Page 6 of Divine Fate (Cursed Legacies #4)

5

MAVEN

The car took me two and a half hours closer to Halfton before it ran out of fuel. Since all the gas stations I passed were out of service and abandoned, I got out to hike the rest of the way.

That was ten minutes ago, and I’m already freezing my ass off again.

Not to mention, everything fucking hurts. Especially my injured ankle.

I limp through the snow as quietly as possible, my lungs burning from the sharp cold as I try to make decent time. If I don't get to Halfton or find somewhere relatively safe before nightfall, I'll be a demigoddess Popsicle.

That first aid kit was mostly empty, with only enough bandages for my shoulder. It still stings like hell from where the vampire bit me, and I can’t put weight on my bitten ankle for longer than a second before it tries to buckle with each step.

The thin road I’m following is surrounded by wintry, frost-glazed trees whose barren branches reach for the hazy white afternoon sky like millions of skeletal fingers. Wind picks up occasionally, whistling softly before it fades to a heavy, foreboding silence. The increased tension in my nerves ever since I got out of the car tells me that shadow fiends and other dangers lurk out here, even if none have ventured close to me in this beautifully haunting white wilderness.

Ravens flutter nearby, their throaty calls disrupting the silence for a moment. Now and then, my chest warms to an alarming extent before it fades again.

Walking gives me time to think.

I remember almost nothing about Paradise, but apparently, I did something drastic to return. Something Galene thought would kill me. Whatever I did, I’m not a revenant anymore, but I still have no heartbeat.

My hand slips to my pocket where my new weapon is stored, along with my memories of the last six months. Right now, figuring out how I returned isn’t important. My priority is tracking down my quintet. They’re suffering from their vengeful curses while the rest of the world has gone to shit thanks to me.

Now that I’m back, my first order of business is checking on everyone I left behind.

The Nether humans. Kenzie. Lillian.

My guys.

I try not to think about what six months might’ve done to them. By now, maybe they’ve come to their senses and decided to despise me for not fighting them harder and preventing all of this. I chose to be selfish with them, and now they’re far worse off.

But they can hate me as much as they want as long as they’re still alive.

You’d all better be alive, or I’m destroying what’s left of this godsdamned world.

I pause, tipping my head when the faintest sound catches my attention. It sounded like a nearly imperceptible voice, calling someone’s name in a whisper. I move away from the road as quietly as possible, limping into a thicker section of frost- encrusted trees for cover—until I hear the hissed voice even closer.

“Randy!”

Oh, my gods.

Kenzie?

Shock and relief flood me. I keep still, listening until I can make out the faintest crunching of someone walking through the snow. As soon as I can tell she's still moving in my direction, I step out of the cluster of trees, ready to greet her.

But Kenzie’s bright blue gaze flashes to me for barely a second before a vicious snarl rips from her. Before I can react, she launches toward me, shifting midair.

Winter clothes rip as golden fur sprouts all over, her bones snapping and reshaping in the blink of an eye. All at once, the air is crushed from my lungs as I'm pinned to the snowy ground by a lithe, majestic lioness, her sharp teeth bared in my face and animalistic, feline glare fixed on me.

Holy shit.

She can shift, which must mean that she's fully bonded now. Her curse is broken. It's the happily ever after she's wanted since the moment I met her.

I immediately have questions, but my innate reflexes kick in when her teeth go straight for my jugular. Magic explodes outward from me—only, this isn’t what I’m used to. It’s not fueled by death.

Instead, it's the same burning, powerful sensation I felt when I fought Gideon in Alaska.

Holy magic. The kind I have no fucking idea how to fuel or control.

The lioness yelps in pain and jolts away from me, writhing in the snow. I sit up, alarmed when her animal cry transforms into Kenzie's voice. Her shift back is obviously forced and painful, but finally, she’s left naked and shaking in the snow, glaring murderously at me.

This isn’t how I pictured our reunion.

“I didn't mean to—” I start.

“Shut the fuck up!” she snaps with impressive vitriol.

I've never seen her so pissed off as she gets back to her feet, wiping sweat off her brow and baring her teeth as a shifter warning. My attention slips down to one of her bare arms, which is marked with all four quintet emblems running down her tricep. There’s also a faint bite mark on one side of her neck.

