Indigo Nights- Prologue: Cold
#1 of The Zenith Trilogy
Here is the prologue and first chapter to my debut novel "Indigo Nights." I will be posting more chapters here, but I hope you enjoy.
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Siberia, December 1985.
Thaddeus Axton roars into the frigid blindness of a desolate tundra, only to have his own agony echo back to him. Through time lost trudging through the barren freeze, most sensation abandons him until only his racing thoughts remain. The cold ravages the lion's exhausted body until he surrenders to a bed of permafrost under fresh sheets of snow that settles heavy upon his champagne coat of fur.
At the furthermost point his weary eyes can see, a brilliant glow beckons him toward the salvation that tore through the burning sky. A single radiant flower, carved from iridescent crystal and shaped by otherworldly pressures, hovers over the ground before him on the stark-white field, casting long shadows miles into the barren freeze, touching every part of the vast nothingness.
The menacing shadow of a dark-gray wolf glares down at Thaddeus through searing scarlet eyes, shouting words that are stolen by the howl of the undying blizzard. Dietrich Ziegler shakes him, but the warm temptation of sleep makes Thaddeus numb to any touch. All he wants to do is close his pale blue eyes, even if they never open again.
Thaddeus's frantic thoughts fill his mind as his eyes search for serenity in stars unseen above the veil of ice. But instinct sings to him, urging him to fight the chilling embrace of death stalking them from the emptiness around and within. He rises, centering on the dazzling light illuminating the darkness with a dozen colors.
The power reverberates deep within them until Thaddeus is strong enough to lumber, clutching the outstretched hand of a close friend turned bitter enemy. He steadies himself on sturdy legs as he marches toward the crystalline energy source they once christened together as The Zenith Crown. As they meet the barren horizon, The Zenith Crown's ominous purr pierces the deafening silence between them.
The closer they get to the crystalline flower, the more life reignites in their bloodstreams to wash warmth over them like the flames of a phoenix, filling them with the serene hope for survival in the face of certain death like the first light of dawn rising over the jagged mountain range.
In a forgotten patch of nothingness, the architects of the apocalypse, Thaddeus Axton, a burly lion in the prime of his life, and Dietrich Ziegler, a gaunt wolf at the precipice of his potential, become the catalysts to the events that will lead to the end of everything thirty years into their uncertain futures.
The Zenith Crown melts the frozen earth beneath their beaten feet, and ignites the frigid air around their dazed heads, providing a place to finally rest their aching bodies.
Ziegler shakes away the ringing in his head to no avail, his once keen senses irreparably damaged by the cataclysm they narrowly survived hours before. He cries out her name, but it fails to travel past the heartbeat-like hum keeping them alive.
The soldiers of a silent war glare at one another, struggling to find who they once knew in the marred and battered faces before them. They'll survive this night, but the choices made in this moment will set their fates toward clashing paths with the same, inexorable end.
Decades after the heat of a cold war, Thaddeus Axton, a broken lion at the dawn of his redemption, and Dietrich Ziegler, a galvanized wolf amid his vengeance, fight for control of the Zenith Crown, and the children born from its limitless power.