Filed To Story: Cursed Legacies Series Free PDF by Morgan B Lee
He kicks me under the table. “I was four, you motherfucker. When I saw your parents’ keeper reaching into that thing, I thought he was stuffing his hand up its butt. What kid wouldn’t find that shit appalling? But that was forever ago, and I can handle anything you can.”
I look at my keeper pointedly. “As you said earlier, his dark side isn’t nearly at our level. If he even has one.”
“Everyone has a dark side,” she mutters as if to herself.
“Look, I’m not a blatant asshole like Silas most of the time, but this fucker hurt my mate, so watching her torture it is going to be an absolute fucking treat,” Baelfire huffs.
Maven nods, then frowns. “Come to think of it, that changeling got into my head earlier, so it might start spouting off shit about my past that it has no business sharing. I should do this alone.”
I set my bloodied crystal on the table, shaking my head. “You’ve decided to be transparent with us. Consider this a part of that. Nothing it says will sway us from your side.”
She openly grimaces at that before meeting my eye. “Don’t be so sure.”
“What will it take to earn your trust, ima sangfluir? Should we make a blood oath promising to take your secrets to our graves?”
“No. Besides, that would hardly be comforting. In my experience, graves aren’t permanent.”
Baelfire and I exchange a look before he asks, “Wanna expound on that, Mayflower?”
She opens her mouth, but someone knocks on the front door, interrupting our first half-official quintet meeting. Baelfire looks haggard as he bares his teeth. He’s still liable to shift and kill if any threat presents itself, and there is no way in the world that I’m letting someone outside of our quintet see Maven in a bathrobe, so I’m the one who answers the door.
Engela Zuma regards me, barely blinking at the dried blood on my chin, neck, hands, and clothes. I’m so taken aback by a member of the Immortal Quintet at our door that I immediately step out and shut it behind me, ensuring she has no chance of glimpsing Maven.
Of all members of the Immortal Quintet, I know the least about Engela. Everyone knows Natalya is a spoiled, overpowered bitch, and that none of her immortal boy toys should be crossed because they’re all equally powerful and inhumane.
However, the second female monster in the Immortal Quintet is a relative question mark, even by her appearance. I know she can transform objects and even people to stone at the touch of her finger, but with her deep brown skin, dark eyes, and black hair shorn close to her head, she could pass for a human. She doesn’t look nearly as monstrous as the others in her quintet.
I dip my head slightly, a sign of respect I don’t entirely mean because I respect no one in the Immortal Quintet. “What brings you to?—“
She cuts me off by holding out four sealed envelopes without a word.
I don’t want to take them. What if they’re dangerous?
Of course, they’re dangerous, a voice in my head scoffs. The Immortal Quintet must know the truth about Maven. They’re after her.
When you open those envelopes, deadly hexes will emerge.
You’ll be powerless as usual. Useless boy, my father growls among the voices.
My eye starts twitching, and I realize I’m breathing heavily and retreating backward. If Engela notices, she doesn’t care. She drops the letters on the floor and walks silently away, rounding the nearest corner.
I wait several seconds to see if some kind of trap springs forth, but when I hover my hand over the envelopes, I sense no malicious magic.
I pick up the envelopes and return to our apartment, frowning when I see one each for Maven, myself, Baelfire, and Everett.
“What is it?” Baelfire asks, approaching. Then he wrinkles his nose. “What’s that smell coming from Maven’s letter?”
That intrigues Maven, who walks over and leans up and inhales near her envelope at precisely the same time I lean down for a whiff.
“
Calea ternifolia,
” we say at the same time.
It makes me blink, and then a smile threatens to tug the corners of my mouth. “I almost forgot. You’re quite the botanist. Odd that you should have that hobby, though.”
With our faces close like this, I have the luxury of studying the dark kaleidoscope of colors in her irises as she arches a brow.
“Why, because I come from a lifeless void?”
“Precisely.”
She shrugs. “Everyone needs a hobby, even in hell.”
She slips the envelope from my hand and opens it. Baelfire and I lean in to study the small object that falls into her palm. It’s a circular glass talisman. At the center of it is a golden eye closed in asleep while the outer edges of the glass bracket a pattern of swirling dried leaves—the calea ternifolia that, when spelled, becomes so pungent.
Although it’s simple, it’s incredibly well-crafted and appears to be very old. If this is a gift from Crypt to her, it’s impressive.
Maven reads the note that came with it, and as she does, Baelfire and I both read the letters addressed to us. It doesn’t take me long to skim, and I must finish at the same time as the dragon because he lets out a harsh scoff and shakes his head.
“Fucking Nightmare Prince.”
Maven glances over. “What did he say in yours?”
“Mostly a grotesquely detailed threat of extreme testicular torture if we let harm befall you while he’s away,” I reply. I don’t mention the part where Crypt added that he would search for anything at the Divide that might ease Maven’s ailment, as reverium does for him.
“Same,” Bael grunts, tearing up his letter. “How about yours, Boo?”
He tries to lean over to read over her shoulder, but she slips it into her pocket and glares at him. “No more Boo. Boo is dead. Put that nickname on a fucking gravestone and move on.”
“My bad,
Mayflower.”
My attention moves back to the talisman in Maven’s hand. “That must be a dream totem. An incredibly old one. I don’t know where Crypt found it, but they’re supposed to keep nightmares at bay, among other things.”
Her lips curve into the slightest smile as she studies the talisman, and just like that, I’m fiercely jealous. I want to give her something she likes, too. Baelfire looks equally envious as he huffs and folds his arms over his chest.
“Doesn’t change the fact that he fucking left. He should be here helping to protect our keeper.”
Maven rolls her eyes and pockets the talisman before fixing us with a look. She no longer desperately clings to her poker face whenever we’re alone, so right now, it’s purely Maven, with that intoxicatingly dark, dangerous flare in her eye that makes my cock twitch in my pants.
“Let’s get one more thing out of the way. You two have no idea what I’m capable of. I’m sure the last day or two of close calls has made you both think I’m fragile, but trust me. I can handle myself. Now come on, it’s time to hunt a changeling.”
MAVEN
I would never say it out loud, but I’m starting to miss my unseen stalker.
As I redress and wait for Silas and Baelfire to clean up and get ready for changeling hunting, it feels odd not sensing Crypt’s dark presence lingering at the outskirts of my senses.
Even though Baelfire grumbled about it, the plan is to skip dinner and use that time to find the changeling. But before we leave, I can’t resist skimming my letter again.
There never has been and never will be anyone but you for me. Twisted souls like ours can’t help belonging together, will of the gods be damned. Quintet or not, bound or not, I was always going to be yours, darling.
Wherever you rest your pretty head, keep this under your pillow until I return to you. And please dream of me, for if I could dream, it would always be of you.
Gods. Why does he have to be so…
poetic?
This kind of sweetness normally nauseates me, but for some reason, my stomach decides to flutter instead. My face feels warm. It’s unclear why Engela Zuma herself dropped off these notes from Crypt, but I know one thing: there must be a good reason he had to leave Everbound if someone in the Immortal Quintet was involved.
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.