With his arm around my shoulders, Seiji walks me to his castle, talking about his creativity and hard work, which Angel discredits as ‘nothing but a bunch of big fat lies’ in a hushed whisper.
“See the giant lotus-shaped roof?Myidea. I wanted something unique, something that would fit my style.”
“You knew your style when you were eleven?”
“Again Anxo? Stop stealing my limelight brother.”
Coming closer, Angel whispers in my ear. “You know he is lying, right?”
“Look there.” Angel and I turn in sync to see Harvey roped up in Seiji’s lie. The Prince of Famine is sneaky when he wants to be. He has Harvey so busy trying to prove Seiji wrong that he has forgotten all about his earlier panic.
Angel shakes his head with a fond smile and shares a secret wink with the mischievous Prince.
I turn back to the castle which is a different level of lotus petal on each floor. The gates are arched pointedly, and the roof is tilted 70 degrees, so it’s not flat, making the pattern visible. I love how the petals are made from shades of tinted green glass and center with blue.
One would think the outer walls made of glass is poor thinking from a safety point of view.I did for a minute, until Hazel whistled her sharpest tune, and the glass remained scratchless.
We pass the only construction business in the kingdom run by centaurs next. Only it looks more like an evil lair. A mini black castle—which I’m guessing was an intentional choice. One would think twice before crossing them or their business.
All I know is if I ever want to build something, I’m hiring these people without a doubt. I recognize the patterns on the dark bricks from the Conquer castle, and I have no doubt they helped make this realm the dreamland it is today.
Hazel clears her throat just as we pass Famine. I only realize she is asking for my attention when she repeats the fake cough until I turn to her. She could’ve just called my name instead of failing at being subtle.
“Fun fact: the dungeons are built below surface level, so if a prisoner escapes, they would free fall until they reach the other end of the protective dome and get scorched to ashes.”
I watch her closely to check if she genuinely thinks our prisoners escaping only to get burned to a crisp is fun or if she’s messing with me. Her straight face tells me she actually finds it interesting.
“That’s not what you call a fun fact, Hazel,” Grace softly corrects her.
“Oh? Just a fact, then.”
This woman is something else. I don’t know about anyone else, but I love how her brain works.
“Nevaeh, you remember what Dad says about death?” Grace suddenly asks.
“There’s no hiding from it?”
She nods with an eager smile and points behind me. When I follow her finger, my steps falter and slowly come to a stop. It’smagnificent.
I was expecting the Death castle to be like others, but I didn’t expectthis. The castle is built with clear glass in a rectangular structure that reaches the clouds. The glass panel in the middle gives an impression that it’s filled with glistening water, and it takes me a minute to realize it’s not water butthousands of soulstrapped and floating inside the glass.
“Those souls power our realm. The king of Hell and Dean designed it in a way that every soul that belongs to Hell passes through here, so as long as a Grim Reaper is alive and working, this realm would never fall apart.” I hear Angel explain, but my eyes are stuck on the mesmerizing view before me.
The use of gold, black, red and forest green jewels to hold the glass structure at the corners perfectly represents how each Horseman equally contributes to the survival of this realm.
A glass castle seems fitting since Papa loves reminding everyone there’s no hiding from death. Typically, it's used to scare his opponents, but I see he applied it while designing his castle.It’s perfect.
Nudging me, Grace asks, “You want to go in?”
I do. I really do, but it doesn’t feel right. Not until I could walk inside and Papa would greet me instead of haunting silence. Grace understands that, and we’re back to exploring.
August is fast asleep on Anxo’s shoulder, clutching the dark sweater’s neck in his tiny fist. Angel keeps rubbing his back, quietly answering Harvey’s millionth question.
“Ready to see our home, sweetheart?” Taking my hand in his, Angel brings it to his lips to kiss my knuckles before leading me towards the center of our kingdom.
I let my eyes wander to the approaching castle. If I thought I liked the individual castles, man do I love this even more. The design is minimalist and relatively modern, which only lures attention to the realistic horse sculptures.
Each of the four pillars is a magnificent horse standing with its feet in the air, the castle resting on their back. The four horses of the apocalypse, a blood-red horse with black wings, a solid black horse with pale green wings, a spotless white horse with gold wings, and lastly, my Diamond, a pale horse with crystal wings dipped in red and orange at the bottom.
