Page 161 of Heir of Broken Souls

Harlow turns to the doorway we fell through, sputtering, “Did we swim across to the other side of the building?”

“The magic thrumming through this place is ancient. I don’t doubt it,” I note.

Delilah turns to me. “Have you ever encountered such magic?”

I shake my head, my eyes transfixed on the ocean beyond. “Only ever in stories.”

We all watch as the whale peers through the doorway one last time. Delilah gives it a little wave as it blinks, then swims off.

She’s the first to turn away, so she sees it immediately. “Oh my gods,” she breathes.

I whirl, expecting an attack. But what I see instead should be impossible.

Floating before my eyes are hundreds of islands, suspended throughout the sky, without a ground in sight.

Chapter59

Delilah

“Does anyone else feel like they’ve just walked through Water Court into Air Court?” Lenox muses.

Everyone murmurs their agreement, some speculating on its ability and source of power while I cannot tear my gaze away.

Awe has been a constant emotion, beating through my body with all the magnificence the sunken island has offered. But this is far more marvelous than what I could’ve ever imagined.

For as far as my eyes can see, hundreds of floating islands rise.

Water flows over the edges of some, and forests bloom on others, but they come in all shapes and sizes. Ranging from a small one tree island to one big enough to house the city of Azalea.

My breath whooshes out of me as four islands part to allow through one of the largest I’ve seen so far. Mountain ridges spear toward the sky, the two largest sitting perpendicular on the edge of the floating island. Water pours from several directions, possibly from rivers and waterfalls, and falls right off the side of the island and below.

The island drops a few feet in the air, and from this new angle at our vantage point, I can see a large body of water in the center of the island, the surrounding area bursting with a lively forest. I clutch Knox’s forearm, stunned.

A flash of light hits my face, so starkly bright my hand reflexively shades my eyes to stop it from blinding me. Squinting past my hand, my eyes roam the skies and the hundreds of islands trying to find the source of the blinding light. It can’t be the sun, it’s a small, more direct light?—

My gaze locks again on the island with the body of water floating just below where we are perched.

For weeks, I have locked my emotions away, a part of me hoping that incessant buzzing of nerves would disappear along with it, but the stakes of losing everything we love to our enemy never left. And now, standing atop a floating rock with a hidden oceanic world behind my back and a blinding light trapping my attention, that nervous energy rises with a vengeance.

One so cunningly cruel that no matter how hard I try, I can’t seem to take a deep breath. My chest restricts me from doing so, feeling as if a thousand bees have taken flight within my chest, hammering wildly at my rib cage to be let out. It rises to the point of pain, until I’m gasping for air that won’t flow into my lungs.

My gods, am I dying?

A hand lands on my back, rubbing soothing circles and yet I cannot pull my gaze from the floating island, the one that has something ancient awakening within me, screaming a warning cry. Even my power coils as tight as a snake, readying itself to strike.

I can’t see. I cannot breathe, cannot blink, cannot move, cannot think?—

Angel, Knox calls down the bridge.

His voice is like a soothing balm to my soul, but it does nothing. Something is wrong, something is very,verywrong, and my body knows it.

I feel more than see Knox step through the gilded door of my mind.

Angel, it’s all right, I’ve got you. Slow deep breaths, Angel. Yes that’s it.

Something changes.

Calmness.