The Sky Beneath Us Novels & Stories

Eliana lay on her back, staring up at a sky that was not compressed time or collapsing architecture or the machinery of a dying law. It was simply sky, the blue of late afternoon, streaked with the first hints of sunset, the color of a world that had never learned to bargain, never learned to exchange, never learned to weigh the worth of a soul against the duration of a life.

They may not like me, but at least when they're near, other students can't kill me. Ahead of me, Rowan, Seyla, and Lyra, all link arms as they giggle in excitement. I slow my pace slightly to keep a distance. I don't want my sour mood to bring down theirs. I glance up at the night sky, and I gasp. I stop walking altogether as I take in the millions of stars lighting the sky. I almost forgot how beautiful the night sky is.

There's so many of us here, I think we were about three thousand in numbers. I don't plan to stay here for long. It just feel wrong to be here. I didn't noticed that i was dazing out until Ana snapped me back into reality. "Hey, we're late for Ms. Crami," she said. I lifted my tray and walked right behind her heading to the sink where we put our trays after we eat. After that we headed straight to the grounds. It sounds weird to me though. We call it ground, but under the ground. It's an open space and when you look up, there a whole grey ceiling, which is of course, artificial.

I screeched in my mind. "Very good, luv. Yes, that's the ground. We're going to say ‘ello to it quickly. Legs up now." I lifted my knees to my chest. Covered my eyes with my hands. A quick jerk and we were zinging up into the air as if pulled back up by a strong vacuum. I glanced above us. A canopy of black blocked out the blue sky above me. "This is going to sting a bit, luv. But I'll do the best I can."

The laughter soon passed, and they all sat, looking at the sky. “The stars really are beautiful here.” Said Jenna. Clay smiled, “Are they not in your timeline?” he asked. Jenna sighed, “No, the sky is covered in smog.” Clay frowned and he smiled, “well, you are never going back so we can watch them now whenever you want.” Jenna smiled and nestled into him.

I pulled her alongside me as we fell back on the mattress and rolled, she giggled excitedly. “Should we resume?” I asked, towering over her. “One second,” she slid out from underneath me. I watched curiously as she picked up what seemed like a small remote from one of the coffee tables. She pressed one of the buttons and the tinted glass from the top slid aside revealing the enchanting sky adorned with stars above us. There was simple glass underneath the tinted one which gave us a super view of the heavens. The humongous white orb in the sky was spreading its silvery rays and sharing some of it with us.

Glancing up at Rem, he nodded down to me and said, “we can hold them off for a bit while you focus on that.” Grateful, I nodded at Rem and closed my eyes, focusing on what the sky-born shifters could see below them. Below them, lie a large open field, near where the mansion was. There were several camps of people, each with tents or campervans that I assumed to be where they were living for the duration of this attack with us.

After walking that full distance, Scott finally pushed open a door in front of her. The next second, bright blue skies suddenly appeared overhead. It looked like they had stepped outside into a warm, sunny day, with drifting clouds hanging beneath a clear sky. But Hayley knew that was impossible. They were buried deep underground, and when they came down earlier, a blizzard had still been raging outside. There was no way the sky above them could actually look like this. Hayley narrowed her eyes and looked closer before finally realizing the truth. The sky overhead was made entirely from massive electronic screens connected together into a giant curved dome more than 300 feet high.

And we had a whole world to grow. ​“Where to next, Silas?” I asked as I stepped back onto the bridge. ​Silas looked at the holographic map, a wide, excited grin on his face. “The South. The Aerostatic Seed is drifting too high. If we don’t recalibrate the gravity anchors, the Sky City is going to float straight into the ionosphere.” ​“Then let’s go catch a city,” Thorne said, taking his place at the tactical station. ​The Pathfinder turned toward the southern horizon, its silver wings catching the golden light of the afternoon sun. We were the masters of our own destiny, and for the first time in history, the sky was not a limit. It was an invitation.

She tried not to stare. “If they have wings, why don’t they fly?” Ru asked, turning her head away from a beautiful woman with long black hair who passed by, her white wings tucked behind her. Her coat had two slits in the back of it, sort of like the openings for sleeves. “We can levitate, and we don’t,” Rider pointed out. “True,” Ru muttered, although that didn’t quite answer her question. She decided to let it go. They had assembled on the sidewalk outside of Sky’s office building, which reached so high up into the atmosphere Ru suspected it would reach the clouds if there were any. The sky was clear and blue, and Ru wondered what was above them.