A Crown Of Fire And Wrath (The Shadow Walkers Saga #5) - Sloane Murphy Page 0,78
on?” Roman barks as his eyes glow.
“We found them,” Emmett pants, as if he’s ran for miles.
“Found who?” Roman asks.
“The traitors. We found the traitors.”
I called Colt and told him to gather the elders. I didn’t tell him why. I don’t even know how I’m going to say the words out loud. There’s so much going on, so much that we still need to work out, but this…
My stomach rolls just thinking about the consequences of the things I set in motion. I was so focused on making everyone equal, evening the playing field, that I didn’t consider anything like this could happen.
I take a deep breath as I pace in the council chambers. It’s been a long while since I was down here, and I don’t know if it’s a past life where I suffered claustrophobia, or if it’s just my anxiety, but it doesn’t feel like there’s enough air down here.
No one else is here yet. After Michael gave me the news and Roman’s visitor came crashing in like that, to say the manor was chaos is an understatement. Roman disappeared, and Kain went with him to try and keep a lid on his anger. Stopping world war three seemed like a good idea. Levi is back at the manor with Michael, with Creek playing referee there for me, that meant that this was something I had to face alone.
It feels right to do it this way anyway, considering that this all started with me. Now I know how the histories got things a little mixed up, it’s going to take a lot of explaining to make everything make sense. Which will be fun, since it doesn’t seem entirely real to me yet.
Colt comes through the door, and brings the others with him. He waited outside for everyone to arrive while I, essentially, hid. I made myself busy, dragging tables and chairs from the other rooms into the center of the chamber to make like a board table, but still. I was definitely hiding.
I work my way through a round of hellos before everyone takes their seats while I remain standing, more because the thought of sitting still at the minute makes me want to crawl out of my skin.
The room goes quiet and everyone turns to look at me, stopping me in my tracks.
“Okay…” I start, letting out a deep breath. “Thank you all for rushing here to meet with me, I know that it was, quite literally, the middle of the night where you were, but this is something we need to discuss face to face.”
I pause, wracking my brain for how to even to start to explain this, but really, I just need to tell them and then explain. I run my hand down my face and face the elders again.
“The Hunter’s curse is broken.” The room is silent, people looking at me confused, but I realize, that on its own doesn’t mean much because they don’t know the whole story. Though Colt’s face devastates me. I hate that I took this from them.
“Okay, let me start at the beginning,” I say with a sigh, and then tell them the real history of the Hunters. How humans were only meant to be granted temporary angelic gifts, to assist in the War of the Fallen. I tell them about the war from my own memory, and how without this, we would have lost.
“And then, I was dying, and so Leviathan, in his grief, transferred my essence into a human form, essentially, making me a Hunter. Except, what he didn’t know at the time, that in doing so it would upset the balance of power. Of nature itself. And so, the Hunters, any families who had been gifted previously, became cursed, to reincarnate each life. To be stuck in the cycles they were in, and for the curse to pass down generations. It is why there are different time periods between lives, because the loop has to almost reset. But someone’s great-great-grandmother, is also their great-great-granddaughter… I swear that made more sense in my head. But essentially, the curse is why the angels gave us the option of the true death, because they found a loophole, should anyone want it.” I shake out my hands and take another deep breath, not wanting to stop, because I’m not ready for questions.
“The curse is the reason for the cycles we’ve all been living, and the link was cursed to my life. Except… I died, and I became immortal again.