Lost Beauty (The Deadly Beauties Live On 4)

A blur of incubus races by me, leaping off the porch as Chaz chases him, growling the entire time.

“Think he’ll hurt him?” Gage asks dryly.

“Nah. They’re brothers now, since Chaz is with Kya,” Thad says, grinning.

“Hashtag—brotherly love! Show me the love!” Dice yelps, running around in a circle in the front yard just as Chaz stops chasing.

When Dice speaks again, his voice is a cat’s meow, and his eyes widen in horror.

“Three weeks!” Chaz snaps, pointing his finger at Dice. “You can’t have your voice back for three fucking weeks!”

Dice meows louder, panicking, and I laugh, covering my mouth when the surprise hits me.

I’ll never abandon Slade, but I think I’ll get used to being around these people. People who allow their emotions to rule.

As Chaz reaches me again, threading our fingers together, his lips brush my ear. “Let’s grab something to drink. I need to drink a truckload to erase those memories from my head.”

I start to answer, when he catches my wrist, studying it. He slides his wrist up beside mine, and the symbol on my arm aligns with his—which I didn’t know he had. The two symbols apart look like nothing more than a couple of blobs of ink. Together, they make a black dragon coiled in a striking position, ready to fight.

My breath catches as his lips run across the proof we’re somehow bonded together for eternity.

He pulls back, his eyes on me, and something profound occurs to me. I’d do anything in my power to keep him safe. He’d do the same for me.

Emotions don’t make someone weaker.

They give us a reason to fight.

Chapter 32

MASTER

Hannah paces, furious. Her entire plan to open the portals had failed.

“Why?” she shouts at the worthless Lokie.

Her visionary is gone. Her plan is ruined. And she’s done everything right, prepared for any possible outcome... Except those dragons.

The Lokie glares at her, his cuffs digging into his flesh. Those cuffs aren’t chained to anything tangible, but they’ve tethered him to be her slave for longer than he can remember.

He’s just as furious about the plan failing as she is. He was promised freedom, and those damn pests ruined it all, stole his chance at finally being freed from his constant prison.

“You still have two more opportunities before all hope is gone for another few hundred years. Give me my freedom. You promised.”

Hannah growls at him, seething. “They know Morgana is my vessel now. She’s weak, pointless, and yet they still plan to save her. If they take her away from me before I can finish what I’ve started, I’ll never get my chance. You will help me, or you will rot in one of those cells you’ve helped me keep my prisoners locked away in. Understand, Lokie?”

He bites down on his tongue, hating her for everything she’s ever made him do. He stayed behind on purpose when his people left, almost died when he fought the spell the first circle used to cast the Lokies out. He didn’t want the violence or injustice any longer. Yet she’s used him, made him remain the monster he never wanted to be, damaged his soul more than his kind ever did.

Several more faces appear in the large room they’re in, all of them demons hosting immortal bodies. Something the Lokie was forced to teach Hannah to do.

“We failed. He should die,” one bites out, glaring at the Lokie who has fought his entire life to keep breathing, praying for his own release one day.

“We still need him. The stars will align two more times before the window is sealed again,” Hannah says, regaining her composure.

“You said losing their lycan would weaken them. We told you not to risk using the Gemini. The prior ring owners broke the bond between them before we could ever gain the rights to their power. They feared their strength, and now it is gone,” a coven membe

r states, spitting the words out. “The princess is the strongest. She’s the only way to open the correct portal and gain access to the—”

“We will succeed,” Hannah barks, her eyes blazing with fury as the coven member steps back, lowering her eyes from the master.