Dragonfly Ignited Read online

  Dragonfly

  Ignited

  From The Ashes, Book 1

  AIMEE MOORE

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  I would like to thank everyone who has believed in me during this process. Your encouragement, help, and support are appreciated beyond words. I would especially like to thank my husband, Greg, who has been my “rock” through this whole process. I believed in myself because he believed in me first. Thank you, love.

  Chapter 1

  Taken

  My world is dying.

  Dying in the way that all things touched by war do. It's an ugly death, with the world's innards splashed across the barren vastness of the cosmos, the stench of decay weeping alongside the mourning song of what still lives. This is my reality.

  But my world wasn't always a bleeding husk of rock and death. It was once lush and vivacious, alive with creatures both beautiful and soft. This glorious time marked my childhood. Until I found myself sitting in a bone hut reeking of decay, my body hurting from only having barren dirt to lay upon. I held in my hands a raw hatred for those who took that world from me. It was the only thing they could not take from me: my hatred.

  It was thirteen horrific days since I was taken by the Kraw. In few words, they are a race of hulking, powerful men that were all born to be warlords. In fewer words, only one Kraw will ever be the Warlord. They wouldn't tell us where they came from, or why they were slaughtering us and killing our world. They take and kill, and that is all we know. And I was taken.

  My people are gifted with stubbornness and hope, but there are few of our number who are gifted with abilities transcending that of normal humans. In our darkest hour, we turned to those Gifted few, relying on their abilities to wield the elements as our saviors. They were snuffed under the boot heels of the Kraw, scattering like embers blown away from a pyre. Those who were not crushed fled to safety, abandoning the rest.

  So, taken as I was, I sat in that reeking cage while death and decay seeped through my world. I had only the perishing screams of my family echoing through fresh memories to keep me company. Leaning my back against the lumps of bone that made my prison walls, I wondered when they would kill me. My stomach cried louder than the memories of my family’s dying screams. Neither would find peace.

  One of the hulking Kraw men stomped past me and began to relieve himself against the walls of a nearby hut, not even glancing my way. I was an animal to him. I turned away and sighed, letting off a pitiful groan instead, trying to surrender myself to blissful unconsciousness.

  As I finally found the darkness of a fitful sleep, the wall behind me was pulled away, and I fell to the floor with an ugly grunt. Staring up at the Kraw who yanked my prison away, I couldn't help the fear that curled through my insides. He was massive, muscles straining to be free from his dusky skin, piercings and tattoos adorning a bare chest like clothing. The tattoos climbed up the tight skin of a large-boned face, traveling up a mostly shaved head, disappearing into the unshaved portion of hair, which was braided down his back like a black rope.

  My own hair was not so strong. The hulking Kraw tossed my prison away like a straw basket and reached down to grab a fistful of my long, red hair. I cried out and got to my feet as my scalp was twisted.

  “You disgusting beast, let me go,” I snarled, digging my claws into hands that could easily span dinner plates. My nails broke on the tough skin, and my protests were ignored as he dragged me to a large cart. It was a cage on wheels, made of bones of course.

  I laughed as I was dragged along by my hair, though my eyes were streaming. “Bones, everything is bones with you people. Don't you ever get tired of death? Maybe that hideous face of yours would know a smile if you lived anything other than death.”

  I gasped as I was lifted from the ground by my scalp, eyes watering, and shoved into the bone cage atop the cart. The Kraw bolted it shut and walked away without a backward glance. Hollering questions and empty threats had proved useless from day one, but at least there was some satisfaction in insults. Perhaps the language barrier had been an effective shield all this time, for if they understood the foul words I launched at them I would probably be dog meat now.

  Rubbing my tender, throbbing scalp, I turned around with a huff and collapsed on the wooden floor, gasping with shock for the second time that day when I noticed the massive lump of another Kraw in the cage with me. He was turned away, displaying only the intricate tattoos of his race blazing from a shaved head, down his broad back, and disappearing under rough pants. This one had no rope of hair.

  Squishing myself against the door, I glared at the Kraw, waiting for it to display its characteristic Kraw nastiness. I'd seen what Kraw did to my mother and sister in battle. I'd thought myself lucky to escape such a fate until now.

  But this Kraw only ignored me. As the cart began to move and the noise of hundreds of battle-ready Kraw marched around us, still he ignored me. And after time, as I watched the barren landscape slide by, I forgot he was there. I forgot all but the strange tongue of the war song of thousands of Kraw around me, punctuated by the yipping of spiny Kraw war dogs.

  Matchstick trees and crumbling mountains passed me by. A mountain so tall it reached to the skies gave me an ache in my neck as I craned to see its peak. I was dismayed to see the tops of the mountain crumbling away into an endless blue sky, as if falling upward.

  I thought myself bumping along to my doom, but the stinking bone cart was ferrying me away to a destiny that would make me question everything I knew. About my world. About my captors. About myself.

  Two days passed before the Kraw remembered their prisoners and threw meat scraps and stale bread our way. The Kraw in the cage with me ignored his, but I was unable to control the hunger commanding my dirty fingers to bring the salty meat to my dry lips. I polished my scant meal off and looked to the Kraw's untouched food, wondering if I would die for taking his.

