Unchained Beauty (The Deadly Beauties Live On 5)

“So if we attacked before the cosmic blast—”

“You die and Hannah returns to hell, likely to climb back up from the pits of it again to destroy the world at a later date,” Kimber says, circling one timeline and reminding me of that horrific memory.

“It took her a week to climb back from hell when we killed her host body one night,” I grumble. “She was still back on the night of the second portal.”

“Slade worked so hard to find out when it was happening, when he already knew when,” Kya says under her breath.

“The point of this experiment was for him to learn everything he could, searching for any minor detail that could be important that he might have missed when he knew too much,” Kimber explains.

“If I run, she finds me in two different timelines,” I say on a sigh. “And I’d run away with Slade if I knew it would work without consequence, but she also kills all of you.”

“Terrible plan,” Kya agrees.

“I hate to point this out, but a baby who eats immortal souls is new. Any chance that scary little niece of yours can eat Hannah?” Kimber asks.

Kya shoots her an angry glare. “Demonic souls are different from souls that haven’t evacuated a non-demonic body. If she eats Hannah, Hannah will simply possess her. Just like Karma or I would.”

“Anyone else fascinated with the fact that Dice survives all one thousand and one timelines?” I muse aloud. “At least as the dust clears from that final vision, anyway. Who knows what happens after that?”

“Yeah, but only one timeline has my sister staying with him long enough to procreate, which means his odds were one in a thousand and two,” Kya states dismissively.

My eyes come up to meet Kimber’s at the same time she looks over at me.

“What are the same odds Slade has produced enough new variables to actually save the two of us together and find a way to kill Hannah?” I ask her with cautious hope.

“Pretty good, considering how many things are different. Even Roslyn being with Thad is new, mostly because in this timeline, Slade terrorized her, and she and Thad grew closer because of it. Same for Leah and Zee. Though I doubt Thad or Zee will warm up to Slade because of it, but those variables are still new variables.”

“We’re stronger as a group, but how do I kill Hannah once she possesses me without killing myself in the process?”

No one has an answer for that.

“Morgana is a changeable detail, too. I’m not sure who Hannah possessed in some of those timelines because they haven’t been players in this one. Morgana was never an important component, just available when Hannah needed a weak witch to grow stronger in,” I tell them, grasping at straws.

“But Morgana will inevitably die, just like all the ex-hosts, so she’s not an important new variable. Keep in mind that just because a var

iable is new, that doesn’t make it important,” Kimber is fast to say, which makes sense.

I know not everything new will be of use, but I still feel like I’m missing something crucial.

“I thought the goal was to kill Hannah once ejected from Morgana’s body,” Kya states, confused.

“Impossible,” Kimber and I both say at the same time, Slade’s visions haunting our minds.

“Slade thinks he’s able to save Morgana, because he put the real memories in the journal. He needed to believe he could save her, that way he could convince Gavin of the same thing by showing him his thoughts and plans,” Kimber goes on.

“Gavin’s a new variable. Slade killed him immediately in all the other timelines during our first encounter with him. In those other times, Slade joined everyone in the battle after I shattered the force field outside the rings,” I interject. “Gavin is also a lot stronger in this timeline than in the others, because he fed off those stones to be strong enough to evade Slade’s death traps in the cages.”

“A cockroach surviving a nuclear blast is not a new variable,” Kya says on a long sigh. “The cockroach being Gavin.”

This goes on for a few more hours, everyone pointing out the exceptions in magic’s laws, the contradictory pieces we have, and overanalyzing each new variable that may or may not be of importance.

I slip out during a heated debate about Zee’s new powers being an important new variable and a key piece of the puzzle.

Then I go deal with a furious Slade who is pissed he can’t close his eyes and see my every move, so I distract him with really hot sex in the woods for an hour or so, then slip back when he gets called away for duty.

“If we simply attempted to kill her, she’d body hop to prevent herself from going to hell,” Kimber is saying to Kya.

“We already know hell’s a bad idea. But what about purgatory? You and Thad can toss her into purgatory!” Kya says animatedly.