Prism (Awakened Chronicles Book 3)

by Harley Austin

  * * * * *

  Plumes of steam had been rising from the once dormant volcanic mountain glacier for days, attracting the attention of scientists and the media who’d been buzzing the frozen region in helicopters and observation planes. But no one expected to catch on their cameras what was happening now.

  The mountain exploded and blasted skyward in a powerful eruption that sent incalculable tons of rock, ash, ice and yellow-hot lava spraying into the frozen air. But in the chaos of the eruption, no one notice three tiny human forms that had been sent rocketing into the air as well.

  Parker groaned after hitting the glacier like crystalline meteor, trailing smoke and half covered in cooling black rock. He wasn’t hurt, but Jesus he’d hit hard, leaving a sizable crater in the ice and snow. The outside of his armor glowed pink as it cooled in boiling water and pluming steam on the frigid glacier. He rolled to his knees to see Wynn and Brayden strike the ice not too far from him. He quickly scrambled to where each had landed, helping one up to his feet and then the other. Now all of them watched the mountain belch huge clouds of steam, ash, fire and rock as glowing hot lava shot, splashed and oozed like thick water down the side.

  “God what a mess,” Parker looked in awe as the power of the Earth took hold to cleanse what had once lain miles below the surface.

  “Yea, let’s not do that again.” Brayden felt the ground continue to tremble as another powerful blast ripped open a new section of the mountain.

  “God I hope that thing doesn’t just keep erupting.” Wynn looked nervous. “That anchor was deep.”

  “I’m sure it will for a while,” Parker frowned.

  “One thing’s for sure, that mountain’s going to get a lot bigger by the time this is all done.” Brayden pointed at already cooling spires of rock in the frigid Yukon.

  “It looked like they all go out safe.” Parker watched the new lava slide down the mountain half obscuring it in steam as it melted the glacier beneath it.

  “We need to find them,” Wynn took hold of each of their arms.

  Both Brayden and Parker could sense his feelings for Cierra had always been strong; and they were no less now.

  “She’ll be fine, Dade. We’ll find her,” Brayden assured.

  Parker smiled and nodded but hid his thoughts from the both of them. She wasn’t just gone. They’d all ended up someplace none of them had any idea how to get back to. He had his reservations about whether or not any of them would see their friends ever again.

  Epilogue

  B rayden spooned tight behind a heated Carissa under white satin sheets, kissing her back, her skin aglow in perspiration as she called out into Parker’s open mouth again. Parker had filled her with his long thick hardness, his wide pecs slipping wet against her pert slick breasts while pulling her snug against his skin. All of them were half soaked from the waist down in the feral scent of an overheated late morning sex when the door of their bedroom opened.

  “Why, am I not, surprised—?” Denton stood in the doorway of their room, emphasizing every word.

  “You know what it means to knock?” Carissa kissed Parker while her other hand reached around to grip Brayden’s ass.

  “I did knock. You didn’t answer.”

  “There’s a reason—”

  “You’ve been married now for,” Denton looked at his watch, “twenty-two hours and eight minutes. Give it a rest. You have other family that would like to see you and your husbands before they have to leave. Preferably with your clothes on.”

  Denton left closing the door.

  Carissa rolled to her back with both guys to either side of her smoothing their hands over her wet tummy and chest.

  “Does your brother always walk in on you unannounced?” Parker asked.

  She nodded. “He’s always been gifted at it.” She sighed, writhing her body slightly, feeling the two guys smoothing their hands over her skin.

  “You know you just fucked a princess?” Brayden smirked at Parker.

  “You were fucking the princess before I was. You two woke me up.”

  “Are we allowed to fuck the princess?”

  Carissa wrapped her arms around both men and giggled softly. Both guys wrapped a leg around each of her thighs, snuggling their thick muscles around her. “You’re both princes now. Of course, it expected.”

  “I can’t believe I’m actually married,” Brayden grinned handsomely at Parker. “To a prince, no less.”

