Filed To Story: Cursed Legacies Series Free PDF by Morgan B Lee
Instead, my attention slides back to her hair. And her eyes. They’re like Lillian’s, too—a bright, happy blue. Their personalities seem similar.
She’ll probably be so fucking annoying as a roommate, but it feels too much like I’m looking at a younger, taller version of Lillian, so I decide to hold off on the spider eggs.
For now.
Walking to the window on my side of the room, I close the thick, dark curtains to make the bright lighting less harsh on my eyes. I’ll need to blend in here until Headmaster Hearst returns. Which means I’ll attend my classes and draw absolutely no attention to myself. Keeping my head down is the best strategy.
If I have to endure Kenzie as a roommate until the Seeking, I should at least get an idea of how dangerous she is as a legacy.
“So. You’re a lion shifter.”
She nods, but her smile is less bright as she perches on the side of her bed. “Yeah, well…I’m supposed to be. I mean, I am, because I can sense my inner lioness, but my curse…” She makes a face and then leans towards me in a conspiratorial whisper. “I know it’s taboo for legacies to reveal their curses, but mine is really obvious—so I’ll just tell you since everyone else already knows. I can’t shift until my curse is broken.”
Ah, yes. The curse.
I’ve heard plenty about it, including the fact that the curse affects each legacy differently. Typically the stronger the legacy, the stronger their curse.
The gods put the Legacy Curse in place decades ago to ensure balance and peace since legacies have a long and gloriously bloody history of nearly destroying the world through warfare. Long story short, Everbound University has been the mandatory two-year graduate school for legacies for over a century. They come here to study, train, and determine how they fit into the hierarchy of the Four Houses based on their strength and power.
But mostly, legacies come here to find their missing pieces. Because the only way legacies can break their curses and reach their full potential is through binding their souls in a quintet pieced together from members of all Four Houses.
A matching set of monstrous soulmates, if you will. Hand-selected by the gods themselves.
What a crock of bullshit.
“Anyway,” Kenzie’s entire face lights up again. “It’s fine because the Seeking is only two weeks away! Can you believe it? I’m so fucking stoked. I’ve been waiting my entire life to find out who I’ll be matched with. Isn’t it so exciting?”
“Thrilling,” I mutter.
She tips her head. “I just realized something. Why are you so late to Everbound? I mean, we’re only a month away from the end of the semester.”
“Long story.”
She tries to hide her disappointment at my non-answer. “Got it. Well, then…hey! Want a tour of Everbound? I would love to be a tour guide. Not just for you—for anyone. I wish legacies could have boring, run-of-the-mill jobs like tour guiding because
I think it’s my true calling in life. I know things about this place that even the headmaster can’t imagine. Dead-ass, if you ever have a random question about this place or anyone here, I’m your girl because I’ve made the gossip mill my little bitch.”
The corner of my lips twitch. So far, she’s not as annoying as I expected. She might even be…tolerable.
“A tour would be useful,” I decide.
“Yes! Let’s go now so we have plenty of time to do move-in shopping for you.”
Kenzie is buzzing with excitement as we leave the dorm, but as we walk down the corridor, she tries to loop her arm with mine. I sidestep away from the contact.
She gives me a curious look, but then she earns her first real brownie points as a roommate when she gets it, no questions asked, and gives me a thumbs-up.
“Not a touchy person. No worries. So, where to first? One of the two massive libraries? The dining hall? Ballroom? Courtyards?” Before I can get a word in, she waves her hand. “Who am I kidding? Let’s start with the entry, and I’ll show you everything!”
Too late, I realize we’re descending the same stairwell I took earlier. We both stop on the steps at the scene below us: two faculty members scrubbing blood off the stone steps.
But the vampire’s corpse? It’s nothing but charcoal.
I tip my head curiously when I note that they’re also cleaning up scorch marks and smoke all over the walls. It looks like a fire went out of control, consuming anything that wasn’t solid stone.
