Nothing but forest again, as if I’d imagined the entire thing. “I think I see something,” I muttered, unsure
“Wait—what do you see?” Kael’s voice sharpened with surprise at my sudden certainty.
I forced myself to focus, fighting through the exhaustion and dizziness. This time, when I blinked, the vision held longer. The city materialized below us in all its impossible splendor—a sprawling metropolis that seemed to be carved from light itself. Every surface gleamed like it was made of gold and gossamer, catching and reflecting illumination that had no visible source.
The buildings rose in perfect symmetry, their architecture both ancient and impossibly modern. Spires twisted skyward like frozen flames, connected by bridges that looked too delicate to bear any weight yet somehow supported the gentle flow of what might have been traffic or people moving between structures.
At the city’s heart stood a tower that made my breath catch. Not as tall as the Lunar Heights, but breathtaking in its own right—a spiraling monument that seemed to pulse with its own inner light, its surface shifting between gold and silver like liquid metal.
“Can you see it?” I asked, my voice barely above a whisper.
“See what?” Thea leaned forward, squinting into the darkness. “I don’t see anything but trees.”
“Nothing,” Kael confirmed, tension creeping into his voice. “Hades, what are you looking at?”
They couldn’t see through the illusion. Of course they couldn’t—I was the only one among us with the blood that might pierce such ancient magic. Like I had pierced through the Cauterium security with my howl.
He was using the horn to keep up the illusion too, it made sense that I could see through it.
The city seemed to slumber beneath us. I could make out movement within the uniform luxury houses, shadows passing behind gossamer walls, but the streets themselves were eerily empty. As we flew closer to the central tower, my enhanced vision picked out details that made my stomach clench with unease.
Stone statues dotted the plaza before the tower—dozens of them, frozen in different poses. But these weren’t monuments to heroes or gods. Each figure was carved with expressions of pure terror, their faces twisted in horror, hands raised as if trying to ward off some unspeakable fate.
“Go diagonal through the city,” Thea instructed, her voice steady despite not being able to see our destination. “That should get us to Obsidian territory on the other side.”
I locked onto the path she described, angling my flight to cut across the golden metropolis. My eyes remained fixed on those terrible statues as we approached—
One of them moved.
My heart stopped completely. For a moment that stretched into eternity, I forgot to breathe, forgot to fly, forgot everything except the impossible sight of stone coming to life in the plaza below.
My wings locked in position, carrying us forward on momentum alone as I stared down at the impossible sight. What I had taken for stone wasn’t stone at all—it was a figure so perfectly still it might as well have been carved from marble. But now it unfolded itself from its frozen pose, revealing a tall, slender form draped in elegant black clothing that seemed to absorb the golden light around it.
The creature moved with fluid grace, each gesture deliberate and predatory. It didn’t walk—it glided across the plaza with movements too smooth for anything mortal. And then, as if sensing my gaze from this impossible altitude, it slowly raised its head. Nᴇw ɴovel chaptᴇrs are published on
Even from thousands of feet above, its eyes found mine with unerring precision.
My breath caught in my throat. The face that looked up at me was achingly familiar—sharp cheekbones, pale skin that seemed to glow with its own inner light, features that belonged in classical paintings of fallen angels. A face I had seen before, though I couldn’t place where or when.
Then its lips parted.
Even at this distance, even through the darkness and the golden haze of the hidden city’s illusion, I could see them clearly: fangs. Long, curved, gleaming white as bone in the ethereal light.
Vampire.
The word hit my mind like a physical blow. My wings faltered for just an instant before instinct kicked in and I forced them back into their steady rhythm. But my heart was racing now, not from exhaustion but from pure, primal fear.
The creature below continued to watch us, its head tilted at an unnatural angle, tracking our flight path with the patience of a predator that had all the time in the world. noveldrama
It knew I could see it.
I could see throught the illusion.
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