A Crown Of Smoke And Ash - Sloane Murphy Page 0,37

are my friend. In this life and the afterworld. Tell my brothers, my mother and father, that I love them." He closes his eyes, his face serene, and I scream, kick, and tear at my father’s hold to get to my friend.

The shot deafens me, my father releases me, and I fall to the ground, tears streaming down my face for my friend.

"You are the monsters here! You are no better than the ones who took Evie from us! Look at what you have become! So blinded by your rage that there is no reason left!" I scream the words at the Elders around me, at my father, grief clouding over me. "I will tell the others what you have done, the axe you have welcomed to hang over our heads! You've all lost your minds. This is not the way. This is not the answer. Why can't you see that?"

My grandfather storms over to me, lifts his hand, and smacks me across the face with the back of his hand, so hard that my teeth feel like they may tear free from my gums. My jaw screams in agony at the blow as I fall back to the ground beneath me. "You need to make a decision girl, and you better pick wisely. Them or us. The monsters that you so clearly love, or your own faction."

I spit blood at his feet, my defiance driving me forward.

"Family is more than blood. Ethan was my family, as much as Evie, and you murdered him. Before my eyes. He was not a monster, you are," I snarl at him. "There is no decision to make."

"Then, Remington, I cast you out. You will be gifted death, and you will not be reawoken for many cycles, as punishment. You will be told upon your seventh cycle that that it is your first life, and you will not be granted your memory of this life. Should you gain memory of this again, hopefully next time you make a wiser decision." He lifts the pistol he used to slaughter Ethan to my head, and I kneel, not willing to beg this monster for my life. I cling to the image of Ethan, so that I might carry him with me into my future lives. So that I remember, so that I can make a difference when the opportunity arises."

"Father," I hear my dad’s voice as he tries to reason with my grandfather. "We have already lost one daughter, this will crush Emily."

"This is not my decision, it is your daughter’s," he says, the last thing I hear before the darkness claims me.

"No!" I gasp, as I come back to myself, and find the four of them looking at me, but unable to meet the eyes of Kain.

"What did you remember?" Levi asks, eyeing me closely, and I look to Kain, finally.

"Ethan... I remembered Ethan," I say, my voice breaking, and I hold back a sob. "And Evie. Oh my god."

I clutch my stomach, and rock myself in Levi's arms as they tighten around me as I cry into his shoulder. It can't be true, and yet, I know from the look on Kain's face, that Ethan was real. Which means it must be true.

"I did not know him," I hear Kain say through my tears. "But I heard the stories of him, taken far too young, never having known life. No-one knew how, or by who, just that he was killed. Hunters were suspected, but it couldn't be proven. I was in the very early stages of my life at that point, I did not get the chance to know him."

I wipe my tears and look to him, he just looks shell shocked, whereas Roman looks like he's going to tear apart the room, but it's Creek who speaks.

"I am so sorry, Kain. That he was taken from you. That all of this has happened because of the reckless actions of a few."

"Thank you," Kain sighs, while Roman still sits deathly still, rigid with anger as I explain to the rest of them what I remembered.

"What they did to you, Remy. Taking that many life cycles from you, misleading you to think that your seventh cycle was your first... Your grandfather’s actions are unforgivable, as are those who did nothing to stop him." Kain’s voice is taut, like he is barely hanging on.

"It will not go unpunished," Roman snarls. "All of it! Their young were taken, and that is unforgivable, but their actions that followed