Twisted Soul (Cursed Legacies #3)

39. Maven

39

MAVEN

Nearly an hour has passed. Humans are still arriving from the Nether, but now a far more organized system is in place to get them helped and situated.

All thanks to my quintet members.

I can only assume Everett funded all of this as I watch more vans arrive to transport yet another massive group of shell-shocked Nether humans to safety far away from the unstable Divide. Others are being treated for dire injuries, or they’re hesitantly accepting food and water with trembling hands, confounded by the hospitality that has greeted them here.

It will take time for them to adapt to freedom in this world.

But gods—they’re here.

It’s working.

I’m finally fulfilling my blood oath.

So why can’t I shake the dread rising in my gut?

As I remain on the lookout for danger and any sign of Lillian arriving through the waypoint, another group of humans passes me. When one of them sees me, he whispers to the others that I’m Amadeus’s daughter and quickly bows his head in respect. The others follow suit, a strange mix of gratitude and terror as they hurry away from me.

A badly bruised girl pauses in following after them, clutching her bleeding elbow. Like the other Nether humans, it looks as if the color has been bled from her, so her big blue eyes are more of a gray. She can’t be older than ten and looks at me with moisture on her hollow cheeks.

“Thank you,” she says quietly.

Crying still makes me really fucking uncomfortable, but I offer a smile. “Stay right here.”

I hurry to one of the nearby supply crates brought by the vans earlier and return to her with a roll of bandages. Grateful for my gloves since they provide a buffer against skin contact, I quickly wrap her injury.

“Is…is Amadeus really your father ? ” she whispers.

“No.” I meet her eye briefly. “My father was a human named Pietro Amato.”

She watches as I finish bandaging her arm. As with most people from the Nether, her expression is guarded as if, aside from the tears that escape, she’s afraid of showing how she feels. Probably because in the Nether, excessive emotions end with getting devoured by the Undead.

She sniffles slightly. “S—someone told me the telum is a monster. But…I think you’re so pretty.”

I study her, noticing the way she’s hugging herself and shivering. “Thanks. And I think you’re freezing. Go get warmed up, all right?”

She thanks me again and hurries to follow a cluster of other humans, wrapping herself in an emergency blanket. Fewer humans are crowding around the supply vans now as the exodus finally seems to slow.

I tuck the remaining bandages in the pocket of the hoodie I’m wearing, which Silas grabbed from his pocket void and gave to me earlier. Glancing nearby, I watch as Crypt cheers up a group of several sullen, wide-eyed children. He hands them blankets and leads them across the giant field toward one of the food-distributing trucks. Everett, Baelfire, and Silas are also in the midst of the exodus, directing and helping wherever they can.

Watching my quintet like this makes that same fluttery sensation rise in my stomach—that tender, consuming feeling I have tried and failed to fight whenever I’m around them.

There’s just something so right about being bound to all of them now. A completeness I’ve never experienced before, like something that was always meant to be a part of me is now finally in place.

It’s a bizarrely incredible feeling.

But still, as that unspeakable emotion mixes with my growing apprehension, I turn again to frown at the Divide.

With how weak it is right now, thin enough that even humans can pass through with some magical assistance, I expected to fight off constant surges as the humans escaped.

So why the hell hasn’t an attack happened yet?

I don’t realize Felix has emerged from the Divide again until he clears his throat beside me.

“There are monsters on their way. And shadow fiends.”

I nod, still frowning. “Odd that they haven’t come sooner.”

Felix opens his mouth to say something else, but Kenzie skips up to us, her light corkscrew curls bouncing in a high ponytail. Her nose is slightly pink from the cold despite the fluffy light blue jacket she’s sporting alongside tight, shimmering green leggings.

“Okay, just for the record, this is completely fulfilling my lifelong dream of being a tour guide. I mean, I’m not really giving a tour, but sort of because so far, I’ve explained to about thirty different people that the trees are green and my eyes are blue. Are there just no colors in the Nether? Because they’re all blown away by them. And they’re all so incredibly nice . I mean, I want to wrap up every single person popping out of the Nether with a massive hug and cry for them for a little while because it’s clear they’ve been through terrible shit—but gods , I am so glad I get to be here to help any little way I can,” she gushes.