I open my mouth to congratulate her, but she cuts me off. “It’s bad enough that you look like her, but I swear on the fucking gods, if you even dare use her voice–”

Kenzie’s own voice breaks before she’s on me again, pinning my arms to the snow, pure hatred on her face as her wild blonde curls curtain around my head. If looks could kill, I’d be dead again.

“Haven’t you monsters taken enough from me already?” Kenzie growls. “Stop fucking mimicking her or I’m going to?—”

Mimicking?

Oh . That explains her fury.

“Changelings have square pupils,” I remind her.

She freezes mid-threat, staring at my eyes. I stare back. I can see the wind leaving her sails as confusion floods her chill-pinkened face.

“Y—you’re not…who the hell are you, then?” she manages. “Because I know you’re not my best friend. She died.”

“Often,” I nod. “Probably will again once this hypothermia sets in.”

Kenzie’s breath catches, and she stops clenching my arms so tightly. To my extreme horror, her eyes fill with moisture.

“M…May?”

Yikes. “If you’re going to cry, do hypothermia a favor and just kill me now.”

Kenzie’s watery eyes get wide. “Oh, my gods. Ohmygods, ohmygods, ohmygods, it's actually you!”

I’m abruptly wrapped in a tight hug. Kenzie squeals and cries at once, a feat I've never witnessed before, but quickly decide is completely horrifying.

I'm elated to see my bubbly lion shifter alive and well, but when she sobs into my neck, cold panic sweeps throughout my body as I realize her touch is all over me. My nerves pinch as bile rises up my throat, all the old repulsion flooding my system until I can’t breathe.

Unable to muster words, I gently push Kenzie off me and scoot away.

Kenzie wipes tears from her eyes with a half-laugh, half-sob. “Right. Not touchy-feely. Fuck, you really are my moody monk, aren't you? Oh, my gods! How the hell—what—where in the world have you?—”

She's struggling to get out a single question, so I speak instead, ignoring the way my veins are still pumping with lingering panic.

“You have claws now. Congratulations.”

“Y—yeah, my quintet was bound at a temple in Hastings after you…” Kenzie sniffles and shakes her head, waving off that noticeable topic change to arrest me with a serious look. “May, how in the world is this possible? You were absolutely gone this time. Your guys’ curses came back, and everyone’s been mourning you, so how in the world did?—”

Somewhere in the distance, an inhuman shriek rises before it falls too quiet. The tension clinging to my muscles starts to creep into my spine, a subtle warning that danger could strike at any moment.

I stand with my weight on my left foot, brush snow off myself, remove my outermost coat, and hand it to Kenzie. “Let’s talk somewhere we won’t be sitting snacks for shadow fiends.”

She sniffles and nods, getting to her feet and blowing a blond corkscrew away from her face. “Right. Yes. Sorry, it’s just—gods, I can’t believe you’re actually standing here like this. I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve wished I could talk to you again, just to chat or tease you or tell you about all the wild shit that’s happened and…” Her voice breaks and she clears it before fanning her eyes. “Oof, I seriously can’t stop crying. Sorry, I’m just really fucking overwhelmed.”

As elated as I am to see Kenzie again, it’s strange that I don’t remember the time I spent missing her. I know I did, but there’s just a big blank when I try to remember thinking about her in Paradise.

I’m shit at fake empathizing, so I offer a smile. “Your lioness is a badass.”

“Right? I love shifting,” she half-gushes, half-sobs before wiping her face and taking a deep breath. “Okay. I’m good. Back to being just plain hot instead of a hot mess.”

A thought crosses my mind as I survey our surroundings again. “Who’s Randy?”

“Oh, right! I almost forgot what we came out here for. Randy is Jackie’s husband. He went out with a scouting group earlier, but he’s the only one who didn’t return. He either got lost or…well, eaten by something,” she grimaces.

“Jackie from the Witch’s Brew?” I frown, thinking of the heavily pregnant woman I met in Halfton what feels like forever ago.

