The Astral Key

Chapter 5

Pain. Terrible pain. Micah couldn't remember ever experiencing this excruciating level of suffering in his entire life.

It stole everything from him. All of his senses shattered into nothingness. This should be death. But his heart pounded and painful breaths escaped him.

The Dragon Slayer had done its job. But Micah hadn't been able to see the distraction. All power died from their craft, and it plummeted.

Micah was going to die that day. He always expected as much. Die on the bleak planet, far away from the stars.

Far away from his family.

He didn't expect to take Hannah with him. Her fear screamed at him. The calm, rebellious genius feared death.

But she wasn't alone in the fear.

As soon as the weapon activated, horror assaulted Micah. An army of pain, tearing apart existence itself. Killing creatures older than Micah could fathom.

Their world flashed through his mind, a world of magic and myth. Something that couldn't be real. Not like the evil creatures who swooped down from the stars, taking the lives of everything Micah loved.

Taking the life of his brother.

He didn't want to feel sympathy for them. It sickened him. But tears burned his eyes as he sampled the feast of agony.

Micah should have been dead. At this point, the craft around him had burned into nothingness. Ash to fall upon the ground, adorning the crimson remnants of ancient creatures. But something held onto him. It shielded him, a cold embrace keeping nonexistence at bay.

Hannah rested in his arms. He couldn't tell if she was dead or alive. Her eyes shut, and her body limp. Some part of his rational mind screamed that she was only suffering psionic shock. Death hadn't taken her yet. The psionic barrier kept them safe from the weapon.

But not without a cost. Agony cascaded through Micah like a hellish waterfall. He couldn't stop the fearsome flow. If he even tried, Hannah's life would be swept away from him.

Someone help. Please help. I'll die, but not her...

He didn't expect anything at all. A prayer to the unforgiving cosmos. Soon he would be nothing but dust. They would expunge his name from all records, and only his sister would remember him. And she would never be free again to speak his name.

If she wasn't forced to join him in death.

Just when he couldn't hold on for a moment longer, a dark blur rushed at him. He couldn't make sense of it and didn't have the energy to make sense of it. All he could do was make sure that Hannah wouldn't fall.

Something grabbed onto him. Not quite him, but the psionic barrier around him. It almost felt like claws digging into his very soul.

Not that he believed in souls.

The pain was nothing compared to the weapon. And this pain held the promise of life. The kind of suffering someone had to endure to get through another day. Micah might have let go, but he couldn't let go of Hannah.

Everything whirled as a force flung them toward a hole in the cliffs. The psionic barrier keeping them from all damage finally dispersed just as they hit the rough ground.

Distant sounds of destruction echoed, but an eerie silence hung over the cavern. Micah laid there, trying to get his senses back. A fierce gust brushed over him and a loud thud as something landed. Too cool to be a craft.

Fear kept Micah in a crouched position. Part of him just wanted to stay there, go to sleep and wake up in his childhood home.

But his concern for Hannah overrode everything else. He pushed himself into a kneeling position and crawled over to her. Her body laid on the ground, curls hiding her face. He pushed them back, half-afraid to feel a cold corpse.