Filed To Story: Cursed Legacies Series Free PDF by Morgan B Lee
“If something were to happen to that armor, it would invite Arati’s considerable temper. Finding where she keeps it should be an easy task for you.”
She’s clearly guessed that I plan to annoy the gods, but…
“You’re helping me?” I ask.
“You’re surprised.”
“More like skeptical. Let’s not pretend like you’ve done me any favors in the past.”
Syntyche considers that, twisting her scythe to examine the etherium blade. “Gods cannot see into the Nether, so I did not observe you grow up. You needed no coddling by the time you emerged into the mortal world, but perhaps my aid could benefit you now. Beginning with inciting the wrath of my sister to learn the one way to expunge your soul from this plane of existence so that you may fall from Paradise and reunite with the clingy male mortals you are so partial to.”
She summed that up nicely.
I squint at her. “Is this what they call…mother-daughter bonding?”
“Let us call it anything but that.”
“Then we’re on the same page.” I pause. “Can’t you just tell me how to return?”
“Only one immortal being has ever successfully become mortal to live in the mortal realm, eons ago. Arati helped him learn a way to mortality, but she guards that secret carefully. Convincing her will be difficult.”
Difficult has never stopped me before, and it means nothing to me now that my quintet is on the line. I look out over a seemingly endless sea of clouds, my scarred, emblem-less chest aching.
“Galene hinted that there may be a way I can watch over the mortal realm from here. A way to see my quintet.”
“It is possible, depending on what gifts you inherited from me.”
I look at her, determined. “Tell me.”
The memory shifts and changes, and for a moment, I can’t understand what I’m looking at. It’s a view of gliding over a grayscale landscape high above. Wintry wind batters me on one side.
After several moments, I realize I’m seeing the world through the point of view of a bird.
Not just any bird. A raven.
The raven finally perches on a ruined temple in an abandoned, sprawling city. The massive temple is overwhelmingly ornate and magnificent, with fire symbols worked elegantly into the architecture now encrusted with ice.
This is unmistakably one of Arati’s temples, but like the rest of the city, it’s sapped of color and abandoned.
At first, I can’t tell why the raven is showing me this. Then it slips through a broken window near flying buttresses and hops forward to peek down into the temple. It’s dark and empty—except for a leather-jacket-clad figure lying motionless at the foot of the altar.
Crypt.
With the raven’s sharp vision, I can make out concentric circles of intricate dark runes circling my Nightmare Prince. Layers and layers of magic have entangled him in a brutal malediction as he lies still, his eyes shut as his chest rises and falls slightly.
It’s almost like he’s sleeping.
But he can’t sleep.
The memory is fading along with this precious glimpse of my incubus. Before it disappears completely, the echo of my own furious voice returns to me.
“What did you do to him?”
“Far less than he deserved,”
Syntyche’s cold tone replies in a multifaceted echo.
“We gods have laws by which we must abide. Destroying holy things must breed consequences. Would you rather I let my sister, the goddess of vengeance, dole out the steward’s punishments? She would have done far worse. If his mind survives and if he doesn’t starve, consider this another favor.”
My eyes flash open. I bolt upright, my empty chest burning again. Everett is right behind me, jolting out of sleep and immediately dropping the temperature of this room several degrees as he pulls me close.
“What is it? Are you hurt? Is it a wraith?” he asks, eyes flicking to every dark place in the room despite the morning light trickling through the quintet bedroom windows.
I shake my head, releasing the handle of my etherium dagger when I realize I’m squeezing it so tightly my knuckles are white.
“I know where Crypt is,” I breathe.
Everett bundles blankets around me as he frowns. At least it looks like he slept a little last night. “How?”
I explain that portion of my returned memories to him—how I could somehow watch them through ravens while I was in Paradise, and how Crypt is under a malediction in one of Arati’s temples in a colorless city.
He listens to all of it before nodding slowly. “Give me an hour.”
“I don’t want to leave Silas and Baelfire behind,” I add.
Everett nods again. “That’s why I’ll need an hour, to sort out a few things before we all go. With the recent attack, I want more Reformists watching the stronghold while we’re gone, since Asher Douglas will have to transport us. Give me an hour and we’ll go.”
Gods, I love this elemental.
Nearly twenty minutes later, Lillian hands me a bag packed with random supplies and food as I wait with Everett and Not-Baelfire in the western library, which is lit warmly by a raging hearth.
Lillian glances at the frenzied animal occupying Baelfire’s body. He’s in his collar, and I added a leash in case he tries to get away. He’s currently perched on top of the big front desk, dressed only in a pair of shorts that Everett and I managed to wrangle him into, although we both ended up with a couple of bites and scratches.
He growls at her, but she turns back to me with a smile. “All your matches are so handsome.”
“Ridiculously so,” I agree. “He’s actually a charismatic social butterfly whenever he’s not feral. You’ll love him once…”
Once it’s him again. If he’s still in there at all.
Lillian can see my doubt and frustration and offers a reassuring smile. “I can’t wait to meet all of your matches officially. It will happen, little raven.”
I never realized how fitting her nickname for me was until now. But then, she’s known my true identity all along. With everything going on, I haven’t had the chance to spend much time with her—which is frustrating, because I’ve missed her for what feels like forever.
“A chess game,” I blurt. “We should find time for a chess game, once we’re back.”
We used to play so much chess together. She’s the only person I’ve ever played the game with.
Lillian lights up. “I would love that. I look forward to winning once you have your quintet back and things have settled down.”
I grin at her subtle trash talk before the door into the western library opens. Asher Douglas joins us, adjusting his excessive amount of winter clothes.
“Nothing like strolling through your collection of frozen people right before breakfast, Frost. Ruins my appetite every time.”
What’s this now?
I look at Everett, who won’t meet my eye as he repeatedly adjusts one of his sleeves. “You have a collection?”
“Haven’t seen them?” Douglas grunts. “It’s like dozens of upright tombs of ice. Fucking creepy.
“
“I want to see,” I declare, morbid fascination leading me out the door they just walked through and toward the nearest courtyard.
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.