Page 41 of The Void

She tilted her head. “How many is that?”

He chuckled. “Too many to count.”

She tried a different tactic. “How did you come to be here? Where are all the other people who live here?”

“We are all here,” he answered easily.

“Where is everyone who lives here?”

“They are all downstairs,” he answered with a frown.

“Who built this place?” She motioned to the buildings.

“You did. Djinn. It is why you’ve come back. To protect your children.” He shook his head and then turned back to his machine.

That wasn’t helpful, she thought as she walked over to the edge and leaned on the railing.

What was she going to do if Lucas didn’t return in time? Was she going to go meet her brother alone?

She and Lucas had argued all day about the meeting. The more she’d thought about it, the more determined she was to see Lei again.

After all, she was a djinn. She had all these new powers. If she wanted, she was pretty sure that she could fly as well. Actually, now was a good time to find out.

She only had three hours left. Three hours. She felt panicked. She had to do something. She needed to reach out to Lucas somehow. Damn, why didn’t this world have cell phones yet? She needed to tell him that the alignment was actually happening tonight.

Glancing over her shoulder, she made sure that Jessup was too busy with his machine to pay any attention to her. Then she ducked behind a large tree and, without hesitation, lifted up into the night air.

Her power was growing stronger. She wondered if it had to do with how much time she’d spent in this place. Or was it due to the alignment? After all, Feng had mentioned that all djinns received their powers during the alignment.

Since she was in the sky already, she decided to take a quick look around.

Jessup had said that the djinn had built this city. The way he’d answered, it seemed as if the people that were living there now were the only ones who had ever lived there and possibly had always lived there.

Seeing a rather short building with all its lights off, she set down on its roof and walked inside.

Holding out her hands, she created a soft blue glowing ball to light her way. The rooms were empty. There was a set of circular stairs, much like the one in her building, but everything else appeared to be just for show.

She hit building after building for the next few minutes and all of them were vacant.

Why would someone create a large city and leave it empty? Then again, was it within the djinn power to create immortal people to fill Atlantis?

After the fifth building, she was done looking and needed to talk to Feng. Setting off, she went out to a few feet beyond the city’s wall and called out. “Feng?”

“Sister.”

She was surprised to hear her brother’s voice instead in her head. She thought of returning to the city, but since her brother was nowhere near her, she stilled.

“What?” she answered after a moment.

“I see your power has grown. Our family must be very proud,” Lei said.

“Why are you doing this?” she asked.

“I would think that you of all people would know,” Lei answered.

“You’re going to destroy the city?” she practically yelled back.

“Not me. Your actions will bring about the doom of this realm. Trust me, sister. Meet with me. Alone.”