Twisted Soul (Cursed Legacies #3)

31. Crypt

31

CRYPT

The room’s quiet is interrupted only by the dim light of dawn and soft, restful breathing as I struggle to hold back a moan. I lift my obsession’s pretty thigh higher around my waist to press myself deeper into her wet, divine cunt.

All the while, my gaze is locked on her exquisite face.

Maven's eyes remain closed in blissful sleep, lashes resting on her cheeks. Her lips part ever so slightly in dreamy pleasure, thanks to the erotic fantasy I spun for her in Limbo. Her dark hair has half-unraveled from its braid, leaving her deliciously undone.

My attention sweeps down to where I have pushed up her loose T-shirt, and I admire the love bites I left all around those dusky, peaked nipples.

Sating Maven as she sleeps is sending me into a state of intoxicated bliss.

And knowing that I am bound to her now—that she carries my emblem and I am hers …

Your existence ruins me in such glorious ways , my love, I whisper to her through our bond, knowing it will not wake her since I’ve lulled her into uninterrupted rest.

But deep in her delectable subconscious, I ensured she knows precisely what I’m doing. She knows that I’ve been taking my time adoring her body, kissing and teasing and losing myself in this twisted obsession that fuels my existence.

When I thrust again, slowly, the breathy whimper that escapes my resting darling sends heated madness down my spine. I’m forced to bury my face in her neck as I try for the seventh time to fend off the acute pressure and need to fill her.

But when Maven moans ever so softly in her sleep, her intimate muscles fluttering and clenching tightly around my throbbing erection, the boundless euphoria breaks free and rushes through me. I edged and refused myself so long throughout the night that the nearly violent release leaves me breathless.

The other members of my quintet are still fast asleep in this ridiculously oversized bed, secure in their dream states thanks to the additional incubi power I dosed them with so I could worship Maven to my heart’s content tonight.

I roll over, carefully adjusting my obsession until she lies comfortably half on top of me. I can sense her contentment in Limbo, and I'm tempted to go there to savor more of her dreams.

But if I do, I’ll lose this moment to hold her.

So I stay.

Besides, her dreams will soon taper off as the morning quickly approaches. It won’t be long before they all start to wake.

At long last, when the morning is waxing strong outside the window, Crane is the first to rouse from the deep sleep I put them in. He immediately sits up to check on Maven, and I don’t miss the stark desire that floods his expression when he sees the well-fucked state she’s in.

I wholly expect him to get pissed off and accuse me of taking liberties with our keeper, but the previously insane fae surprises me when he gets up to shower without a word.

Oh, dear. Does this mean we’ve reached a new level of trust? Is our quintet going to have fewer hearty spats now that we’re all growing…gods forbid, closer?

What a horrible concept. I’ll have to think of more ways to stir the pot before they all get too comfortable with me.

Decimus grumbles sleepily, rolling over to blindly reach for Maven. I smack his hand away before he can touch my leg. He peeks an eye open before closing it again, smiling.

“No wonder I’m hard as godsdamned steel. Smells so fucking good in here. Gods, I love her pussy.”

I could have sworn Maven was still asleep, but she must have caught that last part because she slides her arms more securely around me.

“No more L -word,” she mumbles.

Frost laughs quietly, slowly waking up to this exchange. “So damn stubborn.”

Maven starts to say something else but then opens her eyes in surprise to peek between us.

“I’m leaking.”

I kiss her forehead, speaking through the bond. That would be our combined pleasure between your thighs, darling. You come as beautifully in your sleep as you do in the waking world.

That earns a deliciously sinful smile from her. Do I? Interesting. One day, if you sleep while I'm your muse, I'll return the favor.

My heart forgets to beat for a moment.

I had no idea I wanted this taboo desire reciprocated until now, but Scyntyche’s scythe , I need that from her.

But I didn't miss her use of “if.”

Maven sits up, adjusting her T-shirt and undoing her dark, tangled braid as she yawns. It’s astonishing how captivating she can be with such a simple act as waking up. I watch her at my leisure, ignoring when my pale markings light up insistently.

Frost checks his phone, probably for any updates about our little side mission. Meanwhile, Maven glances at the ground and frowns.

“Weird.”

“What’s weird?” Decimus mumbles, still half-asleep.

