Page 55 of Divine Fate (Cursed Legacies #4)

EPILOGUE

MAVEN

I never get tired of the way Crypt loses control when he wakes up to the realization that I’ve already gotten us started.

For someone with a raging somnophilia kink, he can’t get enough of being on the receiving end. Being his muse only makes it better, because each of our subconsciouses melt together as an intimate melting pot of desire, obsession, and violent need.

“Fuck,” I bite out, gasping when Crypt thrusts even harder into me.

We’ve been at this for an hour, and he still hasn’t calmed down after waking up to me nearly finishing him off with my mouth. Now his pace is rough and punishing, knocking the breath from my lungs with every stroke as those fucking amazing piercings rub me in all the right places.

His hand cradles my head as he groans brokenly into my neck. My feet are somewhere near my ears because he’s folding me like a fucking pretzel and fucking me like he’ll die if he doesn’t.

Feeling another orgasm building and clenching low in my stomach, I firmly guide my incubus’ face back to mine so I can kiss him as my subconscious melts into his, clouding this dream space within our own home. The intimate muse bond between us quivers as I sense Crypt’s intense pleasure building hot and fast alongside mine.

Just as I feel his control slipping, my Nightmare Prince reaches between us to pinch my clit in such a brutally delicious way that my release takes my breath away. I shake and swear, clutching him tightly as his own sharp pleasure follows mine, leaving us panting and delirious.

Gods, I never get tired of this. This obsession. This suffocating need.

I constantly have it for all of my quintet.

Speaking of…

“How much longer do you need to stall me?” I check once I can finally use words again, interrupting Crypt as he scatters satisfied kisses along my neck and jaw.

His lips curl up against my skin before he pulls away, silver-flecked violet eyes sparkling wickedly. “Am I really so obvious?”

“You’re all obvious. Especially Baelfire.”

I’m pretty sure my dragon shifter is the one spearheading this surprise, since he’s been practically jumping out of his skin anytime I’ve walked into the room while he was on his phone. Not to mention, Baelfire not-so-subtly had me sample over seventeen different cake flavors over the last few weeks.

But he wasn’t the only one who tipped me off. Everett has also been evasive as hell, and Silas has been avoiding the topic of my birthday like the plague. Anytime I’ve brought it up, he’s immediately turned the topic to the approaching Starfall Eve—something he won’t have to fail at lying about.

My poor fae. I’ve been having far too much fun watching him squirm and playing innocent.

Now that the day is here, I’m not surprised that the others encouraged me to sleep in and left Crypt here to distract me for good measure. In their defense, my incubus makes for the perfect distraction to nearly anything.

Including a surprise party.

Crypt hums and kisses me again. “Truth be told, the others have been telepathically crucifying me for the last fifteen minutes, since everyone’s waiting on us now. It’s really their fault for assuming I could possibly give up enjoying my muse at my leisure like this.”

I smile, tracing the dark swirling markings on his neck and bare shoulders. His markings are now attuned to the much smaller Gateway into the Nether, which is located off of a beach in Maine. As my head of security, Crypt is the first to know if anyone or anything with hostile intententions tries to enter or leave the Nether, because his markings will light up to tell him.

It happens often enough to keep us on our toes, but it’s calming down. Few people outside our quintet ever see shadow fiends these days. There are no legacies being sent to the front lines of the nonexistent Divide, and Everbound University is no longer a place to train for combat and possible death just for being born a legacy or atypical caster.

Instead, the world is gradually adjusting as legacies and humans find a new, equal kind of harmony. Legacies study whatever the fuck they want to prepare them for a life and career in the mortal realm, just like any other university. It will take time for things to really fall into place—but I’ve already found mine.

Here in the Nether, with my matches. Spending every second with them whenever I’m not hunting fiends to my beating heart’s content.

It’s my own version of Paradise.

Hey, Boo? Baelfire checks in telepathically, clearly trying to hide exasperation from whatever conversation he’s been having with Crypt. How much would it bug you if I beat Crypt to a pulp for hogging you?

You hogged me last night , I point out.

Doesn’t count since all three of your voyeurs enjoyed the show. Not that I minded you enjoying them enjoying you, but this is different.

I sit up on the quintet-sized bed in the massive room they named mine inside our house. Everett pulled strings and greased hands to get this place built in record time, and I have to say, his high-end tastes really come in handy.

