Filed To Story: Cursed Legacies Series Free PDF by Morgan B Lee
While browsing the few aisles looking for what I need, Crypt’s presence nearby finally vanishes. I smile smugly to myself. He must have finally decided to give up.
Along with purchasing a dreamcatcher that I hope is strong enough to keep the Nightmare Prince away, I buy a few essential ingredients to make another healing spell for my singed fingertips.
I’m not particularly gifted as a caster in the typical sense. I can manage minor, practical spells and potions, but most of my skills have nothing to do with day-to-day magic. Still, healing myself is necessary since I can’t go to the university healers.
Thirty minutes later, I arrive at my dorm room and pause outside the door with a frown. Hanging on the handle is a delicate rope chain necklace with Luka’s fang as its sole pendant. Directly beside it is a beautifully woven dreamcatcher, its feathers stained dark with what looks to be blood and sigils burned into the delicate web net. It’s obviously the work of a skilled blood fae. And on the ground is a massive takeout box of Chinese food from a restaurant in Halfton, the nearest human town. It’s still steaming.
Oh, my gods. They have no idea how to handle being rejected, do they?
If they don’t respond to blunt rejection, how am I supposed to get out of this quintet? Grumbling to myself, I grab the unwanted gifts and slam the door shut behind me.
MAVEN
That evening, I’ve finished healing my fingertips and I’m watering my plants when Kenzie bursts into my dorm room with an excited squeal. She rushes towards me with her arms extended like she’s coming in for a hug, but I block it by lifting the watering can.
“Wouldn’t want to get you wet.”
“Right—sorry, I’m just so excited I forgot the no-hugging rule.” She wiggles her eyebrows and purrs, “But don’t worry about getting me wet. I’ve been wet all day if you catch my meaning.”
“Nice innuendo. I take it you like your quintet.”
Kenzie clutches her heart and drops onto my bed, sighing at the ceiling. “Vivienne is the sexiest little angel in the world, and Dirk is almost as feral as I am in bed. And they’re both so nice! We’re going to be such a fantastic quintet once…”
She trails off, and her smile drops a little.
“Once that vampire stops being an asshole?” I guess.
“He hasn’t been one today. Actually, he’s politely given us our space today. He helped everyone else move into the apartment but said he wouldn’t move in until I gave him the green light.
There’s all this awkward tension between us, and I can tell he keeps wanting to say something, but whatever it is, he keeps chickening out. I don’t know how to feel about being matched to him. On the one paw, he clearly wants to make up for how he treated me before, but on the other paw…well, I don’t get over things easily. Am I being petty?”
“No. You’re protecting yourself.”
“The gods wouldn’t match me with someone who wouldn’t be good to me, though,” she muses, sitting up to braid her hair. “So maybe I should let go of the past and give him a real chance. But enough about me—girl. Can we please talk about your infamous, sexy, wealthy, ridiculously top-tier quintet? I’m so fucking excited for you! I bet you’ll be in one of the highest-ranked quintets of all time!”
I look away. “They’re not my quintet.”
“What do you mean? Hang on…May, why are you still in this dorm? Aren’t you going to move in with your guys?”
“They’re not mine. I turned them down so they can find a better keeper.”
Kenzie stares at me so long that I wonder if she heard me. Then she tips her head. “Wait. Why would you think you’re not a good enough keeper for them? You’re amazing. And if the gods made the match, then you know you five were all meant to be together. Nobody rejects their matches because it’s fate.”
As if the gods care about my fate. I shake my head and return to watering my plants.
“Trust me. Rejecting them was the right thing to do.”
To my surprise, she throws a hand over her mouth to try muffling a loud laugh. “Gods. You actually rejected those legacies? I wish I were there to see the looks on their faces. How did they take it?”
I glare at the Chinese takeout in the trash can. The fang necklace is in one of my drawers, and I begrudgingly hung both dreamcatchers up over the threshold of my dorm because as much as I don’t want Silas’s gift, I want Crypt getting into my room even less.
