Total pages in book: 248
Estimated words: 236909 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1185(@200wpm)___ 948(@250wpm)___ 790(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 236909 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1185(@200wpm)___ 948(@250wpm)___ 790(@300wpm)
We passed them in silence, crossing into the City of the Gods, and I saw what the Rise and mist hid. I knew my mouth was hanging open as I took in Dalos, awed by the size of the city. It was far greater than Carsodonia, the capital of Lasania.
Trees similar to those in the Vale lined a road shimmering with crushed diamonds, their low, sweeping branches falling in a canopy of white blossoms that stirred gently in the breeze. My gaze followed the road to an immense structure behind a glittering wall shorter than that of the Rise, not too far from the entrance. Its four staggered towers rose from the middle of the dome, seeming to drink in the beams of sunlight. I could see the tips of ivory and gold canopies rolling just beyond the inner Rise. Despite the warmth, my skin chilled. Instinct told me that was where he, the true Primal of Death, waited in the sprawling diamond and crystal fortress.
I dragged my gaze from the fortress and looked out over the sparkling city. Buildings large and small dotted the many hills and valleys as far as the eye could track, some flat and square and others round with sweeping colonnades, their sides diamond-bright. Throughout the city, crystalline towers rose upward in graceful, spinning arcs that disappeared into wispy, white clouds. Vines appeared to grow over many of the buildings, crawling their way up the spires.
“It’s beautiful.”
“From a distance, it is.”
A bolt of unease skittered through me. I glanced at Nyktos as he led me down the center of the narrow road, the only sound that of the breeze playing with the trees’ graceful, arching branches and the whisper of wind. A frown pulled at my lips as I glanced around, seeing no one and…and hearing no one. Not even the birds calling to one another in the trees of Aios could be heard here. Tiny goosebumps spread across my flesh with each step that brought us closer to the fortress.
“Where is everyone?” I asked, my voice low.
“Do you know what many have taken to calling Dalos?” Nyktos said, gaze alert as he continuously scanned the trees. “The City of the Dead.”
That didn’t bode well.
“Those who still live are likely at Court.” He gestured with his chin at the fortress. “Held within the grounds of Cor Palace.”
My mouth dried as we neared the pillars of the inner Rise. There were no guards at this gate, but there was a strange scent in the air—a sweetness mixed with something metallic. The trepidation amplified, and the embers in my chest hummed unsteadily as we walked between the pillars and entered the courtyard of Cor. Nyktos cursed under his breath as our steps slowed and my gaze swept over—
I jerked to a stop as horror gripped me. It hadn’t been the wind I’d heard. Good gods, it was moans. The sound came from the trees inside the courtyard, from the gleaming coves of the fortress, and from the billowing white cloths that weren’t canopies but veils, torn gowns, and tunics rippling in the wind.
Nothing—absolutely nothing—could’ve prepared me for this. My gaze darted from the nude body strung above the golden doors of Cor, stained with dried rivulets of crimson, to the swaying, limp forms beyond the white blossoms of the willows. Bile choked me. My heart pounded as my throat tightened and seized at the sound—the moaning—echoing from the branches and from the spaces between the pillars lining the colonnade, where hands and feet had been spiked to the stone.
I thought I heard Nyktos whisper my name, but I couldn’t be sure because the moaning was a chorus far more brutal than that of the sirens’. I couldn’t even count how many bodies there were—there were that many. My mouth moved without sound, and the embers…
A new horror dawned as the embers vibrated frantically in my chest, responding to not just the death but also to the dying. I tried to look away, desperately hoping that would stop the embers, but there was nowhere to look. Bodies hung like wind chimes from trees and balconies. My skin heated and hummed, and I could feel my weak control over the embers slipping away. The corners of my eyes started to turn white as my legs moved without will, drawing me to the colonnade, where a male’s blue eyes screamed what his stitched mouth could not beg for.
Life.
Or death.
A release.
My arm started to lift. I couldn’t stop it. The power of the embers was too strong, the shock of what I was seeing too much. The crack inside me began to crumble away as power seeped out, spreading.
The embers—the source of life—rose inside me, in the heart of Dalos, and there was nothing I could do to stop myself.
Chapter 34
Nyktos spun me around, tugging me to his chest. I barely noticed the charge of energy coasting from his body to mine as he clasped my cheek.