Unchained Beauty (The Deadly Beauties Live On 5)

“That easy?” I ask dubiously.

“I have blood in the back. Drink all you need, and meet me when you’re ready. I’ll be just outside.”

Chapter 13

ELLA

Feeling so much better and a lot higher on the blood, I stroll out, ready to fight. Slade counters my magic well, so I’m sure Alton—being his identical twin—will be able to do the same.

“So if I go crazy girl, will you be able to stop me?” I ask him.

“I’ll be able to get away, and you’ll be trapped here, unable to do any harm to anyone until you come down from the trance,” he says, motioning to the large burning circle he’s standing in. “It’s designed to trap you unless you’re pulled out.”

I step in without hesitation, and he rolls his eyes. “You’re entirely too trusting.”

“If you wanted to kill me, you would have tried by now. Trapping yourself in with me when I’m not even sure what I’m capable of is stupid on your part.”

He gives me a tight smile. “I’ll be able to get out if I need to, but your powers won’t escape the ring.”

“Then let’s do this,” I say awkwardly, not sure how you just start risking the madness with someone you don’t particularly want to harm.

“Anything offensive you’ve been wanting to try, now’s the time,” he tells me.

Without overthinking it, I blast out my usual power, and he bats it away. “More, Ella. Don’t hold back.”

Gritting my teeth, I let it boil over me, feeling it already calling to me to use even more. It bursts free in silver streaks like never before, slamming into him.

His chest slices open as he fails to defend against all of it, and my vision dims as I try to stave back the monster inside me that enjoys the way the blood trickles from his chest. The pain in his eyes is so intoxicating. His scream of agony is so pretty.

I shake my head, trying to clear it.

“That darkness, Ella?” he bites out, his wound slowly healing on its own. “That’s your connection to your mate. That’s the centuries of torment and torture Slade suffered. He’s blocked it out. You have to do it too.”

My vision continues to go in and out, and when I blink, I realize I’ve crossed the ground to him without realizing it, and he’s shouting at me.

My eyes dart to see an orb in my hand, and I manage to extinguish it before slamming it into his head the way I think I was about to.

A shudder passes me, and I stumble back, blinking out of the beginnings of a trance.

“It’s not going to work. Clearly I can try to kill you, unlike Slade,” I say disappointedly, ignoring the chill of withdrawal.

“Don’t stop, Ella. You give up too soon,” he growls.

Rolling my eyes, I shake my head. “Just get me out of here. I hoped your connection to him would keep me from doing something like that.”

“It will. It did. You snapped out of it.”

“It’s too risky. You could be the reason we win this war,” I prattle on, basically talking myself out of it as my fingers curl into my palms, cutting them as I deny the power.

I really want to hear his screams. It’s worse than usual, because I feel like I’m owed his screams, for whatever reason.

“I lied to you

Ella,” he tells me, causing me to look back over at him. “The visionary didn’t find my mate on his own. I let him into my mind. I allowed him see her. I would have let him see you too, had Slade not sealed that off and kept you his secret.”

“Why would you do that? You’re just trying to provoke me because you’re clearly as suicidal as your stupid fucking brother,” I snap, wondering why I forgot his scars aren’t visible, but run just as deep.

“They promised the pain would stop. They told me I could have her if I guided them. They told me they’d set me free if I proved to them I would help. I was going to work for them, Ella. I was going to help them. I broke after two centuries, and I was willing to do anything, including sever my bond to my brother.”