Chapter 54

The next wall stood a couple of hundred yards away, a huge curve of opal. The spire looked imposing over them, the face of it perfectly smooth, Zeke could see. So close.

Zeke had to drag Haziel forward, but once they got going, it was easier. No one was in the city, a ghost town that gave a strange tingle of unease up his spine. At least they didn’t have to fight through crowds.

They passed through the last wall into a courtyard large enough to hold a couple thousand at the moonstone base of the spire. Haziel seemed to sag in relief against his side. “The Empyrean,” he whispered for Zeke.

Thank goodness. Zeke’s whole body tingled as he managed to get his lover into the spire and down the short corridor. It opened up into a square room, three feet less than the outer walls. A figure sat above the floor on a moonstone seat cut in an exact right angle.

Three concentric rings were inlaid into the floor. Obsidian, pyrite, opal. It matched the city walls. How odd.