“I don’t feel like exercising my ass off,” she mutters.

“Good. I like your ass right where it is.”

“Perhaps your morning restlessness was curbed,” I suggest with a smile. “Sleeping cardio, and all that.”

She grins, speaking only to me through the bond. What a useful kink you have.

I will never tire of hearing her voice in my head.

“Hungry?” Decimus asks, checking on our keeper through half-mast golden eyes. “My family’s a bunch of busybodies. They’ve probably already eaten, but we could have breakfast in here.”

Maven nods absentmindedly, too busy curiously watching Frost as he finishes sending out some messages. Clearly, it still bothers her that we haven't fessed up about our plans.

He slips into the bathroom just as Crane emerges to search for a shirt. This grandmother’s suite, as Brigid called it, is a small, cozy apartment built off one side of their house. It doesn’t have a kitchen, but it’s otherwise outfitted with any necessities—and finally, a bed size fit for a quintet.

The Decimus home has always been a novelty to me. Being back here is strangely…pleasant. I suppose I somehow built up a fondness for this place despite being utterly numb for my entire childhood.

My visits here had been strikingly different from the endless, secret-riddled mansions of the Immortal Quintet. My life consisted of bouncing about from continent to continent, overhearing endless screaming matches, witnessing servants being killed off and disposed of, the constant beatings for speaking out of turn or running away to hunt down predators, and countless other unpleasantries.

In contrast, I was left in peace whenever I was brought to the Decimuses.

If any of the other Decimus family members were wary around me, Brigid scolded them and insisted I was always welcome. I once even watched from Limbo as a young Baelfire lost his temper and got in a fistfight with one of his visiting cousins for calling me a leech.

“Are they hurting?” Maven asks quietly.

I blink, drawn out of my thoughts and into her orbit once again. “Pardon, love?”

She traces some of my markings, and I realize they’ve lit up. But as it has been ever since we bonded, I barely feel the same painful tugging and aching of my curse calling me to action. I can sense that Limbo is in disarray in distant places, but the agony is so dulled that I can tune it out far easier.

I take Maven’s hand, kissing her fingertips.

How could I feel anything but pleasure after enjoying your delectable body all night? I ask telepathically, ensuring only she can hear me.

She smirks. Those were some wild dreams you spun for me.

Say the word, and they’ll become reality. Between the four of us, I’m sure we can give you anything you desire. And if the other three muck it up, I’ll enjoy watching you punish them.

Maven laughs out loud and slips away to enter the bathroom once Frost steps out.

I’m sorely tempted to follow her, but there’s a chance she’s tending to her business. So instead, out of boredom, I step into Limbo and follow Decimus as he gets dressed and leaves to find breakfast for our keeper.

The Decimus family is ridiculously large, what with all the siblings and their quintets, most of whom appear to be here for the holidays or to avoid the contention arising elsewhere. I don’t have an opinion on large families other than how fascinating it is that they make such huge portions of meals.

As someone who doesn’t consume food, I must say it’s baffling.

At first, it’s empty in the kitchen as Decimus dishes up a few heaping plates of leftover breakfast his family made earlier. But then Brigid strolls into the kitchen, smiling brightly at her youngest as she pours herself a large glass of orange juice.

“If you five want breakfast in bed, I can help carry plates,” she offers.

He hesitates. “Um?—”

“Unless you’re not all decent,” she adds teasingly. “The last thing I want is to see a bunch of naked asses running for cover—or anything else that will make me want to stab my remaining eye out.”

Decimus snorts. “I think I get my lack of filter from you.”

“You’re welcome.” Brigid watches him browse the selection of fruits. Her voice becomes uncharacteristically gentle. “I like her, you know. Maven. She seems tough. Like a strong mate.”

“You have no idea. She blows my mind all the fucking time.”

“She also seems haunted,” his mother adds.

Decimus is surprisingly fierce as he turns to face her, eyes blazing. “My mate’s life has been hell. Of course, she’s haunted. Now, are you going to keep beating around the bush, or are you going to tell me what the fuck you meant yesterday about wanting to meet her for a long time?”

Brigid grins. “That temper. Just like mine. If you really want to know, I was invited to sit in on a hearing with the Legacy Council about thirteen years ago. They wanted my help in determining the fate of a human?—”

“Amato?” he guesses, frowning.