Kenzie gives me an oh yikes look before clearing her throat. “Uh…what happened here?”
One of the faculty members glances at us with a huff. “We’d love to know that too. Looks like a fire elemental lost control, or it was a fire spell or something like that. Whoever did it was a spoiled brat and left it for us to clean up.”
I almost snort out loud.
But I am curious who lit this area on fire. I had nothing to do with that.
Finally, we slip past them and make our way down another passage, and Kenzie whispers, “Oof. I mean, it’s not the first time I’ve seen shit like that here, but still. I wonder who that was. It’s pretty sad that they bit the dust when they might’ve been just two weeks away from meeting their soul mates. What a bad time to go.”
Whoever that vampire was supposedly “destined” to end up with, I did them a favor.
Kenzie shows me the key places at Everbound for the next hour and a half. Everbound is a maze of Gothic architecture that’s remained relatively untouched despite modern times. Aside from the Wi-Fi, electric lighting, and plumbing, walking around the university is like stepping back in time several hundred years. The vaulted stone archways, winding stairways, gargoyles, chandeliers, multi-room libraries with domed glass ceilings, and sliding ladders for reaching the upper shelves…
I admit it. This place is impressive.
Just as we’re stepping outside into one of the courtyards filled with marble statues, a deafening roar fills the air. I go stock still and wait for it to die out. I’ve never heard a sound like this before. It’s nothing like a normal animal’s call. It’s powerful, hair-raising, vibrating through the air and echoing over the nearby forest.
And then a massive golden dragon soars into view.
For a moment, I can only stare incredulously as the creature’s wings beat the air, creating a strong wind that rustles everything around us. The beast lands in one of the training fields nearby, and I can feel the ground tremble from all the way over here. Its wingspan is staggering, scales gleaming. It folds away its impressive wings and snorts blue fire into the air…and then, in two blinks of the eye, he shifts into a man.
Dragon shifter.
I can’t see him clearly from here, but I can tell he’s a huge, naked mass of solid, tanned muscles. A few other legacies—presumably shifters—jog up and slap him on the back. Shifters are extremely comfortable with nudity, from what I’ve heard. All of them are shorter than he is, even though shifters tend to be taller than all other legacies.
“What a drama king,” Kenzie scoffs, shaking her head. “I wonder what set him off today.”
“You know him?”
“Oh, yeah! Everyone knows him. You’re looking at Baelfire Decimus, the youngest son of the revered Decimus family. You’ve heard of them at least, right?”
“No.”
Kenzie is surprised. “Really? Well, they’re basically the last branch of dragon shifters in existence, and as their youngest son, Baelfire basks in a ridiculous amount of attention. Although that’s also probably because he’s a rizz master.”
I face her. “A what now?”
“You know. Rizz. Cha ris ma. He’s a people person,” she amends when I clearly don’t get it. Then she wags her brows. “Not to mention his looks. Crazy handsome, don’t you think?”
Hard to tell from so far away. I watch as he laughs with his fellow shifters, throwing an arm around two of them at once.
“Huge. I pity the vagina of anyone he takes to bed.”
Kenzie throws her head back and cackles. “Yeah, well, don’t tell him that. He’s already got a dragon-sized ego. Come on, I’ll show you the grand dining hall. Did you get a map of where your classes are tomorrow? Because if you want, I can help you find them?—“
“Kenzie!”
We both look over at two girls approaching. Before they get close enough, Kenzie grumbles under her breath and whispers to me, “Watch out. These girls are highly ranked. Nice, but way too competitive. It’s better to stay under their radar.”
They stop in front of us, and the redhead on the left looks over me sharply. “Never seen this one around. She new here?”
I don’t miss that she addresses Kenzie and not me, as if I’m just a vague presence she hasn’t deemed with person status yet.
“Oh—yeah, this is Maven. I’m just showing her around. We’re roommates.”
The other girl is tall with dark skin, a nose ring, and short purple hair. “House?”
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