Filed To Story: Cursed Legacies Series Free PDF by Morgan B Lee
He hurries back to the inner circle of the Sanctuary as I turn to face the invisible door.
“Okay, let’s do this.”
With a collective breath to brace ourselves, we watch Silas magically unlock the outer ring. The moment we all step out of the temperate green sub-realm and into the bitter cold, chaos unleashes.
Hellhounds howl. Magic crackles to life in the hands of dozens of caster bounty hunters and hirelings who surround us. Others shift or take aim with their weapons, the clicking sound of guns rising as a chorus in the wintry wild filled with dozens of tents, proof they were camping here in wait. Dozens of red laser dots appear on me like tiny dancing lights from the guns.
Douglas is at the forefront and aims at the center of Crypt’s forehead.
The moment his finger moves on the trigger, a thick shield of ice slams up into place in front of us. Deafening gunshots fill the air, their thunderous echoes reverberating over the stark wilderness around usbut the bullets imbed in the thick ice in front of us.
As soon as the first barrage ends, Everett drops the wall of ice and lifts his arm to send a wave of icy spikes toward the massive group of hunters. At the same time, Baelfire races forward to slam into a lion shifter charging toward us, Silas releases a blood magic spell that neutralizes several magic attacks flashing to life, and Crypt drops into Limbo to wreak total havoc.
They’re working much more like a team now. I let myself feel proud for half a second before I roll out of the way of another gunshot and dart towards Douglas. He’s probably the most capable opponent here, so it’s best to take him out quickly this time.
Whipping Pierce out of his hiding spot, I feign a blow before going for his gut. He sidesteps, but instead of returning the attack, he rolls away and dashes toward an area of the now-raging fight where other bounty hunters are starting to tear into one another, courtesy of the Nightmare Prince.
Apparently, Douglas has a bone to pick with my incubus.
My senses prickle, and I jump aside just before a wave of fire sears a path in the spot where I was just standing. The fire elemental tries again, but a wave of snow, like a sideways avalanche, crashes into the fire to smother it and the elemental.
Thanks, I tell Everett through the bond as I throw myself into the fray.
Does everyone remember the plan?
Leave no soul alive, Crypt supplies chipperly, still somewhere in Limbo.
No, you fucking sociopath, Silas retorts as he goes toe to toe with three casters at once.
The plan is to escape quickly, even if we must leave the fight behind.
Meanwhile, you are supposed to avoid killing so you don’t go all revenant on us, Everett adds.
And Crypt? I prompt meaningfully.
He sighs through the bond.
Yes, yes. I’m also babysitting our dragon.
I can’t see Baelfire in the raucous fight anymore, but the fact that he hasn’t shifted into a dragon to rain fire down tells me he’s fighting to maintain control. As helpful as a dragon could be in a fight, I don’t want to lose him to his curse when we need to make a getaway.
I dodge one of the wolf shifters, vaguely aware of a stray bullet grazing my thigh. Rolling to one side, I slice through a fae bounty hunter’s Achilles tendons to cut off her brutal magical attack aimed at Baelfire. She falls with a cry before I finish her off quickly, purely out of habit.
I guess you can take the bitch out of the arena, but you can’t take the arena out of the bitch.
A delicious, intoxicating buzz starts to pump through my system.
Crypt laughs from wherever he is in Limbo.
I saw that.
Oops.
As the fight intensifies, so does the twisted urge that always overshadows me as I make my way deeper into a battle. Though I’m supposed to be looking for a way to leave all of this behind, I kill another opponent in self-defense.
Then another.
And another.
Dark magic pulses through me, and that exhilarating nothingness starts to gain a foothold as I kick away another shifter. Death hangs thick in the air all around me, a tantalizing cadence of endings and screams that sinks into my very being as a smile grows on my face.
I’ve been fighting my entire life. Through all the broken bones, blood loss, and agony, the thrill of dancing with death became an integral part of me. I wipe someone else’s blood off my face as the killing urge starts to pound through my muscles and head.
This is what I was made for.
And I want more.
More blood. More buzz. More.
Maven, Silas’s voice warns.
Where is she?
Everett demands.
I’m fine, I insist.
I was just
?
—
I cut off when, all at once, my senses go haywire, honing in on something nearby. A shadow fiend is quickly approaching.
No, not just some shadow fiend…one that makes my nerves itch.
Him. He found us.
I’m so distracted by the approaching terror that I don’t see the attack in time. Douglas lands a brutal blow to the back of my head with the butt of his gun. The world goes topsy-turvy as I fall to the snow, hot moisture already dripping from somewhere on my throbbing head.
He takes aim to shoot my chest, but I snap back to my senses, roll sideways, and leap from the ground to take him down. Knocking the gun from his hands, I pin him.
Damn it—why does the wind carry the scent of your blood
? Silas demands through the bond, sounding strained. Far away in the battle, I see crimson flashes of his unmistakable magic.
We have a bigger problem,
I tell him and the others. My stomach clenches with dread as I feel wraith nearing by the second.
Gideon is coming.
Their chorus of swears in my head is drowned out by Douglas’s shout when I quickly break his arms. I stand and land a savage kick to precisely the right spot on his thigh, snapping his femur for good measure.
He swears so creatively that I’m almost impressed.
“Stay down, or he’ll target you,” I instruct.
“Who? And why the hell aren’t you finishing me off?” he demands, gritting his teeth in pain. “You did this last time, too. What are you, some kind of fucking sadist?”
I ignore him, scrambling to find all my matches in the ongoing bloodbath surrounding me. We need to transport out of here as fast as fucking possible before?—
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.