Shadow Heart: A Paranormal Reverse Harem Romance (Cursed Legacies Book 2)

28. Crypt

I”ve consumed countless dreams,but never have I been so sated.

As daylight dawns outside the drawn curtains, my keeper”s room is dim and quiet aside from her soft breathing. In Limbo, I lay on the bed beside her and savor every second I can soak in her aura like it”s the only balm for my shredded soul.

Knowing what little I do about her background, peace must have been virtually nonexistent in Maven”s life, as evidenced by the night terrors that cling so tightly to her psyche anytime they can. With the totem and my presence, she”s finally resting.

And gods above, she”s utterly fucking delectable in her sleep.

I sigh as I adjust my inappropriately hard cock for the hundredth time. If she knew how deviant my desires for her are, I wonder how she would react. She might be disgusted.

But then, my beautifully twisted little darling is always taking me by surprise, so perhaps if she knew…

Maven”s dream that”s been perfuming Limbo around me for the last couple of hours fades abruptly, and she opens her eyes to squint at the window. She glances in my general direction as if to acknowledge that she can sense me before rolling out of bed and dropping into a set of wide push-ups.

She did this the last time I fed on her dreams all night, too. I admire how driven she is, but I also must assume this is a habit she was taught in the Nether. She”s so on edge in the mornings. Decimus gave me an extremely fast rundown of what Maven shared with them about her past while I was away, and if I ever meet the bastards responsible for making her feel like nothing but a weapon, I”ll hang them with their own intestines.

I”m also quite petulant that I missed out on seeing her torture a changeling. It must have been quite the sight.

Finally, I slip into the mortal realm, ignoring the familiar flare of pain in my limbs that says I”ll need to smoke more reverium soon.

But it”s far easier to bear than usual, thanks to feeding on my keeper”s dreams all night. I grin down at her.

”Hello, love.”

She finishes her last reps of lunges and stretches, giving me a mouthwatering glimpse of her lower stomach before she moves toward the large bathroom. ”How did my dreams taste?”

”Heavenly.”

Not to mention, I spent quite a bit of time gently detangling touch from panic within her dreams. Maven”s psyche is irreversibly scarred from trauma. I suspect she will never willingly share a lot of her dark past, but even if I can”t see what memories are hurting her, I can try to ease the pain in her dreams.

”Care for a hand in the shower?” I ask, trying to keep my voice light and teasing. Not pushing is difficult, especially when my cock has been achingly hard all night.

My heart flips in on itself when she smirks over her shoulder. ”If you”re offering.”

Gods save her from me.

I”m immediately at her side, enraptured as she strips out of her pajamas and steps under the water. Watching how the moisture flows over her perfect, naked skin, curling over her curves, trailing over her breasts, dripping between her thighs…

It”s beautiful, but I envy that water far more than I”m proud to admit.

She tips her head back to wet her hair, arching a mischievous brow at me. ”Are you watching or joining?”

I remove my clothes and step under the warm spray of the shower with her. Maven”s eyes widen, and I laugh as her gaze slowly moves over my heavily patterned arms, chest, and legs. She seems fascinated by the extensive, swirling markings I”ve never been without—but it”s glaringly apparent that she”s avoiding looking at my cock, which is jutting out like a steel pipe.

Instead, her attention catches on the diagonal barbell piercing in my left nipple.

She tips her head. ”May I?”

”Never bother asking to touch me, darling. I always want your hands on me.”

Gingerly, she reaches out and traces the piercing. When she twists it ever so slightly, I shudder as it sends a spike of pleasure through me.

”Intriguing,” she murmurs.

Yes, it is. I grin. ”And how do you feel about the rest of them?”

My words have their intended effect, and eager need rushes through my veins as Maven”s eyes finally settle on my cock and the three dydoe piercings around its head. Her gaze heats, and she swallows hard.

”That”s…”

”It”s called a king”s crown. I thought it befitting my royal status since evidently, I”m the Nightmare Prince,” I manage to joke despite the arousal making it impossible to tear my attention away from her extremely fuckable body.

