Cloak of Night (Circle of Shadows #2) - Evelyn Skye Page 0,107
she wanted was this.
Chapter Fifty-Eight
It shouldn’t have taken long for Daemon to get anywhere when he flew at the speed of light. But he didn’t know where exactly Celestae was located. He’d figured that it would be obvious when he saw it. Who could miss an entire floating island in the sky?
Apparently, Daemon could. He’d been flying for several days now—stopping only when he needed to eat or take a quick nap on a cloud—and exhaustion strained his muscles.
“Liga! My lady, Luna!” he shouted, his voice hoarse from the endless yelling. “Can you hear me? It’s Wolf. I need your help!”
As before, there was no response, as if the vast emptiness of the sky was just absorbing Daemon’s entreaties. Where was everyone? There were hundreds of gods if you counted both the major and minor ones, plus who knew how many demigods like Liga there were. In order to give all those enormous personalities enough space, Celestae must be bigger than the entire Kichonan archipelago. And yet it was nowhere to be seen.
“I should have asked Fairy to gather some night-blooming flowers for me to bring,” Daemon grumbled. “Maybe then I could get Liga to respond.” His brother could probably get hold of Luna.
Daemon’s sparks sputtered through his fatigue, and he decided to give in to it, just for a moment. He landed on a cloud and collapsed into the cushions of mist. In his wolf form, he was paradoxically sturdy and strong while also weighing very little, since he was composed of stardust and god magic; therefore, the clouds could hold him. It was still hard for Daemon to grasp how this was possible, but that was likely because he was trying to understand it from a human point of view.
“Liga,” he called half-heartedly. “Where are you?”
A small flock of birds flew past Daemon’s cloud. He followed them with his gaze until they’d vanished from sight.
His mind began to wander to what Sora was doing. She was probably laying out a detailed plot for how to assassinate Prince Gin. He hoped she was reconnecting with her sister, too, like he’d gotten to do with Liga. Maybe Sora and Hana were even training together, with Hana teaching Sora how to better use her invisibility.
Invisibility! Daemon bolted upright in his cloud. What if his banishment from Celestae wasn’t as simple as the gods not letting him through the gates when he showed up? What if Vespre had made it so that Daemon couldn’t see the gods’ home at all?
“Nines,” he swore. If that were true, he’d better get back to work at yelling for someone to come get him, because he wasn’t ever going to find Celestae on his own.
Daemon rose from the cloud and shook off the tendrils of mist that clung to his fur. His sparks were bright again; the self-healing properties of demigods also meant his energy could be restored relatively quickly, even though his rest had been short. He leaped back into the sky and flew straight up, to where the atmosphere thinned and breathing would have been difficult if he weren’t a demigod.
He began to cycle through a series of entreaties, shouting each at the top of his lungs.
“Liga, it’s Wolf! I need your help!”
“Luna, this is your grandson. The taigas need you!”
And finally . . . reluctantly . . .
“Vespre, it’s your profligate son! I’ve come home to apologize.”
On the hundredth time of calling his father’s name, the air suddenly began to blur in the distance. Daemon stopped yelling and held his position in the sky.
In what had once been empty space, a long stairway appeared. Hundreds of enormous silver torii arches lined it, each heavy-beamed gateway leading straight to the next, creating the sensation of a tunnel leading to the heavens.
Behind the torii-covered stairway, golden pagodas and archways and bridges materialized, like a Kichonan city built from crystallized honey, glimmering in the air. Every god had a towering castle, each tier elegant with curved eaves, broad balconies, and intricately carved gargoyles with fur that swirled like clouds. Around each castle was a sprawling estate, and as Daemon flew through the torii arches and drew closer to Celestae, he could make out some of the lush foliage in the nearest gardens.
Purple wisteria draped and swung in a subtle spring breeze, perfuming the air with a scent of grape candy. Maple trees boasted autumn reds and oranges. And tall, snow-dusted fir trees presided over parts of the floating heavens. Daemon took it all in with wonder.