“I’m glad you’re here, too,” I grin.

I would never say it out loud, but I’ve really missed this bubbly lioness shifter.

Her gaze darts to Felix, and she smiles brightly. “Hi there! I’m Kenzie. Lion shifter. Artist. Retired slut extraordinaire—unless you ask anyone in my quintet,” she winks. “What’s your name?”

He fumbles. “Um…I’m, uh…”

Then he looks wide-eyed at me like he needs help. I arch a brow, not sure why he’s glitching.

“This is Felix. I’ve known him for years. He helped orchestrate the exodus.”

Kenzie grins. “Oh! Are you like, May’s oldest friend?”

“Not friend,” I correct. “More like…distant accomplice.”

She laughs at me and tells Felix she’s glad to meet him. Then she excuses herself to help Vivienne since the petite little air elemental is trying to support a full-grown human man who seems to have twisted his ankle during the humans’ escape.

As soon as Kenzie bounces away, the one-armed caster swallows thickly.

“Gods.”

“She’s a whirlwind, but I’ll kill to protect her any day,” I shrug.

Except when Felix continues to gawk after Kenzie, I realize he’s not just baffled by her unparalleled ability to shoot words out of her mouth in rapid succession.

No, he’s…starstruck.

“Does—does she need any help?” he asks hopefully. “With anything? At all?”

“I’m sure her matches will help her if she does.”

His face falls, and he clears his throat. “Oh, right. She mentioned already having a quintet.”

“Yes. An incomplete one.” I squint at Felix, considering him. “Come to think of it, they’re missing a caster.”

He’s still busy staring after Kenzie when cold creeps down my spine. I snap to attention when my senses fly into high alert, all of my instincts sharpening. My gaze slips to the towering, hazy gray of the Divide.

Shadow fiends. I can sense them coming—a lot of them.

Too many.

I swear and remove my gloves, slipping them into the waist of my leggings as I make the infernal symbol with my hands and close my eyes. Breathing out the forbidden words, I feel my pulse start to slow.

Boo? What are you doing? Baelfire checks telepathically.

An instant later, I sense Crypt beside me. “Trying to see ahead, love?”

Stop bothering her. She needs focus for that spell, Silas asserts through the bond.

Everett says something, too, but his voice fades as darkness creeps in. My breathing stops. For a moment, I can feel death draw close around me, almost like a brush of cold fingers along the skin of my face. My focus drops to the shadow heart in my chest as I prepare to tap into Amadeus’s abilities to see what the fuck is going on.

But when I try, it’s like I’ve pulled on the wrong loose string. Instead of flashes of the future, dark malice reverberates throughout my mind as his deep, rumbling voice sweeps through my mind.

Daughter. Your dreams betrayed your betrayal.

I can’t breathe. Tendrils of dread wrap around me, cutting off my oxygen as fear coagulates inside my chest.

I fight against a feeling like sinking into oblivion, struggling against this dark link as the shadow heart inside of me clenches, shuddering in response to the Entity’s control.

Until I feel something else yank on me—no, four other somethings. They pull at my soul obsessively, warming the emptiness inside my chest.

I finally break free of the link with a sharp gasp, my eyes flying open to see that Baelfire is holding me in his arms. The others are gathered around with pinched foreheads.

“Fuck, Raincloud. Are you okay?” Bael asks. “What just happened?”

I’m disoriented and squirm until he sets me down. He doesn’t let me go entirely since I’m still unsteady, but I ignore the lingering weakness from the ritual and look at each of my matches in turn.

“Maven?” Everett asks softly, peering into my eyes. “Talk to us.”

The dread that has been haunting me since we arrived here for the exodus grips my throat tightly.

