Filed To Story: Cursed Legacies Series Free PDF by Morgan B Lee
Baelfire scowls. “What do you mean, likely? There’s no fucking way we’re about to risk?—“
Syntyche throws her hood back, and for a fraction of a second, her face is a skeletal mask so disturbing that it makes all of us flinch away in surprise. Her face returns to normal immediately, like that was just a horrific warning. She looks down at my quintet with no expression at all, but there is menace in her voice.
“I will wipe all memories of you four from existence and watch your mortal corpses molder upon the steeples of my ruined temples if you dare question me again.”
They all go pale from her threat that she delivers more expertly than any I’ve heard before. But that doesn’t stop Baelfire from speaking through the bond.
Holy fuck, Mayflower. You look just like…
The resemblance… Everett starts to agree before trailing off in equal terrified fascination.
Silas has whipped around to face the other way again, holding perfectly still like he thinks that will help him avoid his mother-in-law’s attention. Meanwhile, Crypt’s jaw is clenched tightly as he glowers back at Syntyche. His markings are lighting up again, but he ignores it completely.
Don’t go, darling, he whispers inside my head.
I can’t follow you there. Don’t do this to me again.
My chest pangs even more. Leaving them alone in this plane of existence for even a moment will hurt, but…
I need to see her one more time. I swear on my beating heart that I’ll be back.
He studies me for a moment before looking down at some of the bloodstains left behind despite Silas’s quick work. Finally, he murmurs through the bond again.
Give Lillian my thanks.
And mine, Everett adds.
She did more for me than she ever needed to.
She deserves all our gratitude, Silas agrees, still not looking at my mother.
Baelfire squeezes my hand for comfort.
Give Lillian a big hug for me, get your goodbye with her, and then get back here before we lose our fucking minds again. Please.
I nod and pull away from my quintet to face Syntyche. “Take me to the vestibule.”
She moves gracefully, twisting her scythe as a hollow whistling sound fills the air. Softly glowing holy magic runes follow the path of her scythe as it swings in an arc, tearing through the fabric of this plane so that now I have a view into…nothing.
Pure white emptiness.
I analyze it, unsure what I’m looking at. When I glance over my shoulder to see how my quintet is reacting to this, I realize they’re all in the exact positions they were a moment ago. They’re not even breathing as time holds perfectly still.
“Once you return, I will release them from this suspension in time,” Syntyche says, apparently done waiting for me as she steps into the vestibule of the Beyond. “As mortals, they cannot glimpse into the fringes of the Beyond without being irreversibly drawn to it. Come.”
Ignoring whatever the hell my heart is doing, I step through the rip between planes of existence. As soon as I step into the empty white void, I feel…light. The crushing weight of Lillian’s death lifts from my shoulders and chest as I walk after my mother.
I look around, noting how scentless and silent it is here. It’s perfectly temperate as we walk across a white sand-like substance through all the nothingness.
“Is this what the Beyond looks like?”
“No. The vestibule allows spirits to review their past helps and harms done to others so they may better understand my brother’s final verdict of their afterlife.” She stops and motions at more nothingness with her scythe, glancing down at me with her pure black irises. “Your caretaker has been re-experiencing some of her most noble moments. Now she waits for you. I have a favor to discuss with my brother before I return.”
She walks away without another word, leaving me to venture tentatively into what looks like more empty whiteness. But as I step forward, my surroundings change and transform.
Almost within the blink of an eye, I’m standing in my old hovel in the Nether again. It’s where I spent so many lonely days and stayed up most nights listening to ghosts weep, whisper, and wail outside.
Sitting on the floor beside a makeshift fireplace is Lillian, carefully sketching out a chessboard with a piece of charcoal. She’s so focused that she hasn’t seen me yet, but emotions clog my throat so fast that I can’t stop the small sound I make.
Gods, it’s so nice to see her like this again. Alive and in one piece, she glances up and smiles brightly, both shocked and elated.
“Maven!” She stands and moves toward me, brushing charcoal off her hands before she stops in front of me. As always, she doesn’t go for the hug without me initiating it.
And I do.
Of course, I do.
I don’t care that my nerves clench when her arms wrap around me so tightly. I don’t fucking care about anything except for the fact that I get to hug Lillian one more time.
“I’m sorry,” I choke. “I’m so fucking sorry.”
Sorry that she died in fear. Sorry that I was the cause of it. Sorry for all the shit I’ve put her through.
Lillian pulls back, and I see tears in her bright blue eyes. She smiles. “No, little raven. No more blaming yourself. Nothing that happened was your fault.”
“Gideon wouldn’t have hurt you if he weren’t trying to get to me. Amadeus would never have sent him if I?—“
“Shh,” she soothes before glancing at the makeshift board. “Is now a good time for that game you mentioned? Your mother told me you couldn’t stay too long.”
Glancing down, I see the same hand carved pieces she and I played with for years. The ones she gifted me for one of my “birthdays” so long ago.
Oh, my fucking gods.
I’m about to burst into tears just like Kenzie.
I manage to hold it together and nod my head. Lillian and I sit on the floor of the hovel just like we used to. Except, unlike old times, daylight filters in through the windows, illuminating this rickety old space as if this is now a happy place.
Silently, I arrange my side of the board, and she does the same. I make a move. She makes a move. I make another.
Finally, I can’t take it anymore. I look at her. “Did it work?”
She tips her head, sending a pale corkscrew curl bouncing out of her braid. “Did what work?”
“You accepted Galene’s mission in order to redeem yourself.” I pause, looking over my shabby old hovel before examining her. “Will you get to see Annabel again?”
Lillian studies the chessboard, moving another piece. “I don’t know yet. Sachar may decide I didn’t do enough. My past may be more checkered than you realize.”
I clench my teeth, looking down at the game. She’s always been good at chess, which is nice because it offers a small distraction as I have to think about my next move.
Moving one of my knights, I look at her again. “I’ll make sure you get to her. I’ll talk to Sachar.”
“Maven.”
“No,” I huff, shaking my head. “After everything you’ve been through? It’s absolute manticore shit if you don’t get what Galene promised. That’s it. No matter what it takes, I’m going to?—“
“Enough!” Lillian snaps with enough surprising volume that I shut up. Her bright blue eyes are unyielding. “Everything
I’ve been through? Maven Amato, it’s time for you to start thinking about yourself. I made my choices, so whatever afterlife I’m assigned to, I have no regrets anymore. But I’ve watched you for years and years, and do you know what I saw?”
I move another piece after she makes a quick move. “A demigoddess with no fucking clue about her true nature?”
She shakes her head, huffing at me. “I saw a brilliant, fiercely determined girl who put others ahead of herself every time and never asked for anything in exchange. You didn’t sit around feeling sorry for yourself, even on the worst days when it was killing me to see everything they put you through. You just took it on the chin and survived so that you could do the very thing you were chosen to do—even if you had no idea about that,” she adds.
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.