Descend (Awakened Fate Book 2) by Skye Malone Read Free Book Online Page B

away?
    It didn’t make sense.
    I turned with them at the archway, swimming down past level upon level of the palace. The whole building was enormous, to the point that the White House and Buckingham Palace could probably have taken corners and still barely made a dent in all the room to spare. How it went unnoticed at the bottom of the ocean, I didn’t know, except I was starting to suspect that like the lights and the veils and the fact I had a long tail where my legs should be, there was probably some kind of magic involved.
    Though again, that should have been impossible.
    Like everything else.
    I shook my head, trying to stop my thoughts from spinning. We were heading for a larger door at the end of the hall, and the plants blocking this one were easily twice the height of all the others I’d seen. Without much more than a nod to the guards hovering on either side, Zeke and Ina pushed by the green stands of leaves. Two of the guards with us went ahead of me, with the others waiting to follow behind.
    Attempting to keep from looking nervous, I swam after Zeke and his sister. Beyond the door, sand and rock stretched out for a hundred yards, decorated with torches and carved stones and ending at a wall with a glittering veil rising from its top. I looked back as we left, seeing the enormity of the place for the first time.
    It was a mountain.
    Or most of a mountain. In the pale blue twilight created by the torches and the reflection from the veil, I could see the slope rising above the ocean floor, until distance and the water obscured it. Windows peppered the rocky sides, with swaying plants in all of them, while dehaians darted from opening to opening, weaving across the mountainside as though it was just another way of getting around the palace.
    “He’s about a block shy of the outside wall,” Ina said.
    I turned back as Zeke nodded and glanced to one of the guards. The man went ahead of us, and then did something to the veil.
    The bubbles parted like a curtain. Zeke and Ina swam up, cresting the top of the wall and continuing on. I followed them.
    And then I had to work not to stare.
    Natural rock arches and spires of skyscraper proportions spread out before me, their walls twisted and curved as though shaped by centuries of gently eroding water. Windows and doors speckled their sides, with plants blocking the entrances. Tall streetlights lined the pathways between the houses and shops, and their blue-white flames reflected from the rainbow colors of ore buried within the stone walls. A veil as large as the sky arched over the entire city, the distant bubbles twinkling like stars as they caught the torchlight.
    “Nice, huh?” Ina said.
    I blinked and looked over to find her and Zeke watching me.
    “How…” I cleared my throat. “How does all this stay hidden?”
    Zeke glanced to his sister and then shrugged. “Magic.”
    I swallowed. Right.
    “This way,” Ina said. She swam down a twisting path between two stone arches bigger than any of the buildings in my hometown.
    Zeke paused, still watching me. “You okay?”
    Drawing a breath, I nodded. We followed Ina.
    Conversations and music carried from within the buildings we passed, if the enormous structures could be called that. Behind curtains of tall green leaves, I could hear children calling to their parents and people laughing. Every so often, a dehaian would slip out from between the leaves, only to stop and bow the moment they caught sight of Ina and Zeke. Their gazes trailed us when we swam on, the curiosity at the guards and my presence blatant on their faces.
    Minutes later, the lower reaches of the veil came into view. I couldn’t see anything past it; the bubbles were more numerous here and their glitter obscured the ocean beyond. But through gaps between the buildings around us, I spotted the low wall of boulders that formed its base, the ring of which continued onward, surrounding the entire city.
    At a shorter block of stone a few streets