We now live in luxury in this house that is heavily warded by the etherium shields that used to protect the safe havens. Everyone has their own space here. My own room off the main suite is mercifully minimalistic, Baelfire’s has a studio filled with his photography of landscapes in the Nether, Silas has a small laboratory for all the spells and potions he’s constantly trying, and Everett has a fencing room he pretty much never uses anymore. He spends most of his time going back and forth between here and the mortal realm for business and for the nonprofit he started to help Nether humans.

But despite all the space and extra rooms, we all sleep in here.

And fuck in here.

Needless to say, it’s my favorite room. Even though it’s still weird to have an actual home, I kind of love it. Especially because it’s just my quintet here. We’re hardly left in peace, but this is our own bubble.

Glancing out one of the floor to ceiling glass windows, I gaze out over the plane of existence that I tied my soul to. The Nether is starting to heal itself slowly, color returning as less twisted, less gnarly plants begin to grow.

Especially in the greenhouse that Everett carefully had moved here, along with my fake headstone and Lillian’s resting place, which I visit almost every day.

Angel of Death, Baelfire prompts through the bond. I might pick you up myself.

I can’t resist teasing my dragon. You were all for Crypt sweeping me away an hour ago. Why the change? Is there something I’m missing?

Me, he insists quickly. You’re missing me. Tell Stalker Boy to quit all the canoodling and come find us.

Canoodling is still a banned word, I remind him.

Punish me for using it later and get your sweet ass over here.

Crypt sighs like this is the biggest inconvenience in the world before he helps me stand, running his hands everywhere he gets the chance as he returns to kissing my jaw.

I pull away from Crypt to sigh. “I should probably wear clothes if it’s not just our quintet.”

“Or put on a show,” he grins and then tips his head, frowning. “Although Frost might destroy the Baird quintet for seeing you naked. The Decimus family, too.”

Grinning, I kiss him one more time before I clean up and get dressed. Several minutes later, as I’m lacing up one of my combat boots, Baelfire strides into the room and punches Crypt hard in the arm as payback, which just makes the incubus laugh. My tall dragon shifter stops in front of me with a bright smile on his handsome face.

“Come on, my queen. I’ve got a little something for you.”

“She’s already seen your little something, Decimus—you’ve disappointed her with it plenty of times,” Crypt drawls, shrugging into another ripped leather jacket.

He keeps ripping those, which is why I hope he’ll like what I have stashed in my pocket void. It took me several tries to get the spell right a couple of months ago, but at least I’m starting to get the hang of fucking holy magic.

Baelfire snorts. “Yeah, we all know how not little I am, and I’m way ahead of the rest of you in that bet.”

“In your dreams,” Crypt scoffs.

I fight a smile. I know all about their bet to see who can get me to orgasm the most. While their last bet was really fucking annoying, I have to say I don’t mind reaping the rewards of this one.

Baelfire and Crypt walk with me out of our home and into the Nether. The Gateway is about a quarter of a mile from the wards surrounding our property, so it doesn’t take us long until we approach the massive, arched, mist-like wall of white. Its sides are ringed with etherium that glows with holy magic, drawing me closer.

“Ready?” Baelfire grins, taking my hand.

I nod, ready for a surprise party.

The thing is, I’ve never been to a surprise party. I can’t even picture what one would look like, since most of my birthdays were quietly celebrated between Lillian and me in the past.

Which is why I genuinely startle and nearly draw Cuttrina from my side when the second I step through the Gateway, a shit ton of people scream, “Surprise!”

My heart pounds from residual shock as I see that Crypt was right and my quintet, the Baird quintet, the Decimus clan, and Everett’s sister, Heidi, are all here as they clap and cheer to greet me.

Everyone is dressed warmly, since it’s December in fucking Maine, but someone—probably Silas—put up warming spells to make this a cozy area. There are several tables set up on the beach with the stormy gray seas in the distance, and presents are clustered on one of the tables. Several ravens flutter to land nearby, croaking happily when they see me. No ghosts are here yet, but I know it’s just a matter of time because anywhere I go in the Nether or the mortal realm, they find me.

Everett is immediately at my side, kissing my temple and wrapping his trench coat around me for good measure. “Happy birthday, Snowdrop.”

Silas moves to join the rest of us, too, his crimson irises captivating as he smirks at me. “This year, I believe twenty-four orgasms are in order.”