She nods. “At the time, the council was facing backlash for rumors of arresting a human. They wanted strong supporters for public image and even tried to bribe me into voting in favor of the execution. I refused to have any part in it, but it made me curious. I looked into Pietro Amato and learned about the Reformist movement he started. And I learned he claimed to be trying to rescue his daughter back from the Nether. People called him crazy, including me…but I learned the truth too late.”

Brigid sips her orange juice. “Remitters show up at the Divide sometimes. Cause trouble with troops, kick up a shitstorm, whine. They want us to go back into the Nether. Pain in the ass, those humans. But the Reformists…they are a much smaller group, but they show up at the Divide sometimes, too. Most of them believe in Amato’s cause so much that they ask for my help to create change in the legacy government. They leave peacefully when asked, but others insist they had children taken through the Divide years ago and beg to be let into the Nether. You know why?”

“Why?” Decimus asks warily.

“Because they believe humans are living in the Nether. For years, I thought that was crazy talk. But not anymore.” She sets down her glass and regards him with all the severe intensity of a woman who has been through countless battles. “So, tell me. Was Maven the only human in the Nether?”

He tenses, protective of Maven’s secrets. “Mom?—”

“Baelfire, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about Amato’s execution for years,” Brigid snaps, getting worked up as she shakes her head angrily. “Call it intuition or a guilty conscience or whatever you will, but when the dust settled, I just knew that little girl I read about could still be in that damned hellhole. There’s no passing through the Divide, not if you want to come back out, so I was forced to live with that horrible thought. But then all these rumors started about the telum arriving after a surge in Maine, and you were so tight-lipped about your match—and damn it, I don’t believe the bullshit about her being the end of times. Maven is here for a reason. I just want to know if it’s for the reason I think it is.”

Decimus looks away, clearly conflicted about saying anything without talking to Maven first. But if anyone will be on our keeper’s side, it’s his mother. She has my respect, which means she's worlds past anyone else we could confide in.

So I slip out of Limbo to sit on the counter beside them, ignoring the flash of pain throughout my limbs from plane-walking.

“You’re spot on,” I inform her.

They both startle and swear, but then Brigid considers me. “You mean, there are humans in the Nether?”

“Thousands.” According to Maven.

“Gods. And Maven is going to free them?” She looks at Decimus.

He sighs, deciding to go along with my judgment call. “Yeah, she is. Really fucking soon, actually.”

Brigid nods slowly as if absorbing all of that. Then she smiles at me.

“At least getting you to talk to me isn’t like pulling fangs. Although I guess I’m glad my son is so protective of his mate. From what little I’ve gathered of her, she seems worth protecting.”

“She is.”

“Have you eaten, Crypt?”

“All night.” Between Maven’s thighs, in fact.

Decimus catches my real meaning and gives me a wide-eyed look as if he thinks I’m insane for implying that in front of his mother. But Brigid smacks her forehead, drawing the expected assumption.

“Oh, right—incubi and dreams. I always forget.” She begins preparing herself a plate of food. “I heard about your father. Frankly, I hope you don’t want condolences.”

“Not at all.”

“Thank gods. He was horrible.”

I couldn’t agree more.

But as Brigid brings up flying later with Decimus and they begin another conversation, I can’t help feeling that it’s been an excessive amount of time since I last saw Maven. Sliding back into Limbo, I return to the bedroom and immediately relax when I see her perched on the bed, frowning as Frost sits behind her to comb through her damp hair.

“I can brush my own fucking hair.”

“But you’ll let me do it for you,” he says, kissing her cheek. He smiles at her, an expression I’ve rarely seen on the brooding elemental. “Right?”

Maven melts a little, apparently done arguing. She mutters something about powerful dimples as he gently tends to her hair.

But her attention quickly slips to where I am in Limbo. There you are.

I emerge in the mortal realm, winking. “Miss me?”

“Never in a million fucking years,” Crane drawls from where he’s studying one of the old grimoires on necromancy that he borrowed from the Garnet Wizard’s library.

Decimus shows up a moment later with plenty of food for everyone stacked in a nearly perilous fashion. As they take plates and prepare to eat, he glances at me, then Maven. He clears his throat.

“So…my mom kind of knows.”