I got the piercings years ago after hearing the moniker. I”d hoped they would finally make sex pleasurable for me, but it was useless. But now, when Maven trails her fingers over the piercings, a shudder wracks my spine. It feels unbelievably good, to the point that my cock head already beads with precum.

Still, if Maven doesn”t like them, I”ll have them removed. Anything for her.

”I like them,” she murmurs without me having to ask a single thing.

Thank the gods. She”s painfully perfect for me.

Leaning down, I capture her lips and groan when she immediately presses against me. In two steps, I have my obsession pressed against the shower wall as our mouths tangle and my tongue brushes teasingly against hers. She makes a soft sound of pleasure, and I smile against her lips before letting my hands wander down her devastating body.

Her grip twists into my hair, adjusting my head”s angle as she kisses me back. The exchange is making me dizzy because I need her more than I need oxygen, but finally, she breaks away to gasp for air while I kiss down her jaw and neck.

But before I kiss lower, I pull back and gently trace the pale scar between her beautiful breasts with my fingertips.

”What happened to your heart after it was taken from you?” I murmur out loud…

Like an absolute fucking imbecile. Less than a second later, it registers that asking her this just ruined any chance of delicious shower sex. The question just slipped out before I could help it, and now I want to kick myself.

My darling looks away, her hands sliding from my neck. ”It doesn”t matter.”

I take her chin to make her look at me because this is the second time she”s uttered that bullshit in my presence.I won”t stand for it.

”Try that again, darling.”

Maven”s dark eyes flash, and for a moment, I think she”s going to tell me to go fuck myself. But instead, she slips out from between me and the wall and begins shampooing her hair. She speaks nonchalantly.

”Amadeus preserved it with magic. It sits on display on his mantle.”

On display.

Like a damned trophy.

Fury floods my system, and I spend the next five minutes lost in especially violent machinations within my own head. I”ve never seen the Entity, and I have no reason to believe I ever will—but imagining skewering eyeballs and carving skin slowly calms me down until the water droplets from the shower are no longer hovering around us from lack of gravity.

Someone knocks on Maven”s bedroom door. ”You ready, Raincloud? Class starts soon. Tell Stalker Boy to back the fuck off so you can eat before we go.”

I sigh wistfully when Maven dries off, dresses, and leaves without a word. I know she”s not mad at me for asking, but she loathes talking about her past. Not a wonderful way for me to start her day.

Thirty minutes later, we take our typical seats in Fiend Studies. Frost was already waiting, as usual, and stubbornly looks out the window despite Maven giving him a curious look. They still haven”t found their footing after exchanging secrets the other night.

Probably because Frost is a fucking idiot.

Meanwhile, as the professor waits for everyone else to take their seats, Crane rocks slightly and pulls at his wild hair, eyeing everything around us as if it”s all crawling with ghostly spiders. I can sense the heaviness in Limbo around him. He isn”t sleeping, and there”s no fucking shot in hell that he would ever accept if I offered to help him with his parasomnia.

I pause, frowning. Was I actually just considering helping Silas fucking Crane with his sleep troubles?

Good gods. This camaraderie is like a disease. I must be more careful, or we”ll all be braiding one another”s hair and getting matching tattoos.

I shudder at the thought.

But I reconsider offering my help to him when I see Maven”s face fall as she notices Crane”s struggle. She”s careful not to show emotion or weakness around people outside our quintet, though, and merely looks forward with her lips pressed tightly together.

I can”t stand knowing that our girl is unhappy.

Finally, the professor clears his throat and announces that First Placement has officially been rescheduled and will take place in three days. Whispers immediately fill the room as students turn to each other with wide eyes. Aside from Decimus flirtatiously asking Maven if she wants to sit in his lap for exposure therapy, our quintet remains relatively silent.

Maven rolls her eyes but takes Decimus”s hand under the desk, resting it on her thigh. I”m on her left side and rest my hand on her left thigh, curious to see if she”ll push me away or tense up even minutely as she always does, regardless of who is touching her.

