Jonas Flash Chronicles: Fire and Ash
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About this ebook
A volcanic wasteland. Riverfiends oozing flesh-burning acid. A trapped girl and one determined brother.
Things aren’t getting better for Jonas at home. His parents are still separated and his mom wants to keep Emma in day care. Jonas will do anything to get her out, including giving up his summer break so he can take care of her. But will it be enough to convince his parents?
Faced with uncertainty, Jonas plunges into his fantasy world where Emma must resist the mind tricks of madman shaman, Demir, while he fights his way across treacherous lands to face the greatest foe of the four kingdoms to rescue her. Shocking truths are discovered as past weaves with present to challenge the siblings more than ever before.
In this second book of the Jonas Flash Chronicles, reality and fantasy combine in an epic adventure of action, suspense, mystery and loyalty that will leave readers breathless.
Heather Choate
Heather Choate was born in Littleton, Colorado. She now lives in a small town in Southern Colorado on a farm with her husband and five children. She chases chickens, declares war on the weeds in her garden and enjoys quietly people-watching. Most of her time is spent daydreaming of worlds and people that don’t actually exist, but reflect the beauty and complicity of humanity. Writing is her escape from diaper changes and runny noses but motherhood is the greatest journey and joy of her life. Works by Heather Choate: “SKYWREN” children's chapter book series “META BLACKWING” young adult fiction "Frayed Crossing" adult fiction coming 2013 Visit www.heatherchoate.com
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Book preview
Jonas Flash Chronicles - Heather Choate
Jonas Flash Chronicles
Book Two
Fire and Ash
HEATHER CHOATE
Smashwords edition
Copyright © 2015 by HEATHER CHOATE
Jonas Flash Chronicles
Book Two: Fire and Ash
Copyright 2015 by Heather Choate
Published by Akela Publishing
Illustrations by Amy Choate
Cover Art by Aaron Hover
www.mountainsofstrength.com
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in any retrieval system or transmitted, in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recorded, photocopied, or otherwise, without prior written permission of the copyright owner.
This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious and are a product of the author’s imagination. Any similarity to persons living or dead is coincidental and not intended by the author.
For my son, Joseph, who knows how to crack a smile at just the right moment.
Contents
Map of Four Kingdoms
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Preview of Jonas Flash Chronicles Book Three
Acknowledgements
About the Author
Map of Four Kingdoms
Chapter One
A Useful Gift
At times, it seems like my story world is more real than this one. Mom’s been asking why I seem distracted, why I always carry my blue notebook. She doesn’t understand. Only Emma does. Emma’s the only one who knows, anyway, and I guess that’s the way I like it. It’s our place—just for us. We can be anything we want to be, do anything we want to do. We’re not held back by physical limitations or any of the other crap that goes on. Bad things still happen, but we’re not helpless. I guess that’s the point.
Sweat dripped down Jonas’s face like rain. He tried to still his frantic breathing, but it came in short, desperate gasps. Adrenaline coursed through him, lighting the furnace of sharism in the pit of his stomach. The elements seemed to take hold of him, changing his senses, heightening his awareness. He clearly heard Kyla’s frenzied steps as she ran toward the boulder he had his back to. Her breath came out in a soft whoosh-whoosh as she ran. Jonas could hear the slabs of wet flesh coming after her, slapping against the ground, the squish of gooey skin under pressure, the tap-tap-tap of curled claws, the screech of inhuman vocal cords.
The hilt of Jonas’s sword was cool and heavy in his hands, a reassuring weight. He held his swing, elbows bent and muscles flexed. Kyla ran past him in a whirl of wild blonde hair, her scent—sweat and sun-warmed skin—washing over him in a wave. Grunting. Claws clattering as they slid round the corner. The stink of pond muck and matted hair. The riverfiends were known to live in boggy caves beneath the arid Simmerland crust.
One. Two. Now!
Jonas tapped into the cold, metal energy within him as lifted his sword and unleashed a full torrent of sharism with his swing. The blade glowed white as it sang through the air. Jonas’s lip curled as his body twisted. He opened his mouth in a wordless shout and a burst of energy shot forth.
The sword sliced into the riverfiend’s mushy chest, sending a spray of its acidic blood flying. The creature opened its mouth to scream just the wave of energy hit it right in the face, exploding its head like a smashed pumpkin. Bits of flesh and goo splattered Jonas. The acid instantly burned his skin, but he wiped it off with his sleeve.
Kyla stopped and turned back. Her eyes widened as the decapitated body slid to a stop, leaving a trail of blood and ooze on the ground. Thanks,
she said to Jonas. You used sharism again,
she added.
He didn’t have time to respond. Click, click, click. Another riverfiend was climbing atop the boulder behind him, preparing to attack from above. He lifted his sword and prepared to turn. Hot, putrid breath tingled the back of his neck. Jonas knew there wasn’t enough time, but he wasn’t concerned. Jonas twisted just as the riverfiend lunged for his shoulder, but a flash of brown fur flew through the air, colliding with the beast and knocking it back.
