Chapter 1
Anna
Sirens blare and red lights flash across the corridors as we race through the ship. Terrified screams echo behind us. I wrap my arm tighter around Jarod’s waist as he leans heavily against me, dragging him toward the escape pods. His breathing is ragged as he tries to keep up. His arm around my shoulders grows heavier with each step. Normally, I wouldn’t dare move a patient with such a severe injury, but I don’t have a choice. I refuse to leave him behind.
“Leave me,” he rasps. “I’m not going to make it.”
“Don’t give up now,” I tell him, not bothering to slow down. “We’re almost there.”
An inhuman roar fills the air. The alien pirates have forced their way onto the ship. A blast of light zips past us, hitting the panel next to my head.
“Hurry!” a woman wails. “They’re coming!”
I look over my shoulder and gasp when yellow eyes with vertically slit pupils meet mine. Covered from head to toe in light-green scales, the alien raises his blaster and fires off a shot. The world shifts into slow-motion as light erupts from the barrel and races toward us.
Jared slams into my side, pushing me back against the wall and out of the path of the shot. I watch the blast hit Jarod square in the chest, horrified. He cries out and goes silent, crumpling to the floor.
“No!” I fall to my knees and lean over him, pressing my hands to his chest as if I can somehow stop the bleeding.
His eyes are wide and unfocused. He takes my hand weakly in his. “Go,” he barely manages.
Still in shock, I reach down and brush a lock of white hair from his brow, the blood on my hands streaking red through the strands. I cannot speak through my tears. Someone approaches to my right and I look up just in time to see the alien aim the blaster at Jarod’s head and fire.
“No!”
“Anna!” Holly’s voice rips me from my sleep. I jerk upright in bed and place my hand on my chest, trying to calm my pounding heart. Drawing in a deep breath, I look at my friend.
“I’m sorry I woke you,” she murmurs, “but you were having a nightmare. Are you all right?”
When I close my eyes, an image of Jarod’s lifeless form fills my mind. He was like a father to me after my parents died. I’ll never be all right again.
“Yeah,” I lie. “I’m fine. It was just a dream.”
I brush my long chestnut hair back from my face and throw my legs over the side of the bed. I hate this. Ever since alien pirates attacked our colony ships, there have been very few nights that I don’t relive the experience in my nightmares.
I pull on my long green robes. My friend Lilly gave them to me yesterday. She picked out this fabric for me because she said it matched my eyes. As I gaze at myself in the mirror, I believe she is right.
I glance around the room. The deep-orange and crimson brick walls of the apartment are a welcome sight, reminding me that we’ve left the colony ships behind. Ever since the Drakarians—the dragon-shifter aliens who inhabit this planet—of the Fire Clan found us in the desert, they’ve been nothing but kind, going out of their way to help us settle in their capital city, Valoria.
My friend Lilliana is now married—I mean, mated—to Prince Varus of the Fire Clan. I’ve spent enough time around them to see what a great guy she picked. He practically worships the ground that she walks on. When these Drakarians fall for someone, they fall hard.
Varus found Lilly when we were still in the desert. She had ventured from camp to scout for shelter. The moment he saw her, he recognized her as his fated mate. Everywhere they go, Prince Varus proudly displays the glowing fate mark on his chest. An indication that she is, in fact, his fated one—or linaya, as they call it.
A plague swept through this world a few years ago and killed the majority of Drakarian women. Many of those who survived were left barren. Now that Lilly is pregnant with Varus’s child, the remaining Drakarian men are desperate to court a human, hoping to entice us to bond with them.
Holly smiles. “I’m going to work now. I’ll see you when I get back tonight. Say hi to Lilly for me, all right?”
Holly was a teacher on the ships. She’s been working hard to learn everything she can about Drakarian teaching methods, hoping to get a permanent position at one of the schools here.
My friend, Lilly, is a botanist and she’s been collaborating with her Drakarian counterparts to incorporate some of our Earth seeds into next season’s crops.
Each of us is trying to find our way in this new world. I was one of the ship’s doctors—the only one who made it onto our escape pod. I’ve been working with Healer Ranas to learn how they practice medicine here.
The Drakarians are searching both in space and across their planet for any other escape pods and survivors, but so far, we’ve found none.
“All right,” I give her my best grin, feigning a carefree attitude. “I’ll see you later.”
As soon as she leaves, I gather my things and head out the door. I’m supposed to meet Lilly for breakfast this morning; I hope she won’t try to set me up again.
Apparently one of the Fire Clan guards likes me. He’s nice and all, but I’m not interested in a boyfriend just yet. I’m still getting settled. Besides, he didn’t display a glowing mark on his chest to tell him that I’m his linaya, and even if he did, I’m not ready to date him. Not after what happened with Edward.
As I make my way to the castle, I consider how much I’ve learned about medicine in my short time here. Frustratingly, most Drakarian Healers come from the Earth Clan and possess the ability to breathe healing fire. All they have to do is blow blue-green flame on a wound and the tissue heals before your eyes. It’s amazing, but I’ll never be able to match their skill.
Still, there are other ways I can be useful. Their healing fire cannot replace blood loss, cleanse someone of toxins, or eradicate pathogens from the body. For those things, simple medicine, instead of healing fire, are called for. And that’s something I can definitely use my skills to do.
As I walk up the path toward the castle, a Drakarian man smiles brightly at me. “Would you like me to fly you to your destination?”
