Total pages in book: 401
Estimated words: 390373 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1952(@200wpm)___ 1561(@250wpm)___ 1301(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 390373 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1952(@200wpm)___ 1561(@250wpm)___ 1301(@300wpm)
Bewildered, I lifted my gaze past the people. Dizziness swept over me. I was before some sort of river full of choppy, dark water. It wasn’t the uninviting inlet that held none of the beauty of Saion’s Cove that caused my heart to thump as if it were trying to break free of my chest. It was a large vessel moving across it. A type of ship I’d never seen before, with more than two levels and taller than many homes. It had an open deck that people stood on. Beneath them were what I could only describe as several metal boxes with wheels larger and thicker than anything I’d seen on a carriage. There was more than one of the drifting platforms in what appeared to be a harbor of sorts. I could see at least three of them, one traveling in the opposite direction.
But it was what stood across the river that caused the air to slowly leak from my lungs. I gaped at the towering structures of steel and glass that reached far above the clouds, dwarfing everything around them and casting long shadows over the earth below. The buildings were as tall as mountains, yet many appeared slim, and I couldn’t even begin to fathom how they’d been built. Surely, the gods had to be involved in such a creation. But something about them seemed too cold to have been shaped by anything with blood coursing through its veins.
I took another step forward, my toes curling into the damp grass. Where in the actual fuck was I? A seed of panic took root, stroking the essence. My hands fisted as I scanned what I was beginning to think was some kind of park—
My mouth completely dropped open as my gaze landed on a colossal statue standing proudly on an island. I couldn’t decipher how far away the towering lady in flowing robes was, but it couldn’t be that far. I didn’t know what material she had been crafted from, but it carried a green sheen. She held a torch, thrusting it into the sky high above her, and a crown sat upon her head. It must be a depiction of a goddess. Perhaps she had been responsible for these impressive structures. However, she looked nothing like the renderings of the goddesses I’d seen.
I dragged my gaze from the statue and saw a bridge raised in the air like a suspended pathway with enormous stone pillars anchoring thick, web-like cables that seemed to hold it up by sheer force. It stretched far across the water and was packed with those strange metal boxes on wheels.
“…the city, located about five miles away from the eruption sight, includes the neighboring towns,” a male, speaking fast, his tone harried, caught my attention. “…has a population estimated to be three million.”
Three million…people?
I pressed my hand to my churning stomach, my gaze landing on a brown-skinned woman with honey-colored hair cut close to the skull. She wasn’t speaking as she eyed a device in her hand, but the male’s voice became louder as she drew closer.
“…with the limited warning to allow for effective evacuation, we’re looking at tens of thousands—possibly over a hundred thousand—casualties.”
Pressure clamped down on my chest. Over a hundred thousand deaths? That had to be what I’d felt. But that event clearly wasn’t here. So, why had I been drawn here?
The woman looked up, her brows rising the moment she saw me. Thick, dark lashes fluttered once and then twice as she stared.
I glanced down at myself, realizing I wore only the gown I’d been sleeping in. It was highly inappropriate to be seen in public dressed as I was—even in Atlantia, where the attire wasn’t as modest as it was in Solis.
But I could see the belly of a woman running past us—though I had no idea what she was running from—including her navel and a good portion of her breasts. So, why did this one look at me so strangely?
The woman pressed something on what she held, and the male voice cut off as her steps slowed. I felt her concern before I tasted it, which caught me off guard. I couldn’t even say exactly how I knew. I just looked at her and knew she was worried.
“Are you all right?” she asked in that strange, clipped manner that made ‘all right’ sound like the l and r were missing.
I nodded as a breeze lifted the shorter strands of my hair, tossing them across my face. My gaze was drawn to the golden hoops dangling from her ears.
She frowned slightly. “You sure?” she asked, unease radiating from her. I didn’t think it was my scars that made her uncomfortable. “Do you need help—?” She gasped, looking down at the exact moment I felt the tremor beneath us. “What in the hell?”