But this time, she doesn”t.

Whether it”s the subconscious therapy or her attempts at exposure therapy…it”s working.

Decimus must think the same thing because he catches my eye over her head and grins. I”m beyond pleased, too, but I opt to flip him the bird with my free hand.

There will be no brotherly bonding today, thank you very much. Not on my watch.

After the rest of the classroom calms down, the professor clears his throat. ”Now, then. We”ve gone over all known monsters and creatures found in the Nether, and you will be presenting what book you studied. But before we get to that, did anyone find anything of unique interest on this subject while browsing Everbound”s wonderful libraries?”

A few students raise their hands and share tidbits, but Maven looks at Crane again with a puckered brow. Finally, she sighs as if she”s made a decision.

Then she raises her hand, which takes the rest of us by surprise. Even Crane glances over with a perplexed frown.

”Yes, Miss Oakley?” the professor calls on her. He looks equally surprised, which makes me think she”s never raised her hand in a class at Everbound.

”I read something that mentioned revenants.”

The professor”s eyes widen into saucers and his brows nearly reach his hairline. ”Did you, indeed? Dear gods, this is exciting! I”m sure none of you are aware of this, but I have quite a love for learning about extinct monsters. I actually studied this particular being extensively many years ago. Which book did you find that in, may I ask?”

Maven impersonates a shy wallflower, feigning a timid shrug. ”I don”t remember the title.”

Her performance makes me grin, but then she glances at me and the others in our quintet meaningfully. As if she”s telling us to pay attention.

”No matter,” the professor says, beaming at the rest of the classroom. ”Well, what a treat. Since Miss Oakley has brought it up, I may as well indulge all of us. You see, as with every type of extinct monster, revenants have ceased to be taught or written about. They were all wiped out during the Great Wars hundreds of years ago. Here, let me just?—”

The overly excited professor moves to the chalkboard and begins writing notes to accompany his lecture. Meanwhile, Crane is now entirely focused, and Decimus, Frost, and I are riveted to the spot.

If Maven wants us to hear this, does that mean…?

”Trapped between life and death, a revenant was a uniquely powerful reanimated being which quite infamously used a now-defunct form of magic called terai per vitam—or ”weapon of life.” In other words, through slaying the living, it could siphon a life force and use it to wield unspeakable levels of highly destructive dark energy, an unholy subset of dark magic all its own.”

No wonder Maven wanted us to pay attention. My dark little obsession is keeping her promise of telling us what she is.

Namely, a revenant.

”These were powerful aberrations,” the professor goes on. ”Especially considering they would reanimate as many times as necessary to fulfill their given purpose. You see, at their creation, these beings would be assigned one objective to fulfill, typically one of vengeance or justice. And once they fulfilled their purpose, their soul would immediately pass on to the Beyond.”

The temperature of the classroom drops, which means Frost is just as agitated as I am hearing that Maven might die as soon as she fulfills some unknown purpose.My hand tightens on Maven”s thigh, but when I look at her questioningly, she stares forward without reacting.

The professor finishes writing on the chalkboard and brushes off his hands. ”There are also ancient accounts of revenants which describe them as deathly berserkers—for once they reached a certain level of feeding, they fell into a trance-like state and would hunt down and kill any living thing within miles. Likewise, their unique magic had a terrifying snowball effect, for the more they slaughtered, the stronger they became, creating an unstoppable, formidable cycle. As a matter of fact, the Entity used a group of revenants to kill the goddess Reniah during the Great Wars.”

A shifter in another quintet pipes up. ”Wait, if these things were strong enough to destroy a fucking goddess, then how the hell did they go extinct?”

”Excellent question. Despite their immense power, they were rather slow beings, so it wasn”t difficult to hunt them down after the kill order went out following Reniah”s murder. And though they would reanimate much of the time, there were ways of permanently destroying them even before they fulfilled their purpose.”

There”s a menacing edge to Crane”s voice when he asks, ”What ways?”