  “And a princess.” Parker leaned in and kissed Brayden over the top of her.

  She loved watching the two of them kiss. “Awe, you guys are sweet. But Denton’s right. We should probably get up,” she sighed. “We knew it would be a short honeymoon.”

  “Are we really going to see Admiral Dark today?” Parker slipped from their sheets, both of his muscular thighs ridiculously wet from both his own and Bray’s seed. He watched as Brayden and Carissa left the bed on the other side.

  “Denton wants to introduce you to him. But I have to tell you guys, when the Admiral finds out about the two of you, he’s not going to just allow you run around unchecked like you have been. He’ll want you to join the Corps. You both need to be trained.”

  All of them began heading for the large suite’s bathroom and spacious shower.

  “Dade said the same thing.” Brayden looked at Parker. “Looks like your accountant just had a change of careers, Winter.”

  “I knew it was coming. I’ll transition the company to Jeff over the next couple of weeks. He’s practically running things already.”

  They entered the shower, the hot steamy water felt nice.

  “Is Denton any closer to knowing anything about Brooke?” Brayden asked, soaping her back.

  Admiral Dark thinks she’s part of the prophecies somehow. He has Denton looking for how this Lyris even got here.”

  “We told you—it had to be another anchor. Somewhere.” Parker moved a bar of soap over his skin.

  “Then we need to find it and lock it down. It’s a backdoor to Aden. We can’t have them possibly being used by someone who doesn’t like us.”

  Lisa looked into the mists watching the three with Noah and Brenda beside her.

  “You deliberately altered the waypoint.” Lisa looked at Brenda, confusion moving over her face.

  The ancient one half smiled. “So I did.”

  “Why? Wynn should have been killed at the camp and Parker was never supposed to see any of the Dark—ever again. You’ve altered time. The prophecies will be—”

  “Accurate now.”

  “But why?” Noah looked puzzled. “You’ve opened the floodgates; plunged the whole Earth into war. Now billions will die.”

  “They will—” she agreed, “and their blood will save the Universe—from extinction.”

  About Prism

  Prism started life as a book I intended for the ephemeral “Unbelievable Romances Series” that has never gotten off the ground. The book was to be my version of a Hallmark Christmas story with fun people meeting in a happily ever after kind of story. In fact, that was the working title of the book, “Christmas”.

  But that’s not where the story took me.

  Not even close.

  Within Harley Austin, as within every author, there are a plethora of stories clawing to get out and be told. As the story began to take shape, a kind of new story began to emerge within the pages of “Christmas”; and the further I progressed, letting the characters and people tell their story, the more I realized what was being written was really more backstory to my Awakened Series. I moved the book to the Awakened Chronicles Series and kept writing.

  What eventually arose from the beginnings of my Christmas novella was a deep and powerful back story, and a foreshadowing of things to come within the main Awakened milieu that I was not expecting.

  To me, this is the fun of writing. In many ways, I’m just like you are reading a Harley Austin novel—I never really know what’s going to be in a book until I read what I’ve just written. I kno
w this doesn’t make sense to a lot of authors who need to know the whole story and have it all planned out beginning to end before they even begin writing the first page.

  That kind of writing would give me hives.

  Let the story tell itself.

  I was surprised and delighted by the story that ultimately emerged as Prism. Not only did Prism become the third book in the Awakened Chronicles Series, but it spawned the following books of Travada, which led to Primal, which dove-tailed into and already planned Atlantica and then Oblivion which I had already written but didn’t know where it would play out within the Chronicles series.

  But everything just fell into place like clockwork, like I had planned the whole series, beginning to end, from the outset.

  I assure you I did not; and I was just as delighted and surprised by these stories in how everything just came together.

  In many ways, I feel very blessed to be able to write the way I do and share my stories with all of you. Thank you so much for reading.

