Page 140 of The Star's Sword
Griffin paced in lion form, as Os stroked a hand through his fur.
“Right,” Cayne said, looking above us. “I guess we just go up.” He flapped his wings, lifting off the ground. “Has anyone moved between sky realms before?” he yelled. “I have no idea about security.”
I launched off the ground, wings flapping rapidly. Unlike the others, my wings seemed to be made of white feathers, tinged with gray at the ends, lit with light from within.
“I don’t even know,” Mor said. “We can all move downwards but moving upwards is forbidden. Until about the fifth realm though I doubt we’ll even meet security. I’ve never been above there though.”
It felt so surreal, rising now. But with my love up there, there was nothing else I could do. Simon was next to me, eyes on the clouds as we flew higher quickly. Behind him, his herd of vampires was flapping, their wings making it hard to hear anything else. Mark was helping direct them.
Soon enough, we pulled up even with the first realm, which was a beautiful marble city that sparkled, floating impossibly in the air. I could see angels walking between the buildings, resting by trees and gardens.
It was beautiful. I heard yells of shock as celestials nearest the edge pointed at us, then began running for cover. I guess they weren’t used to someone in their skies.
Then again, most creatures were so scared of celestials they would never dare invading.
But I wasn’t scared of anything but someone hurting my friends.
There was a layer of clouds above us, reaching across the sky and separating the first realm from the second, so we shot higher.
The second realm came into view as we cleared the clouds, and it was a little nicer than the first realm. The buildings sparkled with glints of silver, and the gardens seemed lusher over all.
Once again, the angels saw us and started running. A few drew swords and lifted into the air like they were thinking about fighting, but then they ran as well.
“Fucking cowards,” Cayne said. “Staying up here and sucking up resources, but won’t even fight.” He pointed above us. “We continue to ascend.”
Flying was getting easier, and I was beginning to think ascension would be much easier than anyone had thought.
The third realm was much like the second, and the fourth was as well.
As we broke through the clouds and into the fifth realm, all hell finally broke loose.
Celestials were ready, flying in with swords in the hundreds.
“My turn,” Cayne said, drawing his katana and signaling the vamps over to him, along with Mark. “I’ll take care of this wave, all of you get higher immediately.”
The angels flew at him and he began slashing, so fast I couldn’t see his sword movements, as blood spurted and the vampires flew in to attack, grabbing their prey and latching on with their teeth, wings flapping like bats.
Mark dove in, grabbing angels and tearing their wings off, defending other vampires or watching Cayne’s back.
“Up,” Simon said, pointing. “Cayne, you be careful!”
“Takes more than a few birds to kill me!” he shot back.
I flew higher, flapping my wings, dreading what we’d see when we cleared into the sixth realm.
Surprisingly, there was no security there, and the buildings were made of a black, sparkling substance, square and severe. Each realm seemed to hold smaller amounts of land, buildings and angels.
The sixth realm angels were nowhere to be seen, for some reason.
“That’s weird,” Os said, flying next to me, two mini daggers in his hands. “I was expecting more angels here.”
“Bet they’re higher,” Mor said, flapping gray wings to continue rising up.
“Very odd,” Simon said. He cast a glance below, where Cayne was fighting with the vampires behind the clouds blocking our view. I could see he was tempted to go help, but he merely pointed up. “Higher. We can’t stop now. We can’t choose when destiny finds us, we can only choose to rise to the occasion. We rise!” Then he shot upwards, leading the way through the clouds to the seventh realm.
We all looked around, seeing black buildings with silver glinting accents, parapets like tiny castles. Willows gracefully lining the walkways. Gardens fit for royalty.
But no one was there.
