Filed To Story: Cursed Legacies Series Free PDF by Morgan B Lee
So much for not getting sappy.
Amato beams, reaching out as if to brush my hair back from my face, but his hand passes through me. “We’ll have so much time together in your afterlife someday, you’ll get sick of me. But for now, I’ll happily share in all your happiest moments from here. All right?”
I nod again. I can’t help the feeling that’s settled over me. I don’t know this man, yet in a way, I do. He spent his life taking care of others. Although he’s clearly a purer soul than I ever was, I like to think that I at least inherited a fraction of his altruistic side.
Sachar pulls a strange pocket watch from one of his cloak pockets and tucks it away, looking meaningfully at Amato. My father nods and smiles at me again.
“I love you, Sweet Pea. I always have and I always will. I just have a favor to ask.”
A favor? I hesitate. “Okay.”
“Stop thinking you’re tainting our last name. You don’t have to go by Amato if you don’t want to, but…I would be extremely honored if you did.”
Godsdamn it, now I’m seriously struggling to keep the moisture from escaping my eyes. I clear my throat, nodding.
“All right. I have a favor, too.”
“What is it?”
“Whenever I end up here one day, don’t call me Sweet Pea. I’m not a fucking flower.”
He laughs. He doesn’t bother making me that promise before Sachar makes a strange sign with one of his hands, and they both vanish, leaving me alone in the white nothingness. After I’ve stared at literal nothing for a few moments, letting the fact that I just met my real father sink in, Syntyche again appears.
I’m still not sure if she walks or floats under that cloak, but her movements are so graceful that it has the same effect either way. She stops in front of me.
“It’s time to return.”
I study her. “That was the favor you asked Sachar for. You just wanted me to meet Amato.”
“Yes.”
“So do you feel like…
that about him?” I check, too curious for my own good.
“That is the first foolish question you have ever asked me,” the goddess of death informs me before swinging her scythe to rip an entry back into the mortal realm.
I see where I inherited my dislike for handing out personal information.
I step out of the vestibule between the lowest planes of existence and find myself in the exact same spot I started. My quintet is still frozen in place in this dark, foreboding forest, but gods, I’m so fucking relieved to be back at their side.
As soon as I step toward them and the rip behind Syntyche and I seals itself, all four of my matches unfreeze. They blink in confusion to see me facing them. Silas rotates slightly to keep my mother out of his peripheral vision.
Changed your mind? Baelfire frowns, checking through the bond.
No. I just got back.
Holy shit, that was a fast goodbye.
Her mother is the goddess of time, you fucking dolt, Crypt points out.
I feel a million times more at peace than the last time I was standing in the dark thrall of Everbound Forest. My chest still aches, knowing Lillian is in the Beyond and I won’t see her again in this lifetime. I’m not sure how soon that ache will get away, but closure makes a big fucking difference.
I turn back to Syntyche. “Thank you.”
She dips her head slightly. “I anticipate more polite prayers from you in the future. Or from your mortal matches. Some of their prayers have amused me.”
When her dark gaze moves to Everett, he turns redder than I’ve ever seen him and covers his face.
What is she talking about? I ask only him.
Nothing. But feel free to reap my soul to make this moment end sooner.
The goddess of death smirks at his reaction. It’s the first real expression she’s worn in the presence of my quintet, and I don’t miss that they all flinch away from her again. With that, my mother pulls her hood up and dissolves into shadows.
SILAS
In the three days that have passed since the wraiths attacked the cultist temple, my quintet and I have done everything we can to comfort our keeper. The trouble is, Maven refuses to linger on her loss.
She was careful not to shed a tear at Lilian’s simple burial service the morning after the attack. Everett crafted an elegant nevermelt headstone for Lillian, which now sits beside Maven’s in Everbound’s largest greenhouse. The snowdrop flowers in there bloomed contentedly under Asher Douglas’s common magic spell as our quintet, the Baird quintet, Douglas, and a few other Reformists paid respect to the kind-hearted human who raised my keeper.
Maven left a colorful box of Crayons and a photograph of a young girl at Lillian’s honorary grave. She hasn’t shed another tear in front of us or anyone else. Even when our keeper told us about her experience in the vestibule to the Beyond, she kept it brief and then moved on with her careful planning of how we will take down Amadeus.
She’s a force of nature—but all four of us know she’s still in mourning.
I sit on the edge of the bed, watching my blood blossom as she sleeps deeply in Baelfire’s arms. Dawn is lacing its way into the dark sky outside our quintet apartment’s primary bedroom. It’s changed to summertime temperatures over the last few days, so I can see the starts of blooming plants far below. The natural world is finally returning to normal after Everett’s perpetual cold snap.
Unfortunately, the improved weather has only encouraged the campers outside to remain here. Even despite the recent wraith attack in the forest, the refugees, Nether humans, cultists, and others are undeterred. They believe their presence shows support for “Maven Oakley.”
She’s been too busy plotting and giving instructions to the Reformist leaders to spare the lingerers any notice. To say that we’ve been busy is an understatement, but my blood blossom still hasn’t shared the entirety of her plan with us.
I watch as Maven finally grows overheated in Baelfire’s extra warm embrace. The big lug is passed out so hard that he doesn’t even stir when our fucking adorable half-asleep keeper detangles herself from his arms and scoots closer to Everett. The ice elemental instinctively pulls her against his bare, scarred chest. Cooled off at once, she relaxes back into rest.
I sense Crypt nearby a moment before he materializes beside me. He wordlessly hands me an empty syringe—one of several I’ve spent the last couple of days tinkering with in an attempt to find a reverium concoction to allay his curse.
“Well?” I check, keeping my voice low so as not to wake Maven.
He answers by removing his leather jacket and holding out one of his arms. The swirling light and dark markings on it light up in an angry pattern. But then again, very few markings remain at all.
Godsdamn it.
Shelving that frustration for later, I glance back at our keeper and focus on the much bigger issue we’ve all been contemplating for the last few days.
“Within her subconscious, have you seen anything yet of the blood oath she made to Arati?”
He shakes his head, his violet gaze serious as he slips back into the ripped leather. “I’ve seen far too much of her bleeding golden ichor in Paradise, but nothing about that fucking oath.”
Baelfire rolls over to squint at Crypt. I’m not surprised our lowered voices woke up the shifter with his keen hearing.
“Wait. Why the hell was she bleeding so much?” he asks, his voice quiet and groggy.
The Nightmare Prince is thoughtful. “The why is still a missing puzzle piece, much like her mysterious, soul-binding oath. Right, love?”
I thought she was still asleep, but Maven sits up and yawns. I don’t bother trying to hide my sigh when she pulls the sheets up to cover her delicious nakedness—a reminder of the heated adoration we lavished her with most of the night. Instead of addressing the topic at hand, my ever-unexpected, beautiful keeper instead glances at the window.
“The demons will arrive this morning,” she says as if she’s announcing she likes cheese.
Everett is immediately awake, bolting upright to frown sleepily at her. The elemental is always testy, but especially first thing in the morning. “What?”
“I needed them to supply the final part of the plan.”
Ah, yes. Her plan.
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.