Kenzie nods, picking through the snow for her winter boots, which are somewhat salvageable compared to her other clothes. “Halfton is kind of close to some high danger zones, but Randy is one of our best scouts. It just kills Jackie every time he goes outside the walls, but this time it’s way worse than usual because—did you know it’s common practice for humans to bring their six-month-old babies in for a divination at Koa’s temple, just in case they’re picked as saints or the gods want to bless them or whatever? I had no idea, but anyway, Jackie is taking their triplets to Koa’s makeshift temple soon and she’s freaking out that Randy hasn’t returned yet.”

“Makeshift,” I repeat, distracted when a couple of ravens flutter to settle in trees nearby, watching me.

“Well, yeah, all temples are makeshift because—oh, shit.” She straightens to look me in the eye, a boot in each of her hands. “Yeesh, you don’t know about that, do you? Okay, how do I phrase this in the least bitchy way possible? Um…May, your matches went off the deep end. I mean, don't get me wrong, I feel awful for all of them because losing you royally fucked them up and I can’t imagine losing my quintet or us having our curses come back, but like…your guys have not had a good six months. Everything I hear about them is all murdery and terrifying. They’re actually the reason that there aren’t many temples left, on account of...”

“Crypt,” I guess, recalling the ripped-apart husks in Syntyche’s temple.

No wonder I thought it looked like my Nightmare Prince’s handiwork.

“Honestly, I’m not sure who’s worse: him or Everett.” Kenzie visibly shudders. I can’t tell if she’s being serious because I can’t imagine my upright, sweet elemental doing anything shudder-worthy. “Also, Baelfire, since he’s pretty much burning down Canada. Those three turned into totally unhinged, brutal, violent psychopaths. We’re talking monster-level crazy.”

And I thought I couldn’t wait to see them before.

“Although it’s been a while since I’ve heard about any more horrors left behind by Crypt,” she grumbles, slipping into her boots before setting off in the easterly direction Halfton should be. “Come on. Gods, I hope Randy is still alive.”

“He is.”

“Wait, really? How do you know?”

If he died in these woods recently, his ghost probably would have gravitated to me by now.

But before I can say that, a bright light flashes in my peripheral vision—a transportation spell. Old training kicks in hard, and I tackle Kenzie out of the way before rolling to my feet despite the pain that zips up my right leg.

A microsecond later, my new knife is in my hands, the etherium blade at the throat of the caster who just appeared beside us.

“Wait!” Kenzie yelps, scrambling up from the snow. “Don’t hurt him!”

I blink when I realize that this guy has his only arm raised in surrender, his eyes wide as he holds perfectly still. He looks different enough that I almost didn’t recognize him, but the way that he carefully avoids showing too much of a reaction tips me off.

“Felix?” I frown.

Kenzie’s alarm suddenly makes sense, and I narrow my eyes at the caster.

As in, her caster.

I fucking knew it.

I pull the knife away, but he’s still watching me in stunned silence. For the years I knew Felix in the Nether, he was always malnourished, painfully thin, and nearly devoid of color, just like everything else there. Now, although his skin still has a slight gray quality to it, his hair is darker, and his eyes are a vibrant hazel. His face is no longer gaunt, which makes him surprisingly good-looking. He’s filled out, still lean but much healthier.

Life in the mortal realm looks good on him.

Felix is still staring without giving away much expression. “You died.”

I shrug, because I’m not sure about the technicalities.

“But you’re back,” he says slowly, processing.

“So far.”

“How?”

I shrug again.

Felix scoffs, reaching up to rub the spot I almost cut into his neck. “Good to know you still really suck at conversing.” He turns his attention to Kenzie, spotting her torn clothes and immediately moving to her side. “Dirk found Randy, and they’re headed back to the stronghold. You look like you’ve been crying—are you all right? Did Maven scare you? Is that why you shifted?”

His careful composure has dropped away, and now he’s practically oozing worry and pure adoration, stroking his keeper’s cheek with stars in his eyes.

It’s so sappy that I gag, which earns a glare from the atypical caster.

