A Crown Of Fire And Wrath (The Shadow Walkers Saga #5) - Sloane Murphy Page 0,12

we chose to try this here.

Michael’s hand withdraws from my cheek, taking the heat with him, but my cheeks burn plenty on their own at Leviathan’s insinuation.

“Leviathan,” Michael growls as he stands and offers me a hand to help me up. Leviathan’s glare zeroes in on the hand, like it’s his worst enemy. “What brings you here?”

“I came to find Amantara. We’re patrolling tonight. Demons keep breaching the tear between the Shadow Realm and the human realm. I see I interrupted.” He looks like he’d happily take Michael’s head from his shoulders, and the tension increases between the two of them. Practically sparking as I stand. I don’t take Michael’s hand but I do hug him.

“Thank you for today, we can keep working tomorrow?” I ask softly with a smile.

“Of course, little bird.” Leviathan scoffs at Michael’s words but doesn’t say a thing. I don’t understand the dislike between the two of them, I’m just glad that they try to at least be amicable when they’re with me. They both mean so much to me, I don’t know what I’d do if they made me try to take sides. “I’ll see you in the morning.”

Michael unfurls his wings, and with a beat disappears from sight, leaving me with an extremely surly Leviathan. He’s standing there, looking at me with his arms crossed, the leather straps from his arm braces strain against his muscles, and I can’t help but roll my eyes at him. “What crawled up your ass today?”

“The way he looks at you is creepy. He’s old enough to be our dad.”

“Age is just a number, especially when you’re immortal. I don’t get why you two hate each other so much.”

“You wouldn’t.” It’s his turn to roll his eyes at me and mutters something I can’t make out.

“Are we going?” I walk towards him and unfurl my wings, the wings that make me so different to everyone else in Avalon, and prepare to do the only part of my life I have figured out. I pull my hood up and pick up my bow that I propped up against a tree when I came down here with Michael, before patting myself down, making sure my karambit knives are still secure, along with my throwing knives. A good Death Dealer never leaves home without their weapons. A lesson I learned early on.

Leviathan watches me, without saying a word, and unfurls his wings. They’re pure darkness and I think they’re beautiful. Not that I’d ever tell him that. Close as we might be, I don’t think he’d take it as a compliment.

“We’re just waiting on you. Nevin is already geared up.” He tilts his head up, and I notice Nevin hovering in the skies above us. It always shocks me that he’s a Death Dealer, that he comes with us on excursions like this. His skills definitely lean towards the studious part of our way of life, but I guess, having his knowledge on hand when we’re in the thick of it has helped us more than once.

“Then let’s go.”

Chapter Four

I stretch out in bed, yawning as I wake. It takes a second to orientate myself when everything hits me at once. What happened yesterday. My memories being unlocked. I open my eyes and look around frantically for Michael, who I find passed out beside me.

Shit.

I move to wake him when the tidal wave of emotion inside me from seeing him there threatens to take me. The memories of every moment with him, as if triggered at the sight of him. Tears stream down my face as my heart races to the point I panic.

My hands shake and I try to clench my fists to stop the attack coming over me as flashes assault my mind. Memories of him, us together, everything he taught me.

He has to be okay. He can’t be fucked up because he helped me. I won’t survive it.

I shake him, and he stirs, groaning but alive.

Fuck.

I can’t control everything inside of me when it comes to him apparently. This is not good.

I take a deep breath and hold it as I stuff every last drop of emotion currently threatening to overwhelm me down. Bottling emotion is something I’ve always excelled at, it’s not something that’s going to fail me now. Later me can try to process this. I am not in a position to deal with it right now.

I flicker through my mind, the memories that come to the forefront, most of which are from my life