“Knows what?” Frost asks, glancing up.

“About humans in the Nether,” I clarify.

Maven goes still.

“She already suspected as much. I merely confirmed it.” I hesitate. “I understand if you’re angry with me, love?—”

“I’m not.”

She sets down her fork and examines the four of us. I wonder if our keeper is running out of comfortably loose clothing stashed in Crane’s invisible pocket because she’s wearing a simple black tank top and dark leggings with Pierce strapped to one thigh.

Her expression is serious. “I cannot fuck this up. This is bigger than me or some oath. And as much as I’ve trained and planned, I know I’m not enough. Not on my own. I’m providing the humans with a way out, and I’ll fight like hell for them, but there’s only so much a semi-undead bitch can do.”

“Don’t call yourself that,” Frost cuts in, irritated.

“What I’m trying to say is, if you four have people you completely trust, and you tell them about this, it may be a good thing. If people are willing to help them, I'll be grateful. But if you tell anyone who puts the humans in danger or tries to stop the exodus, I’ll kill that person without hesitating,” she adds.

“We’d expect nothing less,” Crane nods sagely.

They eat for a moment, and then Maven takes a deep breath, giving Frost a pointed look.

“Okay. In the interest of treating you guys like a quintet the way you deserve, you should know that I believe Natalya is in Baltimore. Engela says her etherium life link is inside a choker necklace.”

I smile, excited at the idea of bringing down the temperamental spoiled bitch who I’ve loathed for so long. “When shall we go after her, darling?”

Maven pushes around the eggs on her plate. “Let’s wait a couple more days. After New Year's, maybe.” She peeks up at us. “Is it silly that I want to spend more time as a quintet before all hell breaks loose?”

Decimus visibly melts, pulling her into his arms with a bright smile. “Fuck, no. That's the best idea I've heard in a while.”

“Because it's mine.”

Crane cracks a smile at her endearing confidence. “Is there a particular feeling that makes you want to spend time with us?”

“Maybe that dreaded L -word,” I hint, grinning as I catch on.

Maven scowls, breaking out of Decimus’s arms to confront us. “Oh, my gods. You know what? Fine. Let's get this over with. Yes, okay?”

“Yes, what?” Frost arches a brow.

“I obviously caught feelings. Happy?”

Crane tuts. “ Sangluir, our declarations have been far more romantic. Try expressing how you feel again.”

Maven throws a grape at him. “The way I feel about you four is like…” She pauses, finding the right words. “It's like death.”

Frost coughs. “Ouch. Death? Really?”

She nods, dark eyes solemn. “It's dark, consuming, inevitable, and…frightening, if I'm being honest.”

I smile. What an apt description. I understand the sentiment completely.

Decimus laughs. “Of course, you would make something so cute sound so macabre. Are you saying we scare you, Boo?”

“No. The things I would do to keep you four scare me.”

I think we all melt this time.

Gods above, what an enchanting keeper I have. She returns to eating like that’s the last thing she will ever say on this matter, and the others happily return to their food.

Except, strangely, Decimus.

He goes from looking pleased to looking at me in pained panic, gripping the side of his head. I barely have time to register the blue flames licking at the inside of his skin and how his eyes have shifted before I leap forward, pulling him into Limbo just in time.

Heat explodes around me. I grit my teeth as my skin catches fire. The dragon’s roar is warped, echoing in Limbo as the beast completes its shift and writhes, unable to withstand this plane of existence.

I finish patting out the flames on my arms and stomach before drifting up to grab the shrieking dragon by one of his horns. Thank the gods that the laws of physics in my domain are so different from the mortal realm because, just as the last time he lost control, I'm able to guide the agonized beast through the walls and far out into the mountainous woods.

I only release him once I know we're far enough that he won't be a threat to the others.

But when we emerge from Limbo, the beast flops onto its massive, scaly side. It's breathing heavily, smoke rising from its nostrils.

“Fucking dragon,” I mutter.

It's good I fed on Maven's dreams before getting to the fun part last night. It means my skin heals from the burns as I wait, watching the idiot dragon to make sure he recovers.

Minutes pass.

He doesn't get up.

Godsdamn it. If I just destroyed Decimus’s mind by mistake, I'm not sure Maven will ever forgive me.