Chapter 55 The Road Starts Lying**
September 6, 2029 – somewhere that shouldn't exist, Utah**
The GPS gave up three hours ago.
First it spun in circles.
Then it just displayed one line in glowing white text:
**Turn left into yesterday.**
Remy did.
Because of course he did.
We left the interstate outside Moab, followed a dirt track that wasn't on any map, and drove straight into a canyon that swallowed the truck whole.
The sandstone walls closed behind us like teeth.
No signal.
No sky.
Just red rock, heat shimmers, and the low growl of the Chevy refusing to die.
Then the canyon opened.
And the world forgot how to be normal.
We're rolling slow across a desert valley that has no business existing:
golden sand dunes under a sky the color of bruised twilight,
ruins rising out of the sand like the bones of a city that sank before Noah even started building.
Columns taller than redwoods.
Bridges that loop into themselves.
A coliseum half-buried but still humming with faint violet light.
And in the exact center:
a titanium half-pipe the size of a football field,
perfectly preserved,
glistening like it was poured yesterday.
My skateboard (the one I Remy Built of titanium with the Crimson Fangs Sticker on the Grip Tape , the one I named *(Sânge Furtună – "Blood Storm" in Romanian. Painted in dripping crimson on black grip.)* vibrates in the truck bed like it recognizes home.
Remy kills the engine.
**Remy (quiet):**
"Storm queen… you seeing this?"
I'm already out, boots hitting warm sand, Hellebore Mist sheathed across my back singing its low, hungry note.
Seras vaults the tailgate, armor flaring gold.
**Seras:**
"Either we drove into a fever dream,
or someone built a supernatural X-Games arena in the middle of a lost city."
Kayo's tails fan wide, tasting the air.
**Kayo (grinning):**
"Smells like ozone, old blood, and… tuition waivers."
Rowan steps forward, eyes wide behind cracked glasses.
**Rowan:**
"This is Cahokia Prime.
The real one.
The one the mortals never found.
The university city of the mythic age."
He points to a massive stone arch rising from the dunes.
Carved across it in letters that hurt to read:
**AERIE ACADEMY**
**Est. Before the Sky Had Rules**
Below it, smaller script shifts languages every heartbeat:
Welcome, oath-bound.
You were expected.
A figure drops from the arch (no wings, just air deciding gravity is optional).
Tall, bronze skin, white hair braided with tiny bells of petrified lightning.
Board shorts, bare feet, and a university hoodie that reads **Property of Aerie Skate Team – Champions of the Void 2027**.
He lands on a beat-up longboard that hovers an inch off the sand and rolls to a stop in front of me.
**Stranger (grinning like he's been waiting his whole life for this):**
"Celeste Valentina Morau.
Titanium deck, Hellebore Mist carrier, current record holder for fastest recorded lightning rail grind.
Your dorm's ready.
Parking's a bitch, though."
He glances at the Chevy.
**Stranger:**
"Nice sticker.
We've got a coyote dorm if your boy wants to stop growling."
Remy's eyes are pure gold.
**Remy:**
"You've been watching us."
**Stranger (shrugs):**
"Sky Court issued a summons.
We issued a better one.
Difference is, we don't make you kneel.
We just make you earn it."
He flicks his wrist.
Six glowing acceptance letters appear in the air, one for each of us, sealed with wax that smells like thunderstorm and desert rain.
Mine unfolds itself and reads aloud in my mother's voice:
**"Celeste Valentina Morau,
you kept the summer.
Come keep the sky.
Orientation begins when you're ready.
Classes begin when you're brave."**
The titanium half-pipe behind him lights up (runes racing along the coping in violet fire).
I look at my pack.
Seras is already smiling like sunrise.
Lucian's wings twitch with interest.
Kayo's tails are wagging so hard they blur.
Rowan whispers, "I'm going to learn things that aren't in any book."
Remy squeezes my hand once.
**Remy:**
"Coyote Club rule number seven:
When the hidden city of the gods offers you a better fight than the Sky Court,
you take the damn scholarship."
I step forward.
Grab my board from the truck bed.
Kick it into my hand.
