A Crown Of Smoke And Ash - Sloane Murphy Page 0,50

My heart pangs as I realize I’m going to be leaving them all behind. I love my family dearly, but the others, they’d never understand. Colt, maybe, but it’s a risk I can’t afford to take.

Not with Kain waiting for me.

He risks so much being this close, so tonight, under the cover of darkness, we’ll leave this continent, and head across the sea to his home.

I finish packing my bag, so very little to take, a few clothes, weapons, my locket fastened around my neck already, a gift from my grandmother before she passed. She, like my mom, wouldn’t judge me for this. I feel her support with me with each step I take.

I grab my bag, and head to the front of the house, and hug my mom again.

“I love you, Mom.”

“I love you too, Remy girl. Keep safe, and remember, I am here for you, no matter what, whatever you need.”

“Thank you, Mom.” I wipe the tear that rolls down my cheek. “Please stay safe, do not take unnecessary risks. Not even to keep me safe.”

“I will keep you safe until my dying breath, Remy. That’s what a mom does. Now go, your brothers will not be gone long. May the fates be on your side and guide you true.”

“Bye Mom.”

“Not goodbye, Remy. Until we meet again.”

“Until we meet again.”

Chapter Twelve

I crouch between Creek and Fallon in an alley across the street from the Elder Tower. We spent all day yesterday and last night driving here, because flying would be traceable, leaving Roman, Kain, and Levi to deal with the hybrid, and their own factions. I hate to think of what’s happening with everything with all of their attention here on me.

The smells coming from this alley are enough to make my stomach roll, but I push everything down, and focus on what we’re about to try and do. There are two guards stood in the reception, posing as doormen. We’ve seen so many people come in and out, all human. It didn’t take long to learn that the building doubles as a business office, one of the Elders investments I’m sure, but the perfect cover for why so many meetings happen, and no-one to question the security in place.

Fallon did a walk by earlier, and discovered the wards, tracking who went in and out. She was able to undo them, and then redo something similar so that they wouldn’t be alerted to Hunters and Witches entering the building. Easy enough to redo them after we leave apparently.

And so, we’ve been sitting here for hours, waiting for the Hunters to leave, but even now, under the cover of darkness, they haven’t left, despite everyone else seeming to have.

“We should go now. I can put them out,” Fallon says, trying not to wrinkle her nose too much at the smell.

“But then they’ll know we were here,” I say softly, trying to come up with a way for us to do this without being detected, but I can’t think of another way.

“We could try again tomorrow?” Creek offers, but I shake my head.

“If they haven’t left tonight, they won’t leave tomorrow.”

“They have to swap out or sleep at some point,” he counters, and I sigh.

“Maybe they do, but how long do we wait?”

“Well, now that you’ve told everything to Colt, we need to get in there sooner rather than later,” Creek huffs, and I roll my eyes again. Yeah, that conversation back at the manor could have gone better. Telling them that I’d told Colt almost everything was like a nuclear detonation, right there in the sitting room.

So. Much. Yelling.

After realizing that yelling at me wasn’t going to make a damn bit of difference to what I’d done, I told them that he was my brother, and he was on board. Then I packed my bag for this drive. Could I have handled it better? Abso-fucking-lutely. But it was my decision and I made it.

I wouldn’t have told him if I didn’t think we could trust him, I might be reckless sometimes, but not with them, not with their lives. I held back information for a reason, breaking into here was one of them. According to Maddie, this is standard security, they’ve not added more, which leads me to believe Colt kept his mouth shut about what I told him.

That’s when the door to the office building opens, and the two guards leave, locking the place up, and shutting down the lights. A green glow still there in the background,