A Crown Of Fire And Wrath (The Shadow Walkers Saga #5) - Sloane Murphy Page 0,7
bitch of an injury. Not that I didn’t know that, but I’ve never known myself feel so shit after being healed. Then again, I’ve never nearly died from angel glass before either.
He sits beside me, and I realize that above the fireplace opposite us is what looks like a concave mirror. The surface ripples at the wave of Michael’s hand. Holy crap, it’s angel glass. I blink, and then Levi fills the image.
“What is this?” I look to Michael who still looks so fucking sad it makes my heart hurt.
“This is what is happening at the manor right now. Things move faster here, so it’s only been minutes there since you were taken. I thought you’d want to see for yourself.” He goes quiet as Levi starts speaking, and my heart stutters at the pain and frustration in his voice.
“First of all, I didn’t let him do a damn thing. Stopping Michael is about as simple and easy as stopping a goddamn hurricane.” Levi massages his temples, and my heart sinks a little at how stressed he is, though Michael snorts softly at his words, but I can’t stop watching Levi. “But, much as I hate to admit it, she is safe with him. Probably safer than she is here right now.”
The glass fades after his words, and I look back at Michael skeptically. “That’s a pretty convenient clip for you to show me.”
“I can show you more, but you looked so sad watching him. The last thing I want to do is make you sad.”
I sigh as I lean back on the sofa and settle into the soft cushions. Does Levi not want me to go home? Why would he agree that I’m safer here if he didn’t believe it? He had no way of knowing I could see him. My heart sinks further. I just want to go home, but if I am safer here, does that make it safer for everyone else? Or is being here putting them at more risk?
“I can practically see the cogs in your mind spinning out of control. How about I get you another tonic, one less potent, but one that will help with the pain, and I can show you more than just this sky loft? Avalon is a beautiful place.”
After drinking another gag inducing tonic, I feel better. The ache is dulled, not wholly gone, but it’s enough that I can walk normally again now. I follow Michael to the far end of the main room, which seems to be just huge panels of glass, covered in a white tulle. He pushes a button on the wall, and I realize the glass is one very long door as it starts to retract. The tulle curtain shifts in the breeze that comes through the now open wall, and Michael leads me out to a balcony I hadn’t realized was out there.
I gasp as I step out onto the glass-walled balcony. Michael wasn’t wrong. Avalon really is beautiful. We seem to be in a ridiculously tall, white tower, which when I look around the edge of the balcony, seems to be one of four. They all jut up into spiked points at the top, but they all seem to have the same lower floors from what I can see up here. I look out across the city.
The buildings are laid out to circle this tower, and in the distance, the sparkle of light glinting off of water greets me. A huge white stone bridge goes across it, to what looks like another circular island almost identical to this one. I focus, straining my eyes in a way I haven’t before, and as the other island comes into focus, I realize it is exactly the same. At least, it has the same tower at its center. It has another bridge about a quarter of the way round the island, but mist stops me being able to see where it goes to.
A giddiness I didn’t expect fills me at the possibility of exploring. Especially when it hits me that the figures darting around the skies aren’t birds, but angels. Comprehension stuns me, because I have no memory of ever seeing anything so amazing. It’s quite literally another world here.
My still somewhat human mind is pretty blown. I mean, I know angels exist, I am one, I’ve been around them, but actually seeing this place. It just feels different.
“It’s beautiful huh?” Michael says, watching me as I try to take it all in. I nod,