Filed To Story: Cursed Legacies Series Free PDF by Morgan B Lee
Someone knocks on Maven’s bedroom door. “You ready, Raincloud? Class starts soon. Tell Stalker Boy to back the fuck off so you can eat before we go.”
I sigh wistfully when Maven dries off, dresses, and leaves without a word. I know she’s not mad at me for asking, but she loathes talking about her past. Not a wonderful way for me to start her day.
Thirty minutes later, we take our typical seats in Fiend Studies. Frost was already waiting, as usual, and stubbornly looks out the window despite Maven giving him a curious look. They still haven’t found their footing after exchanging secrets the other night.
Probably because Frost is a fucking idiot.
Meanwhile, as the professor waits for everyone else to take their seats, Crane rocks slightly and pulls at his wild hair, eyeing everything around us as if it’s all crawling with ghostly spiders. I can sense the heaviness in Limbo around him. He isn’t sleeping, and there’s no fucking shot in hell that he would ever accept if I offered to help him with his parasomnia.
I pause, frowning. Was I actually just considering helping Silas fucking Crane with his sleep troubles?
Good gods. This camaraderie is like a disease. I must be more careful, or we’ll all be braiding one another’s hair and getting matching tattoos.
I shudder at the thought.
But I reconsider offering my help to him when I see Maven’s face fall as she notices Crane’s struggle. She’s careful not to show emotion or weakness around people outside our quintet, though, and merely looks forward with her lips pressed tightly together.
I can’t stand knowing that our girl is unhappy.
Finally, the professor clears his throat and announces that First Placement has officially been rescheduled and will take place in three days. Whispers immediately fill the room as students turn to each other with wide eyes. Aside from Decimus flirtatiously asking Maven if she wants to sit in his lap for exposure therapy, our quintet remains relatively silent.
Maven rolls her eyes but takes Decimus’s hand under the desk, resting it on her thigh. I’m on her left side and rest my hand on her left thigh, curious to see if she’ll push me away or tense up even minutely as she always does, regardless of who is touching her.
But this time, she doesn’t.
Whether it’s the subconscious therapy or her attempts at exposure therapy…it’s working.
Decimus must think the same thing because he catches my eye over her head and grins. I’m beyond pleased, too, but I opt to flip him the bird with my free hand.
There will be no brotherly bonding today, thank you very much. Not on my watch.
After the rest of the classroom calms down, the professor clears his throat. “Now, then. We’ve gone over all known monsters and creatures found in the Nether, and you will be presenting what book you studied. But before we get to that, did anyone find anything of unique interest on this subject while browsing Everbound’s wonderful libraries?”
A few students raise their hands and share tidbits, but Maven looks at Crane again with a puckered brow. Finally, she sighs as if she’s made a decision.
Then she raises her hand, which takes the rest of us by surprise. Even Crane glances over with a perplexed frown.
“Yes, Miss Oakley?” the professor calls on her. He looks equally surprised, which makes me think she’s never raised her hand in a class at Everbound.
“I read something that mentioned revenants.”
The professor’s eyes widen into saucers and his brows nearly reach his hairline. “Did you, indeed? Dear gods, this is exciting! I’m sure none of you are aware of this, but I have quite a love for learning about extinct monsters. I actually studied this particular being extensively many years ago. Which book did you find that in, may I ask?”
Maven impersonates a shy wallflower, feigning a timid shrug. “I don’t remember the title.”
Her performance makes me grin, but then she glances at me and the others in our quintet meaningfully. As if she’s telling us to pay attention.
“No matter,” the professor says, beaming at the rest of the classroom. “Well, what a treat. Since Miss Oakley has brought it up, I may as well indulge all of us. You see, as with every type of extinct monster, revenants have ceased to be taught or written about. They were all wiped out during the Great Wars hundreds of years ago. Here, let me just?—“
The overly excited professor moves to the chalkboard and begins writing notes to accompany his lecture. Meanwhile, Crane is now entirely focused, and Decimus, Frost, and I are riveted to the spot.
If Maven wants us to hear this, does that mean…?
“Trapped between life and death, a revenant was a uniquely powerful reanimated being which quite infamously used a now-defunct form of magic called terai per vitam
—or “weapon of life.” In other words, through slaying the living, it could siphon a life force and use it to wield unspeakable levels of highly destructive dark energy, an unholy subset of dark magic all its own.”
