Prism (Awakened Chronicles Book 3)

by Harley Austin

  “Did you ever try to read those feeling anyway?” Wynn asked.

  Parker shook his head. “I didn’t want to violate the woman; if she wants to tell us something, I’ll just let her tell us, in her own time.”

  “I think my point is that these prism forests, aren’t indigenous to Earth. Just like she’s not.”

  Wynn’s fingers went to his chin in thought. “So these Yin brought in their anchor and the forest kind of grew up around it, like it polluted the cavern.”

  “You’re thinking like a human again,” Brayden razzed. “As advanced as these Yin appear to be, this forest isn’t the result of pollution, it’s intentional.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “What if the forest actually came first?” Brayden asked.

  “That’s interesting,” Parker agreed.

  “Instead of the forest being a byproduct of the tower, it seems to me the forest was used to build the anchor. The Yin seeded this world with their prisms and then over time they built the anchor into this world.”

  “I get it,” Wynn understood. “Like they wanted the tower to be part of the world it was inserted into.”

  “Exactly!” Brayden concurred. “Wherever Lear’s from it was obvious she wasn’t used to our world’s particular brand of crystals. They seemed to be quite a bit more potent than whatever she was used to.”

  “Tell me about it. I just about cooked my hand when she asked me to start touching the fire ones to the igniters.”

  “And she was using the igniter shards very sparingly building our makeshift landmines.”

  “So, Bray, what does that say about our tower here?” Parker nodded at the spire in the distance.

  “I don’t know, because I don’t know enough about their technology, but my guess would be, if this anchor can connect to another point a whole galaxy away, then maybe there’s something about this world of ours that delivers a major punch to their knowledge. Like maybe the Earth seriously amplifies their prisms somehow.”

  “Or Earth crystals are just that much more potent.”

  “Or both,” Wynn offered.

  “Well, one thing is for sure,” Parker stood up from sitting on the branch of their tree, “There’s more than one of these anchors on our world. This one goes nowhere and Lear got here somehow.”

  “We need to find some of these other anchors.” Brayden stood now as well.

  “I don’t think that will be too hard, gentlemen,” Wynn offered. “The gods can move between two places in an instant of time.”

  “They teleport?” Brayden’s crystalline brow lifted.

  Wynn nodded. “Like it’s nothing to them. If the Ra gods can do it, then I’m willing to bet the Yin could as well. These towers, wherever they are on Earth, are probably all connected.”

  Parker agreed. “The minute we get back to the tower, we need to ask it where the others are—”

  “And get the hell out of here?” Brayden asked.

  Parker nodded. “The sooner the better.”

  * * * * *

  “This is all your fault, Bryn,” Kevin glared at his younger sister. “If you’d have just kept quiet none of this would ever have happened.”

  “Quiet—” one of the guards ordered.

  “It was not! You should have run. You were the coward, not me!”

  Kevin turned red-faced and angry. He backhanded his sister but good leaving a huge red welt on her face. Bryn’s eyes flared as she lunged at him, dropping him to the sand; her goddess strength more that a match for his halfblood blows as the two of them rolled, punched, scraped, clawed and pummeled in the sand. It took several of the guards to pull the two of them apart and a golden barrel pressed against Kevin’s nose to let him know that another unwelcomed muscle moved would leave him with very little of his, bruised, bleeding but otherwise handsome face intact. He calmed, still breathing hard from the scuffle. “Bitch!” he spat blood onto the ground. Jesus the girl could punch now. He was pretty sure she’d broken a couple of his ribs in the scuffle.

  “One more outburst like that we won’t wait for an order to start shooting. GOT IT?!” the guard glowered.

  “Yea.” Kevin pursed his lips.

  “I didn’t hear you,” he glared at Bryn.

  “Fine.” She was still glaring at her brother.

  “Good God. Who raises you kids these days?” the older guard shook his head while continuing to move them through the camp.

  Back in the tent Bryn moved closely up to Jan so he could examine the near non-existent wounds still on her face from Kevin’s blows, her hand casually slipping into the front of his pants between his thighs. She felt the length of crystal now in her grip.

  “Oh! This is a lot bigger than I thought.” All of them now heard her feelings within their own.

  “I’m going to pretend you didn’t just say that,” Jan mused back to her as she shared his feelings with the rest of them.

  “I got a long one too, Bryn,” Kieran assured, moving close to both she and Jan. He slipped the wide length of golden stone from his neon orange pants and stealthfully into hers. “I just never thought I’d be slipping it into your pants.” He smirked.

  “Oh, Saint Michael smite you both,” Kevin half glared at his younger brothers. “You’re talking about our sister, for God’s sakes.”

  “It’s only joking, Kevin. She is a goddess now after all. When was the last time you had your hands in the pants of goddess?”

  “Oh!” he fumed. “I’m not talking to either of you.”

  “You should talk, striking a lady, your own sister in fact.”

  “Did I hurt you, Bryn? I’m sorry, but we needed to make it look real.”

  “No worries, Kevin. I expected it. It was real enough. But I’m more concerned about you—I don’t know my own strength yet. I heard something crack. Has it healed yet?”