  Maybe I could hide his if he hadn't seen it yet and ration it. No, I’ll be injured. Just kick him in the head until the goo within spills and take the meat.

  I caught my breath as the last thought caused my empty gut to lurch. I would not let these beasts take my humanity from me. I cleared my throat.

  “Are you going to eat?” I asked through a throat scratchy from misuse. There was no answer, so I scooted closer to the Kraw. “Has death taken you?”

  In a captive state, the mind's capacity for compassion dwindles. His death would have meant more food and less threat to me. The massive bulk didn't move at my approach. Huffing a sigh out of my nose, heart pounding in my head, I brushed a feather light touch over the Kraw's arm, hoping he stayed dead so that I could eat his share.

  The Kraw turned and glared at me so fast that I startled. I hated that I recognized an almost human awareness in the Kraw's hazel eyes, pain and suffering of his own waging war somewhere inside that strange face. He wasn't supposed to look human or forlorn, he was supposed to look mutant
and evil. And yet, I recognized the same misery within him that had plagued me for the past few weeks.

  He growled something at me in his guttural language, muscles tensing as he spoke, and I glanced at the untouched food next to him before scooting back to my place by the door with slow and deliberate movements. I should have provoked him to kill me, after seeing what the Kraw outside the cage did to my family. Self-preservation is stronger than common sense.

  I hugged my knees to my chest and glared at the Kraw. “Fine, let it sit there and rot. Maybe you people only like rotten things. Maybe you made my world rotten on purpose so you could thrive like maggots.” My stomach growled and I looked away, out into the moon-touched darkness of dead trees and barren dirt for miles. Even if I were free, there would be nowhere to go. Nothing to eat.

  The cart shifted and something thumped at my feet. I startled to see the hunk of meat and the stale bread in front of me. I raised a questioning gaze to the Kraw, but he was turned away from me already, returned to his stone silence. I was not so silent about eating. When pitchers of water were pressed through the bars, I drank with greed until I might burst, then scrubbed at my dirty face and hands until my skin was red and raw.

  That was the last I would see of food and water for days more, until the Kraw stopped to make camp in the darkness again. Talking and grunting and fighting around fires that consumed the abundant death around us, the warriors wallowed in their barbarism. The air stunk of smoke, decay, and sweat, as it always did when Kraw were around.

  I tried to shut my eyes and hold tight to my memories. My older sister, rosy faced and breathless, sharing a dance with me at her wedding. Lonnie, my sweet betrothed, kissing my hand and promising me a life of tenderness. My parents, stern but doting, sharing a laugh over dinner as we talked of our quaint lives as bakers. The feel of soft, elastic bread dough between my fingers as I pushed and pulled, kneading. The simple chore had always calmed me.

  The cart rocked hard, knocking me off balance and bringing me back to present. We were off again.

  “Can't even drive a cart with any care,” I said under my breath, glaring ahead at the Kraw directing the leather hide steeds to pull us. My eyes widened when I noticed the Kraw in the cage with me was sitting up now, leaning against the bars on the opposite side, watching me. I wondered how to express gratitude at the meal from a few days ago, then erased that thought when I realized the Kraw was glaring at me with none other than burning hatred. I returned the hostile stare, both of us sharing a mutual dislike that was, apparently, powerful enough to raze a world.

  The landscape rolled into rocks and cliffs and barren dips in the jagged scenery. Skeletal trees adorned the landscape like dead fingers, clawing at the hazy blue sky. When we stopped, there were huts of hide and bone all around us, Kraw women and children mixing into the fray. Dusky skinned, bone and hide laden creatures of war, all of them. Some came to sneer at me through the bars, barking off sounds that I could only assume were laughter. Children threw things at me. Women tried to pull my long red hair through the bars.

  The cart was opened then, and I ducked the large hand that grabbed at my hair. The Kraw grabbed at my simple shirt instead, tearing it down the side, exposing my breast in a flash of cold air. Fearing more of my clothing would be damaged or removed, I obeyed and scurried out of the cart. There were multitudes of the warriors, covered in tattoos and piercings and blood spattered leather.

  Even the women were warriors, muscles flexing with menace under hard skin. And all of them surrounded me, at least a head taller, barking and grunting and growling in their strange language. I stood tall and glared, holding my shirt closed. A large finger jabbed me now and then, knocking me off balance as they spoke of my fate.

  The Kraw in the cage with me was hauled out, and he exploded into rage as soon as he was out of the cage, swinging fists and aiming powerful kicks at his captors. I ducked away from the roaring Kraw I had been sharing a cage with, chest heaving with shock as I watched him break two necks and three arms. More Kraw attacked him and the sounds of raw meat smacking against hard muscle echoed through the dead hills.

  I covered my mouth, heart racing. Through the mountain of Kraw meat that was beating my cellmate, hazel eyes met mine before he was obscured again. And when they came away from him, he was hunched over and soaked in blood, growling strange things through broken lips. Three dead Kraw lay nearby.