“Twenty-one,” Crypt corrects. “I already got our goddess started on her birthday orgasms.”

Baelfire snorts. “If I’d been the one who stayed behind with her, she wouldn’t need any more. I mean, we’d still give you more,” he adds, grinning at me.

I roll my eyes. “You four are ridiculous.”

“Ridiculously in love ,” Bael flirts, bouncing his eyebrows at me.

“May!” Kenzie squeals happily, the first guest to approach.

“Whoa,” I blurt on accident when I see her belly.

It’s been about a month since I saw her last, and I swear that thing has fucking doubled in size. I guess that makes sense, since two babies would take up more space. Kenzie sees me staring at it and bursts into laughter as the rest of her quintet waves and smiles at me from their table.

“Hey, now. Remember, you once said I’m the sexiest pregnant lady that you know. You have to stick to that because after six fucking months of this, I’m already beyond ready to get these little crotch goblins out. I want to see my feet again and not have to pee every sixteen seconds. Hey, do you think they’ll start letting legacies join professional sports teams anytime in the next few decades? Because if not, we should start our own league or something because I swear these kids think my ribs are a soccer ball and I’m ready to?—”

“There’s my favorite sister-in-law!” Cace Decimus cheers, approaching with a smile. “How’s the hunt for fiends these days?”

“She slaughters them with ease and waters the ground of the Nether with their blood,” Crypt smiles, squeezing my hand.

Cace doesn’t seem to know what to say to that, but Brigid Decimus and her quintet are right behind him, greeting me and once again gushing about the fact that Declan’s quintet is having a baby. It’s definitely Declan’s, which means that the scales Baelfire gave to Silas to work on the dragon shifter fertility problem worked. For the first time in over two decades, another dragon shifter is finally on the way.

Brigid Decimus is also thriving in her new position as the headmaster of Everbound University. She and her quintet took up residence there and are changing a lot of the old tradition and beliefs about needing to weed out weak legacies.

When the Decimuses and Kenzie return to their tables to eat pizza and chatter happily, the next person to greet me with a shy smile and big brown eyes is Heidi—no, Elise.

I keep forgetting she prefers to go by Elise, her middle name.

My ice elemental’s sister is unbelievably sweet and happy, despite the things she’s been through. She’s also been incredibly useful. After the final battle of the Nether, the type four empath let Everett know that while she was incarcerated in the Nether, she sensed people asleep far beneath the citadel. I’d never heard of anything below it, but word spread to Felix. Ever since, we’ve begun excavations to discover what or who could be down there.

Whatever it is, it’s been thousands of years since they were put to sleep. Felix, Silas, and several others have been heading the excavations, and they’re excited to finally be getting close to whatever Heidi was sensing.

Everett’s sister beams at me and hands me a small gift wrapped in sparkly pink wrapping paper.

“Happy birthday,” she chirps. “Go ahead, unwrap it!”

I do. It’s a pair of gloves. Really soft, black gloves.

I thank her and she returns to the rest of the party as Baelfire leads me over to one of the tables that has two dome-looking things on it.

“Maven’s going to cut the cake,” my shifter announces loudly. He removes the first dome-looking thing to reveal?—

A cake with a picture of green Jell-O on it.

I look at him. “You’re mean.”

He bursts into laughter along with the rest of my quintet and everyone else at my birthday party.

“That one is ice cream cake,” Baelfire tells me through his laughter.

They make ice cream into cake, too?

Genius.

“This one is the cake you’ll be cutting,” Everett adds, removing the other dome from the table.

I study the black heart-shaped cake, appreciating how simple it is. Crypt hands me the cake-cutting knife and murmurs, “Stab it, love,” in my ear.

Stab it? Okay.

When I jam the knife into the cake, sweet-smelling liquid spurts out of it and the guests at my party react with surprise and laughter. It’s a morbid dessert that has me grinning up at Baelfire, who looks smug as fuck.

You made me a bleeding cake, I tell only him through the bond.

I knew you’d like it.

I love it. My mate is the best fucking mate in the world, I add, knowing the praise will go straight to his cock.

His gaze grows molten. Watch your pretty mouth, hellion. I’m not above snatching you away and fucking you on the beach, but we have gifts for you, first .

