The Chronos Files
3 primary works • 10 total works
Book 1
When Kate Pierce-Keller’s grandmother gives her a strange blue medallion and speaks of time travel, sixteen-year-old Kate assumes the old woman is delusional. But it all becomes horrifyingly real when a murder in the past destroys the foundation of Kate’s present-day life. Suddenly, that medallion is the only thing protecting Kate from blinking out of existence.
Kate learns that the 1893 killing is part of something much more sinister, and her genetic ability to time travel makes Kate the only one who can fix the future. Risking everything, she travels back in time to the Chicago World’s Fair to try to prevent the murder and the chain of events that follows.
Changing the timeline comes with a personal cost—if Kate succeeds, the boy she loves will have no memory of her existence. And regardless of her motives, does Kate have the right to manipulate the fate of the entire world?
Publisher’s Note: Timebound was originally released as Time’s Twisted Arrow.
Book 1.5
This Kindle exclusive CHRONOS Files novella gives Timebound readers a glimpse at Kate in another timeline and helps set the stage for Time's Edge, the second book in The CHRONOS Files Series.
Kiernan Dunne abandoned his family ties to help Kate fight the Cyrists, and he's never regretted that for one moment. But he doesn't understand why Kate can't remember that night in 1893 Chicago, when she turned back to face the killer chasing them through the smoky corridors of the World's Fair Hotel. Kate placed the CHRONOS key around his neck and made his eight year old self promise to wear it always, and that's a promise Kiernan has never broken.
When Kate suddenly vanishes after a Cyrist-engineered time shift, that hidden medallion is Kiernan's only hope for finding her. He returns to the Cyrist fold to look for clues, but his search will lead him back to the question that has haunted him for years--what really happened after he left Kate at the World's Fair Hotel?
Book 2
To stop her sadistic grandfather, Saul, and his band of time travelers from rewriting history, Kate must race to retrieve the CHRONOS keys before they fall into the Cyrists’ hands. If she jumps back in time and pulls the wrong key—one that might tip off the Cyrists to her strategy—her whole plan could come crashing down, jeopardizing the future of millions of innocent people. Kate’s only ally is Kiernan, who also carries the time-traveling gene. But their growing bond threatens everything Kate is trying to rebuild with Trey, her boyfriend who can’t remember the relationship she can’t forget.
As evidence of Saul’s twisted mind builds, Kate’s missions become more complex, blurring the line between good and evil. Which of the people Saul plans to sacrifice in the past can she and Kiernan save without risking their ultimate goal—or their own lives?
Book 2.5
The second CHRONOS Files novella follows Prudence's story from her fateful first journey with the CHRONOS key to the point where her story intersects with Kiernan Dunne in the first novella, Time's Echo. It also helps sets the stage for Time's Divide, the third and final book in The CHRONOS Files.
It's 1984 and the only things on Prudence Pierce's mind are seducing her violin instructor and, with the help of her sister Deborah, avoiding the wrath of their mother for stepping out of the house dressed like Madonna. Her mother might also be a teensy bit angry about the medallion Pru swiped from the attic--a medallion that glows lime green and has an oddly hypnotic, holographic effect when Pru holds it in her hand.
A simple blink is all it takes to yank Pru from the car with her dad into a world of hurt. She awakens in 2305 to find herself pinned under what's left of CHRONOS headquarters, thanks to a recent terrorist attack. Their prime suspect? Her mother, Katherine Shaw. And everyone wants to know how Pru got her hands on a CHRONOS key.
Pru is convinced that the key is the answer to all her problems. She'll use it to stop her mother, fix her relationship with Deb, and even restore CHRONOS, so that her new friend Tate can return to the job he loves.
She can't do it alone, however. Fortunately, she finds Saul Rand, and he's more than willing to help.
Book 3
The Cyrists are swiftly moving into position to begin the Culling, and Kate’s options are dwindling. With each jump to the past or the future, Kate may trigger a new timeline shift. Worse, the loyalties of those around her—including the allegiances of Kiernan and the Fifth Column, the shadowy group working with Kate—are increasingly unclear.
Kate will risk everything, including her life, to prevent the future her grandfather and the Cyrists have planned. But, when time runs out, it may take an even bigger sacrifice to protect the people she loves.
Book 3.5
A CHRONOS Files Novella
Simon Rand's life isn't exactly linear, but he's okay with that. He was older than his mother when they first met, and he's traveled pretty much everywhere and everywhen the CHRONOS key can take him. Much of his childhood was spent in the 1890s on the Cyrist Farm with his friend, Kiernan Dunne, but summer vacations meant hanging out with his grandfather in the 2020s, training to be Saul Rand's right-hand man and fixing bits of history to help build Cyrist International.
But that's just Simon's day job. His true passion is time tourism--jumping right smack into the middle of historical events to see what really happened. Sometimes, however, simply witnessing an event can change it, and when Simon and Kiernan investigate the death of Simon's teenage obsession, Marilyn Monroe, it may just unravel the history he knows and loves.
This CHRONOS Files short story appeared originally in CLONES: The Anthology
A familiar blip of green light in the corner of his room has Kiernan Dunne hoping the new arrival is Kate, so that he can abandon the rescue he’s planning. But the time traveler who just blinked in is a future version of Kiernan, and judging from the number scrawled on his forehead, he’s not the only copy.
Saul Rand is one of a select group of genetically-engineered CHRONOS historians who study the past firsthand. Convinced that he can create a better future than random chance and human blunder, Saul's main challenge is circumventing the system's safeguards--and he thinks he's found the perfect opening move.
This short story was originally published in The Time Travel Chronicles.
This short story, which appeared originally in Dark Beyond the Stars: A Space Opera Anthology, answers the question that Katherine never would: What really happened in 2092?
The Elisi Alliance is facing defeat in its struggle against the Lor, when Mila, an Elisi requisitions scout, uncovers evidence of a time-altering technology that could reverse the course of the war. The device is on XE7, a small planet Mila fears will be destroyed if pulled into the conflict. Can she retrieve the technology without sacrificing XE7?