“They’ll get over it,” I mutter. Then an idea strikes me, and I face her. “Kenzie. You’ve dated a lot more than I have.”
She grins. “As we’ve established, yes.”
“I’m abysmally inexperienced in comparison.”
“It’s true, you’re basically a monk,” she agrees. “A virgin monk, I’m pretty sure. No offense.”
I fight a morbid smile. “None taken. Tell me. What have your exes done in the past that made you dump them?”
Kenzie blows out a big breath slowly. “Oh, gods. Where to even begin? Honestly, there are so many reasons to dump someone. If they’re boring, annoying, clingy, mean…oh, or if they’re high-maintenance. That gets old fast.”
Boring, annoying, clingy, mean…
I take mental notes, waiting for her to go on.
Kenzie scratches her nose as she thinks. “Cheating is obviously a huge deal breaker. I’ve never been cheated on, but I would drop them like a griffin turd if they betrayed me like that. I did have a boyfriend once who flirted with anything that had a pulse, which was irritating. He did it to make me jealous, but he learned fast that I don’t play head games.”
I watch as she stands, stretches, and meanders over to examine the magical orbs of light hovering over my plants. She shoots me a sheepish grin.
“I’ve only been dumped once, and they said it was because they hadn’t realized just how high my body count is. Guess I intimidated them.”
“It’s not your fault they were insecure.”
She laughs, but I’m keeping a mental list in my head. One I intend to write down and use to drive my so-called matches away. It will be far easier to break up the quintet if I can get them to hate me.
“It won’t work, May.”
I glance at Kenzie, waiting for her meaning. She smiles knowingly, looking both amused and sympathetic.
“I know what you’re up to, but trying to make your quintet dislike you isn’t going to work. You’re too endearing.”
Endearing? Me?
I almost laugh out loud. She’s too nice to everyone, but especially to me.
“You are the only person who’s ever thought that about me,” I inform her.
Kenzie shrugs. “You’re a master of hiding your emotions, and you say as little as possible, but actions speak louder than words. I know the real you. It won’t take long for your guys to see the real you, too, no matter how you try to hide it.”
She’s underestimating my acting skills. After all, no one here has questioned my backstory.
Changing the topic, I decide to come clean to her. “I ran into Luka earlier. One of my so-called matches snapped a fang out of his mouth.”
She gawks at me. “No wonder poor Luka disappeared for so long today. Damn, your matches don’t mess around.” Then she wiggles her eyebrows again. “Sounds like they’re protective.”
“More like self-deluded. It won’t last. Luka’s fang is in my drawer if you want to parade it around in front of him.”
She shuffles uncomfortably. “I don’t want that. I know he was an ass to me, but as strange as it sounds…I don’t hate him. I don’t really know how I feel about him, but I don’t want to hurt him. Maybe he and I can be friends, eventually.”
Like I said, she’s too nice to everyone.
Before I can say that she’s far too forgiving of him, a sharp, sudden bloom of pain in my chest takes my breath away, making my vision blur. I grip one of the posts of my bed tightly, but otherwise, I carefully control any other outward sign of pain.
Gods, it hurts worse than usual.
“I need to work on a potion for class tomorrow before it gets too late,” I lie quickly, trying to keep my voice even. “I’ll catch up with you later.”
“All right. But I want to hear all about your attempts to repel your quintet. Pretty sure this’ll be super entertaining to watch,” Kenzie teases before saying goodnight and leaving the room.
The moment the door shuts behind her, I crumble to my knees, clutching at my chest. Now that I’m not fighting it, the pain lances outward from my torso—almost like the center of my body is being sucked through the eye of a needle.
New Book: Returned To Make Them Pay
On her wedding anniversary, Alicia is drugged and stumbles into the wrong room—straight into the arms of the powerful Caden Ward, a man rumored never to touch women. Their night of passion shocks even him, especially when he discovers she’s still a virgin after two years of marriage to Joshua Yates.