Unchained Beauty

by C. M. Owens

  “Technically, we’re apparently mates because he’s part dragon shifter and—”

  At my look, she closes her mouth. I don’t need to hear the word mate, but she doesn’t know that’s what’s irking me.

  “Ella is doing this behind her family’s back,” I remind her. “Alton is just as dangerous as I am, but I doubt he’d feel as obliged to spare her life as I have.”

  “Funny. We once had the argument about her saving us, and I was the one defending her. Today you used my argument to make your point. Sounded a little artificial, if I’m being honest.”

  “You sound more like one of them every day, if I’m being honest,” I retort, eyes still on my charts as I try to figure out the new pattern.

  Snorting, she sits down closer.

  “Simone was crying. Simone doesn’t cry,” she goes on.

  “Simone is lucky she’s not a headless scarecrow strung up in the cornfields right now,” I state absently. “Hank too.”

  “Because they left Ella,” she says, almost as though she’s finishing a sentence she feels I left unfinished.

  My eyes finally come up to meet hers.

  “You want me to care about the princess, don’t you?” I ask on a sigh.

  She squirms uncomfortably. “After we win—”

  “We can’t win if everyone is busy living life while Hannah plans her next attack.”

  “After we win,” she starts again, her tone a little firmer, “our people are going to need to decide if they trust the queen or want to continue in a pointless rebellion.”

  “Pointless rebellion?” I ask her with an incredulous tone.

  “They’re only rejecting the royals because you are. Eighty percent of immortals bow to the queen. She doesn’t kill those who won’t bow to her, but she will exterminate you if you harm her people. She’s a queen of consequences.”

  Sounds like some of that drivel Polly was spewing.

  “And Ella will be their queen when Alyssa is gone or no longer strong enough to conquer lesser individuals who can’t let go of power. Let’s see how long the monarchy lasts when she kills endlessly, while staying victim to the darkest pieces of her, and wants to save every butterfly with damaged wings when she’s pretending to be in control.”

  Her lips thin, and she looks down again.

  “We’re immortal. Alyssa could reign long enough for Ella to learn control.”

  “Alyssa’s blood is only considered royal because their lineage is supposed to carry the first of our kind or some bullshit like that. You can’t create our kind—they got lucky by producing another one in their family so soon. It’s why the monarchy fell apart until another creature goddess was born. Because you can’t rule by blood if you’re weaker than someone else. You rule by being the deadliest. Already Alyssa isn’t the deadliest, and neither is Kane.”

  I arch an eyebrow at her, daring her to argue. Her jaw grinds.

  “There’s reason to believe the royal bloodline is more complex than you seem to think. Alyssa and Kane were the first ever to pair. It’s possible it becomes an entire species—”

  “Why are we having this conversation?” I ask in interruption. “We’ll worry about what happens next after we finally finish what we started.”

  She stares at me for a long moment. “You’re right. Alyssa is weaker than you and Alton. She’s weaker than Ella. She’s even possibly weaker than Zee, now that Gavin has done whatever it is he did to him.”

  Heaving out a breath, she slumps in her seat, pausing as her eyes meet mine.

  I never should have told her what comes next. She’s been different ever since I laid out certain pieces of my plan.

  “But Ella isn’t weaker than you. If she does have to step up, she’s going to need someone strong enough to pull her back, and someone who is just as strong to help obliterate people like the ones who’ve run those rings undeterred for centuries,” she adds.

  My eyes narrow on hers.

  “Kya, I see what you’re doing, and now isn’t the time to be sentimental,” I say on a disappointed sigh, fighting to keep my jaw relaxed instead of tense.

  “One Gemini has to die according to some ancient prophecy that could just be someone’s idea of a sick joke.”

  I knew I should have kept that to myself instead of sharing it with her.

  Leaning back, I steeple my hands in front of my face. “You’re onto something. I’ll change everything I’ve been planning for centuries. Thank you, Kya. I’ve seen the light,” I state in a droll tone.