  More of the strange language floated around me from my captors, and more finger prods still. A hand reached for my hair and nearly lifted me off my toes. I clawed at the large hand to no effect. Another hand pulled at my shirt, exposing my flesh for all to see. Barking laughter rolled through the village.

  “Put me down!” I shouted, struggling as much as my burning scalp would allow. My eyelids burned from the skin of my head being pulled.

  I kicked out hard at the Kraw and earned a rough backhand across the jaw. My lip burst in a white-hot trickle as I saw stars. More of the barking, grunting language ensued, and as the fuzziness of my dim vision wore off I realized that my cellmate was talking, slow and slurred. The Kraw punched him again and ignored the looks of loathing he shot them, but I was set on my feet, forgotten as I pulled the shreds of my shirt around my cold skin. Blood dripped down my chin and my scalp throbbed red hot as the world wobbled around me.

  After some scuffling and rough conversation, him and I were both thrown into a large circular hut with a pool in the middle. The walls were a smooth white stone, domed to a hole in the high ceiling to let in light. I looked across the room to my cellmate, who was glaring at me over the pool of water. If his thirst was as intense as mine, I would die before getting to that pool, because he was a mountain of strength.

  Chapter 2

  New Alliances

  They were going to kill me anyway, tempting fate some more wouldn’t make much difference.

  I dropped to my knees and tasted the water with slow, deliberate movements. He made no move to stop me. The water was so fresh it could have been made from the dew that kissed the flowers of my village.

  I took deep pulls, forgetting everything but quenching my thirst. When I finally came away gasping for air, the pool was tinged pink where I had drunk. Wiping water away from my lips, my swollen bottom lip throbbed, and my hand came away with smears of blood. The cloud of faint red in the water was dissipating.

  “I'm sorry,” I said.

  His gaze rose from my chest, and I looked down to find my torn shirt exposing me. I covered, hoping to all that would listen that my cellmate didn’t have a similar mindset of my captors. But when I met his eyes again, he showed no signs of moving.

  “About the water,” I said. “I seem to have tainted it.”

  We watched each other for a time as I went over what happened in the crowd of Kraw. Did my cellmate save me? If he did, he suffered for his chivalry. If Kraw possessed such a thing. Perhaps it was simply a stroke of luck that saved me, and his words had nothing to do with me. I glanced up at the Kraw again, noticing deep bruising blossoming under the tattoos.

  He fought like a one man storm. Making peace with him might give me one less thing to fear. I could always remain loyal to my family and hate this creature with my very soul, but earning his protection could keep me alive.

  I tore off a piece of my skirt and dipped it in the cleanest part of the pool before taking careful steps to the Kraw. As I got closer, his glare became more intense, and for a moment I worried that he might swing at me. I wasn't sure my face could take another hit, so I knelt down.

  “Unless I am mistaken, you saved my life back there.”

  There was no answer from the Kraw, only the same glare.

  I looked down for a moment, sighing as I wished there wasn't a language barrier. When I met his eyes again, I was treated to a softer hazel than before. Frost melting over spring.

  “My name is Seraphine.” I gestured to myself as I said it. Still, the massive Kraw only watched me. I gestured to myself again. “Seraphine.” Then I ges
tured to the Kraw, palms up, hoping to encourage conversation. A strange moment passed where he glanced from my hands to my face, seeming to consider, and I began to think this whole exercise was fruitless.

  “Dal,” he said at last, deep voice rumbling through the small hut.

  “Dal,” I repeated. I pointed to myself, “Seraphine,” then to the Kraw, “Dal.”

  A ghost of an eye roll passed over the Kraw's features.

  “Can you understand me?” I asked. “Have you been able to understand me this whole time?”

  The Kraw was stone-faced.

  With a sigh, I shook my head. “Pointless.” Then I held the wet cloth up and pointed to his wounds.

  Dal glared at me and shifted away.

  “Fine, you stubborn Kraw, sit there and fester. It's the least you probably deserve,” I said under my breath, standing.

  Dal glanced at the closed door before looking at me again, relaxing a fraction and giving me a short nod. I debated with myself for a moment before taking careful steps to the hulking Kraw in front of me and kneeling to clean his wounds. I may have been his enemy, but I would show him that humans were better, kinder creatures.

  This close to the Kraw, I could hear his slow, deep breathing. I could smell his skin and blood. The close proximity to him brought on a new wave of awkwardness, for his face and body were that of a human man, though larger and thicker, but still shirtless and very warm. His gaze burned into my hands as I moved, wiping away blood and revealing intricate tattoos over soft, tan skin. In a savage sort of way, this Kraw possessed an odd beauty. I shook away the appreciative thought. This was a Kraw, and Kraw were responsible for all of the evils committed to me.

  But this one was not personally responsible; I was sure of it. His tattoos were different. His piercings were less, and he lacked the rope of hair that the rest had. And I was too tired to summon my hatred anymore for today. The abuse I'd suffered moments ago had taken the fight from me, and I was weak with hopelessness and exhaustion. Perhaps I simply needed some sort of kindness in my life at this moment, even if I was the one administering it.