The cakes are dished and served up to everyone. We dig in, but it doesn’t take long for my quintet to get their gifts for me from the big table full of gifts, leaving me alone for a second. Taking another bite of cake, I study the gathering with a sense of contentment unlike anything I’ve experienced until the last six months.

Thanks to the legacy and human governments merging and reforming, many positive changes are being made. All Four Houses have representation now, as do atypical casters and Nether humans who are still getting settled in this colorful plane of existence. Humans and legacies are no longer in constant danger of fiends slipping into this world, and the temples of the gods are being cleaned up and rebuilt.

Lillian would be happy about that.

I’m sure she’s happy, anyway, enjoying her afterlife with her daughter. That thought makes me smile as I watch another raven perch nearby, tipping its head at me.

“Ready for your gifts, ima sangfluir?” Silas asks, smiling at me as he reapproaches with the rest of my quintet to pull me out of my thoughts.

He sits beside me at the table and sets down a carefully-wrapped gift before kissing my cheek. With the rest of my matches watching, I quickly unwrap Silas’s gifts.

The first one is a knife with a clear handle, and swirled around in the handle are four flowers—an orchid, a dead snapdragon, a snowdrop, and a rose.

It’s obviously supposed to represent each member of my quintet.

I examine the blade. “I fucking love this. Thank you.”

“My turn,” Baelfire insists, sliding an envelope toward me.

When I open it, I’m not sure what I’m looking at. It’s a photograph of…something. I squint.

“Is it a…saddle?”

He nods, beaming at me.

“Thanks for the picture of a saddle.”

My other quintet members laugh, but Baelfire hurries to explain. “No—it’s not just a picture, it’s just that the actual thing is kinda big and still being built by Declan. But it’s a dragon saddle. For you,” he adds. “That way, you can finally ride on me and I won’t be scared out of my mind of you just falling off.”

Oh.

I grin at him. “I do like riding you. I can’t wait to ride you as a dragon, too.”

“There’s more,” he says, motioning at the envelope.

Moving aside more pictures of the saddle, I realizing there’s also several pages of some kind of list in here. It takes reading the first few lines and feeling my face warm before I realize what this is.

“Is this…your list of ways to fuck me?” I gawk.

“The one I wrote right after I met you at Everbound, and you were still pretending to hate my guts,” he confirms, preening. “I’m glad to say we’ve already checked off some of the things I wrote down, but we’re still a long way from done with it, Cutie Pie.”

Oh, my gods. I can’t believe he hung on to this.

I’m going to fuck the hell out of him later for this, right along with the rest of my quintet.

I’m still smiling like an idiot when Everett clears his throat and scoots another envelope toward me on the table, along with a small box. He’s surprisingly nervous, adjusting one of his sleeves and straightening the gifts in front of me several times before he mutters, “Okay, I can’t take it anymore. Just open the damn things.”

In the envelope are a bunch of legal documents. I browse through them, again not sure what I’m looking at—until my gaze snags on a name at the top.

Everett Amato.

“You actually changed your name,” I realize, looking at him with wide eyes.

Silas, Crypt, and Baelfire all look at Everett quickly in surprise, apparently not being in on this gift. Everett’s cheeks pinken as he scratches near his scar.

“Yeah. I meant what I said. I just wanted to show you.”

Baelfire looks at the documents over my shoulder. “Holy shit. You’re Everett Amato now. This is about to get really damn confusing, because Crypt only calls us by our last names,” he adds, laughing.

“He’ll just have to finally call me by my first name,” Everett shrugs.

Crypt stares at him for a long moment. “Okay…Everett.”

All four of my matches shudder at the same time, with Baelfire doing a full-body roll for added drama. I burst into laughter at their antics. Crypt looks like he has a bad taste in his mouth, and Everett is shaking his head.

“Hell no. I take it all back. That was weird as fuck.”

“So weird,” Silas agrees, shuddering again.

“Don’t ever do that again, Crypt. Just keep calling me Frost,” Everett grumbles.

Still laughing, I open the small box to find a set of stunning black diamond earrings. I got my ears pierced four months ago, on one of my first visits to Kenzie in Halfton, where she and her quintet now live. She’d been debating the best time to get her kids’ ears pierced, talking about how painful it is, and I was curious, so I had it done.

I’d felt nothing, but she had assured me it was because of my “freakish pain tolerance.”

“They’re beautiful,” I say, already putting them in.