“A fight is on its way. We?—”

I shake my head hard, looking around for Felix. He’s a couple of yards away, frowning at us in concern, but snaps to attention when I catch his eye.

“Tell whatever humans remain in the Divide to get out of there now . Amadeus—” My voice breaks, so I retry in a whisper. “He knows about the exodus. His forces are on the way to stop it.”

My matches swear. Felix nods and takes off toward the waypoint, shouting at the arriving humans to hurry before he slips back into the Divide to hurry along anyone remaining.

My pulse continues to pound. “Silas, tell the bounty hunters the fight is about to begin. They need to be ready at the waypoint. Baelfire, work with the Reformists. Crypt?—”

“I’m staying with you, love,” he says firmly, violet eyes blazing.

“Whatever hell is about to break loose, we’ll stay at your side,” Everett agrees.

At the end of the field, the Divide wavers before terribly shrill, otherworldly shrieks echo through the cold air—the sounds of a massive surge of fiends approaching.

The fleeing Nether humans know the sound too well and scramble as one great mass toward the back of the field, clearing much of it in record time. Bounty hunters and Reformists quickly mobilize, their attention on the glowing waypoint spell as they prepare for whatever is about to come through it.

For a moment, it’s like the stormy sky itself is holding its breath.

And then hell barrels through the Divide and into this world.

Various monsters, banshees, ghouls, wendigos, Undead, basilisks, and other horrors pour into the field with roars and screams that split eardrums. Two massive harbingers appear, their spider-like legs piercing the dirt as they shriek in harmony, lacing the air with their deadly songs. Reformists and bounty hunters immediately leap into action, launching their attacks as the battle to defend the Nether humans begins—but my stomach plummets when I see how many of the fiends continue to arrive.

Amadeus figured out my gambit. This is his move. A planned attack.

My horror is temporarily eclipsed by shock when Baelfire uses his shifter speed to bolt across the field—right into the middle of a horde of Undead. Before any of them can try to bite him, he bursts into a bright explosion of royal blue flames, shifting and leaving behind a wake of burning, screaming shadow fiends. A golden dragon is suddenly on the field, his deafening roar splitting the air. Molten blue fire spews from his mouth, sending a row of enemies up in flames.

Gods. That’s my mate.

Damn straight, Baelfire replies through the bond that I didn’t realize I spoke through.

“Maven.” Everett gets my attention by gently tipping my chin to meet his pale blue gaze.

I realize Silas has already rushed to join the fight. Crypt is beside us, his markings glowing.

Taking a deep breath, I force myself to focus. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter what Amadeus does or doesn’t know. If we push back these forces, I can still refortify the Divide and keep the humans and the rest of the mortal world safe from his grasp.

Determination blazes through me as I take in the battle quickly evolving before our eyes. The Reformists are fighting fiercely, as are the bounty hunters. The field is filled with flashes of magic and fighting shifters. Elementals cut down fiends with their elements, and all types of siphons take down opponents. Meanwhile, Baelfire is burning another line through the field as a buffer against the onslaught of shadow fiends.

But when I see two glowing skeletons dressed in ceremonial attire step through the waypoint in the distance, I swear.

Liches.

The only one of Amadeus’s Undead that can wield magic after death—and they’re fucking powerful.

Withdrawing daggers from their hiding places, I roll my shoulders before racing into the battle with Crypt and Everett on either side of me. Already, I can sense the irresistible weight of death in the air as my blood begins to rush with readiness for the delicious chaos of a frenzied battle.

I race to leap up onto a ghoul, slicing Pierce through his neck. As he falls, I roll and take down a banshee, then several Undead in quick succession. Twirling Pierce in my hand, a grin stretches over my face.

This is a fight I can handle. I was made for brutality like this.

I am nothing but deadly calm.

No—I’m more than that. Much more.

And as soon as this is over, the Divide is restabilized, and the dust begins to settle, my mission will be over. Then, finally, I’ll be able to focus on my newlybound quintet and give them every part of myself until I fade away.

We just have to survive this first.