His Words of Wrath (The Kaldr Chronicles Book 3)

by Kody Boye

  A man—screaming as he fell—was caught as a black shadow shot across the sky and slammed directly into him.

  “Banshees,” I growled.

  “Get inside!” Amadeo cried, his figure surrounded by several miniature crystals not unlike the one Guy had just thrown at the military helicopter. “You’re too weak to fight!”

  “I’ll protect my people!” I cried.

  The Howlers—who, by this time, had finished transforming—bounded forward.

  I screamed.

  The wolves roared.

  Scarlet drew a gun and aimed it to the sky.

  A harpy—who, in her sickening glory, resembled something like a beautiful naked woman with feathers covering her arms, legs, and sex—screamed as she appeared from the nearby woods.

  “This is it!” Scarlet cried as Aerick’s silver-furred form bounded past her, then up and over the barricade that separated the Winters’ family ranch from the rest of the outside world. “Do not be afraid, Jason, for though we walk in the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil.”

  She fired a shot at the harpy as she began to dive toward us.

  “For though art with me!” she screamed. “Thy rod and staff, they comfort me!”

  She shot again.

  The Harpie jerked.

  Three more shots impacted its torso and sent it sailing through the air, where it slammed into the ground and tore the grass from the earth and left a bloody impression in its wake.

  I stared as the entity within the air—who had consumed the military man right down to the bone—turned its attention to me and spread dark, phantom wings out from its body.

  Hello Jason, I heard its horrible voice say. Do not be afraid, for Silence shall soon be upon you.

  It dove.

  I dodged.

  My body screamed with pain as I hit the ground and rolled to face my enemy.

  I pulled from the air the globules of moisture and wrapped it around its being, freezing them with the utmost precision before causing them to explode upon impact. The wicked being screeched under my assault and attempted to make its way forward, but was stopped as Scarlet pulled from her belt a large cross.

  She pushed a button.

  Light streamed out of its surface.

  Its blinding rays cut through the creature and vaporized it almost instantly.

  “Gotta love toys like these,” she said as she turned the lit cross off and turned to face me. “You ok?”

  “I’m… fine,” I said, breathless but strong enough to stand.

  A second helicopter—this one a nondescript white with a news agency logo on it—appeared in the sky and began to rotate around the fighting Howlers and Sanguine in the distance.

  “This is it,” she said. “This is where it all begins.”

  Shadow appeared from the camper, carrying a long katana in a black case.

  He tossed it.

  Scarlet caught it.

  She drew it.

  The blue runes emblazoned along its surface glowed with fiery life as she swung it in one hand and charged toward the gate.

  I didn’t want to move. I couldn’t move. I could barely think, could hardly breathe. The chaos within the air—from the guns, to the howling, to the wicked screams from the Sanguine and the Harpies flying about the air—was almost too much.

  The Kaldr fired shards of ice into the sky.

  Scarlet slung herself over the fence.

  She met a vampire with the katana and cut its head off with one deft swing.

  The nearby police cruisers—whose guns were armed and shooting at the seemingly-human inhabitants—instantly turned upon each other and began to shoot.

  “NO!” I screamed.

  Guy formed a fixture similar to a cannon within the sky and fired from its depths giant balls of ice, which struck the police cars and sent them either tumbling aside of exploding through the air.

  Shadow—his hand braced forward—started to walk toward where the news helicopter hovered in the air.

  “Don’t,” I said. “You know it’s live.”

  “I can stop it,” he said.

  “Maybe there’s no point,” I replied, taking hold of his wrist and lowering it at his side. “Maybe your job here is already done.”

  He faltered, looking from his wrist to the crowd, before nodding. “Regardless,” he said, “I can’t leave Scarlet to fight on her own, and there’s more uses my magic has than just making people forget.”

  He took off—and morphed, as he ran, into a black mist that traveled at speeds similar to the shifting clouds overhead.

  The clouds—

  Thunder broiled.

  Lightning struck.

  The front door of the ranchhouse opened to reveal the Kelda Svell. This is the beginning of a new age, she said, her voice echoing through my conscience and through I imagined every other Kaldr’s. The coming of a new dawn, the rise of a new sun. Tonight’s moon shall bring with it a fear that has never been felt, and with it the winds of change will come.