Kenzie beams at him lovingly. “I thought she was another changeling, but it turns out she just has a lot of explaining to do—but she’s back and I’m so fucking excited to see her take charge and make heads roll! I mean that metaphorically, but knowing her, it’s probably also kind of literally.”

She turns back to me, suddenly extra emotional again as her shifter emotions swing hard and fast.“Whatever absolutely wild, unhinged explanation there is for this, I'm just so happy you're back. Gods, I really, really missed you, monk.”

Emotion tries to cling to my throat, so I clear it and brush off more snow to avoid eye contact. “Missed you too, slut.”

Not that I have a recollection of it. But still. Six months without her? That would be awful.

“Don’t call my keeper a slut,” Felix huffs, putting his scarf on Kenzie.

“Aww,” Kenzie boops his nose when he falls into step beside us on the way to wherever we’re going. “Don’t worry, it’s our thing. Okay, May. I’m ready. Hit me with it. What’s the plan?”

“Get warm as soon as fucking possible.”

She laughs. “I meant after that. If there’s one thing I know about my badass bestie, it’s that she always had— has a plan,” she corrects, her voice catching like she’s still adjusting to the idea of having me back.

I consider her words. Before I was taken to Paradise, I had a lot of shit to do. Freeing the Nether humans to fulfill my blood oath, taking out the Immortal Quintet for my revenant purpose, keeping my quintet out of harm’s way, trying not to die permanently…basics like that.

Now? Aside from tracking down my quintet, no supernatural promise or purpose is driving me. It all comes down to what I want to do, and it’s true that I have a few things in mind.

Vengeance. Sex. A bit of torture, if I have time.

But first…

“Outside of your quintet and mine, no one can know I’m back yet,” I decide out loud.

“Probably wise,” Felix says, striding through the snow beside us as he scans for threats.

As he’s warily watching the ravens that have started to join us in these woods, he reaches up to scratch the side of his neck. I notice a bite scar there—Kenzie’s mating mark.

“Your infamy didn’t exactly die with you,” he goes on. “If anything, you’ve become an icon of change—but also of death and carnage. There’s already a bizarre number of claims that your death was a hoax. If the telum were to show up out of the blue…gods above, that’d be too much. People have enough on their plates trying to survive in this hellish winter, no thanks to your match. Not to mention the Limbo Zones, fires, growing Nether, and fiends running rampant, since the Divide is history.”

“Hey,” Kenzie chides, shooting him a look. “Don’t you dare make my bestie feel guilty. Let’s not forget that she saved your sexy ass along with thousands of helpless people.”

“I’m being candid,” he clarifies. “She always hated people beating around the bush.”

True.

“I need to get to my quintet,” I add, trying to disguise my limp.

“Your elemental runs the stronghold we’re headed back to, so you could try to start there. Not that I recommend being around him in general,” Felix grumbles. Apparently, I’m not hiding my pain as well as I thought, because his attention drops to my ankle as he pauses our trek in the snow. “Hey, if you’re hurt, you should heal yourself.”

“Lacking common sense isn’t the issue here,” I sigh, still annoyed about how helpless I feel without my revenant abilities.

“What do you mean? Is there something wrong with your morally-repugnant magic?”

“It’s complicated.”

Felix sighs. “It always is with you. Stay still.”

I don’t protest as he crouches down to hold his hands near my damaged leg, concentrating as he recites a fae healing spell. I’m no longer a revenant, so I wonder if common magic will work on me.

But no. The stinging remains until he finally scowls.

“I forgot. You’ll need a necromancer for that, right?” he checks, distaste in his voice.

I’m honestly not sure, but he’s always been so hilariously disgusted by darker forms of magic that I smirk. “You volunteering?”

“Anyone who voluntarily transitions into a necromancer is certifiably insane,” he retorts, turning to start our trek again as more ravens flock to the surrounding trees.

He has no idea how aptly he just described my gorgeous blood fae, but it makes my chest ache again. Gods, I just really need to track down my guys.

Kenzie tuts over my bloodied ankle and slips one arm under my right shoulder to help me limp less, careful to only touch me through my clothes. “Come on, May—let’s sneak you into the Everbound stronghold, get you thawed out, and then figure out how to sneak you into the castle without anyone seeing.”