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“We haven’t even had sex, and you’re already—” The wind picked up, blowing my hair to the side and chilling my cheeks. I stared in… well, in what?
Shock?
Horror?
It was unlike anything I’d ever seen before or anything I’d imagined possible. “Where are we, Razai?”
He took a deep, refreshing breath and scanned the scene before us. “The Underground, of course.”
Chapter Fifty
At first, my pulse spiked in fear and excitement. And then I remembered who I was talking to. With a flat stare, I replied, “Good one. I assume we’ll be riding a unicorn back to Hartfall as well?”
“Don’t be ridiculous. Unicorns don’t exist, silly.”
“Neither does the Underground.”
“Then tell me what this is, Oh Wise One,” he quipped.
“It’s… it’s…” A long, colorful street stretched to either side like a beam of light. No end that I could see from either side. And the sky?
At first, I thought it was the typical night sky, but something about it made me look closer.
It seemed to move. The sky was alive and flowing and—
Holy shit. That’s not the sky.
Lights from the street glinted and glowed against the belly of a deep sea where fish and shadows flickered and moved with the dark current.
“Holy shit,” I breathed.
Razai patted my arm in consolation. “Now you’re understanding.”
I scoured the environment with my stare, taking in every detail, every scent and color. The tall buildings were reminiscent of Gothic architecture and old London boroughs; lanterns hung above streams of people moving in and out of buildings and emerging from alleys.
Music drifted through the bustle of voices. Each side of the street held stretches of canopies of every color and pattern. As if this street had turned into an outdoor flea market with just about every type of goods and service I could imagine.
And this was only one section of the street. Or was it a city?
Purple clouds plumed lazily from a smoke shop. Another called Mage Menagerie had odd-looking creatures hanging from bars and fluttering in glass boxes. The shop beside it, completely unlabeled and unwelcoming, had one old man—a mage, I assumed—glaring at passersby and scanning the crowd.
That’s when I noticed the people. Truly looked at them.
A vampire strode by holding a toddler in her arms. Both had that characteristic cool-toned skin that I recognized instantly, despite having been away from the Demonic Territory for over a decade. The toddler’s mouth was open as she chattered, her tiny fangs glinting. Behind them, a nature fae sat in a velvet-walled stall and sifted through a deck of thick tarot cards. Her gold-hued vines writhed on either side of her shoulders.
I whispered, “Divine and Demonic. They’re all here. I have to be dreaming. I’m still on drugs and healing up, aren’t I?”
Razai squeezed my waist reassuringly. “No, love. You’re not. Take a look at this and absorb it. Understand it. The world you’ve grown to know is not all there is.”
I shook my head. “This doesn’t make sense. How does this exist? Where is it?”
“Undisclosed,” he said. “But come on, let’s walk to the train. Classes are going to start soon, and I’d like to make it there in time to warm Betty up. Don’t stare too much. You’ll draw attention.” He led me through the crowd, slipping in like two fish joining a school.
“What do you mean by ‘undisclosed’?” I asked. “How do people find their way here?”
He shouldered his way forward, expression neutral. “The magic protecting this little pocket of the world was created to keep it secret, even from the creators. Long ago, they constructed the Underground to sit in the waters surrounding New York’s five boroughs and shift positions constantly. We could be in a harbor at the moment or ten miles off the coast.”
“And the Gate?”