  “Not quite. But it will. It was a good scrap, Bryn. I think it fooled them.”

  “So now what do we do?” Jan asked. “They’re fetching mom and dad and when—”

  All of them heard shots and then blasts like small munitions exploding. Several hot blasts tore through the canvas sides of their tent, narrowly missing the four of them who’d quickly dropped to the ground as more shots blazed through their tent.

  Suddenly the back of their tent split as a crystalline guardian roughly the size and shape of Parker entered. “Bryn!” An ionic plasma bolt ricocheted off Parker’s head and up through the top of the tent.

  “Winter!”

  Two more crystal guardians now entered from the new ripped hole.

  “Dade! Bray!”

  “Time to leave, people,” Wynn announced.

  “It’s a hornet’s nest out there,” Kevin exclaimed in alarm, still prone on the floor as two more bolts rocketed through the tent.

  “We’ll surround you,” Brayden assured.

  “There’s only three of you, and four of us,” Jan warned. “It’s suicide.”

  “You’re right,” Parker responded. He didn’t like the situation, but they’d been spotted somehow. “It is suicide, if you stay here. At least with us all of you have a chance at getting back to the tower.”

  Kevin jumped up along with Bryn. She drew the two long golden crystals from her tights. “I’ll try to protect us as well. Somehow.”

  “You don’t need to know how,” Brayden stated. “The crystal just amplifies your will, at least that’s what the armor seems to do. Don’t think; just do it.”

  Bryn nodded and extended the long crystals in each hand. Something shimmered around all of the siblings now. It wasn’t crystalline, but the next shot the flashed through the tent struck her in the back. The bolt raced around her torso, around one arm and rocketed off the end of one of the crystals through the top of the tent.

  “Yow.” Parker looked at her, her eyes shimmering. “Make sure you watch where you point those things.”

  “Commander, the prisoners have moved out of the confinement area.”

  “HOW
?! There’s an ion barrier, they’d have been killed!”

  “The crystal soldiers we spotted, they were unaffected by the barrier. Our weapons are useless against them. They’re heading for the citadel.”

  “Useless my ass. Train the cannons on the tower, Lieutenant. It’s made of the same stuff everything else is around here. Bring the damn thing down!”

  63

  S omething shook the tower, like a rumble of thunder that reverberated through the crystal floor beneath their feet.

  “What was that?” Romero looked at Brooke and Tyler in their home alcove.

  The guys in their crystalline armor and the siblings protected by Bryn’s will amplified by her dual metallic wands watched in sudden horror as artillery boomed and projectiles struck the outer walls of the citadel sending massive shards of the side of the tower’s walls splintering down into the abyss.

  “Tyler and the girls are in there!” Parker picked up his pace with the rest of them. He could have run faster, but ion blasts were exploding all around them and the halfbloods although fast, were slowing them down.

  More volleys of the heavy artillery rang out, chipping away at the massive thick walls of the citadel.

  “What’s happening?” Romero looked at Tyler who was quickly focusing their image wall on the huge guns blasting away at their tower.

  “They’re shooting at the anchor.”

  “NO!” Brooke stretched out her hand as she watched huge fissures begin to open in the wall of the tower as parts of the great crystals broke away revealing the interior. “They’re killing it!”

  “What are we going to do?” Romero felt powerless. There are dozens of those things! We’re just three people!”

  “We need to get out,” Tyler backed away from the screen watching it begin to crack. “Now!”

  “They’ll capture us.” Romero warned. “It’s what they’re trying to do. Scare us to come out.”

  “Then we’re doomed.” Lear turned with the rest to make their way out.

  “You guys give up way too easy.”

  “SCOTT?” they all looked astonished.

  “I locked you out,” Tyler’s brow lifted.

  “Yea, well it doesn’t work when Stiles is filling the place full of holes. You need to get out of here before the whole place comes crashing down.”

  “Sure. Just so they can take us prisoner again.”

  “You’re rather die?” Scott moved into the alcove room feeling the place shake and rock with heavier volleys.

  “No,” Lear countered. “Help us get out.”

  “There’s only one way out of here and it’s not going to be a fun ride.”

  “You’re talking about the portal. It doesn’t go anywhere, we’ll die.” Lear warned.

  “Not armored up you won’t.”

  All of them watched as Scott’s clothes shimmered away and Human-sized crystalline armor grew up and surrounded him.

  Parker watched as a huge section of the citadel’s outer wall gave way, revealing the magnificent central light that lit within its core. Holding onto the siblings, the guys rocketed across the abyss showered in ionic bolt fire and huge solid rounds still shattering the crystal wall. Massive cracks were already shooting up the sides of the tower reaching to the very top of the citadel.

  Suited up in crystal armor, Scott, Tyler, Romero and Lear moved quickly across the massive bridge toward the star-field portal. Massive chunks of crystal were now falling from the ceiling, smashing against the bridges and cracking them while shards splintered everywhere. Then a massive rumble below them shook the entire tower to its very core.

  “What the hell was that?” the lead agent felt the huge tremor that rattled the forest trees and crystalline foliage all around them.

  “Earthquake—” the Lieutenant looked at his commander.

