Fury to the Stars (Universe in Flames Book 2)
Read Fury to the Stars (Universe in Flames Book 2) Online
Authors: Christian Kallias
UNIVERSE
IN FLAMES
Volume
II
Fury to the Stars
By
Christian Kallias
Copyright
© 2015 by Christian Kallias
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or
used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the
publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
First Printing, 2015
Cover artwork by Christian Kallias
Christian Kallias
[email protected]
www.christiankallias.com
www.facebook.com/ChristianKallias
www.twitter.com/kalliasx
TABLE OF CONTENTS
I
Chase was standing on
the edge of the canyon. The air was warm, brushing his hair and face gently,
enveloping him like a blanket. He felt at peace, relaxed. As light as a
feather, floating on a soft wind. His mind had expanded beyond his body as he
took in the magnificent view of the russet canyons and the burning night sky
above. The three moons were almost perfectly aligned with the giant, ringed
planet suspended in the distance.
As he gazed out at the abyss, he felt the steady
rise and fall of his chest. His breath came slowly and purposefully. His mind
was empty, filled with nothing but the flawless view and his own steady pulse.
It was in this state of perfect balance, as the rest of the universe seemed to
fall away, that he felt her coming back to him.
Sarah. His beloved.
His heart warmed with the very thought. She appeared
just as he remembered. Her brilliant, crimson hair flowing in the wind, eyes
shining with the light of the moons. She looked like magic. Like endless
possibility. Like a future he desired above anything else.
Time seemed to suspend as he passed his fingers
slowly through her rippling hair. At first, she’d been lost in the view, but at
his touch, she turned to him with a radiant smile.
His heart began to hammer in his chest, growing
stronger with each pulse as he gazed in loving admiration at her celestial
body. Stronger and stronger it grew, swelling his chest with the weight of his
emotions.
But then, all at once, it was too strong.
Chase clutched at his chest as the rhythmic beats
sharpened to excruciating pain. His breath caught in his throat and he reached
out automatically to Sarah for help.
But Sarah was no longer there.
Her body remained frozen painfully in place against
the beautiful horizon, but it was not the Sarah that Chase knew and loved.
Her sallow skin was tinted deathly gray and her
beautiful green eyes had filled with the darkest black. It was like looking
into a void.
All that remained was a shadow, a mere echo of what
used to be. Chase’s eyes grew wide with fright and dread as he began to feel
that hopeful future fading away.
Then, all at once, the pain and pounding in his
chest subsided. Had his heart just stopped?! He stared at Sarah in a blind
panic, unable to understand what was going on.
“Sarah!” he cried. “What’s happening?!”
She turned her head with a strange, jerking motion
that was not entirely human. The bone-cracking echo that followed made Chase’s
blood run cold. He longed to stop her. To stop her before there was nothing
left to save, but she continued turning towards him, shattering what sounded
like every bone in her body. She opened her mouth, as if to scream, but
instead, a bright red light shot out of it, blinding Chase and burning his
face.
“Why, Chase?” she asked in a voice like Sarah’s, but
deeper. “Why did you do this to me?”
Chase shook his head in horror. “What did I do?”
As if to answer, she drifted off the ledge and
levitated in the air in front of him. He tried desperately to get to her, but
she was just out of reach. Her body started shivering, each motion crushing
another bone, each one sending cold shivers down Chase’s spine.
Something was about to end here. Something was going
very wrong.
Then, without warning, she threw back her head with
the most earth-shattering, heart-wrenching screech Chase had ever heard. It
sounded as if it was coming from the very depths of hell. Her body began
bleeding the red light—it exploded out of the cracks in her ashen skin before
Chase’s eyes—ripping her to pieces until suddenly…
All that was left of his beautiful Sarah was gone.
As he fell to his knees, Chase heard another scream,
this one decidedly animal. It hardly seemed possible that the sound could have
come from him, but his throat burned as if the noise had dug its claws in
before it was ripped out into the air. Tears streamed down his face, smearing
the lingering ashes that clung to his cheeks, and he curled his fingers into
fists so hard they made his hands bleed.
There was no controlling this rage. No caging the
fury that ran coursing through his veins. Teeth grinding and eyes closed, he
screamed out for release, unleashing the full power of that unimaginable rage
on the heavens above.
Canyons exploded, water rushed into the air. The
ground started shaking and breaking apart beneath him. The three moons exploded
in quick succession while the giant, ringed planet cracked in two before
shattering to dust.
I need to control this
, he thought
desperately.
I need to make it stop!
But he had lost all control over what was left of
his mind. It was pure darkness now. Pure hate. He could feel his own personal
hell overtake him.
