Unchained Beauty (The Deadly Beauties Live On 5) - Page 138
“There’s no way Alton can die in your place?” he asks.
“I need Alton to help me channel the prison into me, because he’s my blood. It’ll kill him just to be the medium between me and that prison. I can’t have it all course into me at once, or it’ll kill me instantly.”
I leave out the part that I learned this when I watched this idea fail me, costing Ella her life. My stomach roils, and I start looking forward to closing this journal so I can go back to forgetting those two particular timelines.
“So you really do both have to die, even though the Gemini Twin bond legend was all—”
He stops talking when I give him an exasperated look.
“Sorry,” he grumbles.
I nod slowly. “There’s always truth to a really good fictional legend, even if the truth is different than presented.”
“What do you need from me?” he asks seriously.
“I’ve done all of this with one simple goal: Save Ella. It’s up to you to save everyone else, and I also request that Kya always be taken care of. She’ll also be able to help ease my people into your flock.”
“Kya is one of us,” he says as if that’s a nonissue. “You’re sure Hannah will possess you as a substitute?” he asks, then grimaces.
“When the portal explodes, she always immediately directs her attention to Ella. She needs a power source to open the portal, and in the past, she always tried to take Ella, failing every time. She always found an alternate power source, such as Alton, most recently. Now she’s using a Lokie to do it instead, since Alton clearly didn’t work the way she planned. Regardless, the portal can’t actually be reopened. It was sealed permanently by cutting threads to that dimension, using the true blood of the Firsts she’s insanely tried to recreate. But the portal obsession has distracted her from concentrating all her efforts on Ella. She’d already be ruling the world if not for that. We needed time, and this obsession with the Lokies gave us that.”
Standing, I walk over, my eyes skimming a picture of a laughing Ella, and I go to it, lifting it and opening the back of the frame as I continue speaking.
“She always knew Ella was so much stronger than I was. She left me alive because I wasn’t a threat worth wasting energy on,” I state absently, removing the picture and tossing the frame aside. “But now I’m just as strong, and because I started siphoning the rage and focusing on it, Ella was tethered to all that darkness that has been accumulating for centuries. She’s effectively weaker without that control she once had, and Hannah has likely been slowly figuring that out.”
“You made her weaker?”
“Everything I did had various reasons as to why I did it,” I go on, the memories starting to fade as I open the journal to restart them. “I only purposely put in new variables that furthered my agenda in a multitude of ways.”
Closing the journal again, I start toward the door.
Before I walk out, I say, “Prepare for the unexpected. I’ve changed a lot from those timelines to this one, and it will have a ripple effect on Ella’s end with details. The only thing I’ll be focused on is Hannah. I won’t watch Ella die one thousand and two times.”
I dematerialize and blow out a shaky breath when I land in my cabin, then close my eyes, seeing nothing. It’s frustrating, because when I see nothing, it’s supposed to mean she’s with me. I should kill Alton for showing her how to block me out.
Then suddenly…
I see Ella on her eighteenth birthday as she blows out her candles, silver flickering in her eyes for a second, and I curse as my eyes fly open. Quickly, I grab my phone and actually call her for a change.
“Hello?” she says, though it sounds like there’s static on the line.
“Where the fucking hell are you?” I snap. “You’re too far away if I’m seeing your eighteenth birthday.”
She grows so quiet that if not for the crackle of static, I’d believe the line to be disconnected. “Well, this necklace doesn’t work then,” she says, confusing the hell out of me.
“Ella,” I growl.
“I’ll be home soon. I just picked up new lingerie. Talk later. About to go through a tunnel.” She starts making obvious faux-static noises before hanging up, and I roll my eyes while massaging my temples, side-eyeing my journal.
Huffing out a breath, I resume my task of checking my math again, assuming my old papers are with Ella. I’m not too worried about them figuring out my formulas. I’m more concerned about what the hell Ella intends to do.
My eyes flick to the hatch on the floor of this cabin.
Some parts of my plan aren’t in the journal, assuming she’s read it. As much as I hate it, I walk over to the hatch and pull it back, dropping into the hole of the hidden basement I created.
My eyes land on the bars in front of me for the small cage I created. I hate myself for this part of the plan, because everything about it feels wrong.
Chapter 34
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