part in my hell. To rip their face from their skull while Chaz held them in place…I realized I could fac
e any future with him. I finally felt immortal when I stared into their eyes, knowing I could destroy them just as they tried to destroy me. And I was deadlier than I’d ever felt,” she goes on. “Some of those broken pieces faded away,” she says, glancing back up at me then to Kimber.

  Something occurs to me. Actually, three things occur to me at once.

  My eyes flick over the board, and I write down two things that has Kya’s eyebrows arching as she frowns like she’s trying to make sense of the written request.

  “I know it’s weird, but can you do that?” I ask, pointing at what I’ve written but refuse to say aloud, especially with Dice in the room to make a hundred hashtag jokes.

  “Are you serious?” Kimber asks.

  “Three new variables,” I say, pointing back at Kya. “You died in all these scenarios. Karma died in some more,” I tell her, pointing at the timelines. “Karma died that night she was most recently kidnapped, and Dice wasn’t with her because they weren’t together. And then—”

  I stop short.

  “And then?” Dice asks, and Kya’s eyes widen.

  You’re a terrible secret keeper! #zombiedick is coming, Kimber writes on the board.

  We’ve unfortunately had this conversation a few times before his entry.

  “And theeeeen?” Dice drawls insistently.

  The three of us blink like we’re all waiting on the other to say something intelligent.

  “And then and then and then!” Dice shouts annoyingly.

  “And then they merged,” Kimber says, playing it off.

  “But how? Karma always died when kidnapped without me. No merging,” Dice points out.

  All three of us freeze, then I think back. Kya and Karma merged in a few timelines, but it was because Chaz almost died. The one time he died …

  Then I get a little queasy when I wipe off my original request, and change it while Kimber placates Dice.

  “You’re right. My bad,” she tells him. “New variable.”

  “That’s what I’m here for. Even though that’s not a very little variable. However, they lived and merged in other timelines when Kya was kidnapped instead of Karma,” he says.

  I forget Kya can’t read until I’m pointing at the fresh words I’ve written and she’s trying to sound them out. She’s been writing things down in slave language, so she writes something down in that language and points to it for me.

  I feel stupid, and she arches a condescending eyebrow at me. “It’s easy to forget you can’t read,” I mutter.

  “For the record, no one tell Karma about this,” Dice says just as I’m about to say something else.

  “Why?” Kya asks, already letting him distract us because she doesn’t know the really important things I’m trying to get her to do.

  “Because she’s going to expect me to spend centuries scarring my body to get stronger to protect her. I’d like to avoid that,” he deadpans.

  Huffing, I dematerialize, going to find Slade. I’ll have to get with Kya when Dice isn’t around, and right now he is around and reminding me of everything Slade has gone through for me.

  Slade’s walking out of his cabin just as I near, and I practically throw myself at him. Despite the fact everyone is watching, his arms come around me immediately, and he kisses me as he walks us back into his cabin.

  He grins against my lips when my legs fasten around his waist, and we dematerialize into the woods. Lately, it’s the place we both love the most.

  Chapter 33

  SLADE

  “Why the hell is he here?” Zee growls. “He put a sword through my gut the last time we saw him.”

  “After I took it away from you when you were trying to stab it through my chest,” I point out, knocking some dirt off my sleeve.

  “He’s here to speak with me,” Kane says firmly, staring at Zee for a second. Zee levels me with a glare before walking out.

  Kane returns his attention to me, and he releases a heavy sigh while handing me back my journal.

  “Rather testy fellow, isn’t he?” I muse.

  “You put the girl he loves in an underground cell and nearly beat her to death.”

  “I made it a fair fight,” I argue. “Unlike what Leah did the three times she managed to kill Ella while Ella was distracted.”

  “That never really happened,” he bites out.

  “Only because Leah fell into your hands instead of the anointed. First time for everything, I guess. In all the other timelines, Leah either died or was brainwashed with their cult mentality,” I add curtly. “Even after I close the journal and the memories start to fade, that anger I feel toward her still exists. I’m sure he’d feel exactly the same way.”

  Kane sighs heavily, proving he’s either exasperated or just exhausted after having read the entire journal.

  “I don’t even know what to say,” he admits.

