Filed To Story: Cursed Legacies Series Free PDF by Morgan B Lee
“Why wouldn’t they have a normal Starfall dinner?”
“I don’t know, why the hell would women not be allowed in?” he counters. “This place is backward-ass enough that a holiday dinner made entirely of literal shit wouldn’t surprise me.”
“Women aren’t allowed in because the Garnet Wizard thinks romance is too much of a distraction to his acolytes.”
“What, he thinks gay romance just doesn’t fucking exist?”
I snort. “It’s not a rule I agree with, but he’s several centuries old and has cherry-picked which modern values to adopt. He respects women well enough, but the thought of a coeducational environment sends him into fits.”
“Weird fucker,” Baelfire mutters.
I’ve often thought so myself. Still, I respect my mentor. There is no more powerful caster in the world.
A moment later, Everett also walks out and frowns at us. “What are you three doing out here?”
Crypt lights another of his cigarettes. He’s going through them at a rate that would be alarming—or would be if I cared two fucks about him.
“Drugs,” he says cheerfully, taking a puff and offering it to Everett.
The ice elemental rolls his eyes but joins us outside, watching the slight colors in the dark sky until Baelfire turns to him, folding his oversized arms.
“So, what did the wizard mean about remembering you? You know him?”
I’ve been wondering about that, too. We all look at the Frost, who feigns disinterest as he picks invisible lint off his sleeve.
“Must’ve gotten me confused with my dad or something.”
I scoff. “We all know that’s a lie. He talked about you at eighteen. What did you?—“
“Just drop it,” he snaps. “My business is my business, so unless you three shits want to stand around a fire holding hands and singing kumbaya, leave me the hell alone.”
Always so godsdamned moody.
But then I tip my head, curious. “Show me your hands.”
“What?”
“You’re upset. Show me your hands.”
Everett mutters about me being an asshole but pulls his hands out of his pockets, showing us.
“No frost,” Crypt muses. “Does this mean what I think?”
It means your curse isn’t what you thought, I tell Everett telepathically, shocked enough that I forget to speak out loud.
The ice elemental shoots me another glare before looking away.
“Yeah. I’ve noticed it since Maven and I—since she broke my curse, I mean. I have so much more control, it’s fucking laughable. I’m not unleashing ice with every tiny thought and emotion. I don’t…I don’t really know how I didn’t figure this out a lot sooner. Honestly, I feel like a damn idiot for not realizing the truth.”
We all absorb it until Baelfire finally seems to piece things together.
“Hold up. Is it just because you’ve gotten that much more powerful, or…” His eyes widen. “Holy shit! What if your curse isn’t what you thought it was? What if it was actually being shit at controlling your abilities?”
“Way to catch up, Lizard Brain,” Everett mutters.
“But then why the fuck would Arati’s prophet lie to you?”
Everett glowers into the distance. “I can think of five reasons, and they raised me just right so that I would never think to question a prophecy. I’ve seen my parents bribe others plenty of times. Just never fucking thought they would bribe a high prophet to translate a prophecy the way they wanted him to.”
We’re all silent for a long moment until Baelfire whistles.
“Damn. So…your cockblock curse was a big, fat lie. They were just trying to control you.”
“Yep.”
“To keep you lonely and miserable.”
“They do prefer me that way,” he says dryly. “They’ve always said lonely people are the easiest to make useful.”
Bael shakes his head. “Your parents are fucked up.”
“You have no idea,” Everett mutters, rubbing his face. “At least now I know the truth. That all the sickening panic I felt about putting my keeper at risk every time I was around her was just good old-fashioned psychological torture from my gold star parents.”
He’s bitterly sarcastic, but the truth is that when we were young, I thought he did have perfect parents. A perfect life. Far more perfect than mine ever could be.
Now, I also feel like an idiot for thinking that.
“I’ll kill them if you like,” Crypt offers like he’s just offering a stick of gum, blowing out more smoke.
I glare at him. “You are the expert at killing families. At least this time, there will be a reason for it.”
Baelfire makes a sound I don’t get as he gives Crypt a look. “Yeah, about that…”
“Keep your fucking snout shut, or I’ll drag you into Limbo again,” Crypt warns, flicking his still-lit cigarette at Baelfire. “Only this time, I’ll leave you in there.”
Of course, the heat does nothing to the dragon, who looks back at me. “He had a reason.”
Crypt’s eyes flash. “Don’t test me, Decimus.”
I look between them, uncertain, but Baelfire seems to decide to drop it for now as he rolls his eyes and mutters something under his breath. For several long moments, we’re all quiet again. The tension remains between Crypt and me, though he ignores the glares I’m sending his way.
“So…back at that diner,” Bael breaks the silence, rubbing his neck.
“In Nebraska?” Everett frowns. “What about it?”
“With Maven acting like she was…you know. Pregnant.” The dragon shifter clears his throat. “I can’t stop thinking about it. It’s just that—with all this bonding, do you guys think that could actually…”
When he trails off again, I give him a droll look. “What? Spit it out.”
“Some of our curses are broken,” he mumbles.
It takes a second for me to realize what he’s saying, and then I’m floored. Maven has no curse to lift, so she isn’t affected by the same inability to procreate that we legacies have.
Or that we did have. When we were cursed. But now that Everett and I have been with her, unprotected, uncursed…
Gods above. I wasn’t even thinking about that.
Everett drags a hand through his hair, and he must not be paying attention to filtering his thoughts through the bond because I catch a hint of his inner prayers to both Arati and Koa.
What are you gods-aboving and praying about?
Maven asks telepathically, making both myself and the ice elemental jump nearly out of our skin.
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.