The End of All Things

The End of All Things

Book One of the Celestial Serenade

Available on Kindle (and Kindle Unlimited) and in Paperback!

Two civilizations hover on the brink of collapse.
One tenuous thread of hope connects them.

Earth cannot resist the deadly devastation of the metallic dragon when it descends unexpectedly out of the sky, belching plasma and leaving ruin it its wake.

Liam Barrows has been tasked with recovering the one piece of technology that might grant humanity salvation – a highly sophisticated deep space communications array. Unfortunately, it’s burried beneath the rubble of the dragon’s initial attack.

And there’s a catch – even if Liam can recover the array, he still needs to find its opperator, a young woman by the name of Gaia. Without her DNA to overcome the array’s genetic lock, Earth may be lost to the dragon’s relentless advance.

Meanwhile, across the galaxy, Alrayia dreams of the end of her world. In her visions, the final blow is delivered by a metallic dragon of immense strength.

While everyone else celebrates the homecoming of Kantis, the Caltaran Empire’s greatest warrior, Alrayia must convince her husband, a member of the ruling council, to build the spaceships that might keep her nightmares from becoming reality – and she must do so without revealing the gift that allows her to glimpse the future.

For it isn’t just her world that depends on her success.

And Liam thought DC was bad…
Liam Barrows turned to survey the dozen soldiers under his command. He didn’t think any had fallen behind, but he needed an excuse to glance away from the devastation. It was one thing to know the city had no warning; it was another to see it.

The dragon descended on Prague while people were still speculating about its origins on the news. Its destruction interrupted an ordinary day. Which threw the twelve hours D.C. spent evacuating into stark contrast. There had been fewer cars on the streets and fewer people in the buildings. The city had been at a standstill. People had known where to go, and soldiers had known what to expect.

“Keep close,” he barked. “We don’t know the stability of the buildings left standing. And despite Command’s presentation of the situation, this isn’t a race.” The remains of the U.S. government might want his unit to return with the girl and the array before the other teams comprising this international effort penetrated the perimeter, but Barrows wasn’t about to risk more lives.

As they slipped around the first rubble pile, the smell of old blood and decay hit Liam’s nose, mixed with the acrid stench of scorched earth and burnt metal. Bile rose in the back of his throat. The nearby bodies of uniformed soldiers served as a harsh reminder of how many lives had already been lost.

Liam took the lead with a twitchy, middle-aged lieutenant who looked as though he might never sleep again. The rest of the group fanned out behind him. A few were young enough he expected them to panic but, so far, they seemed stalwart.

Unlike back home, where most of the bodies had been clustered around barriers — and later retrieved for burial — death occupied every inch of Prague’s streets. Bodies hung from smashed cars and dotted the sidewalks outside the remains of high-rises. Their empty eye-sockets stared accusingly as the group shuffled past, as if demanding to know where they had been when the world went to shit.

Sample Chapters:
Chapter 1 – The Dragon’s Descent
Chapter 2 – City of Glass and Light
Chapter 3 – Picking Up the Pieces