  She lifted her hands. Above, the sky darkened and rain began to fall on those fighting in the distance.

  Draw them back, she said, most specifically to me, her words concentrated in my mind like someone standing directly before me. Call the one whose love you feel so passionately.

  “AERICK!” I cried. “AERICK!”

  I can only wait so long before the rain begins to fall.

  The rain? I thought. The rain was already falling. What could she possibly—

  Then it began: the hail.

  It began first as pinprick drops of ice that coalesced into larger and greater shapes. First as dimes, then as pennies, then as quarters and then larger, they fell from the sky like vengeful gods throwing meteors upon the Earth to impact those who dwelled below. The Sanguine were immediately buffeted. The Howlers came next, followed by Scarlet—who, in jeans and an undershirt, trembled as she cut the head off another creature and shot another in the face with her pistol. Her petite frame, at only five-foot-four, could barely hold up to their onslaught.

  I raised my hand.

  I channeled the air.

  A shield of ice blossomed like a tree over her head to shield her from the elements.

  She turned her head, nodded, then continued to fire into the crowd.

  It would be over soon. Soon. But until then—

  Several black, nondescript vehicles bearing within their depths a multitude of persons appeared. From them came men and women of all ages and races—armed with knives, swords, cudgels, guns and even rifles.

  They lifted their weapons and fired into the remaining members of the Sanguine.

  They fell, dead, almost instantly.

  Above, the news helicopter veered off and toward what I could only assume was the city of Fredericksburg.

  I gasped, breathless, as a silver-haired figure streaked with blood bounded over the fence and collapsed at my feet. Within moments a transformation again—this time, however, without the grisly affects of the previous one. Hair retracted, bones shortened, skin returned to its normal, tanned hue.

  Soon, Aerick lay before me—naked, breathless, and covered with scratches and bruises.

  “Aerick,” I breathed, taking him into my arms.

  Guy fell to his knees at my side, the ice evaporating from his being and into the cooling air, to kneel beside Aerick and I. “Thank God you’re all right,” Guy said, running a hand through his bloodied hair.

  “What about you?” Aerick asked, looking up at me. “Are… you…”

  “I’m fine,” I said, grabbing Guy’s shirt and gesturing Aerick to push his arms up. “Put this on.”

  Aerick lifted his arms and stretched it down past his privates. Though it was long enough to do that, it did little to keep him warm in the chill winds that swept along the sky and across our sweaty bodies.

  The winds of change, the Kelda had said.

  They swarmed, shifted, warped about our bodies and attempted to swallow us whole, basking in ou
r fear as the realization of our blossoming world became real. There were people dead, Howlers slain, Sanguine exterminated; and in the distance burned the remnants of the helicopter Guy had shot down as it had trained its bullets on us.

  Guy—

  He’d killed innocent people.

  But hadn’t the humans as well?

  I closed my eyes, fighting back waves of terror as I realized what had just happened.

  The distant chop of rotors as more helicopters came to view the scene could easily be heard.

  “We should get inside,” Guy said, drawing Aerick to his feet.

  I slung my arm around the man’s shoulders and half-walked, half-carried him toward the farmhouse.

  Elliot and Amadeo—who had participated in the fight by lending their combined powers to the Kelda—had paled considerably. Amadeo’s skin was almost pure-white, while Elliot’s had taken on a sickly bluish hue that would’ve never existed in a living, breathing human man.

  “Are you all right?” I asked as I helped Aerick up the porch steps.

  “I’m… fine,” Eliot breathed. Amadeo nodded as I turned to look at him. “Get in the home. This is only going to get worse.”

  I could only imagine.

  Epilogue

  They descended upon the property like dogs. Men, women, the Agency, the authorities, the FBI, military, and all manner of organizations in-between—as news broke out about the battle that had taken place upon the lonely road outside Fredericksburg, they had come from all manners and places. The news organizations were alight with media reports about ‘monsters’ and a woman who’d slain them, as well as men with supernatural powers and the creatures who had turned, with a single look, the men of the law against one another.

  “This is madness,” a news anchor said. “Absolute f-ing madness.”

