Filed To Story: Cursed Legacies Series Free PDF by Morgan B Lee
Instead, she tips her head. “Why are your markings glowing?”
“It’s to tell me that Limbo needs stewarding, or there will be tears between the planes of existence. But it will have to wait. You’re feeling all right?” I check, fascinated.
Maven nods, glancing around as tendrils of her dark hair waft around her blood-streaked face. “Limbo is bizarre and otherworldly. Distorted. Some would call it disturbing.”
“So you like it.”
“That’s what I just said.”
I smile. It’s unusual that Maven can withstand Limbo. Then again, she grew up in a far darker, unquestionably cruel plane of existence. Perhaps it’s no wonder her mind can tolerate this dream plane more easily than most.
Yet the fact that she actively enjoys my domain pleases me more than I might have imagined.
Maven removes herself from my arms but takes my hand to pull me toward the exit. “Come on. The others are waiting.”
“No need for doors here, darling.”
I guide her through the castle wall and glance around the tiny courtyard. It’s as it’s always been, but Maven pulls me toward the old gardening shed. A moment later, we pass through a molding trapdoor into a claustrophobic, narrow, dark passageway. Catacombs, I realize. A dim light shines somewhere far down the hall, so we drift towards it, turning a couple of corners.
The light is from Dirk holding a torch. Their air elemental is unconscious and quite severely bloodied. Kenzie is fussing over her, while Frost and Decimus are scowling at each other as if they’re in the middle of a heated argument—a surprise to no one, I’m sure. Crane lies on the dusty ground, drawing broken, ragged breaths. He looks awful.
“And I thought that fae couldn’t possibly get any paler,” I hum.
Maven crouches beside him in Limbo, tugging off her blood-soaked gloves. “Do you mind…?”
Right. I was enjoying our private little stroll through Limbo, but at least this part never gets old.
When I reappear, both my quintet members startle and swear about me scaring the shit out of them just as I expected.
Decimus recovers quickly when he sees Maven also just appeared and is now testing Crane’s forehead.
“Shit, did he just—were you just in—are you okay?” He fumbles in shock, pulling her up into his arms and burying his face in the side of her neck. He just as quickly jerks away, snarling, “Wait a fucking minute. Damn it, Boo, is this your blood?”
“Relax. Not all of it is.” She pats his shoulder reassuringly. “Put me down. We need to get going before the bounty hunters catch up.”
Frost tenses, looking at me. “None of their hellhounds got a taste of her, did they?”
I start to shake my head and then frown. She did bleed out in that hallway. Is there a chance they could pick her scent out amongst all that blood and death?
Kenzie jumps up with a smile to greet Maven when Decimus finally sets her down. “You made it! I was getting worried about—oh, ew. No offense, May, but you need a shower. And I mean more than the rest of us, which is seriously saying something at this point. Speaking of which, when we get to the ruins, are we just running or…more transportation magic?”
She looks as if she dreads the answer, but her idiotic vampire match pipes up as he turns to Maven. “Like I said before, why can’t we just fucking transport already? You can at least do that much, right? Get us the hell out of here.”
His tone toward her grates on my nerves, and I’m not the only one. Frost glares at him, and Decimus bares his teeth. If he weren’t important to someone important to Maven, I would have removed this vampire’s head from his body the first time he insulted my keeper.
“Unless you’d like me to perform a laryngectomy on you with my bare hands, you won’t breathe another word around my keeper again,” I warn him darkly.
Although Kenzie shoots me an exasperated look for threatening her match, I don’t miss the way Maven’s lips twitch in amusement when the vampire goes pale at my threat. Her enjoyment of others’ fear is delectable and something I intend to explore in the future.
“He’s right that it’s practical to transport from here,” Maven muses. “Kenzie, I’ll need you for the spell.”
“Me? Why?”
“Because we’re going to your hometown.”
“We are? Why—oh! You’re trying to get me home because you know my parents are probably worried sick about me after everything that just happened here at Everbound, and since they haven’t heard from me since before the university went on lockdown, right? Not to mention, you probably know how much they want me home for Starfall Eve, right? That’s really considerate and sweet of you, May!”
My keeper wrinkles her nose. “Stop. I’m just taking you somewhere relatively safe. Since you’re from the middle of nowhere, it will also be a good place for us to lay low.”
“Uh-huh, yeah, sure. Just admit that deep, deep down, hiding under all that hardcore badassery, you’re a total sweetheart.”
“Keep insulting me, and I’ll leave you here to be the hellhounds’ chew toy.”
Kenzie laughs and moves toward Maven, but I tense.
“Wait, love. Let’s not do the spell so close to the castle, or Douglas will be able to track it.”
Frost swears. “Asher Douglas is here? If they sent him, they’re sparing no resources.”
“Maven just offed Somnus fucking DeLune. Of course, they’re freaking out,” Decimus points out.
Luka’s head jerks back. Dirk does a double take at Maven, his eyes perfectly round.
“What? She…
what now?”
The temperature drops sharply as Frost pins him with a look. “So? What will it be? Keeping your trap shut, or death by hypothermia?”
“Enough!” Kenzie snaps with surprising fire. Even when I glare at her, she doesn’t cower as usual. She just swallows hard and lifts her chin. “Of course, we aren’t going to tell anybody, so there will be no more threatening my quintet, do you hear me? Everyone in here is exhausted and really fucking crabby, so how about you three keep your traps shut until you can calm your tits?”
Did she just raise her voice at me?
I should remind her why they call me the Nightmare Prince.
But Maven’s laugh stops me from scaring an apology out of the blond shifter. The temperature returns to normal when Frost glances at her, and Decimus gazes at her like a lovesick puppy. The big brute has to hunch slightly because this tunnel wasn’t built tall enough for him.
Kenzie huffs, embarrassed. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to snap.”
“You did. Don’t apologize for it.” My keeper looks at me. “Will this Douglas guy be able to track my magic from the woods?”
“Not nearly as easily as he’ll track it if you were to cast it here, in such close proximity to him.”
She nods, glancing down at Crane, who is looking worse by the minute. She’s careful to conceal her emotions, as always, but her voice breaks slightly. “Okay. We need to get him somewhere safe, and you all need rest.”
Decimus frowns. “You need rest too, Boo.”
“I told you to stop calling me that,” she mumbles as she starts down the tunnel, but there’s none of the usual fight in her voice because the dragon shifter is right. Today has been taxing, especially for her.
We make quick progress through the catacombs. Luka holds the flashlight, Dirk carries their elemental, and although Decimus gripes about having to carry Crane’s “nerdy ass” bridal style, he at least makes sure Maven doesn’t hear his complaint.
After several minutes, I move through Limbo to emerge at Maven’s side. When I glance down at my obsession, she has a frown on her beautiful face, her very biteable lower lip protruding slightly.
“Something the matter, love?”
“It’s fine.”
“Tell me.”
Maven sighs. “Not one haunting whisper, reanimated corpse, vengeful spirit, or cursed coffin. These catacombs suck.”
I laugh. It’s absolutely adorable when she pouts.
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.