The professor tips his head back and forth. ”The most effective methods are debated among scholars, but as I understand it, these monsters could be permanently killed through full dismemberment or by being burned to death. Records also say either blessed bone or nevermelt through a revenant”s heart worked quite well.”

Nevermelt?

Crane, Decimus, and I all glance at Frost simultaneously. He”s pale as snow. Probably because when we were young kids, he”d proudly bragged that he was the youngest ice elemental to ever craft nevermelt, and when Crane dared him to prove it, he did.

Precious few other ice elementals have that ability. If Frost”s rare ability is one of her few weaknesses, maybe I should kill him as a precaution after all.

”In any case,” the professor keeps droning, ”these beings had to be destroyed completely, or else they would inevitably rise again. Quite fascinating monsters, though it was never clear how they were created or how they multiplied in the first place. Luckily for us, they haven”t existed for hundreds of years,” he smiles. ”And, since you will never have to fight those evil beings at the Divide, let us move on to a presentation of something you will need to be prepared for. Fulton quintet, you”re up.”

A group of legacies begins talking at the front of the room, but I pay no attention as I absorb everything I just learned about my keeper. I”m so distracted that Maven has to gently nudge my hand on her thigh to get my attention when class ends.

But as we leave the room, instead of heading toward lunch, Crane takes Maven by one gloved hand and storms toward the private alcove where we first met her after the Seeking. She keeps up with him easily, as do Decimus, Frost, and I.

As soon as we”re alone in the space where we won”t be overheard, Crane whirls on Maven, his jaw clenched and crimson eyes severe.

”Tell us your purpose.”

She pauses. ”If you”re mad because you”re stuck with a monster?—”

”That”s not why he”s mad,” Decimus snaps. ”I”m fucking pissed, too, Raincloud, and it”s not because of what they made you. All I want to fucking know is what your purpose is so we can stop you from fulfilling it because you passing on is not an option. It”s just fucking not. Okay?”

Maven looks dubious about answering, so I offer my two cents. ”Ending the Immortal Quintet is your purpose, is it not?”

”It is.”

”And once they”re dead?” Crane asks impatiently. ”Will you die? Permanently?”

”Yes.”

My chest hollows into that same feeling of abysmal nothingness that I used to exist in until I met her. I can”t lose my reason for being.Even if it means that fucking prick Somnus lives forever, I refuse to let this happen.

Frost swears viciously, covering his face. ”Okay, then we”re leaving Everbound. Immediately. I don”t care if we have to go on the fucking run. I”m not letting you stay anywhere near them.”

”It”s laughable that you think you let me do anything. But you don”t have the full picture. Remember, I also made a blood oath.”

That shuts us all up as we realize the distinction. Maven has some revenant-focused purpose…and a blood oath. Two separate things to worry about, both of which could take her from us forever.

Decimus growls, ”Okay, then who did you make the blood oath with if it wasn”t that Undead king-of-the-assholes wannabe father of yours?”

Her lips twitch. ”Very apt description.”

”This isn”t a joking matter, darling,” I warn.

Maven nods. ”You”re right, it”s not. I”ll tell you the truth. There are humans in the Nether. And I don”t mean humans that were stolen away to be raised there like me and the twelve others,” she clarifies.

Crane frowns. ”Other humans? How do they survive?”

”They don”t. They”re kept, just like cattle. Bred, fed, sacrificed, eaten. They”re even used for entertainment,” Maven adds bitterly, shaking her head as stark disgust eclipses her features. ”You have no idea the hell they”re living, but I do. And I”m the only one who can help them.”

”How?” Frost demands. ”I don”t get it. How did the humans get in the Nether in the first place?”

She glances at the hallway behind us. ”We”ll miss lunch if I share everything.”

The rest of us make no move to stop her, not even the bottomless pit of a stomach that is Baelfire Decimus.