  She leans forward, an annoyed expression tugging down one corner of her mouth.

  “I grew up thinking I’d never care about anything other than killing as many people involved with the rings as possible. Nothing else mattered when I was in there.”

  “What’s your point?” I ask, already returning my attention to my charts and drawing a line as something niggles in the corner of my mind, a memory just barely evading me.

  As I draw another line, tilting my head as I shift some of the pictures of the past few nights, she mutters something to herself.

  I glance up to see her looking at me like she wants to slap me, so I resume shifting around the images, and drawing new lines.

  “My point is that I’m not in there anymore. Neither are you. I’d like to think about what comes next, and I think you should reexamine your plan.”

  “Kya,” I murmur as a smirk tugs at my lips.

  “Yeah?”

  “Call a meeting with everyone, except for Simone and Hank. Order those two to sit in a bunker. Even under a blood oath, I no longer trust them.”

  “O…kay… What just happened?”

  I draw the final line, and I quickly stand to grab one of my family’s oldest journals.

  “I just figured out what the unusual star pattern is leading to, and when the next portal will have to be opened. And for once, we might have fucking time to prepare.”

  “Okay,” she says, sounding a little quicker to oblige as she darts out.

  Only because I need no distractions, I decide to check in on Ella, since she should be close to finally returning home now. My eyes close, and I wait until her face starts to come into view.

  It takes less than a second for the image of her to clear, and I arch an eyebrow when I see her doubled over and heaving out laughter. Laughter that sounds like a ringing echo since she’s so far away.

  I neglected to tell her that I’ve been able to hear her since the first time I heard her speak in person—as long as I’m close enough. It’s nice to have some secrets left.

  She’s the only thing in the frame, so I have no idea what has her laughing so hysterically. And the distance is messing up the clarity of the sound.

  Glancing out the window, seeing Kya still busy, I dematerialize, mentally berating myself the entire time.

  I drop onto the other side of the meadow, hearing the laughter fall over me in waves. Even the sound of her fucking laugh is maddening. Everything she does tests my control.

  It’s not supposed to be this strong.

  Edging into the shadows, I continue to watch, still puzzled by what has her laughing so hard. She’s braying like a donkey, choking on air, and slapping the ground as tears roll out of her eyes. Her mouth is gaping when she does some little ca ca ca sound through her guffaws.

  It’s the single most ridiculous thing I’ve ever seen in my life.

  I’m forced to wipe the stupid fucking grin right the hell off my face.

  She tries to speak, but it’s all gibberish, then there’s another long donkey bray as she gulps in air and repeats the process all over again. I can’t even understand a single word she’s trying to say, and my stupid grin just keeps on growing for no real good reason.

  With a lot of concentrated effort, I finally tear my eyes away from her to find Polly laughing, standing right beside…

  Is that the incubus?

  With long, bright red braided pigtails—like Polly’s—and pink rosy cheeks—like Polly’s—and lo
ng, blue eyelashes—like Polly’s—and a fluffy, very short poodle skirt with a very busty poodle shirt…like Polly’s.

  I don’t remember his hair being quite so long. Or red. I could have sworn it was short and black just a few hours ago.

  I’m almost tempted to ask what exactly is going on, because I’m quite certain he didn’t have very large breasts either.

  Almost.

  “Yourlegsrrrrrrrshaveddd ahahhahaha” is what Ella is raging from the ground.

  I think she’s pointing out the fact the incubus has smooth legs…as if that’s the most ludicrous thing going on at present.

  This is the future queen, ladies and gentlemen. Bravo.

  Wiping away my smile once again, I try to be annoyed with the severe waste of time this is turning out to be.

  “I’ll deal with the land dispute now, Your Grace,” Polly tells her.

  Ella continues laughing hysterically, and Polly seems to be straining to understand.

  “I think our princess is saying she handled the dispute while you were playing dolly with me,” Dice bites out.