**Celeste:**
"Show us the dorms."
The stranger grins, kicks his hovering board, and shoots toward the half-pipe.
**Stranger (over his shoulder):**
"Try to keep up, storm queen.
First rule of Aerie:
if you can't grind the void,
the void grinds you."
We follow.
The lost city opens its arms.
And somewhere high above Everest, the Sky Court just realized their invitation wasn't the only one we got.
Too late.
We're already home. Welcome to Aerie (Don't Fall)**
** September 6, 2029 – Aerie Academy, Cahokia Prime**
The stranger's name is Kael Stormrider (literally, his last name is Stormrider, because of course it is).
He drops us at the edge of the titanium half-pipe and kicks his board into the air, where it hangs like it's waiting for orders.
**Kael:**
"Orientation starts with the Drop.
Survive it, you're in.
Die (well, we have excellent resurrection insurance)."
He snaps his fingers.
The half-pipe folds open like a blooming metal flower and becomes a vertical shaft that disappears straight down into darkness lit by violet lightning.
Seras is already grinning like this is Christmas.
**Seras:**
"Shotgun."
She steps off the edge and free-falls, armor igniting into a blazing comet.
Lucian swears once and dives after her, wings tucked for speed.
Kayo laughs, tails spinning into a golden helix, and cannonballs in.
Rowan just sighs, steps forward, and the void politely catches him like an elevator.
Remy looks at me, braids whipping in the sudden updraft.
**Remy:**
"Together?"
I flip *Sânge Furtună* under my feet, feel the Titanium trucks spark.
**Celeste:**
"Always."
We drop.
Wind screams past us, lightning licking my skin like it's greeting an old friend.
Remy shifts mid-fall (full dire-coyote, massive, beautiful) and matches my speed, golden eyes locked on mine.
We fall for what feels like forever.
Then the shaft spits us out into open sky.
Actual open sky.
We're above the lost city now, floating between floating islands connected by glowing bridges of light.
Dorm towers made of stormclouds and petrified starlight.
A library that looks like an upside-down mountain.
Training arenas where dragons spar with phoenixes and nobody's keeping score.
And beneath us, the biggest skate plaza ever carved by gods or mortals:
rails made of frozen lightning,
bowls carved from meteorite,
a full vert ramp that loops through a permanent tornado.
Kael is waiting on a platform of solid air, arms crossed, smirking.
**Kael:**
"Welcome to Aerie Academy, class of eternity.
Population: whoever's crazy enough to stay."
He tosses me a key made of black glass and stormglass.
**Kael:**
"Dorm Blackbird-Coyote. Top floor. View of the void.
Your roommates are already fighting over who gets the bigger window."
Remy shifts back human mid-air, lands beside me barefoot and grinning.
**Remy:**
"Guess that's us."
Kael points to a floating island shaped like a massive coyote skull with blackbird wings.
Our dorm.
Our home.
For however long we decide "forever" is going to last.
Seras rockets past overhead, riding a rail of pure sunlight, laughing like the world just became her playground.
Lucian is right behind her, wings carving spirals of thunder.
Kayo is already negotiating with a phoenix about borrowing its flames for "culinary experiments."
Rowan is standing at the edge of the plaza, staring at the library with actual tears in his eyes.
I look at Remy.
He looks at me.
The marks on our wrists flare bright enough to cast shadows.
**Celeste:**
"Think the Sky Court knows we just enrolled somewhere better?"
**Remy (grinning sharp):**
"They're about to."
Kael kicks his board and shoots upward.
**Kael (shouting back):**
"First official class is tomorrow at dawn:
Advanced Sky Rebellion 501.
Try not to be late.
The void hates tardiness."
We don't go to the dorm yet.
We drop our boards instead.
*Sânge Furtună* sings under my feet the second it touches the lightning rail.
Remy's right beside me, barefoot on a board made of petrified coyote claw and desert wind.
We grind the first rail together (sparks and thunder and violet fire).
The lost city roars its approval.
Somewhere high above Everest, the Sky Court is waiting.
Let them wait.
We just found the place that was built for kids like us.
And we're never leaving.
First day of forever?
Just getting started.