  “I don’t expect you to say anything. The only reason I’m telling you is because Ella already knows, and she’s spending every second she can spare trying to find an alternative solution.”

  He scrubs a hand over his face, staring blankly out the window.

  “There was a time I considered us moving inside that rather colorful prison I built and just existing,” I confess. “I’d never been able to step foot in it as a slave, despite having built it, but as a free man, the thought occurred to me. Then I realized, even if it did work, I was effectively caging us both.”

  “Who knows what Hannah would do in the meantime,” he says under his breath, finally realizing just how powerful this threat truly is. “You said that—”

  “Don’t repeat any of that journal to me,” I say, cutting him off. “It’s why I let you read it. I know certain things from that journal, because I’ve learned them from others. I can learn those things, but I don’t need to have the information delivered to me from that journal right now, or nothing really changes.”

  He clears his throat and nods.

  “Ella knows I’m an intelligent man,” I say, lifting the journal off the desk, “but she still likes to believe she’s smarter. She likes to believe this, because despite the fact she somehow figured all this out, she’s still young and naïve enough to think she can somehow save me without dying in the process. It’s a new timeline. A new reasoning. But in the end, it’s still just the same. The main events rarely change—it’s only the details that do.”

  He drops his eyes and folds his fingers together, staring at his hands as he processes all of this.

  “I saw the Aquarius betraying my family,” I tell him as I open the journal. “I saw them betraying my mother, and I saw the horrors that awaited us. I removed that memory and put it into the pages, mostly because I wanted to forget how helpless I was to change it, because I never once considered the Trouts as a variable. And also because I didn’t want my brother remembering how strong my visionary powers truly were. I did all I could to erase that knowledge over the years so that he couldn’t share it with any of our captors.”

  “You knew it would happen?” Kane asks me.

  “Yes. My visions were broader then, and I saw that possible future. So I tried to prevent it. I told my mother of the Aquarius’s impending betrayal, and we fled. I suppose my father entrusted the Trouts with our location.” The memory burns, because it’s one of the most buried inside this journal. I’ve had it open and in my hands for far too long today. “This was the first lifetime I learned of their involvement. It’s a mystery that’s finally solved to me. There’s always another variable in place to make the major events stay on course,” I add. “I was always going to end up in that prison.”

  “It’s just the details that change,” he says, echoing words I’ve already told him when we first sat down and I shared something I never planned to have to share with him.

  “I’m finally capable of being the detail that changes. Someone has to die, and Hannah isn’t going to pick a weak immortal.”

  “There’s no way to deflect her?”

  “Th
ere’s no one else strong enough to kill her,” I remind him, and he exhales shakily.

  “There’s more at stake than just Ella,” he says as if he needs the reminder.

  “She’s currently spending the last of our time together doing all she can to ensure we have a future, and I’m letting her while remaining appropriately suspicious, because I’m better at acting than she is. I’ve known it since the night of the red moon when she sat in a pile of ash, barely not losing herself. Then she came to me as a woman in love, instead of one who was cautiously feeling me out. She stopped expecting the worst from me.”

  I clear my throat, trying not to show him any emotion, but I have to pause for a minute to get my breathing under control.

  His eyes come up to meet mine.

  “I’m letting her attempt the impossible because she’ll need to do this to go on with herself, feeling like she did everything she could possibly do to save me. What I need you to do is continue to focus on the portal until the battle,” I add.

  “Even though—”

  “I can say these things aloud with the journal open and still be able to forget, but I can’t hear the words from your mouth or I’ll remember. It’s too soon for me to remember things,” I tell him, and he huffs out a breath.

  He gestures for me to continue speaking.

  “The portal still explodes, and that could have severe repercussions. I want her to have a better future than the present I’m leaving behind. So long as I kill Hannah quickly enough, the rest of her army will fall. The only ones remaining will be her loyal followers, and those will be few enough to handle. The dragons will prevent the war from being as it has in the past, because they’ve never before agreed to battle at our side. Make sure they’re on time.”

  “There’s no way Alton can die in your place?” he asks.

  “I need Alton to help me channel the prison into me, because he’s my blood. It’ll kill him just to be the medium between me and that prison. I can’t have it all course into me at once, or it’ll kill me instantly.”