By the time Jonas spun completely around, Axel had already driven his fangs into the riverfiend’s midsection. Green goo dripped from his chin as the creature went limp. The acid didn’t seem to effect the spearhound. He barked and ran to Jonas.
Riverfiend doesn’t look good on you,
Jonas said, swinging up onto Axel’s back. He grasped one of the dog’s powerful wings, holding his sword in his other hand. Axel’s lungs expand beneath him with each breath as they dashed forward. Kyla followed behind on her mare, her blond braid whipping in the wind. Her bow zinged as she released arrow after arrow into the throng of riverfiends pursuing them.
Arista stood high atop a craggy volcano rock nearby. Her blade was drawn, but her skin didn’t have a speck of riverfiend acid on it.
Are you scared or something?
Kib teased her from below. He rammed his sword into the eye of a charging riverfiend.
I’m not getting near those things!
Acid singed through Kib’s tunic and burned his skin. Gah! Blasted beasts!
He scrambled up onto Arista’s rock, giving her a sheepish grin.
Jonas turned to see Sim running toward them desperately, arms flailing and riding cape whipping in the wind. He had gone a different way, trying to find a better path for the horses through the volcanic plain. He gripped all four reins on the terrified steeds. Get down you fools!
Dozens of riverfiends chased after him. Arista’s eyes widened. She jumped to another boulder. Kib scurried after. Jonas and Axel tore through the labyrinth of boulders. The air got hotter as they went up a steep incline. Is that even possible? Jonas wondered as he wiped sweat from his brow. Kyla ran to help her father with the horses. One of the pack animals screamed. A riverfiend tore into its backside, causing the horse to collapse.
Jonas cried out in alarm, but there was nothing he could do for the animal. Riverfiends swarmed over it like flies on a piece of rotten meat. Jonas and the others took advantage of the temporary distraction. Kyla mounted the second pack horse while Kib and Arista climbed on theirs. The horses were slow and clumsy in the tight paths between the boulders, and the riverfiends were quickly on their trail.
We’ve got to get to the air!
Jonas cried. Axel barked his agreement. The hound scaled a rock, beating his wings furiously. He dashed to the edge of the rock and leapt into the air, his wings catching the wind. A riverfiend leapt up at them. Its jagged teeth barely missed Axel’s front paw.
Sulfur and smoke was thick in Jonas’s nostrils. The haze burned his eyes. It was worse the higher they went, so Axel was forced to fly low. From above, Jonas had a better view of their situation. Hundreds of riverfiends were closing in on them. There were simply too many of them. His friends raced up a cone-shaped hill. Kyla and Sim turned to the left into a dead end.
Not that way!
Jonas called, but they couldn’t hear him over the snarling pack of riverfiends behind them. The creatures quickly blocked the entrance, clawing over one another to get to the humans. Kyla’s mare whinnied. Sim put the horses behind them. They were pinned between the rock and the monsters.
Axel dove, but Jonas knew they weren’t going to get there in time. Kyla screamed as she and her father charged the riverfiends, blades swinging. Acid blood sprayed into the air like reverse rain as Axel banked. The liquid hissed as it hit Jonas’s skin. Too much of it would kill them. Sim and Kyla were in a death pit.
Jonas!
Kyla called. Use your sharism!
Axel slowed his dive at the last second, landing near Kyla and Sim. Jonas felt the furnace within him as he smote off the head of the nearest beast. If I release it, will it be enough? It had worked against a few wildsmen and a blackburn, but against hundreds of riverfiends? The pressure built up within him, boiling and raging like a caged animal, until he felt his eyes would pop out of their sockets.
Kyla screamed as acid burned her hands, scorching her skin scorched with angry red streaks.
A wall of riverfiends leapt at them, clouding out the light from the sun.
His ribs almost bursting, Jonas opened his mouth.
Fire filled the sky, falling in torrents all around them. Charred and blackened riverfiends were shadows in the light. Lava rose up out of the ground. It swept the fiends away in swift rivers. The rock just around the Kyla and Sim remained untouched. Heat waves blasted their bodies, but the fire didn’t touch them. Jonas stood at the center—arms outstretched, face toward the sun. Energy shot out from his fingertips. Where the beams hit, fire exploded from the rocks, sending forth more lava and flame.
Still, the furnace burned within him. On and on it raged. The force of the earth seemed to seep up from the ground right into him. He drew from it, embracing the power. He was fire. He could feel it bend to him, draw itself to him as if eager for him to make it his slave.
More and more. Hotter and hotter. He was connected to the earth. And the earth was angry.
The riverfiends struggled to reach them, climbing over the bodies of their dead to avoid the flowing lava. Would they stop at nothing?
Jonas increased his pull on the earth, as if adding more fuel to an oven. His feet burned, but the blaze didn’t hurt him.
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