Filed To Story: Cursed Legacies Series Free PDF by Morgan B Lee
“Probably wise,” Felix says, striding through the snow beside us as he scans for threats.
As he’s warily watching the ravens that have started to join us in these woods, he reaches up to scratch the side of his neck. I notice a bite scar there—Kenzie’s mating mark.
“Your infamy didn’t exactly die with you,” he goes on. “If anything, you’ve become an icon of change—but also of death and carnage. There’s already a bizarre number of claims that your death was a hoax. If the telum were to show up out of the blue…gods above, that’d be too much. People have enough on their plates trying to survive in this hellish winter, no thanks to your match. Not to mention the Limbo Zones, fires, growing Nether, and fiends running rampant, since the Divide is history.”
“Hey,” Kenzie chides, shooting him a look. “Don’t you dare make my bestie feel guilty. Let’s not forget that she saved your sexy ass along with thousands of helpless people.”
“I’m being candid,” he clarifies. “She always hated people beating around the bush.”
True.
“I need to get to my quintet,” I add, trying to disguise my limp.
“Your elemental runs the stronghold we’re headed back to, so you could try to start there. Not that I recommend being around him in general,” Felix grumbles. Apparently, I’m not hiding my pain as well as I thought, because his attention drops to my ankle as he pauses our trek in the snow. “Hey, if you’re hurt, you should heal yourself.”
“Lacking common sense isn’t the issue here,” I sigh, still annoyed about how helpless I feel without my revenant abilities.
“What do you mean? Is there something wrong with your morally-repugnant magic?”
“It’s complicated.”
Felix sighs. “It always is with you. Stay still.”
I don’t protest as he crouches down to hold his hands near my damaged leg, concentrating as he recites a fae healing spell. I’m no longer a revenant, so I wonder if common magic will work on me.
But no. The stinging remains until he finally scowls.
“I forgot. You’ll need a necromancer for that, right?” he checks, distaste in his voice.
I’m honestly not sure, but he’s always been so hilariously disgusted by darker forms of magic that I smirk. “You volunteering?”
“Anyone who voluntarily transitions into a necromancer is certifiably insane,” he retorts, turning to start our trek again as more ravens flock to the surrounding trees.
He has no idea how aptly he just described my gorgeous blood fae, but it makes my chest ache again. Gods, I just really need to track down my guys.
Kenzie tuts over my bloodied ankle and slips one arm under my right shoulder to help me limp less, careful to only touch me through my clothes. “Come on, May—let’s sneak you into the Everbound stronghold, get you thawed out, and then figure out how to sneak you into the castle without anyone seeing.”
cVJ
MAVEN
As soon as I hobble into the giant tent that belongs to Kenzie’s quintet, Luka looks up from studying a map on a desk. The vampire’s attention immediately skips to my shoulder, where my bloodied bandage is starting to seep through, before he squints to check my pupils.
His own eyes get comically wide. “You have got to be shitting me.”
“I shit you not,” I reply, examining this space as I distractedly rub the aching, overheated center of my chest.
It’s big enough to comfortably house a quintet-sized bed, the desk where Luka sits, a small cooking area, a wardrobe, and a few pieces of Kenzie’s erotic art. Mage lights keep it well-lit and cozy.
It’s also warm in here, thank the fucking universe.
After taking an unfrequented path out of the woods, we approached a massive nevermelt wall patrolled by Reformist guards, both legacy and human. Before I could be spotted, Felix used an admittedly impressive cloaking spell to get me into this tent city on the outskirts of Halfton unseen. Felix then went to check on what he called Everbound stronghold’s “shielding measures,” promising he’d rejoin us soon to cloak me and take me to the castle.
Kenzie steps into the tent beside me and gestures at everything with dramatic flair.
“Behold, mi casa!
For now, anyway. Even with thousands of legacies and humans flocking to this area to build it up and make it a safe haven for months, it’s slow going. Resources are limited, winter is harsh, and casters are spread thin, so they can’t use their magic to whip up houses left and right. Anyway, Everett provided these tents for a lot of people, and they’re actually pretty damn nice in the meantime. Felix has been perfecting heating spells to keep everyone as warm as possible—not to mention sound-proofing charms, since hello, we get extra loud at night. And in the morning. And let’s be real, during the day, too.”
She’s still happily oversharing, and Luka is still staring at me like I’m a gruesome specter when Dirk pokes his head into the tent. He breaks into a huge smile when he sees Kenzie.
“Whoa, are you wearing nothing but a coat? Message received. Let me just slip in here and…” He spots me and startles so hard his voice goes up an octave. “Gah! Oh, my fucking gods, there’s a changeling in our?—“
Kenzie quickly covers his mouth, hissing, “Shh! Not so loud!”
She ushers him inside and zips the tent shut before turning to the vampire and shifter, who both also bear her mating mark on their necks.
“There. Now no one will hear us. Guys, this isn’t a changeling. Go ahead and welcome Maven back.”
They’re quiet for several long beats as I pretend my right leg isn’t throbbing like hell.
“Welcome back,” Luka finally echoes warily.
Dirk looks incredibly disturbed. “Yeah, hi. Um…so is she, like…Undead?”
Kenzie starts to say no and then pauses, glancing at me to make sure.
“At this point, who fucking knows?” I joke.
I nearly laugh at the strained sound Dirk makes before he hastily excuses himself from the tent. Kenzie sighs, turning to me.
“He had an ugly run-in with Undead a couple of months ago, and he’s kind of paranoid about them now. And we’re already all on edge since the world is kind of in tatters thanks to, you know…”
“Me,” I supply.
To my surprise, Luka snorts. “Like you can take all the credit. It wasn’t your fault.”
“Actually, it was.”
He stands from the desk, tossing down the pen he was holding. “Whatever else happened, you were just trying to free Felix and a ton of other people from that shithole. Give yourself a break, Muriel.”
Kenzie puts a hand on her hip. “Hey. Come on. You know her name is Maven.”
“Yeah, I know.”
He must think that messing up my name is an inside joke now, but I’m more focused on the fact that he’s attempting to be…
nice to me. What the fuck?
He shuffles uncomfortably when I analyze him, trying to pick up on what I’m missing here.
“Uh, yeah. I don’t have a curse anymore. Mine made me a real dick—more than usual, anyway. Kind of a self-sabotaging, hereditary thing. My birth mom called it the Mean Streak Curse, and it was impossible not to say or do stupid things, and…anyway. Sorry for whatever shit I said back then.”
Huh. I’d never really stopped to wonder what Luka’s curse was.
But so long as we’re clearing the air…
“There’s something you should know before you help me anymore,” I confess.
This is about to get awkward, but I clear my throat and glance from Kenzie to him. I hope she forgives me for this.
“I killed your brother.”
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.