Filed To Story: Cursed Legacies Series Free PDF by Morgan B Lee
A ghoul.
That particular kind of shadow fiend is common in the Nether. They feed on newly deceased, unanimated corpses. While they’re fast and dangerous when angry, they rarely make it past the legacies guarding the Divide due to their unintelligent nature.
At first, I think it’s odd to see one here in Halfton so far from the Divide. But then I remember kneeling on the stone floor, playing the part of the obedient, subservient weapon as Amadeus sat on his macabre throne, explaining his plan.
With each member of the Four Houses you dispose of, our foothold in the mortal realm will grow. For it is their life force holding us back, nothing more. I will track your progress according to how weak their precious Divide becomes. End them. That is your purpose, my daughter. And when you have ended each of those fools…
I shake my head to bring me back to here and now. Of course. Since Hearst’s death, there must have been far more surges and far more escaped shadow fiends than ever. The Legacy Council and all other legacies must have their hands full with that—but obviously, this ghoul slipped away unharmed to feed on dead humans.
Kenzie sees where I’m looking and inhales sharply. “Oh, my gods. Is that what I think it is?”
“Yes. But don’t worry. It will ignore the living.”
The ghoul straightens to its full ten-foot height and starts sniffing the air, which makes Kenzie make a strangled sound.
“You sure about that? Because it seems like it’s scenting us!” she hisses, backing away.
Not us. Just me. Since, strictly speaking, I’m not entirely part of the living anymore.
Glancing over my shoulder at her, I offer a tiny smile. “I’m going to lure it away from town so it doesn’t linger in Halfton and hurt humans. Stay here.”
Kenzie scowls. “Um, May, please don’t take this the wrong way, but…you’re an asscaster. My absolute favorite asscaster of all time, but still, that is a fucking ghoul, and there is no way I’m about to let you deal with that thing by yourself. I’m helping.”
“You’re weak right now,” I point out quietly.
She puts her hands on her hips. “Excuse me, did I stutter? Just tell me how to help, my overzealous little monk savior.”
My lips twitch. I’ve missed her. And even though I work best alone, it can’t hurt to have her help ever so slightly.
“Fine. But follow my instructions exactly.”
“Roger that.”
Five minutes later, I approach the cemetery where the ghoul has returned to digging up a grave. Luck is on my side tonight, and the wind is blowing in the perfect direction, so when I’m standing at the fringes of the forest outside of Halfton’s cemetery, the ghoul is downwind from me. I reach into a concealed pocket where my favorite adamantine dagger awaits me. Baelfire gave it back to me before I left the castle, but not before pleading with me to not use it in front of anyone who could trace it back to where I come from.
As soon as the wind blows and it catches my scent, the shadow fiend straightens, dropping whatever it had in its mouth. It turns to look directly at me, its tusks protruding from its hideous mouth. It takes one step in my direction, then another.
Then it bolts toward me.
Game on.
Turning, I take off into the forest as adrenaline pumps through me. Darting around trees and jumping over a small creek, I head toward Everbound. I’ll have to kill this thing before
I get anywhere near the school, or it might be sensed by the magic wards.
I’m fast over short distances, even faster than shifters on a good day. That was something Amadeus’s chief necromancer, Dagon, had insisted on perfecting when they were altering the fabric of my being. I’m patterned after a monster that existed long ago—only it was slower and less efficient.
I’m the experimental new and improved version.
Just as we planned, I climb swiftly into a tree just as Kenzie darts out from another place in the woods, distracting the ghoul. Though ghouls don’t usually pose a danger to the living because they don’t see them as food, they get distracted easily.
As soon as the shadow fiend is turning toward her, I drop from the tree branches, straddling its shoulders just as I drive my adamantine dagger through its skull—twice, then three times. It roars and flings me off, and I slam into a tree with a grunt. That’ll leave a bruise.
Kenzie dodges when the fiend launches toward her. Then the creature crumbles to the ground, twitching a few times while the power of the adamantine works its way through the creature’s system. It finally goes slack, its veins bulging through purplish skin.
I feel the exhilarating rush of power cloud my veins as I brush myself off and walk over to yank my dagger out of its skull.
Good old Pierce.
Kenzie watches me with wide eyes as I wipe my blade clean on the mane-like tuft of fur around the dead ghoul’s neck. “So, um…you said you were raised by humans.”
“Actually, I didn’t. You assumed it.”
“Huh. I guess that’s true.” She makes a face at the dead shadow fiend beside us. “And you never ever corrected me, but now I get the feeling that’s not right. I mean, you were fast, fast. And this ugly thing didn’t scare you at all.”
“They look far worse than they are.” I turn to go. “Come on.”
“Hey, May?”
The vulnerability in her voice makes me pause.
“You can trust me, you know. With whatever. Like, I’m not going to go blabbing to anyone about anything you tell me about your past. Not even my quintet. You’re like a sister to me.”
I tuck my dagger away again and turn to face her.
“I know.”
And I do know. Kenzie is like Lillian, and Lillian would die for me if I let her. Which is really damn annoying, considering how I revive in the blink of an eye. But then, I understand since I would do the same even if I couldn’t revive.
“Thank you for the dress, by the way.”
Kenzie’s face lights up. “You actually wore it? Yay! Oh my gods, I can’t wait to see the pictures!”
Oops. “Right. Pictures…”
She gasps in theatrical outrage. “You seriously didn’t take any pictures for me? Maven Whatever-Your-Middle-Name-Is Oakley, you’re in so much fucking trouble. Once we survive all the weird stuff happening at Everbound, I demand you get dressed up in that again so I can take pictures retroactively and pretend I was there the first time, okay?”
I grimace. “We’ll have to get another dress. My guys ripped that one.”
One second passes. Then two. Then she lets out a shrill, giddy shriek so ear-splitting that I flinch, glancing around for any other threats she may have just alerted to our position.
“
Yes! I fucking knew it! They’re your guys, and you totally drove them wild with how gorgeous you looked in that dress until they couldn’t take it anymore! Did they rip it off you and ravish you right in the middle of the dance floor? Have you been having wild group sex out the wazoo ever since? Tell me everything.
Everything.”
I fight a smile and roll my eyes as we continue through the forest. “Tomorrow. Tonight, you need to rest and comfort your quintet because they think you’ve been dead for days.”
That sobers her up immediately. “They have? Oh, gods. I can’t wait to see them.”
“Good. Then you won’t mind if I use some magic to transport us there?”
Kenzie blinks at me in surprise, smoothing her pale curls away from her face. “You can do that? I thought…I mean, you were supposed to be an atypical caster before, but now I’m starting to doubt everything I know about you, May. Everything except the fact that you’re my bestie,” she corrects with a wink. “Sure. Transport me away, mysterious little no-longer-a-virgin.”
I smirk. “Be warned. Transportation magic is a bitch.”
“Nah, I’m sure I’ll be totally fine.”
Kenzie is not totally fine.
The moment we appeared outside of Everbound’s wards, she keeled over and vomited, apologizing in between gagging and groaning. I felt bad enough for her that I awkwardly patted her shoulder while explaining that her system is probably particularly sensitive after coming out of a stasis spell.
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.