Everett checks them in my ears before he kisses my cheek. “ You’re beautiful.”

Crypt is next and promptly pulls out a bouquet of orchids and a set of keys. He hands me both with a wink. “I know how much you liked those demons’ bikes, love.”

Wait. “You got me a motorcycle?” I blink, looking around for it.

“You got her a fucking motorcycle?” Everett repeats. My elemental is already a hair away from panicking, looking like he’s envisioning my brains smeared on a back road. “She doesn’t even have a license yet.”

“Which is why the bike is still in our garage in the Nether,” Crypt shrugs, looking back at me to grin. “It’s got a skull on it.”

“I love it already,” I grin.

Everett holds up a hand. “You have to get a license before touching it. And take a motorcycle safety course. And always wear a helmet and protective gear and?—”

“I’m a demigoddess. I think I can handle a motorcycle.”

“Hopefully better than you handle driving a car,” Crypt teases, earning a swat on the arm from me.

I love all the presents they gave me, but if they’re done, it’s my turn. Reaching into the pocket void, I rummage around and pull out the first gift, setting it in front of Baelfire. It’s badly wrapped, since I apparently have no fucking idea how to use wrapping paper, but he blinks at it in surprise.

“What is this?”

“For you. I missed getting you guys presents last Starfall, so I decided to get twice the amount this year,” I shrug, setting the next poorly-wrapped gift in front of Crypt.

“You don’t owe us gifts,” Silas protests, prodding the box I set in front of him. “That was a year ago, sanfluir. ”

“So? Let me have this.”

Crypt isn’t putting up a fight as his curiosity wins out, and soon he’s unwrapped the black leather jacket I carefully picked out for him. He grins at me. “You know my wardrobe well, I see.”

“It’s enchanted,” I clarify. “I sent it to the Garnet Wizard asking him to make it repair itself so you won’t have to keep buying new ones every other week.”

He slips out of his old one and into the new. “Right. Because I was buying them,” he winks. “I love it, darling.”

Baelfire quickly unwraps his gift and lights up when he sees the nice camera. I asked Kenzie for help picking out a good one, and he’s already turning it on. “Fuck, this is nice.”

“I took a few pictures on it already,” I add innocently.

“Really?” he asks, holding it up to see past photos. “I’d love to see what you—oh, fuck. Fuck me, that’s so damn hot.”

“Wait, are they nudes?” Crypt demands, trying to grab the camera from Baelfire. “Let me see.”

“Fuck off, these are mine,” Baelfire grins, shoving the incubus away before switching to the next one and groaning. “I knew you’d look good in leather.”

“Okay, we’re all going to see those photos at some point. Right?” Everett demands, looking at me hopefully.

I laugh and tell Silas to unwrap his next. He does, and pulls out several thick-ass tomes written in the ancient fae. He skims the covers and looks at me in surprise. “These are…?”

“Grimoires that are thousands of years old. Felix found a few of them and happened to tell me about it first. You’ll have to translate them to new fae from ancient fae, but I figured you wouldn’t mind.”

“I truly don’t,” he smiles, already browsing the first dusty grimoire like an excited child on Starfall morning.

“Nerd,” Baelfire snorts.

Finally, I turn to Everett and pull his gift out of my pocket void, handing him the papers carefully.

He realizes what he’s looking at and goes still. “You…it’s fully translated.”

“I know holy tongue now, so you’ll know the truth about the prophecy you were given as a kid.”

Everett swallows hard as he squints at the page to read it without his glasses.

I already have the lines memorized.

Favored of Raan, ye walk alone,

Divine blood binds thine fate unknown,

Ye telum-bound, cursed, long misled,

Vice of ice and thine keeper dead,

Yet death’s child returns, ichor crowned,

Lost heart to bind, five fates bound.

My beautiful, scarred ice elemental looks at me, relief and surprise on his face. I think he’s surprised how harmless the prophecy was all along—just a statement of what would happen, and of course as obnoxiously rhymey as anything else written in the holy tongue.

Everett kisses me, pocketing the prophecy with a raspy voice. “Thank you.”

The party goes on as Quinn announces it’s time for me to unwrap the rest of the gifts they brought. With my quintet at my side and people I care about all around me, I remind myself once again of my new mantras.

I’m alive. I deserve to be happy. I choose my own fate, and it will always be them.

The End