A Break of Day (A Shade of Vampire #7)(46)

As soon as I fell, the suction swallowed me down. I was travelling at such a speed that everything was a haze. I could barely breathe and my heartbeat tripled its pace.

Just as it felt like I was about to pass out, the tunnel came to an abrupt end and I was thrown upward, landing on a bed of leaves. Rubbing my head, I dared to open my eyes. The sweltering heat settled over my skin. The sticky, humid atmosphere did nothing to help me catch my breath. I’d landed a few feet away from Derek. We didn’t have much time to gather our wits about us. Our first priority was to make sure that we were alone.

Derek crept through the undergrowth and ducked down next to me. We were sitting in some kind of jungle. Brightly colored insects the size of bats buzzed around us. The chattering and cawing of exotic birds filled the atmosphere. The air smelled of rich pollen. And it was strangely dark. I looked up to see a dense canopy of sharp-edged leaves.

Beads of sweat were already breaking out on my forehead.

“What is this place?” I breathed out.

Derek was still looking around us. “We’re alone.” He lifted himself up from our hiding place, standing on his tiptoes. “Too bad these wings are useless,” he said. “I have no idea which direction we should even start heading for. And we can’t afford to waste any time.”

I joined him in standing up and looked around. We could barely see twenty meters; the jungle vegetation was dense and the patches of fog didn’t help either.

“Well, let’s first get away from this gate. It’s not a good idea to hang around here. I’m shocked it wasn’t guarded in the first place,” I muttered. “Let’s try climbing to the top of a tree to see if we can get a better idea of where we should be headed.”

Derek caught my hand and we began walking toward a tree with low-hanging branches. He grabbed hold of one and hauled himself up, then extended his hand. I refused his help. I had enough strength to do my own climbing.

As we ascended one close-knit layer of leaves at a time, careful not to lose our footing on the moist bark, it was becoming lighter and lighter. The air also felt more oxygenated; I was beginning to breathe more freely.

Then a moss-covered tree branch began moving. It was a colossal snake, heavier than any I’d ever seen in my life. I nearly screamed as it lifted its head and began hissing at me. Derek, who had already climbed up to a branch just above me, reached down and yanked me up. We quickened our climbing, hoping the snake wouldn’t follow us. I tried to ignore the spiders twice the width of my hand that scuttled along the branches inches away from my feet, and the shiny foot-long centipedes. It was starting to feel like we’d never reach the top when I heard voices overhead.

Derek and I froze.

A figure dropped down through the layer of leaves above us and balanced himself on the same long branch we were perched on. A male Hawk.

His beak opened in surprise, then he squinted his eyes at us. “What are you doing down here in the Lower Layers? Didn’t you hear that orders are for all able Hawks in this quarter to gather in the Battalion for briefings?”

“Briefings…” I said, as though I had any clue what he was talking about. “Yes, of course we heard. How could we not? We’re on our way. We were just…” My mind worked furiously trying to concoct some excuse a Hawk might come up with.

Luckily the Hawk was too impatient to hear me out, thus saving me from myself.

“Spare me your excuses and just get a move on!” he growled.

Then he took a leap further downward and disappeared through the canopy of leaves beneath us. Derek breathed out in relief and we continued our climb upward.

Sounds of a civilization started trickling down through the leaves: the distant chattering of hundreds of people all at once, ropes creaking, feet thudding against wood, doors slamming, water splashing. The sounds were getting closer and closer until eventually we poked our heads through a final layer of leaves.

My breath hitched and Derek also inhaled sharply as we gazed around.

“Whoa,” I whispered.

By the looks of it, we had climbed up only about a third of the tree. The giant leaves had been stripped away from the trees to create an open space, open enough to build wooden constructions around the tree trunks, interconnected by bridges and walkways. The trunks were now bare from the point we were standing for about three hundred feet upward, where the leaves began again, creating an enclosed area for this wondrous city and forming a ceiling that protected it from the direct heat of the sun.

As for the width of this place, I couldn’t begin to estimate. The clusters of magnificent architecture—tree houses small and large, round and square—stretched out for as far as I could see.

A true city in the trees. The Shade has nothing on this.

Dozens of humans walked along various bridges and walkways. But I was struck by the lack of Hawks.

I was about to hoist myself up onto the bridge about five feet above us, but Derek held me back.

“Wait,” he whispered. “We need some way to remember this place. Otherwise how will we find our way back here?”

He had a point. I turned my face up toward the leafy ceiling of the city to see if there was anything striking that could serve as a landmark.

“Look!” Derek said. “That carving there, do you see it?”

One of the trees had been cut shorter than the others. Carved into the bark was a striking depiction of a Hawk. I hoped that there was only one such carving.