Until suddenly, he thought of her again.
With every bit of energy he had left, he conjured an
image of Sarah in his mind. A frozen picture from happier times back on Earth.
Times when her eyes were green, not black, and the radiant sun caught in her
hair.
The blackness in his mind began to recede, little by
little. His consciousness returned to him as the hate and anger dissipated
slowly away. When he felt he could stand it, he dared to open his eyes.
What he saw made no sense to him.
There was simply nothing left. The ground he was
standing on had vanished. As had the rest of the planet and its three moons. He
was floating in space. Drifting helplessly amongst a sea of shards from the
planet he’d destroyed and faceless bodies that looked like shadows.
What—just happened?
Chase looked around in horror as an overwhelming
feeling of dread settled in the pit of his stomach.
Had he done this? Had he just destroyed an entire
solar system? It wasn’t possible…
Tiny, weightless tears poured from his eyes before
losing themselves amongst the debris in the blackness of space.
This can’t be happening. It can’t
be happening.
He repeated the silent mantra again and again.
I couldn’t have done this. And
Sarah has to be alive. She can’t just be gone…
One of the tears landed upon what looked like a tiny
hand made out of glass. Upon impact, the hand began to solidify before Chase’s
very eyes—hardening and coloring itself until he was staring into the grave
face of Aphroditis.
Chase stared at her in horror, fighting the urge to
hide his face. He didn’t want to ask, but he had to. He had to know. “Did I do
this?”
Her sad eyes looked back at him with pity. “Such is
the power of the Fury, Chase. Without control, it can destroy everything in its
path.”
Chase’s eyes flickered wildly around, resting on the
debris of the shattered planet. “But
this
? I didn’t mean to do any of
this.”
“Of course you didn’t,” she said kindly. “But the
loss of your beloved sent you into an uncontrollable spiral of hate and
rage—unleashing the Fury inside you.”
Chase covered his mouth with his hands, unable to
reconcile the terrible guilt ripping his heart in two. All those people… All
those worlds…
Dead. Because of him.
“You must learn to control your powers,” Aphroditis
cautioned, “or there will be casualties your soul will not be able to bear.”
“I… I already can’t. How could I have done this?”
Then she gave him a small smile. “Fear not, Chase.
This isn’t real.”
It was like someone had popped the molten balloon
growing in his chest. He covered his face and exhaled slowly. “This is a
vision?”
“Yes, and an important one. One that shows what can
happen if you lose control.”
Chase’s mind flashed back to the battle. “Like I did
on the ship?”
“Yes.” She inclined her head. “On the ship you were
able to control your powers by sheer instinct, but we may not be so lucky next
time around.”
“Well, what can I do?” Chase cried in desperation.
“I didn’t ask for this! I don’t want these powers! They’re a curse!”
“No, Chase,” she answered quickly. “They’re not a
curse, but a gift. In you lies the key to saving the universe from the forces
that seek to destroy it.”
Chase’s mind struggled to keep up. “Obsidian?”
“The Obsidian Empire is but a pawn. There is another
threat out there, a far more dangerous one…”
“But—”
She held up her hand. “All in good time, Chase.”
He bit his lip. “Can you at least tell me if Sarah
is alive?”
Aphroditis smiled. “She is alive. At least for now.
But you need to wake up, Chase. And please, try to keep yourself calm.”
Chase frowned. “Why would I need to—”
Before he could finish, the stars blurred to lines
and he was sucked into space at a speed faster than hyperspace. He struggled to
keep breathing as the sky around him faded to black. A few seconds later, the
force of a tremendous impact knocked him awake.
His vision was blurry as he blinked several times,
trying to open his eyes. A muffled buzz blasted with familiar regularity, and
he shook his head slowly as he tried to place the sound. All at once, it
clicked. He was back on board the
Destiny
, and the buzzing he was
hearing was a red alert. Pulling himself up, he looked around his quarters in
shock.
Now what had happened here?!
It looked like someone had taken a wrecking ball to
the place. Every bit of furniture was smashed. Everything Chase owned was in a
splintered heap on the cracked floor. Even the walls were dented in.
“Holy shit,” he murmured as he looked around.
Then the doors opened and Daniel ran inside with
weapon drawn. He stared around at the demolished room in utter shock before his
eyes fell on Chase, standing in the middle.
“What the hell?”
Chase felt all the color drain from his face. “I… I
think I did this.”
Daniel shook his head with a frown. “What? Chase,
no. How is that even possible?”
Chase took a trembling step backwards. The room
around him started spinning and he began to feel sick. “I… I—”
The last thing he remembered was the ground coming
up to meet him and the distant echo of his friend calling for a medical
emergency…