Filed To Story: Cursed Legacies Series Free PDF by Morgan B Lee
“And?”
Vulnerability returns to his face. “I just…want you here. Please.”
Godsdamn it, this cutthroat blood fae needs to stop showing me his soft side. It’s too endearing.
He has a point about the Immortal Quintet, though. I don’t like the idea of being brought to them in the middle of the night, half-naked in a ripped-up dress for interrogation if I’m caught.
The solution? I’ll simply not get caught.
Because there’s no way I can sleep here. I’m supposed to be platonic with them. No matter what Baelfire said, I can’t actually be their keeper and have the things they think they want with me.
I slip around Silas, open the door, and give him a genuinely apologetic half-smile over my shoulder before he can stop me.
“See you in the morning.”
Kenzie isn’t at Everbound.
But the changeling is, somewhere.
That’s all we managed to get out of Silas’s efforts since, according to him, the changeling is utilizing an amulet that throws off any tracking spells. He still doesn’t know it was changeling blood he was casting with, but at least now I know that the monster I’m hunting is still trapped inside the castle. Which means I just need to hunt it down.
The trouble is finding the time to do that since classes have started.
We found our class schedule posted outside the dining hall earlier. Now Silas, Baelfire, and I are on our way to Fiend Studies 101, with Crypt trailing behind us in Limbo. The halls of Everbound are filled with the stares, whispers, and tension of legacies on edge. They stick to groups, both matched and unmatched, and size each other up at every chance. The air is thick with the possibility of death at any moment.
It’s positively sinister. I wish I could enjoy it more fully, but I’m drawing too much attention.
Dozens of pairs of eyes track my every move since I’m supposed to be the keeper of four of the most powerful legacies here. I’m a target for all the competitive monster spawn here, and it’s making Baelfire and Silas look like they want to stab someone.
Which reminds me.
“After class, I want Pierce,” I mutter quietly enough that no other legacies will overhear.
Baelfire shoots me a sharp look already tinged with jealousy. “Pierce? Who the fuck is that? Is some other guy trying to?—“
“My dagger,” I clarify.
Silas pauses, and I don’t miss their shared glance before he responds. “You had other daggers strapped to your thigh last night. Just use those.”
I clench my jaw. Why would he keep my favorite weapon from me?
Meanwhile, Baelfire misses a step, his golden eyes darting between us. “Back the fuck up. Her thigh, last night? As in, after I left? Did you two…?”
I don’t bother acknowledging the question he was about to ask since my face already feels warm enough remembering a certain someone’s ridiculously talented tongue. Silas just looks smug as hell.
“You fucker. You could’ve at least invited me to watch,” Bael huffs, pouting.
“I didn’t take you for a voyeur.”
“Normally, no. But it’s
Maven. You think I’d willingly miss all those sexy sounds she makes when she comes?”
“They were delectable,” Silas smirks. “As was she. I now fully understand your desire to be smothered by Maven. If we hadn’t been interrupted, I would have kept my face between her thighs all night.”
Holy fucking gods. Are they seriously having this conversation in broad daylight?
Baelfire swears harshly, shoving Silas’s shoulder. “You’re a godsdamned asshole.”
“You’re both godsdamned assholes,” I inform them, pretending like my neck and face aren’t currently on fire. “And we’re still platonic.”
They both snort at that, which makes me sigh heavily. I don’t get it. They were furious with my antics at the Matched Ball. I came so close to telling them about the inconvenient little fact that they can’t get attached to my heart because it was ripped out of my chest years ago.
But then my episode happened, I woke up, and they were suddenly full steam ahead.
I glance tentatively up at Baelfire, who immediately winks and mouths,
Tonight, it’s my turn.
They figured something out about me. I’m sure of it.
So why the fuck are they acting like this?
Like they…want me? They can’t possibly, not if they know the truth.
Right?
I shake my head at myself. Even if they could get over what I am, where I came from, and my purpose, it doesn’t change the fact that being with me would be gambling everything about their futures. I can’t promise them anything because I have to look out for my own first.
And even if walking through the halls with them at my sides like this feels so right…they’re not mine. I can’t let them be.
We pass a roped-off corridor where faculty members use magic to lift blood out of the stones, a sign that other legacies have already started picking off their competition. Finally, we round a corner and enter the massive auditorium-style classroom with a vaulted ceiling where our first class as a quintet will be held.
Since our emphasis is combat, we have a very straightforward schedule. There are two classes in the mornings—Fiend Studies and Advanced Combat Theory. After that, it’s all physical combat training. Alternating at the end of every other week, we’ll have Field Testing, which, as I understand it, consists of tossing legacies into an inescapable maze deep in Everbound Forest, where we’ll be left to live or die at the mercy of some of the Divide’s most fearsome creatures.
It’s supposed to be brutal.
I can’t wait.
But my secret excitement fizzles, and I stop dead in my tracks when I spot the gorgeous ice elemental sitting in the upper left corner of the auditorium. His stark white-blond hair makes him impossible to miss as he sits in his typical, tasteful professor’s clothing, watching the snow fall outside the window.
I was just concerned. Don’t mistake it for caring.
Yet I can’t unsee how shattered he’d looked when he saw what his words did to me in that inn.
I don’t want to sit anywhere near him. But…I also do.
Ugh. This is why feelings should be locked away indefinitely.
Silas is giving a death stare to anyone who passes too close to us as they enter the classroom, but Baelfire catches my eye with a warm smile.
“We don’t have to sit with that ice-shitter if you don’t want to, baby.”
Professor Crowley, my old Introduction to Runes professor, strolls through the door and makes a beeline for the whiteboard at the front of the room. Over his shoulder, he calls out, “Take your seats. All quintets must sit together. Quickly, now.”
Bael makes a face. “Damn. Spoke too soon.”
I keep my face blank as I start up the stairs toward where Everett is sitting. But my focus is on the wrong thing because as we pass another quintet’s row, a smirking legacy kicks out her leg to catch me in the back of the knee just as I take a step. I lurch forward and manage to catch myself on my hands, but not before my head smacks loudly off the corner of another desk.
Other legacies break out in gasps, laughter, and whispers.
The bump on my head hurts, but what hurts more is the fact that I was too focused on Everett to see that coming. What an amateur mistake. It’s a good thing that blunder just plays right into the quiet, weak wallflower reputation I’ve crafted for myself.
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.