“Next stop, Nocturn Station, Nocturn Station,” the speaker overhead announces.

I sit up straight as the train pulls into the station. Cold air rushes in through the open doors making me shiver. I’m glad I remembered to put gloves on this time.

From what I can see it’s dimmer than most stations I’ve been to—and bigger. A giant cutout spans most of the ceiling, giving us a view of the Eyries in tower above the buildings that surround the station. It’s a staggering sight, the bottoms of glistening steel support beams towering between the massive buildings, all half hidden by the clouds. Elsha and I follow the flow out onto the platform. Elsha stops and turns her eyes up to the ribbed-vault ceiling and the carved columns that support it.

“Wow,” she breathes, her eyes wide. “It’s so pretty!”

I can’t help but agree. With gold filagree, pointed archways and muted colors, the place looks way too fancy to be a train station. So, this is the Twilight Quarter.

While the Eyries are a collection of homes that sit above the ground on tall supports, the Twilight Quarter is home to all of the more nocturnal races, like vampires, werewolves, ghouls and the like. While Mom hasn’t said anything about her family, I still wonder sometimes if I have a cousin or two living here that I know nothing about.

Elsha stands close to me while I look at the map on my phone. Her breath clouds the air, her hat pulled down almost to her eyes. “You think Anton lives here?”

“Who knows? He might.” I could totally see him here in this station. He’d fit right in with the crowd of people around us, most of which, I notice, are werewolves. For once, I don’t feel out of place for my height. I frown at my map. It shows a visitor’s building, but the indicator is placed in the middle of the street.

“This stupid map isn’t working. Let’s get outside.”

We follow the crowd outside the station and stand on the sidewalk where I take in the area around us. Tall buildings stretch above us, the underbelly of the Eyries blocking out all the sunlight and making it appear to be nighttime. Streetlamps reveal a handful of pedestrians. Most of the crowd heads to the right, further into the city. A little further down to the left is a market with bright sign that says, in bright red letters, Blood Market. I raise a brow at that.

“Huh,” I say to myself. “So that’s where they all are.”

Blood markets work sort of like blood banks. People can go inside and donate blood for cash, and then those who need it can buy it in cartons. Curiosity makes me want to step inside, just to take a look around. I’d heard from a vampire at school that they not only sell filtered and purified blood in cartons, but they also sell it in other forms, like blood pudding and blood sausage.

This would make some great story fodder, I think, staring at the large, white-washed building.

“Which way are we supposed to go again?” Elsha asks, tugging at my sleeve.

Guess it’ll have to wait. I look at the map open on my phone. “We should be able to reach the visitor’s building this way.”

I glance at the street—strangely devoid of any moving vehicles—and run across, Elsha at my heels. I lead her deeper into the quarter, which strangely has no buildings smaller than five stories. I can’t help but wonder where in the world these people live.

We take a turn down a narrower street, and things get even quieter. Elsha sticks close, one hand gripping my coat. While I might look at home here, with my height and red eyes, she looks like she’s more at home in the lake district, with her baby-blue eyes and tiny stature. Even though she’s the werewolf here and not me. I frown at my map as I pause under a streetlamp. Nothing but tall black buildings with tinted windows surround us.

“This can’t be right,” I say. “We should have reached the visitor’s building by now.”

Across the street, a crowd of vampires coalesce from the darkness, all laughing and talking in loud voices. Shadows shed from their skin like smoke as they take form. Elsha peers around me at the group, mouth open in surprise.

“Wow, that was so cool! I’ve never actually seen a vampire do that before! You think Anton would if I asked?”

I shake my head. “You know, having Anton around right now would be really handy.” I look at the vampires askance. While it’s not that I don’t trust vampires, I can’t be too careful here in a place I don’t know. Especially since there are still some who are known to attack unsuspecting bypassers.

One of the vampires breaks away from the group and walks toward us on platform heels, her long legs clad in white skinny jeans, her transparent floral shirt ruffling in the breeze. Isn’t she a bit underdressed for the weather? She stops before me and studies me with yellow eyes that almost seem to glow against her dark brown skin. For once I feel short as she stands an inch or so over me.

“Are you lost, sweeties?” she asks in a gentle, low-pitched voice.

“Oh, uh, yes?” I say, still not entirely sure if I can trust her. “We’re trying to go to the Eyries. We’re meeting up at my friend’s house and it’s our first time visiting so…yeah, we’re kind of lost. He didn’t exactly give me very clear directions.”

