They were barely a day out from the Driftvault when the storm hit.
Not the usual kind either—not wind and rain and lightning. This was something else. Something older.
It started with the clouds.
They didn't roll in like waves—they crept. Slow. Silent. Heavy. Grey as ash and thick as fog. The air turned cold, and the wind began to hum in low, broken notes, like a flute being played by something that didn't have lungs.
Velka was the first to speak.
"Sky Reef ahead," she said, standing at the bow of the ship.
Cinder glanced up from the wheel. "Is that bad?"
"It's worse than bad," she said. "It's cursed."
The Cloudreaper dipped lower, following the Atlas's path as it bent sharply south—right through the fog.
As they flew in, the world turned quiet. No birds. No wind. No sound but the low creaking of their own ship. Even the engines seemed quieter.
Then the reef appeared.
It wasn't coral. It wasn't stone.
It was bone.
Dozens of massive skeletons—sky whales, ancient air serpents, long-extinct beasts—frozen mid-flight, tangled together in a twisted graveyard. The reef floated in pieces, bound by some invisible force, and stretched farther than they could see.
Kairo's stomach dropped.
"I don't like this."
Velka nodded. "No one does. But this is the way."
They landed on a flat section of old bone that looked just stable enough. The fog curled around them like smoke, thick and cold.
"Let's move quickly," Velka said. "No one speaks above a whisper."
"Why?" Cinder asked.
"Because the wind here listens."
Kairo walked near the center of the reef, following the Atlas's glow. It led him to a cracked archway made from what looked like a dragon's ribcage. The symbols carved into it matched those on the Atlas piece.
He reached out to touch one.
And that's when he heard it.
His name.
Whispered.
But not by anyone on the ship.
"Kairo…"
He spun around. "Did you—did you hear that?"
Cinder looked at him. "Hear what?"
Kairo turned back. The fog was thicker now.
Then he heard it again.
"Kairo… help me…"
A different voice this time.
His mother's.
He took a step forward before he could stop himself.
Then another.
The fog wrapped around him like arms, cold and soft. Shadows danced at the edges of his vision. Shapes formed—his childhood room, the sound of windchimes, his mother's laughter.
He closed his eyes, just for a second—
"Why did you let me go, Kairo?"
He snapped them open.
The shadows twisted. The bone reef groaned.
He saw her.
Standing at the far end of the path. Smiling. Crying.
He ran forward.
Velka grabbed his shoulder.
The vision shattered.
"Don't listen to them," she said sharply. "They're not real. They're wind spirits. Echoes. They take your fears and make them speak."
Kairo was shaking. "I—I saw her."
"I know."
Cinder appeared from the mist, clutching his wrench like a sword. "We're done here. Can we leave before something eats my face?"
Velka turned to Kairo. "Did you get what you needed?"
Kairo reached into his jacket.
The Atlas was warm.
A new symbol had appeared—one that hadn't been there before.
"Yes," he said. "It gave me the next path."
They returned to the ship in silence.
As the Cloudreaper rose back into the sky, the fog slowly faded behind them. The reef disappeared from view, swallowed by cloud and memory.
Kairo sat alone near the back of the deck.
Cinder walked up, quietly handed him a mug of hot tea.
Kairo took it, didn't sip it.
"Why did it show me that?" he whispered.
Cinder sat beside him. "Because fear talks loudest when everything else is quiet."
Kairo nodded.
But in his heart, something else had settled. Not fear.
Determination.
He had survived the reef.
He had seen the past, touched the unknown—and kept walking.
Whatever came next, he was ready.
END OF CHAPTER 10