  Damn it. She went back into that forest?

  That pisses me off. She was supposed to simply fucking sit still for three hours. It’s like I can’t leave her unattended.

  Polly bows, still grinning, and disappears from sight. Ella is rolling around on the ground, still laughing so hard that it makes it hard to focus on anything else. Even the dolled up incubus.

  “Get it all out of your system,” he tells her sourly.

  “Wh-wh-what did you do for three hours?” she asks, barely managing the words.

  “I’ll give you a ten minute demonstration as a summary recap, if you swear we’ll never speak of this again, and that includes never telling the others,” he says, as though he’s been preparing that speech and desperately wants her to accept the offer.

  Her laughter tapers off, and she weirdly seems to put a lot of thought into this decision. I roll my eyes and scrub a hand over my face, clueless as to why I don’t just leave.

  It’s not like she’s in any danger.

  Tapping her chin while lost in deep thought, a huge grin spreads across her face, and I just stare like an idiot at how happy she looks in a random moment like this.

  “Fifteen minutes,” she counters.

  He narrows his eyes, and the blue lashes look twice as ridiculous on him with that movement.

  “Fine,” he bites out. “Then you swear you’ll never tell the others.”

  She crosses her heart with her index finger, still grinning, and he sighs before putting one hand in the air, and one hand on his hip.

  Then the daft cunt starts singing. “I’m a little teapot short and stout—”

  Ella bursts out laughing, but the incubus continues to sing and do some weird little dance. Then moves on to some song that has him kicking his legs and holding his arms out in front of him.

  From there, it certainly gets odder. I’m not sure why this is embarrassing for him, considering it’s not much different from his usual behavior—only he’s dressed like Polly.

  But like there’s a magnetic force, my eyes bounce back to Ella, the way she doesn’t even care how silly she looks as she howls with uncontrollable laughter. The incubus doesn’t seem to find her laughter as mesmerizing as I do, since he looks like he’s never hated anything more than this.

  Memories of the few short years I’ve been watching her on repeat for centuries topple to the forefront of my mind. I’ve seen her laugh like this so many times in various, seemingly unfunny situations, but without the sound until now.

  It’s far more captivating with the sound on.

  I can’t ever even remember laughing that hard even once during my very long, exhausting existence.

  She stands up and begins dancing alongside him, and he seems to forget he’s angry as they start arguing about who’s the better dancer.

  Her head tips back as she laughs again, and the incubus heatedly argues something that I don’t really hear. My vision has tunneled, and I have to force myself to rip my gaze away as I close my eyes, finding peace and darkness in her presence, instead of being haunted by the sight of her.

  But I can sure as hell hear her better now that I’ve closed off one of my senses. And I can smell her.

  My hands fist at my sides, and I growl low in my throat, finding my anger renewed. Sometimes it’s easy to forget how much her visions taunted me for so many centuries with something I wanted so much but knew I’d never have.

  Dematerializing away from her, I land in the middle of that damn forest, ready for a fight to take the edge off.

  I pop off several rounds of magic, baiting the damn forest until the first wave of attack beetles shoot out of the trees.

  My dark grin emerges as I light them up, not holding back for once.

  My laughter sounds nothing like hers, because there’s never any humor to it.

  Chapter 10

  ELLA

  “Alright, alright. You’ve had your fun. Help me undo this,” Dice gripes, turning his back to me.

  Still laughing and ignoring the sensation of being watched, since it’s constant, I unzip the dress.

  “I wish Shay could have seen this. Ever since you set Chaz up to land in the room with her and Frankie while they were sexing it up, she’s needed revenge.”

  “First of all,” he says as he starts shimmying out of the dress, “that psycho witch posing as a hippie is going by Abigail now, because bitch be crazy and she has a lot of enemies. Secondly, I didn’t make that happen. I just set up the dominos.”

  “Completely different,” I state seriously, even as I work to stop laughing, because it really does hurt now.