”All right.” Maven lifts her chin. ”Then you should know something that the Immortal Quintet has carefully removed from history. They made everyone believe they saved the mortal realm hundreds of years ago by valiantly driving back Amadeus and his forces and creating the Divide.” She rolls her eyes. ”The truth is, they took the coward”s way out. The fight against the forces of the Nether was killing off the Four Houses, so the Immortal Quintet tricked an army of human warriors, both male and female, into going into the Nether as a diversion. Then they begged the gods to create the Divide. The gods obliged and fortified it by tying it to the life forces of the Immortal Quintet.”

Crane considers all of that. ”Then, if you kill the Immortal Quintet…”

”I”ll unleash the Nether on the mortal realm,” she says in the same tone one might say they”re thinking of planting a garden.

My brows go up.

”Fucking fuck,” Decimus grimaces.

Articulate to a point, that one.

”I”m not finished. The Immortal Quintet thought that the monsters and creatures of the Nether would devour those humans and then shrivel away without anything left living to feed on. They failed to take into account that the Entity has the powerful advantage of foresight. Amadeus captured that troop but allowed them to live. They were fed and contained, and they naturally started to multiply over time. Hundreds of years passed, and now the Nether is the way I know it: absolute hell, but with thousands of humans who are kept in compounds and treated exactly like animals. They”re seen as a resource—the life to feed the death that rules there.”

Maven looks out the nearest window, but her mind appears far away. ”The first time I stumbled across one of the human compounds, I was on the run during a training exercise. Their condition was sickening. But even though they were worse off than me, the humans tried to help me. They were…kind. Horribly beaten and hopeless, but kind. Years later, when Amadeus turned me into this and gave me my purpose, I realized that if I was fated to die anyway?—”

”Please don”t fucking say that,” Decimus grits, squeezing his eyes shut.

”Then I may as well take advantage of Amadeus”s scheme and use it to save them,” she finishes, looking at each of us. ”I have a plan. I”m compelled to end the entire Immortal Quintet to unleash the Nether since Amadeus made that my purpose…but I”m going to leave one member of the Immortal Quintet alive. I”m going to weaken the Nether just enough for the humans to escape.”

I consider this and put the pieces together. ”Your blood oath is with those humans. You promised to free them from the Nether, didn”t you?”

She nods, her jaw set in determination.

And just like that, my consuming obsession only doubles.

I knew Maven must have a strong reason, but knowing that my keeper has leveraged her terribly dealt hand in life in a gambit to save thousands from the king of the Undead…

I”m in awe of her.

And yet, at the same time, I can”t bear knowing this.

”I see what Pia meant by your nobility now,” Crane murmurs as if to himself, his expression softening. He leans against the wall, rubbing his temples. ”But what happens once the humans escape, Maven?”

”If you”re worried about the Nether consuming the rest of the world, I have a plan for?—”

Silas huffs. ”What I”m worried about is you. If you don”t fulfill your purpose as a revenant, what will happen to you?”

Maven adjusts her gloves and smiles at us. ”Nothing. I told you, I have a plan. I”ll be fine.”

Crane”s jaw clenches tightly before he looks away. ”Professor Crowley explained your unique magic, but what about the necromancy? How can you use that and common magic? Necromancy doesn”t play nice with other magics. It shouldn”t be possible.”

”I agree. It shouldn”t, but there were unintended side effects to their methods of making me into this. And before you start spiraling,” our keeper goes on, raising a knowing eyebrow at Frost. ”Nevermelt stabbed through a heart only works when there”s an actual heart to stab. You aren”t going to be the death of me.”

He flinches, looking positively miserable. ”We don”t know that.”

Decimus starts to say something else, but I”m distracted when I feel a sharp, painful ripple in Limbo from somewhere nearby. Several markings on my hands and neck light up. The severity of the ripple tells me that it has something to do with wisps.

Maven sees the markings light up and catches my eye. ”Go. We can talk more about this later.”

I don”t want to go.

As the steward of Limbo, I always knew my time with her would be limited, but knowing Maven is in such peril…now even the idea of being apart from her for a second pains me almost as much as my curse.

”Crypt. Go.” Her eyes are gentle.

I”m loathe to leave her, but with a sigh, I slip back into Limbo to handle it.