The Ties that Bind: A Preview of Chaos Rises

Let Fay, the immortal ex-goddess of fate, lead you off an a new adventure! Survival not guaranteed. Please see a friendly character for details!

Sep 29, 2025

Welcome back! This week, we’re diving into a preview of chapter 1 of Chaos Rises since the book published everywhere on Sept 27. It’s got skeleton armies, phoenixes, dragons, and angels, oh my!

I know, we’re a little late with the preview, but can you blame us? We’re trying to save the world from the two orbs and their destructive power in Storm Spells, AND we also need to find our scribe since we lost her again.

(This is Ran, Sarn’s son from the Curse Breaker series, reporting to you live from NY.)

This is becoming a disturbing pattern. I’d better get back to the search while you dive into chapter 1 of:

Chaos Rises

by Melinda Kucsera

Book 1 of the Riders of the Apocalypse Series

Chapter 1: Frayed Threads

What happened to the Agents of Chaos? Fay wondered as she followed her children through the main corridor that connected all the rooms on this level. They were the most dangerous creatures she’d encountered thus far. But no one knew what happened to them, and that was a big problem. I need to find them and find out what they’re doing.

But first, she needed to get her kids settled and so caught up in researching the six Wraths that were released into the Mortal World when the seals broke. Why did four Wraths appear as horses and take the people who released them as their riders?

That was a question that needed an answer as soon as possible. Fay recalled something about the Riders of the Apocalypse in the Book of Revelations, but she read it a long time ago and she couldn’t remember if there was anything about the Wraths or if they were something new. I hope they’re in the Holy book.

I’ll ask my kids to check that. Would that distract them enough so they wouldn’t notice if she slipped away?

One would think slipping away would be easy since she was petite at just under five feet tall, especially since all her kids towered over her except the littlest. But her kids kept glancing back to make sure she followed them through the house. It was like they knew she was planning to hare off on her own adventure.

It might take more than a few hours for them to get too absorbed in the research that they forget about me. I hope I have that long. Fay could use her magic to consult the future since she was a fate, but was that a good idea while the Riders of the Apocalypse were loose?

Until I know more, I should avoid that. Some believed a fate seen was a fate foreordained. Fay didn’t know if that was true since she could only see the future, not the past, except in her memories. Should I risk it?

Fay mulled that over as she squeezed her youngest child’s hand. The five-year-old dragon-shifter named Phare padded along at her side with far too much energy, given the late hour.

Although his name sounded like a misnomer since his skin was bronze, Fay didn’t name him for his complexion. She named him Phare because she hoped he’d grow up to be fair-minded in all things. It was too early to tell if that would happen, but she had high hopes for her little dragon.

“You should go to bed.” Fay tapped Phare’s button nose and wondered about the Agents of Chaos again. That led to thoughts about the Agent of Order, Metalara. She last saw that metallic woman in the Gray Between. What happened to her? Did she stop the Agents of Chaos like she planned?

If she did, then Fay could concentrate on the other Riders of the Apocalypse and the other two Wraths. But she had a feeling the Agents of Chaos were still out there causing trouble. Was Metalara still pursuing them?

Phare froze as glowing red filaments appeared along both sides of the marble corridor, and they twisted together like double helixes. Why am I seeing threads of time inside my home? Fay stared at them in confusion.

The last time she saw threads of time, she was in a place that didn’t have a future. But she was in the Mortal World now, and it had a future unless the Apocalypse resumed. Sovvan paused it somehow. I need to find her and find out what she did to pause it, so I can find a permanent way to stop it.

The red filaments spun around once more, then vanished. Phare unfroze and didn’t seem to notice that time stopped for a moment.

“But I’m not sleepy. I want to help.” Phare bounded after his much older siblings and pulled her along behind him.

“I know, but it’s late. You should sleep for a while.” Fay didn’t know why she was arguing with him. Phare was wide awake and full of energy. But his nearest sibling was at least a hundred years older than him, and Phaedon staggered until Fay slipped her arm through his. “You should get some rest too, son.”

“I’m not a baby anymore, Mom.” Phaedon rolled his glowing red eyes and followed his siblings down the marble hallway. He was a fate like her. If bits of time showed up again, he might see it and confirm that they were real and not a hallucination.

“You’ll always be my baby,” Fay said automatically because it was true. There was no age limit for that.

When was the last time I rested? Fay couldn’t remember, which meant it was probably too long. She wasn’t human and never had been, so she didn’t need to spend most of everyday sleeping. But she needed to sleep sometimes to clear her mind and keep her sanity from fraying. Perhaps time wasn’t fraying at the edges after all. I might just need a nap.

“I’m over a hundred years old. If I were human, I’d be a grandparent right now with one foot in the grave.” Phaedon stared at the ceiling like he was searching for patience up there.

The word grave echoed in the hallway, and Fay flinched as time dilated again, freezing Phaedon and Phare in place. White threads appeared this time, but the past was white. The threads twined together, then fell apart like badly tied knots did when pulled. She saw something like this once before at the end of the war between gods and angels when that timeline ended, and a new one began. But that one reshaped the world. Will I have to endure another cataclysmic event like that?

The question echoed inside her head, pushing out all other thoughts. Fear gripped her in cold hands that squeezed the breath from her lungs. I can’t lose any more of my babies. I can’t survive that. Fay clung to Phaedon’s arm as lightheadedness made her knees weak until she forced herself to breathe.

“Is time a straight line or circle? If it’s a line, then time heads off into the limitless future, without repeating. If it’s a circle, then time is doomed to repeat itself. So what is the nature of time? Is it a straight line like you hope or the circle you fear?” Someone asked her a long time ago, but she couldn’t recall who.

“I don’t know.” Fay stared at the white threads as they wove together into a tapestry and grayed out images appeared of a library. A man who looked familiar held a scroll written in a language she could almost read. But another man, one she knew too well because he was her annoying elder brother, Hithaglier, the ex-god of history, grabbed the scroll from the other ex-god’s hands. Both men disappeared, and the threads vanished too.

What the hell was that? I can’t see the past unless I witnessed it or lived it, and I never saw my brother take a scroll from another god. Who was that other god? His face was familiar, but the war of gods and angels ended four thousand years ago, and that was the last time she saw a lot of the ex-gods.

So what did I see? If that wasn’t a memory, then what was it? It didn’t feel like a vision of the future. Fay staggered for a few steps as she tried to regain her composure and her balance.

***

You just read an excerpt from Chaos Rises, get the rest now to continue reading this story!