Filed To Story: Cursed Legacies Series Free PDF by Morgan B Lee
“Infernal hells, you’re really her.” He sounds baffled before he cackles on the other end, apparently not as ready to move on from introductions as I am. “You’re real! And—no. Don’t tell me…you’re at Everbound University? Ha! Devils and dicks, I can’t even believe it. This is too damn funny.”
“Hysterical,” I agree flatly, stepping through the trees into the clearing I set out for. It has a small semi-frozen pond and plenty of silence, except for right now when he won’t shut up. “I need nightshade root powder.”
That finally gets through to him, and he stops laughing. “Tall order for someone I just barely met. Look, I don’t make deals without really gettin’ to know who I’m dealing with first, kid.”
I let my voice steel into a calm tone I’ve rarely had to use throughout my life. “We just established that you know exactly who I am. And I know exactly who you are, Melchom.”
He makes a choking sound. Probably because for a demon like him, someone else knowing your true name is both taboo and humiliating. If I was interested in getting mixed up in demonology, discovering his name would be the first step in gaining power over him.
“How the flaming shitballs did you—okay. Relax. Look, I’ll get the nightshade root powder, but it’ll cost you a helluva lot.”
“Name your price.”
Melchom chuckles, but it still sounds a bit strained. “I don’t want money, but seeing as how you are who you are, maybe you’d be interested in a trade? A gram of nightshade root powder for, oh, I don’t know, say…a still-beating heart.”
A gram of nightshade root powder will be just enough for what I need to do.
“Whose heart?”
“Does it matter?” he laughs. “If the rumors are true, this should be a cakewalk for you.”
I pause, glaring out at the frozen pond. Along with a few other types of uncommon monsters like changelings and banshees, demons are one of the monsters that were never allowed in the mortal realm in any legal capacity. Demons are hunted constantly and are nasty to everyone, but tend to be especially cruel toward legacies…and innocents, whose fear they prey on.
I don’t kill innocents. But he can’t know that. No one can know that, despite how fucked up I am, I still have that one rule.
“Give me a name,” I press.
He exhales long and slow, the sound of someone smoking. “So eager. Seriously, I can’t believe I’m actually talking to the telum. Whatcha look like, anyway? You as sexy as you sound? Maybe I should up my price a bit…”
“Shall we revisit my ripping-off-testicles suggestion?”
“Yeesh. Fine. I enjoy a little pain as much as the next demon, but that’s a bit too kinky even for me. The guy whose still-beating heart I want? His name is Orson Lykoudis.”
That name sounds familiar, somehow. I try to put a finger on it but then shrug it off. Whoever it is, I’ll do my research and decide whether or not he’s worth killing to get this ingredient. If he’s an upstanding guy, I won’t lay a finger on him.
If he’s not, then more fun for me.
“Deal. I’ll have it to you within a week as long as you hold up your end of the deal.”
“Great. I’ll meet you in Pennsylvania. Can’t wait to see what you look like. Maybe we should call it a date. My girlfriend’ll be out of town, anyway.”
I sigh. “Melchom.”
He hisses. “Fucking devils.
Stop using my name. What?”
“Try to cheat me in any way, and I’ll add your horns to my collection.”
Demon horns are notoriously tricky to obtain. They can’t respawn without them, and cutting off a demon’s horns causes severe mental breakdowns, psychosis, and hallucinations for weeks. Extremely unpleasant, to say the least. But to make a point, I’ll do it if I have to.
“You’re an unhinged little shit, aren’t you?” he mutters. “No worries. I don’t stiff my customers, and I ain’t gonna let anyone know about you, of all people. Just bring the heart. I’ll call you when?—“
“No. I’ll call you.”
Hanging up, I drop the stranger’s phone to the ground, crush it under my boot, and then toss the remains into the pond’s center, where there is no ice.
I’ll have to get away from the university to make the hit, but first, I need to look into this Orson Lykoudis guy. And I need to get my damned matches to leave me alone, which means that starting now…I’m going to use Everett to make them jealous.
I don’t want to draw attention to myself, so I can’t go off the deep end to push them away. But I can use all the tactics on my list to get them on edge. And once I know their curses, I’ll use those against them, too.
EVERETT
Silas is in a shittier mood than usual, which must be a world record of some kind.
He storms into my office, ripping through the standard magic wards for faculty offices, slamming the door behind him, and glowering at me. “Where is she?”
I don’t bother looking up from the papers on my desk. “Weird. Usually, Baelfire is the one throwing fits. Not handling our new keeper well, Mr. Crane?”
A warning pulse of magic kicks through the room, making me stiffen to glare at him. He doesn’t back down, looming over my desk. And there it is—that slight twitch in his neck and the wild gleam in his eyes that makes him look completely insane at random intervals.
One glance at his hand tells me he’s clutching his bleeding crystal.
“Get out of my office.
Now’s not a good time to pick a fight with me.”
Not when my recent visit to the temple of Arati, queen of the gods, only left me more crestfallen than ever. Between that and the surprise burning pyres that have stirred up Everbound, it’s all I can do to maintain an aloof, untouchable front when, deep down, I’m panicking.
And when I panic, I freeze shit.
I’ve never been very good at controlling my powers, so I’ve tried to do it by controlling my emotions. Which also doesn’t always work, especially when Silas, Crypt, and Baelfire are annoyingly good at finding my triggers.
“I’ll leave after you tell me where Maven is,” he grits. His head whips to the side, glaring at a spot on the wall where there’s…absolutely nothing.
Crazy bastard.
“Why would I know where she is?” I drone, trying to sound uninterested, even though just the mention of my keeper’s name has frost blooming on my fingertips.
“You’re her professed favorite,” he snaps, dragging a hand through his hair. “And after she refused to let me heal her, I went searching the healers, and then I realized maybe she came to you
?—“
Healers? I sit up. “Why would she need healed?”
“Because she was?—“
“Boo?” Baelfire calls, slamming open the door to my office once again.
I guess it’s no surprise that they completely disregard the by-appointment-only sign hanging outside. He scowls at the two of us, though there’s an underlying layer of panic on his face, and he’s far more out of sorts than the Decimus’s proud youngest typically puts on display.
“Where’s that creepy stalking son of a bitch when you need him?”
Clearly, he means Crypt.
I roll my eyes. “You both lost our keeper? What are you two even—” I pause when I see the huge bundle of dead flowers in Baelfire’s hands. “Why the hell are you carrying those around?”
“They’re for Maven.”
“Are you serious? You’re giving her dead flowers?
“
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.