No wonder Maven wanted us to pay attention. My dark little obsession is keeping her promise of telling us what she is.
Namely, a revenant.
“These were powerful aberrations,” the professor goes on. “Especially considering they would reanimate as many times as necessary to fulfill their given purpose. You see, at their creation, these beings would be assigned one objective to fulfill, typically one of vengeance or justice. And once they fulfilled their purpose, their soul would immediately pass on to the Beyond.”
The temperature of the classroom drops, which means Frost is just as agitated as I am hearing that Maven might die as soon as she fulfills some unknown purpose. My hand tightens on Maven’s thigh, but when I look at her questioningly, she stares forward without reacting.
The professor finishes writing on the chalkboard and brushes off his hands. “There are also ancient accounts of revenants which describe them as deathly berserkers—for once they reached a certain level of feeding, they fell into a trance-like state and would hunt down and kill any living thing within miles. Likewise, their unique magic had a terrifying snowball effect, for the more they slaughtered, the stronger they became, creating an unstoppable, formidable cycle. As a matter of fact, the Entity used a group of revenants to kill the goddess Reniah during the Great Wars.”
A shifter in another quintet pipes up. “Wait, if these things were strong enough to destroy a fucking goddess, then how the hell did they go extinct?”
“Excellent question. Despite their immense power, they were rather slow beings, so it wasn’t difficult to hunt them down after the kill order went out following Reniah’s murder. And though they would reanimate much of the time, there were ways of permanently destroying them even before they fulfilled their purpose.”
There’s a menacing edge to Crane’s voice when he asks, “What ways?”
The professor tips his head back and forth. “The most effective methods are debated among scholars, but as I understand it, these monsters could be permanently killed through full dismemberment or by being burned to death. Records also say either blessed bone or nevermelt through a revenant’s heart worked quite well.”
Nevermelt?
Crane, Decimus, and I all glance at Frost simultaneously. He’s pale as snow. Probably because when we were young kids, he’d proudly bragged that he was the youngest ice elemental to ever craft nevermelt, and when Crane dared him to prove it, he did.
Precious few other ice elementals have that ability. If Frost’s rare ability is one of her few weaknesses, maybe I should kill him as a precaution after all.
“In any case,” the professor keeps droning, “these beings had to be destroyed completely, or else they would inevitably rise again. Quite fascinating monsters, though it was never clear how they were created or how they multiplied in the first place.
Luckily for us, they haven’t existed for hundreds of years,” he smiles. “And, since you will never have to fight those evil beings at the Divide, let us move on to a presentation of something you will need to be prepared for. Fulton quintet, you’re up.”
A group of legacies begins talking at the front of the room, but I pay no attention as I absorb everything I just learned about my keeper. I’m so distracted that Maven has to gently nudge my hand on her thigh to get my attention when class ends.
But as we leave the room, instead of heading toward lunch, Crane takes Maven by one gloved hand and storms toward the private alcove where we first met her after the Seeking. She keeps up with him easily, as do Decimus, Frost, and I.
As soon as we’re alone in the space where we won’t be overheard, Crane whirls on Maven, his jaw clenched and crimson eyes severe.
“Tell us your purpose.”
She pauses. “If you’re mad because you’re stuck with a monster?—“
“That’s not why he’s mad,” Decimus snaps. “I’m fucking pissed, too, Raincloud, and it’s not because of what they made you. All I want to fucking know is what your purpose is so we can stop you from fulfilling it because you passing on is not an option. It’s just fucking not. Okay?”
Maven looks dubious about answering, so I offer my two cents. “Ending the Immortal Quintet is your purpose, is it not?”
“It is.”
“And once they’re dead?” Crane asks impatiently. “Will you die? Permanently?”
“Yes.”
My chest hollows into that same feeling of abysmal nothingness that I used to exist in until I met her. I can’t lose my reason for being. Even if it means that fucking prick Somnus lives forever, I refuse to let this happen.
Frost swears viciously, covering his face. “Okay, then we’re leaving Everbound. Immediately. I don’t care if we have to go on the fucking run. I’m not letting you stay anywhere near them.”
“It’s laughable that you think you let me do anything. But you don’t have the full picture. Remember, I also made a blood oath.”
That shuts us all up as we realize the distinction. Maven has some revenant-focused purpose…
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.