Lost Beauty (The Deadly Beauties Live On 4)

Roars sound above us, and I grab Kya, jerking her back as the shadows zoom around the sky, blocking out the small bit of moonlight.

A loud, angry cry jerks my attention back to Ella as she slams her fist into the ground again, right beside the portal. The hole suddenly closes up just as the last shadow shoots through. It’s then I stumble back, because I know what just broke into our world.

Kya clings to me, staring with the same disbelief as the shadows shift, their true form starting to show. My night vision hones in on the impossible.

Even the Harbingers of Death decide what they’re seeing is just too much, and they begin running in retreat, racing away at lightning quick speeds.

One of the shadows turns, its eyes locking in on the retreating eyeless beasts, and it swoops down, spiraling so fast that I think it’s going to collide with the ground. At the last minute, it levels out, hovering just over the harbingers’ heads, speeding above them in time with their racing feet.

Without any warning, fire suddenly shoots free in a large, vast spray, igniting their bodies as they scream in pain. Kya jumps, her hands clinging to my shirt as all of us look on in shock.

“Holy fucking dragon,” Dice whispers, stumbling back into Gage before slamming into the ground. “I am not hashtag—slaying that motherfucker.”

The black dragon’s scales glimmer against the light of the fire trail it just created. The black, fiery eyes seem alive as smoke snorts through its nose.

It flies back over, burning the row of harbingers still standing. Two more spiral down, and they follow behind it, igniting their own flames over the remaining armored things who have lived this unfortunate amount of time.

My body turns to stone, ready to react, as it swoops over us. Instead of attacking, it surges straight up into the sky again before darting off like a fucking rocket.

The other two follow the exact same pattern, and we watch as the shadows in the sky split, going in different directions as they quickly disappear from sight.

“Please, someone, tell me we didn’t just unleash an entire fleet of dragonites into our world,” Kya says quietly, as though the words are less blasphemous if they’re not spoken above of a whisper.

“We didn’t. That demon bitch did,” Slade growls. “Someone want to tell me where Gavin is? Or where the fuck that bitch went? Or better yet, where the fucking hell is he?”

Alton. He’s asking about his twin, I think.

Kya clutches my hand, her fingers threading with mine and squeezing tight, as though she’s worried I’m about to become a volatile beast.

“Guess I’m not so worthless,” Ella says as she steps toward us, her eyes warily taking in Slade, who is more furious than I’ve ever seen him.

He launches a streak of power into the sky, and then another, and another as he yells at nothing, his chest heaving.

He casts one cold glare over his shoulder at us before disappearing, and Ella blows out a shaky breath.

“How’d you know how to close th

e portal?” Gage asks her, his eyes scanning the sky for any sign of the scaly, medieval fucking bullshit we now have on our plate.

Ella bristles. “The base was gone—which was Slade’s brother. The portal was supposed to close automatically but couldn’t because it stalled out, possibly because someone from the other side was holding it open. So I closed it by jarring the earth around enough to reset it.”

My eyebrows go up. “And you knew how to do that how?” I ask, studying her.

Her right eye twitches, and she looks back. “Sadie said something about it when we were discussing the possibilities of the portal.” She spins back around. “I got here just before Hannah bailed. I tried to trail her, but couldn’t.”

“Holy shit,” Thad says as he walks up. “Those were fucking dragons.”

“You think? I didn’t know what those scaly things were while they were shooting fire off at the mouth,” Dice says dryly, finally standing back up from the ground.

“Dragonites,” Kya corrects, looking between us. “Those are feral, lethal, deadly, brutal shifters of the worst kind. You’re not taking this seriously enough.”

“Chaz is part dragonite, right?” Gage asks, pointing at me while looking at Kya.

“But he’s not full dragonite. Hell on earth was just unleashed. The last time they were here, they almost destroyed our people. It was so bad the Lokies became the good guys. Still think this is amusing?”

My skin crawls with dread. I knew it was bad, but hearing the panic in her voice has my own beast stirring restlessly within. Instinctively, I pull her to me, and she shivers against me.

“I saw them through Slade’s eyes. He took me through his mind so I could come into contact with more immortals that way. It was terrible. They showed no mercy. Men. Women. Children... It didn’t matter. We think Hannah is bad? Imagine a bunch of demons with wings and the ability to melt thirty monsters in a few swoops.”