Total pages in book: 110
Estimated words: 107720 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 539(@200wpm)___ 431(@250wpm)___ 359(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107720 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 539(@200wpm)___ 431(@250wpm)___ 359(@300wpm)
One, we never got hungry or thirsty or tired. Our energy levels stayed the same, cycling around our two hearts in a perfect never-ending loop.
Two, we dabbled with the powers we’d been given. Rook had the ability to see what used to exist and hear the histories of all that had come before us. Yet I had the ability to conjure the potential of things that existed in the future.
And three, we no longer had to abide by this world’s rules.
Which was handy because, after a few days of walking, I grew sick of being naked—not because we felt the elements or needed shoes—but because lingering propriety said walking toward a city meant we should probably be clothed.
All it’d taken was a thought, and my body was sheathed in my familiar wardrobe of black. Rook grinned as I dressed her in an ice-blue gown, so similar to the pretty embroidered hanfus she’d inherited from my mother.
For weeks, we travelled through Iceland and Europe, trying to figure out how to get back to China. Airports didn’t seem to exist anymore, cars had become obsolete, and we found that no one noticed us as we slipped into society that looked the same yet different.
We mingled in crowds with Whisper at our heels, and no one paid us any attention...almost as if we existed on a different plane to them, able to glide through their peripheral vision.
Occasionally, a child would make eye contact with us and wave, but it wasn’t until we actually focused on wanting to be seen that others noticed. The first time we’d done it, the people surrounding us froze and gawked, all eyes going to Whisper.
After that, we preferred to be unseen because it allowed us to listen and learn.
According to snippets of conversations, three hundred years had passed and...it showed.
Everywhere we travelled, things had changed.
From the black sands of Iceland’s ice fields to the fjords of Scandinavia, the air was noticeably warmer. Deep blue waters lapped at floating villages built on massive living platforms. Vertical gardens grew all kinds of vegetables and solar-sailed skiffs drifted on the large lakes, fishermen hauling fish the size of pigs out of the depths.
Vast temperate rainforests had reclaimed megacities, breaking down the skyrises and replacing them with green canopies. People had adapted and built graceful bridges in the treetops, linking shops and homes and schools.
City centres still existed, but the buildings were single level and covered in solar panels, while walls of smart-glass and greenery protected them from natural disasters.
As we travelled out of the human clusters, nature reclaimed the world with aggressive beauty, swallowing abandoned towns and changing the landscape to become unrecognisable.
Everywhere we went, the world felt both familiar and alien.
We were strangers in the future.
Immortals in a world that had moved on.
But we were together, so that made everything perfect.
A month or two into our journey—still wondering how to jump continents and return to Asia—Rook cut in front of me on the animal track we followed through a woodland.
The sway of her hips and the glow of her skin ensured I couldn’t help myself.
Wrapping my arms around her, I carried her into the dreamscape—trapping her in our own secret world where we could be as desperate and loud as we wanted.
By the time we’d finished, we noticed Whisper had slipped in with us. Either because he shared our joint energy or he also had a gift of slipping between realms, and...we all decided to stay awhile.
As we lazed and dozed, my thoughts filled with Ashfall Cliff.
I had no idea how we’d get back if we couldn’t fly. No idea if we could travel by sea or if China even still existed. And when we’d roused, we’d stepped out of the dreamscape to continue our walk, only...Ashfall Cliff manifested around us.
The black and gold gates hung off their hinges, welcoming me home to ruin.
At first, I’d feared it was another illusion—like the one that had trapped me when Rook had died—but as we’d stepped inside, and Rook heard the souls of all those who’d passed here, we had to accept that once again, we were no longer normal.
We’d bypassed whatever law of gravity and geography existed, and used the dreamscape as our vehicle to appear wherever we wanted.
Wrapping my arm around Rook’s waist, I pulled her against my side. She leaned into me, her head resting on my shoulder as we stared at the past.
“Everything’s gone,” she whispered.
“Not everything.” I pressed a kiss to her temple.
She smiled softly. “You’re right. We’re still here...somehow.”
The breeze carried the faint scent of old incense and spruce, and for a second, I saw the ghosts of Auntie Mei and Uncle Wen.
Ashfall Cliff came to life as the lanterns glimmered, and the windchimes sang in the branches.
And then it all vanished again, and I had to know.