I return the smile at his nice offer. Until we can add human-friendly modifications to the city, the Drakarians are always eager to fly us where we need to go. Since they have wings, their city isn’t easily navigable for us wingless humans. But several of their engineers are working on bridges and lifts even now.
It’s nice here, I just wish there was more vegetation. The forested mountains and jungles of old Earth were always my favorite places to explore in the virtual reality rooms on the ships. I’m not going to complain though because the Fire Clan people have been good to us since they’ve taken us in.
The city itself is surrounded by a desert. Our apartments are located at the top of a mesa, close to the castle. Each building is colored in shades of red like the sand, clay, and rock they are built from, including the palace. I marvel again at the gold-capped domes of the four corner towers of the castle, shining like beautiful jewels beneath the red-orange sun.
The ice-blue sky is clear except for a few thin wisps of gray clouds, but the air is cool and bone dry, without even the tiniest hint of moisture.
More city districts are carved into the mesa walls, only accessible by flying. A sparkling river winds around the base and feeds water into the crop fields. The verdant green vegetation stands in sharp contrast to the fire-red rocks and sand that surround the farms.
Across the way lies a plateau with more housing dotting the cliff wall. Beyond that stretches an expanse of crimson sand, punctuated by towering rock formations.
“Thank you,” I tell the friendly Drakarian. “I think I’ll take you up on that.”
His smile widens. Despite their alien appearance, I can’t deny most Drakarian men are handsome. Each Clan has a unique color variation on their bodies. The Fire Clan dragons have red-and-orange scales.
I shudder inwardly as I think of the Wind Clan. I haven’t met them yet, but John has. He was with my friend Skye when she was taken by a Wind dragon. From the description John gave—light-gray scales, white horns, and a long scar down the left side of his face—Varus says it was Prince Raidyn who took her. He swears up and down that no Drakarian, regardless of Clan, would ever harm a female. But if that’s the case, why did that prince abduct her?
That’s what unsettles me. I’d like to think these guys would never force us to bond with them, but the fact that my friend Skye is still missing gives me pause.
The Fire Clan Drakarian’s orange-rimmed, reptilian pupils contract and expand as he eyes me appraisingly. Proud black horns spiral up from his head, only adding to his impressive height. He smiles, baring a row of sharp fangs, but I don’t find them terrifying anymore. The sharp, lethal black claws that tip his fingers don’t intimidate me either.
The one thing that does make me a bit uncomfortable is the nudity. Their people think nothing of walking around without a single stitch of clothing. Some wear robes, but most wear nothing since they are so used to shifting forms. At least their private parts are concealed in a mating pouch, so they’re not flashing anyone.
“Would you like me to carry you in this form or my draka form?” he asks with a roguishly handsome grin.
Their draka form is several times the size of their humanoid form and looks like a medieval dragon from a legend. It still scares me a bit. “This form is fine.”
A deafening roar splits the air and my gaze snaps toward the sky. Panic races through me when I notice over a dozen dragons flying toward the city. Their white and gray scales shimmer iridescently beneath the red-orange sun. Panic stills my heart. That coloring means they come from the Wind Clan—the dragons who stole Skye.
“Run. Hide,” the Fire dragon tells me. I freeze as he transforms in a whirl of dust and wind into draka form, turning into a massive crimson dragon before my eyes. He looks down at me again. “Go. Quickly!”
He spreads his large wings and lifts into the sky, racing to meet the Wind Clan invaders head-on.
Sirens blare throughout the city, muffling the sounds of terrified cries and screams as people rush to find cover.
Stunned, I watch as Fire and Wind draka collide in a rage of teeth and claws above our heads, raining obsidian blood as they tear into one another. Buildings crumble and explode where they crash down, showering chunks of rock and debris onto the streets.
Complete chaos erupts as people scatter in all directions, searching for a place to hide. A gust of air behind me pushes me forward, nearly knocking me down. I brace myself against a nearby wall. A bellow sounds overhead, so close the sound vibrates through my body. I turn to meet massive, green eyes with elongated pupils. A scream bursts from my lungs when a large, taloned hand covered in gray scales wraps around my body, ripping me into the sky.
My long brown hair whips around my head, obscuring my vision as I thrash and beat my fists against the Wind dragon’s hold, desperate to escape. A blur of red in the corner of my eye draws my attention, and I turn just as a Fire dragon rams into the side of my captor.
The Wind draka roars loudly, and we begin a tight, spiraling fall. The ground races toward us with dizzying speed. At the last second, his wings snap open, halting our descent only a few feet above the ground. Another dragon attacks, lashing out with his claws and tearing into his flesh.
He relinquishes his grip on my form and I drop the last few feet to the ground. The air is forced from my lungs as I slam against the stone walkway, flat on my back. The world shifts into slow motion as I stare up at the sky, dazed and gasping for air. My ears are still ringing from the drop and everything sounds muffled all around me. I know I should get up, but I cannot make myself move. Not yet.
A deafening boom splits the air overhead and time speeds up as another dragon crashes into the wall beside me. An explosion of dust and debris rains down from the impact. Blinding pain rips through my side and the sharp snap of breaking bone fills my ears as a rock hits my torso. Despite my injury, I force myself to stand, bracing one arm against my ribcage.
Two dragons, white and red, fight above me. A long, white tail whips out, smashing into what’s left of the wall nearby. I jump away too late. Something hits the back of my head and my world goes dark.
