A Crown Of Smoke And Ash - Sloane Murphy Page 0,84
him as I drop my towel.
“Oh beautiful, so can I.”
“Oh welcome back sweetheart!” Everly wraps me in the biggest hug of my life as I enter the kitchen. “You have been missed. Maybe these boys won’t be so mopey now you’re home! I’ll get dinner started!”
“I missed you too. And maybe, but I’m only back for a few days.”
“Let’s not focus on that, shall we?” I spin at Levi’s voice, and run towards him. He catches me as I jump and wrap my legs around his waist, squeezing me tight. “Hey, Angel.”
“Hi,” I sigh contentedly.
“It’s good to have you back.” He kisses the end of my nose before popping me back on the floor.
“Did I miss much?” I ask, as he follows to the stools at the island where Everly is already starting to cook.
“We actually had a productive week while you’ve been gone,” Creek says as he enters the room. He drops a kiss on the top of my head, and grabs a bottle of water from the refrigerator before sitting on the other side of me.
“We managed to track down some of the missing Hunters,” Levi replies, like it’s nothing.
“I’m sorry, what?”
“Yeah, Levi’s been country hopping, while I’ve stayed local to track down as many as we could. We’ve not approached them yet, because, well, we didn’t want to turn their worlds upside down, it’s a lot for them to be told after so long. We also managed to do some recon on the rogues.”
“Wow, you guys have been busy. What did you find out?”
“Yeah, what did you guys find out?” Roman asks as he enters with Kain behind him. They lean on the counter opposite, while Everly fusses over everyone.
“Well, after their attack, we kept extra eyes out, and we discovered there were still scouts watching the manor. So, we followed them. Well, Kain did, the guy has some wicked skills with moving shadows,” Creek says, and I couldn’t be more shocked at the respect he seems to have for Kain all of a sudden. I know I asked them to work on being nicer to each other, but wow.
“So, mon amour, what he’s trying to say is we discovered a few of their hang outs. We still haven’t found out who is running the show, but we worked out some more of how they’re working, who is working with them, and what they’re up to.” Kain smiles at me, and I melt a little. I really did miss him while we were gone.
“Also, Colt kind of stumbled upon what we were doing, so he and Fallon have been looking into the Witch side of it all.”
“I’m sorry, he what? Colt is working with us?” I’m glad I’m sat down. Because holy fates.
“Yeah, it seems he was with Fallon when Marie called about something to do with the Witch council. She was sketchy with the details, but Colt found stuff out.”
“I swore the little asshat to secrecy,” Levi glowers, obviously still not happy about the latest development, but I laugh.
“I’m sad I missed it. I’d have paid to have seen that.” I giggle, and Levi calms a little.
“I’m sure I could arrange to recreate it for you.”
“Poor Colt.” I shake my head. “Luckily, I have a good imagination.”
“How were things at the compound?” Creek asks, and I roll my eyes.
“Oh, they were peachy,” I say sarcastically. Levi’s head whips back to me, before scowling at Roman. I place my hand on his arm, and smile. “I’m joking, it was good to meet everyone. There were… hiccups… but they were to be expected. You already know about the challenge, and well, Lycans are hot headed, it’s in their nature.” I wink at Roman who scoffs, but Kain bellows a laugh.
“That is one way to describe them.” Kain interjects, and Roman scowls at him, but Levi is still pretty rigid beside me.
“It’s fine. We left on good terms, I even made a few friends.” I say, trying to lower the tension between them.
“I’m glad to hear it.” But Levi doesn’t look at me, he doesn’t break the staring contest he seems to have going on with Roman. That’s going to be fun to deal with, whatever it is.
“I’m just happy you’re home,” Creek interjects, always the calm one. “Everly, I don’t know what magic you’re creating, but if you keep feeding me like this, I’m going to have to double my workouts.” He slaps his rock hard abs, and I shake my head as Everly giggles.