  Both were now looking at huge plumes of hot steam and scalding waters shooting out of the abyss like geysers.

  “We need to evac, Commander. Now!” the Lieutenant shouted.

  Another much more violent quake rocked the ground beneath their feet; shattering some of the crystalline foliage around them and sending them off balance.

  The commander scowled at his second in command, realizing too late what his actions had caused. “You won’t make it.”

  The Lieutenant glared at the commander and then ran with the rest of the men as the Earth rumbled and quaked beneath their feet. Massive boulders fell from the cavern ceiling crushing crystalline tress, shattering them to bits as the commander walked casually to the edge of the shore. He lit a thin cigar, drawing in the aroma while watching the massive tower shatter and begin to sink down under its own weight.

  “Fuck you, Parker. I’m taking all of you down with me.” He blew the thick smoke from his nostrils with a giddied grin of a man knowing he was about to die. “I’ll see you in hell.”

  The guys and the siblings rocketed to the terrace where their home alcove was, but no one was there.

  “Bryn, see if you can armor up like we are, and your brothers,” Wynn ordered. “Parker, Brayden, split up. We’ll meet at the top. They couldn’t have gotten far.”

  Like blurs of light, the three gods were suddenly streaking out of the room. All of the O’Briens were shimmering as their clothes vanished and crystal began to form quickly over their skin. Halfway around all of their legs and arms and parts of their back, it stopped growing, holding them within it’s grip as if they’d been half encased naked in crystalline rock.

  “What’s happening?” Kevin looked around at all of them. None of them could move.

  “The anchor,” Lear could feel it. “It’s dying!”

  “Not yet—” Bryn muttered under her breath. “No. Not. Yet!” She drove the golden crystals to the floor of the citadel, her eyes blazing until her skin itself took on its own luminescence. She could feel the tower’s intellect as she fed what tiny ability she had to it. The sentience of the tower returned her kind gesture, giving her its strength—a final parting gift.

  Bryn suddenly exploded in a blaze of brilliance too bright for any of them to look at. Their crystalline suits rapidly completed, encasing all of them in protective crystalline shells. Running for the terrace, all of them lifted into the air under Bryn’s telekinetic will racing for the bridges, one of which had already crumbled under the weight of falling crystal shards the size of buildings.

  Rocketing to the top, all of them lit onto a bridge as plumes of steam rushed past them with quickly rising glowing magma below. She didn’t wait. She pulled all of them through the portal into the darkness just as it winked out of existence.

  Parker, Wynn and Brayden stood on the far edge of the terrace where the bridge once was. They’d all felt them enter the portal that was suddenly now no more. The gateway to another place had closed—forever. The presence of the tower’s intellect was also no more. They moved to the edge of the topmost terrace as splashes of hot lava raced past them striking the ceiling above.

  They had only moments now—to live. Each locked arms, taking hold of the other as their terrace cracked beneath them.

  Brayden met eyes and feelings with Parker. “I love you, Winter.”

  Parker returned his gaze and his feelings. “I love you, too Bray.”

  “You’re a helluva god, Parker,” Wynn offered.

  “You too, Dade.” He replied, just before a massive stream of red-hot magma engulfed them all.

  64

  L ear, Tyler, North, Romero, and O’Brien and her brothers floated weightless in the dead of space. All watched a safe distance away in a kind of dumbfounded horror as hot lava continued to erupt forcefully, shooting and then splashing, and finally cooling to form a small but growing asteroid that was once a mystical portal leading to a place called home, a galaxy away. Bryn still had hold of her golden wands, and unlike the others, her armor alone shimmered with a new brightness she did not understand.

  “Now what do we do?” Kevin looked at his sister and brothers. “Mom and dad were in that
camp.”

  Sadness filled the siblings as they gathered together, each holding on to each other in their crystalline suits, armored and protected from the harsh vacuum of space, but not the grief that slowly rose now with all of them.

  Romero moved up beside Tyler, propelled by something within her armor she would likely never understand the magic of. Lear moved beside the two of them as well, just watching what was left of their family, and feeling them bond even more closely than they ever had before.

  “The guys—do you think they made it?” Tyler asked.

  Romero shook her head. “No way to know.”

  Only Scott floated by himself. He felt sorry for them. Sorry that they’d gotten caught up in all of this mess. But now all of that was behind them. They were marooned. And in the worst possible way; not just on some deserted island; that would have been fine. No. This was fucking Andromeda. The whole galactic disk was crawling with Ra—most of whom hated the Yin. For now they were protected by their crystalline armor, but he had no idea what enabled the suits, what powered them, or even how they worked, especially away from the anchor. They needed to find shelter, a world, and the sooner the better; before whatever battery was keeping the things animated decided to conk out.

  For long minutes on end they all waited and grieved just watching the new asteroid continue to erupt and grow.

  Scott moved up to all of them. “We can’t stay here,” he nodded toward the biggest brightest thing in their space. “We need to go. Now.”

  All of them nodded.

  “Travada will be dangerous for us, Scott,” Lear warned. “You know that.”

  “Yea.” He agreed. “But it’s the only way back home.”