  ~ Harley

  Acknowledgements

  Very few, if any, authors are successful on their own. Harley Austin is no exception. There are always a handful of people behind the scenes who are responsible for taking a good idea and making it into a great one! I would like to acknowledge the people who make a Harley Austin story great!

  Donna, of Beaux Arts Design, has been my editor from the very beginning. Not only is Donna a skilled and tireless editor but she is also a talented graphic designer who has designed a number of my covers.

  It is because of Donna that the stories within my books can come alive with greater detail and less repetition. Donna does all of the things a really great editor is supposed to do—everything but write the story.

  Although, we do butt heads now and then over content. Donna prefers less sexy scenes in the story while I prefer more detail. We often compromise to keep the reader focused and the story moving.

  Harley Austin is a much, much better writer today because of Donna’s coaching.

  The hours a writer puts into their stories are often long and solitary, where I will sit at my Mac and crank out chapter after chapter at ungodly hours while my family is still sleeping or away doing something without me. Such is the sacrifice of a writer. My kids and wife will tell you that I spend way too much time investing in my stories than I do with them. Guilty as charged. As such, I need to offer my thanks to my family for putting up with me and my writing psychosis. Without their support there would be no books and no Harley Austin; but there would probably be a much happier family. Such is the life of a writer.

  Finally, every author also needs a healthy dose of encouragement. This usually comes from an author’s readers. Often, these are a handful of people, sometimes just one or two, who are devoted fans. In the case of Harley Austin, my number one fan, and the source of my deepest encouragement, is my brother, Chris.

  Chris isn’t just a fan, he’s also a great critic. A voracious reader of all things sci-fi and fantasy, Chris is a rabid fan of my stories, and the reason why I know my work will eventually become mainstream all over the world. Chris has read the Awakened Series and Chronicles, every book, cover to cover, not just once, but several times. And not because he has to. I know Chris wouldn’t read them even once if they weren’t thoroughly entertaining and deeply intriguing. He says he discovers more and more about the people within the stories, things he either didn’t remember or somehow passed over.

  Make no mistake, my brother is a tough critic. So what Chris’ behavior tells me is that I have hit pretty close to the mark of having a bestselling book series. He talks to me about the people he’s read in my stories and he wants to read more about them. He tells me what I did wrong, what I did right and what could have been further developed.

  The bottom line is that when you get your toughest critic to actually care about the people in your stories, you have achieved what I think few authors today do. Which is actually care about what happens to the people within the story.

  Without Chris’ encouragement as my biggest fan, I doubt I would have the same level of motivation to keep writing.

  About the author

  Born and raised in the beautiful Pacific Northwest, I’ve spent most of my life writing. I am, at heart, merely a storyteller. As early as I can remember I have loved stories and loved telling them in my own inimitable way.

  Through my teens and twenties, I captivated groups of friends by weaving their role-play characters into fabulous, immersive scenarios filled with intrigue and emotion. The games were more than just rolling dice, commanding starships and slaying dragons. Our weekends together became deeply personal surrealisms.

  While those games have now become fond distant memories, the child within who created them lives on, more imaginative than ever.

  Escape from Prism

  As a hot-shot Seattle tech recruiter, Winter Parker has it all—the posh office, handsome looks, a killer body, money, and the envy of his peers. But his idyllic life is about to come crashing down in flames.

  Arrested by Canadian authorities and sent to a remote detention facility beneath the icy Yukon, Parker finds himself surrounded by a tiny handful of others; young people whose only crime was being born—with illegal genetics.

  Breaking free of their captors, the newblood fugitives discover the only way out, is down. Forced ever deeper underground, they find themselves in a mysterious subterranean world of unimaginable crystalline beauty and wonder.

  Genetically attracted and with feelings of jealously flaring, the often-scrappy friends soon find that they must draw closer together for their own survival. But closeness within tiny group leads them to discover not everyone is who they appear to be.

  Still fugitive and with UN paramilitary in hot pursuit, time is running out. Which ones will survive, and which ones will get left behind? And is there really only one way out as they attempt to escape from—Prism?