  He unfastens his bra, which has me laughing harder, because he’s still in some underskirt thing.

  Just as he gets the bra unfastened, the outfit is suddenly back on, and I step back, confused for a brief second. Dice sucks in a breath as he whirls around with wide, horrified eyes.

  “No!” he yelps, then rips the dress off.

  It reappears, fully intact, in the next blink.

  “Holy early Christmas. This is really happening,” I say on a choked laugh as he frantically starts shredding the stuffing out of his chest, letting it deflate.

  In the next instant, it re-inflates, and he whimpers as he starts shaking his head.

  “This can’t be happening!” he shouts.

  I lose it, laughing so hard as he shrieks and continues to unsuccessfully remove his clothing.

  “That cheating bitch! She said three hours!” Dice harps, still not giving up.

  “Technically, she said she’d only keep you for three hours. There was no statute of limitation on what she could do to you,” I say through my guffaws.

  He glares at me. “Are you going to let her manipulate you like that?! Go stand up for yourself, woman! She’s making a mockery of you!”

  “Actually, she’s making a mockery of you. And I’m okay with that.”

  “Cactuses and pricks!” he says, waving an accusatory finger at me.

  “Relax, it can’t last for long. She’s a dark user. Not a hexer,” I tell him dismissively as I grow distracted.

  Familiar power is pulsing over me, and I turn, looking into the woods.

  “Just how long can it last?” Dice asks in a high octave before clearing his throat.

  I see a flash of power lighting up through the trees, then another, and another.

  “Dice, go home,” I say as I wave my hand and send him away before he can argue.

  He’s dematerialized, unable to return on his own, and I take off sprinting through the woods, dodging things that shoot out from hidden places when I make too much noise.

  Narrowly, I dodge a massive shadow that can’t be good, and I roll to my feet, shifting my direction when that blast of power brightens to the right.

  A feral roar comes from my left as the direction changes again, because that stupid son of a bitch is clearly dematerializing in a forest y
ou’re not supposed to do that in.

  He really is suicidal. What the hell is he doing?

  Another roar seems to call to me, and I spin, not having too many obstacles to face since everything seems to be concentrating on the most disruptive being at the moment.

  Sliding over what I hope is leaves, I shift my direction again, hearing that roar vibrate through my bones, feeling the agony in it as my sprint speeds up.

  My heart is racing when I hear the thunderous buzzing, and for the first time, I catch a peek at Slade in lycan form.

  His monstrous form is twice the size of any lycan I’ve seen before, including Amy. When he roars again, I see the power burst free, slicing through the throngs of inky warriors who seem to be rising from the ground.

  Well, that’s unnervingly new to me.

  He’s fighting a battle with a forest that has been growing stronger for decades with an endless power supply.

  He bowls through them, ripping them apart, but they simply reconnect because they’re not living entities. They’re just protectors of this forest.

  I race into the fray, stupidly releasing my own burst of power that hums through me with that drugging, addictive taste.

  It’s enough to create a hole in the chaos that I leap through and crash into the scarred and mangled flesh of the huge lycan.

  He roars, then his head whips around, silver eyes brightening as he growls viciously. The fear I should feel is absent as I force us to dematerialize, using more strength than I should to launch us out of the forest by some miracle.

  Slade is cut to pieces as he pants heavily, still growling and still in lycan form as he circles me. My eyes scan his side, taking in all the scars that apparently exist in every form he has.

  New gashes are bleeding heavily, dripping onto the ground in the circle he’s pacing. The growling finally tapers off, though I barely even notice it, because my eyes are on his when they seem to roll back in his head.

  He collapses to the ground, and his body shrinks back to his human form until he’s naked and ripped up all over. My breath catches in my throat when I see how bad the damage really is, and I slide to his side, dematerializing us into his cabin.

  “Holy shit,” Kya says, her eyes widening on us as Slade and I appear on the floor in front of her. “What the hell happened?” she snaps, dropping to her knees.