Differences Aside, ✔

Chapter Twenty Eight

I woke up to the intercom and the strange, flipping sensation in my stomach.

I looked around, Maddox was awake, alone with Zina, Elliot and a crying Seraphine. All three of the Air hosts were sitting down at the front of the plane, their bodies strapped in as the plane slowly moved down.

As if sensing my movement, Maddox turned to me, his face almost surprised, "You're awake?"

I nodded sleepily, running a hand over my face, "It would seem so, how long was I asleep?"

"Almost the whole flight, you woke up for about ten minutes halfway through, but the rest of the time you were completely asleep," He said, carefully watching my movements.

I yawned, "Well, that explains why I'm so drowsy,"

I leaned forward to try a catch a glimpse of where we were. "Are we arriving now?"

Maddox nodded, "We'll be down within the next five minutes. Would you like to swap seats so you can look out of the window properly?" He offered, his hand already on his seat belt.

I quickly nodded, pushing my unfastened belt to the side and moving into the seat where Maddox was just sitting. I found my gaze locked on the window, staring at the world below me, watching as we flew into the island. I pressed my hand to the window, immediately curling back. It was hot, like someone had taken a flame to the window and left it there.

I could see the ocean, but not as I had ever seen it before. I was used to the darkness, a blue so deep you thought that the water was black. You couldn't see what lies below the water, every stroke a risk. Travelling by boat in the North was rare for this reason. That clearly wasn't a problem here.

It was so clear that I could see every individual fish, ever shard of coral, even from the height of the plane. People in kayaks paddled across the green-blue water, their heads turning up as we flew above them.

Their buildings were different too, soft, circular edges made out of a sandy looking brick. I could see colour, every colour of the rainbow was spread out among the buildings, the people in the streets looking like specks of red, blue and yellow. It was highly likely that this was the wolves side of their city. It was strange not seeing endless acres of dark, green forests. Instead, I saw endless deserts, tufts and patches of grass were covering the pathways and the edge of this part of the city, but when I looked past that, looked to where there was nothing but nature herself, it was yellow, red and orange sand. We were on the edge of the city, It was strange seeing buildings, then grass than sand all directly next to the beach. We kept flying in, the sand quickly disappearing and being replaced by endless buildings and houses.

Maddox grabbed my arm, "We need to get changed. We're about to land."

I dragged my eyes away from the window and stood up, quickly being ushered into one of the rooms on the plane. The dress was placed gingerly on the bed occupying the room, two boxes sitting directly next to it.

I pulled off the dress I was wearing, and as quickly as I possibly could, I changed into the gown.

It was a deep, purple velvet. The colour of the North. It was off the shoulders, the neckline covered in jewels that faded into nothing. The dress was pinched at my waist, the waistline was covered in jewels too, leading into a line that ran down my front, stopping halfway up my thigh. The sleeves fell off my arms, almost lone enough to touch the floor. I pulled my hair in front of me as I opened the two other boxes. One held a necklace and a pair of earrings, both decorated in light purple gems. The other box held the blue Tiara that Margaret had gifted me. I carefully looped the earrings through my lobes, fastened the necklace around my neck and then placed the tiara on my head, letting it nestle itself among my hair.