Dark Nine ❈ Dark Nine Universe Bk1 ❈

Chapter Forty-Eight

Diana's POV

Dark Ninth

Alpha Centauri flies me over the Kor prison on Dark Ninth, to the other side of the Elion planet. It's a detour.

I don't question it.

I just watch the landscape pull away beneath us, slowly... and growing... larger.

Until I'm utterly numb with the hidden beauty, sparkly from end times.

We fly to the other half of the planet. The Estori lands his ship on top of a mega structure that I didn't even know existed, but I'm captivated.

We've landed above an abandoned grand city with purple skylines, and blinking lights through the mist of an empty metal oasis. On top of a pyramid like structure that zig zagged above the landscape, is a palace reaching into the heavens.

It's a mega Elion city.

The fauna has not grown up here, as if it can't, but lights blink over the corners of the structures.

Empty. On standby. For something.

The creepy part? Nobody is here except the Kors.

But clearly a long time ago, Fey lived here too.

It's the best view from the very top of the tallest pointed structure. The ship docks and the ramp lowers, while Alpha Centauri is keenly aware I can't steal my gaze from the secret city.

I was Empress of this place.

The only female.

It is very morbid. Knowing what it once was.

Thinking about what they did six destinies ago was one thing. Seeing evidence of it in an urban landscape is another feeling entirely.

"This is..." I breathe in a shattered breath, "This is the antithesis of what our Universal Board stands for. And you all bled this place dry."

"The universe is the universe, you are baby-brained in universal wisdom compared to Kor minds – besides, you're just a vessel to us," Alpha Centauri sounds too honest but I do not get distracted by his attempt to change the topic to my body. I was speaking of their ethics.

"Call it what you want. This is something else," I release my anger, turning to Alpha Centauri before he can close the distance any further. He had been approaching to escort me out but now I glare at him with my tiara still adorned, but with new knowledge burning inside me, "...why did you bring me here?"

"Ninth Squad are here," Alpha Centauri blinks slow but doesn't elaborate even though there is a reason... he just won't tell me why they're here.

I glare at him, waiting for a proper answer.

When he becomes a typical Kor misogynist refusing to gift me with the necessary information to understand their ways, I just exhale a sharp breath and storm past him.

I feel like the night gown ruins the badassery of the moment, and it kind of makes me look like a granny, so I rip it off and throw it aside as I leave the ship, stopping by a hook and a spare metallic cape for the Estori.

It's way too big, but it's not heavy.

I whip it off the hook and put it around my shoulders.

I glance over my shoulder to see the Estori holding his spear but admiring the way the Elion spider silk glitters over me.

I leave the ship with his robe.

On the expansive platform is a long and wide walk leading toward the palace in the distance.