She nods as I speak, not at all bothered by my rambling. Turning, she points back the way we came. “If you’re looking for the visitor’s building, it’s back that way next to the blood market. It’s a little easy to miss since it doesn’t have any signs out front. Want me to walk you there?”

Relief floods through me at the offer. Her expression is so kind and mothering that I melt a little on the inside.

“Yes, please. That would be wonderful.”

The vampire woman leads us back the way we came, then up to the visitor’s building. She pauses on the steps and plants a hand on her hip.

“You tell your friend that next time they want you to visit, they have to walk you here, okay? Those eyrie chicklings are too careless. You girls take care of yourselves now.”

“Thank you!” Elsha and I say as she walks away.

“She’s nice,” Elsha says. “Too bad we couldn’t explore more of the quarter. I really want to go to a move theater or restaurant here. I think that would be awesome.”

“Says the girl who’s been hiding behind me the entire time,” I retort as I push open the door to the visitor’s building.

“Hey, I’m not risking death here. If we got attacked, I’d be in just the right position to use you as a distraction and run. Besides, you’re my older sister, so it’s your job to protect me.” She says all of this with a straight face, though a wicked light gleams in her eye.

“Wow,” I say, pretending to be offended. “You’re real nice, you know that? Maybe I should just leave you behind.”

I lengthen my stride across the room toward the reception desk.

“Hey!” Elsha jogs to catch up, laughing the whole way.

The entire place is set up like a backwards subway station. Elevators stand in neat rows, though half of them aren’t even in use. My guess is they all lead to different floors and different parts of the Eyries. The sheer amount of them, though, leaves me dumbfounded. I’m ready to turn around and call it a day when the receptionist points up to the right elevator.

The entire ride I sit on the floor, the whole thing rattling all the way up. It goes at a speed I never would have imagined an elevator capable of. My stomach and head both agree to never ride in elevators ever again with my lungs right behind them as the air is stolen from my throat. Elsha leans against the wall, staring at the doors as if her piercing gaze will make them open faster.

When we finally get to the Eyries, I can’t help but stop and stare. Buildings hang suspended with catwalks threaded between them, the clouds drifting underneath like an ever-moving blanket of snow. The sun is hot up here, even though the air is cold, and I have to squint in order to see anything. Brilliant peach-colored light gives the place a fantastic hue. The homes are all painted in pastel colors, and the people flying through the air are just as colorful.

I can see why the Eyries is sometimes a tourist spot in the summer. It’s beautiful. And I bet the icari and fairies who live here don’t even realize it.

After standing there gawking like an idiot for several minutes, I will my feet to move, then instantly regret it. The catwalks aren’t too terribly stable, and creak gently in the wind. Elsha clings to me like a cat over a pool of water, fingernails digging into my skin. I look down and see hundreds of feet below between shrouded buildings a street with cars whizzing by under illuminated streetlamps. Everything looks so small it’s like I’m looking at a miniature shadowbox.

A chilling wind buffets the bridge and I grip the railing as it sways, every nerve in my body tingling. Inch by inch we make our way across to the other side, which is just a platform attached to a building. I don’t allow myself to wonder whether this thing is being held up by supports or just magic.

“Hey!”

I look up to see Ryuji strolling toward me on a catwalk to my left. Even as the wind rocks the slats of steel and wood, he continues to move, unperturbed. A loose jacket wraps his frame, the front zipped open to reveal a plain white t-shirt. How dare he flaunt his tolerance to the cold?

“Thought I should probably walk you to my house, since it’s your first time up here. And also as an apology for bailing on you guys like that.”

Elsha peers around my back at him. Her voice trembles along with her shaking body as she speaks. “You know, it’s really nice up here, and I really want to draw everything, but at the same time I absolutely hate it, so you better live nearby.”

Ryuji winces. “Sorry. I don’t.”

I grip the railing tight between my sweaty palms. “Please tell me you have that food ready.”

He grins and holds out his arm to Elsha. She grips him as if she’s already falling, and he wraps one wing around her, shielding her vision. The moment is so adorable it almost makes me forget we’re thousands of feet up in the air.

Ryuji pats her hand. “We not only have curry, but Dad made hot chocolate.”

Elsha looks up at him like she’s his savior. “Hot chocolate?”

“Yup.” Ryuji glances at me. “Don’t worry, it’s faux chocolate, so you guys won’t get sick.”

I haven’t had hot chocolate in years. Just the idea of drinking it brings me a shot of courage. “Well, what are we waiting for? Let’s go!”