Filed To Story: Cursed Legacies Series Free PDF by Morgan B Lee
She’s not strong enough to protect herself from them, and neither are you.
Just let her die already. We hate her. She’s going to end us.
My left eye starts to twitch, but I finally manage, “She wasn’t raised in the world of legacies, so I’m afraid her time at Everbound has been quite the adjustment period.”
“That’s not what I asked, fae,” Natalya pouts dramatically, standing to walk around the desk.
The immortal wears a semi-sheer dress better suited for clubbing than interrogating students. She perches just in front of me, her blue eyes penetrating as they start to glow again. She’s trying to pluck the truth from my head, and I pray the talisman holds up. I can feel it heating in my pocket.
“Let’s try this again. What plane of existence did your keeper come from?”
My pulse is racing with alarm, but I recall that Maven told us she was taken to the Nether as a child. So the absolute truth is…
“The mortal realm, of course. Where else?”
“And has she always been in the mortal realm?”
My palms grow damp, and I keep my wording careful. “Where else would she go? Although technically, I’ve heard we all venture into Limbo when we’re unconscious, so I suppose she’s been there in that way.”
Natalya’s hand bolts out lightning-fast to wrap around my neck. I have no access to oxygen as her face twists into a hideous snarl, all that old-world beauty now ugly with anger.
“Don’t dare to play games with me. Answer yes or no only. To your knowledge, has your keeper ever crossed through the Divide?”
She flings me back into the chair so I can choke for air and offer an answer, but I will never answer this. I can’t. If I do, they’ll know the truth.
But if I remain silent, they’ll assume the truth just as quickly. There’s no way to bend this. My voice will cease to work as it always does whenever a lie tries to pass through my lips.
So, instead, I feign absolute shock. “
Through the Divide? As in, into the Nether? How would that even be pos?—“
Del Mar moves so fast I don’t see him until I’m flung across the room, slamming into the wall. Somnus is there an instant later, fisting my hair to drag me to my feet. He drives a knee into my fresh thigh injury. It’s so unexpected and painful that, shamefully, a sharp cry of pain escapes.
Obviously, I’ve pissed them off. And as Natalya prowls toward me, that same hideous scowl twisting her features and her eyes glowing ominously, I know I’m about to be tortured for information.
Then they’ll kill me.
And all I can think about is everything I won’t get to experience with Maven if I die here. I won’t get to wake up beside her in the morning, taste her mouthwatering blood, or watch the way her dark eyes flash with mesmerizing anger whenever she’s angry. I won’t get the answers I still desperately want about her. I’ll never again get to listen to the intoxicating sounds my beautifully vicious sangfluir makes in bed or watch her expression turn soft just before I kiss her.
I wonder if she’ll weep for me.
Somnus is still pinning me against the wall. But as Natalya bares her fangs and sinks them into my wrist, pulling an excruciatingly long draw of blood from me, there is a soft knock at the door.
“We are not to be disturbed,” Del Mar booms angrily. “Who would dare?—“
“It is Pia, sir.”
The prophetess from the temple of Galene? I’m too dizzy from suffocation and pain blossoming in my arm to understand why on earth she would be knocking at a time like this. For a moment, my ears ring, and the voices in my head come roaring to the surface. I’m left pinned to the wall, choking for air while
Natalya releases my wrist, exchanging words through the door that I can’t make out.
Abruptly, Somnus releases me with a sharp swear just as Engela moves for the first time, throwing the office door open and storming out. Del Mar, Somnus, and Natalya follow her, leaving me blinking in confusion as I’m alone in Hearst’s office with a burning wrist and the prophetess standing nearby.
The white-cloaked figure’s head turns in my direction.
“You’re bleeding,” she says quietly.
I fight for breath as I stagger to my feet, gripping my burning wrist. Natalya is a vampyr, meaning unlike legacy vampires, her venom has the ability to turn someone into a vampire…if they die with the venom in their system. As I do now.
But they’re gone, so I have no plans to die.
“Where did they go? What’s going on?” I ask hoarsely.
The only thing I can think of that would draw their attention away so quickly would be if Pia announced that someone had tried to escape the wards. What if she was reporting Maven’s attempted escape? What if my keeper is about to be caught and killed at any moment?
“Your keeper is perfectly safe, Silas Crane,” Pia replies, reminding me that she’s clairvoyant and quite possibly a mind reader. “She is currently outside the wards surrounding Everbound.”
That only adds to my panic, though. “Are they looking for her? Did you tell them?”
The prophetess shakes her white-robed head. “No. I merely came to report to them that a swarm of wisps broke out of Limbo and are ripping to shreds anything and everything they come across within the western wing. Without the Nightmare Prince, it will likely take them a couple of hours to trap and fade the wisps.”
Why is she mentioning Crypt? Her words spin in my head, not making sense. Between the earlier blood loss and the vampyr venom pulsing through my system, I can’t seem to focus on anything. The ringing in my ears is getting worse.
“I need to get to Maven,” I mutter. Only too late do I realize I spoke in fae.
But Pia must understand because she hums. “So loyal. Just as we had hoped.”
That statement also makes no sense, but I’m far too exhausted and pain-riddled to ask follow-up questions as Pia supports me and helps me leave Hearst’s office. But when we arrive at my quintet’s apartment and not an exit, I blink blearily and scowl.
“
Maven,” I repeat emphatically. “I must get to my keeper.”
Pia doesn’t even acknowledge my protest as she knocks on the door. A moment later, Baelfire opens the door and stares at us. His eyes are wild in the way that tells me he’s struggling with his inner dragon. The scratch marks around his neck, as if he’s been trying to pry off his collar, further prove that he’s struggling.
“Where were you?” he snaps, dragging me inside and slamming the door without so much as a hello to the mysterious prophetess. “Maven left an hour ago. Why the fuck didn’t you get here sooner to go with her outside the wards?”
I squint at him through the blurriness crowding my eyes, determined to make his three heads converge into one. “I was preoccupied. But why the fucking hell didn’t you go with her?”
He swears and yanks hard on the leather around his neck again. “She pointed out that we don’t know whether this motherfucking collar has a tracking spell woven into it. It might’ve tipped off the Immortal Quintet if I left, and then we would’ve been fucked.”
“You’re saying she’s alone out there?” I snap, storming toward the kitchen to get spell ingredients to null the venom.
At least, I try to storm into the kitchen. But my equilibrium has started to spiral, and I smack right into the wall, falling on my ass and hissing at the pain in my leg.
Everything spins as the edges of my vision darken, but I can make out Baelfire standing above me with a frown that almost looks concerned, of all things.
“Shit. What the hell happened to you, Si?”
I’m about to black out, but I can’t let myself go unconscious with this venom in my system. What if I somehow die while unconscious and come back as a vampire? I wouldn’t have my magic anymore, and my powerful line of blood magic is utterly invaluable. I refuse to ever give it up.
So I try to focus on Baelfire’s six pairs of eyes and grit out, “Wyvern blood.”
“Come again?”
“In thekitchen. Labeled bottle. Ten dropsinmy mouth.”
My words slur together, my eyes sliding shut without permission as the vampyr venom continues to burn through my system. I’m lying supine now, and everything is starting to fade.
Please come back to me, sangfluir.
The last thing I hear before blacking out is, “Hell no. I am not fucking with wyvern juice, you blood-guzzling freak.”
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.