  The Wipers were unable to control the leak of information in time, and as we watched it unpool over live TV in Elliot and Amadeo’s room, I felt a sense of both relief and terror over what had happened.

  No longer did we have to remain secret, but forever we would have to hide.

  Guy’s image had been captured plainly on live television slinging shards and balls of ice at the enemy.

  “There’s no determining whether or not this unidentified individual was the one responsible for the deaths of the Fredericksburg SWAT team that was the first to respond to the scene,” the anchorman said, “though what is apparent is that we are very much in danger.”

  “We’ll have to move,” Elliot said. “Uproot the entire camp. Burn any and all evidence of our persons.”

  Amadeo was already shredding papers in the other room. The tang of lighter fluid was also thick in the air.

  This house, this beautiful place, would soon be lit in flames.

  “The Agency will be able to cover our specific involvement up,” Elliot continued, “but there’s no denying that the world has now fully witnessed events of the supernatural world.”

  “And nothing can be done?” I asked.

  “They would have to wipe the darkest corners of the internet, the media, the minds of every person on the planet. There are no resources for that sort of work.”

  And so it was deemed, by the mouth of one man that the world would enter a new age: a dark age.

  I turned to look at Guy and Aerick, both of whom had packs slung over their shoulders. “We’re ready to leave whenever you are, Jason,” Guy said.

  “Where are we going?” I frowned.

  “For the time being? Austin. Scarlet and Shadow are waiting for us outside. I’d rather not see my childhood home burn down.”

  “What about the Kelda?” I asked. “Is she—”

  “Gone. Already.” Elliot turned his eyes up to look past me at Aerick. “Did you witness her person, young blood?”

  “What?” Aerick frowned.

  The older Winters man shook his head. “It does not matter,” he said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a zippo. “Go, son. Take these two to Austin. And whatever you do—don’t be seen.”

  “But what about you?” Guy asked. “Father? Papa?”

  “We’ll be fine, my son,” Amadeo said, stepping forward to press a kiss to Guy’s forehead. “Go. Now. Before more come. The Agency will escort us and the rest of your people from here.”

  “But I—”

  I grabbed Guy’s hand. “Don’t,” I said.

  Tears sparkled in his eyes, revealing a vulnerability I’d not seen since I’d initially left to change what would eventually become the scope of the world. With a nod, he stepped forward, wrapped his father in a hug, and held him tight for one long moment. “Let’s go,” he then said.

  As Aerick and I followed Guy down the stairs and out the door, toward the camper that rested on the road outside the Agency roadblocks on the outside of the property, I turned my eyes to look back at not only the house, but the carnage that had taken place just outside it.

  Men, women, Kaldr, Howlers—most were dead, many grievously injured. Those few that would be able to survive the transition from the ranch would be relocated to other places and cities. But those who couldn’t?

  I couldn’t imagine a fate for them other than death.

  What remained of the Winters’ Kaldr clan could be counted on two hands.

  Me, I thought, Guy, Amadeo, Elliot, the Kelda.

  And what few others had happened to remain uninjured during the fight—less than twenty, out of the fifty that had once remained.

  I closed my eyes and took in a deep breath as Guy helped me over the metal railing that surrounded the ranch house property.

  Once firmly on the other side, I began to walk toward the camper—not wanting, or unwilling, to look back.

  I was walking away from one world and into another—into one that was familiar but which was not at the same time.

  I didn’t know what I would do.

  One thing was for certain though:

  Wherever I went, Guy and Aerick would follow.

  In the end, that was all a man like me could ask for.

  With one final breath, I opened the camper, stepped inside, and prepared for what would undoubtedly be my next adventure.

  And though I was afraid, I couldn’t wait.

  The Kaldr Chronicles continues in book 4, His Winds of Change

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  About the Author

  Born and raised in Southeastern Idaho, Kody Boye began his writing career with the publication of his story [A] Prom Queen’s Revenge at the age of fourteen. Published nearly three-dozen times before going independent at eighteen, Boye has authored numerous works—including the short story collection Amorous Things, the novella The Diary of Dakota Hammell, the zombie novel Sunrise and the epic fantasy series The Brotherhood Saga. He is represented by Hannah Brown Gordon of the Foundry Literary + Media Agency.