Dragon Force 1: Invisible Born Read online

  Copyright 2018 Lucía Ashta.

  All rights reserved.

  Published by Awaken to Peace Press.

  This book is a work of fiction. All characters, places, and incidents described in this publication are used fictitiously or are entirely fictional. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means, except by an authorized retailer or with written permission of the publisher. Inquiries may be addressed via email to [email protected].

  Cover design by Amalia Chitulescu.

  Edited by Elsa Crites.

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  About the book

  Hunted and forced to hide from her own people.

  Seventeen-year-old Anira was born a twin, a fact that would have led to her death if she hadn’t also been born invisible.

  Every day of her life, she’s forced to hide to protect the secret of who she is while her twin gets to lead the life she can’t. She has no purpose beyond her own survival.

  Then Anira discovers that their chieftain is a sorcerer who’s draining the tribe’s power and keeping it for himself. He intends to drain the magic from the dragons next. Protecting the dragons is her people’s most sacred calling.

  The chieftain has everyone enchanted into believing he’s their savior. But not Anira. He can’t bewitch her when he doesn’t realize she exists.

  For the first time, Anira has a purpose. She vows to stop the chieftain and save her tribe and the dragons. She’s the only one who can.

  For if she fails, there will be no one left to prevent the chieftain from claiming the dragons’ magic. It’s what he’s counting on.

  But he doesn’t expect Anira. No one ever does.

  For my grandfather, Nicasio,

  who taught me to persevere in the most difficult of times

  The eyes deceive more readily than the heart.

  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

  Invisible Bound - Book 2

  Make a difference

  Acknowledgments

  Read more by Lucía Ashta

  About the author

  1

  The dragon’s wings stretched so wide that they threatened to completely obliterate the sun. One second, the Suxle Sun had been so bright that it nearly blinded me, the next all I could make out was the monstrous outline that threatened death and destruction.

  Even though we were the dragon protectors—on good days, dragon charmers—I was under no delusion that we controlled the dragons. If anything, they controlled us. They dictated the ways of our people. We were there because of them, and we’d remain, because damn, what glorious creatures!

  “Move, Dram!” my brother yelled, but not at me. I wasn’t supposed to be there. I was never supposed to be anywhere. I wasn’t supposed to exist.

  I didn’t think Dram needed my brother to tell him to move. He was already running so fast across the rocks that he nearly took off in flight.

  “Faster! You need to make it to the cave.” My brother’s comments were most unhelpful, even though I realized he was trying to help. Dram was hightailing it toward the safety of the cave. If he didn’t make it, well, he’d be a dragon snack.

  That’s just how it went when you were part of a tribe that swore to protect all dragons. The most dangerous jobs were those working with them, and they were also the most coveted. I’m sure that said lots about us as a people, and it probably said even more about me that I snuck around to be close to the dragons I was forbidden from seeing.

  But then, I was forbidden from seeing everything. I was a secret greater even than the ways of the dragon charmers, with their mesmerizing whispers and abilities to enchant the ferocious beasts.

  Like the rest of the boys there, I pinned my eyes on Dram. As soon as my brother had realized this particular dragon wasn’t in a cooperative mood—and they usually weren’t—he’d sprinted toward the nearest cave, that dark pit of refuge within the mountains we called home. Rane’s friends followed.

  All except Dram. He’d stood in the dragon’s path a moment too long, seemingly mesmerized by the deep violet wingspan, which obscured everything else. When the dragon began its swoop downward toward him, Dram had finally reacted, but then he’d run toward the first cave his eyes spotted, the one that was farthest away. And distance might determine whether he lived or died.

  It was harsh, but so was everything about our lives. The threat of death was ever present, lingering around us like the cloying heat of dragons’ breath, that last thing you experienced if they ever got too close to you, and you didn’t know how to convince them you were something special too, not just lunch meat.

  All of our people, even those who had other jobs that didn’t put them in the dragons’ path, were in continual danger. I was in the greatest danger of all. The threats to my life came from all sides. Not just from dragons, but from the community I was supposed to be part of.

  Any one of my tribespeople might kill me on sight—if they could see me.

  My eyes widened even before I heard my brother’s voice ring out with desperation across the rocks, bouncing on all the hard surfaces, and reflecting his fear. I understood it. It didn’t look as if Dram was going to make it.

  He was close, but the dragon was closer. And the she-dragon, the most volatile of the two sexes, was in a dive.

  She’d pumped her wings and drawn them back against her body. It looked as if she might collide against the rocks when she finally reached them, but I knew better. Despite their gargantuan size, the dragons were agile, and incredibly strong. She’d pull up at the last second, before she crashed and just after she snapped her jaws around one of Dram’s quickly retreating body parts.

  I barely knew Dram. I barely knew anyone beyond those that lived in my home. I wasn’t allowed to meet anybody. But Dram seemed like a nice enough boy, with a reluctant smile that came out when he thought he was alone with his friends.

  Damn. He isn’t going to make it. He was going to die, right there in front of us all. My brother and his friends wouldn’t do a thing about it. No one was permitted to harm the dragons, not even when not doing so meant the death of one of our own. It had been that way long before Chieftain Pumpoo’s rule, since our people had left the capital city of Origins in self-imposed exile, thousands of years before I was born.

  The dragons were majestic, and our chieftain taught that it was our sacred mission to protect them from those who would do them harm. Who might manage to cause them significant injury, I had no idea. The beasts looked unkillable, and whatever raiders managed to reach us from Origins would only be human. But the chieftain was unwavering. Any member of the Ooba tribe who harmed a dragon, even if they didn’t kill the beast, would receive a death sentence. It was harsh, especially when the dragons killed so many of our own, but everything about our life was. Unforgiving, just like Chieftain Pumpoo.

  Our choice was simple: Live with the Ooba tribe and
respect its ways, or leave. There was no in between, no leniency.

  I couldn’t do a single thing to save Dram—or rather, I shouldn’t do anything to spare him from what was looking like certain death.

  But I had to. I couldn’t stand by and do nothing, even if that was what was required of me as a member of the Ooba tribe. I lived within the umbrella of the chieftain’s rules although no one beyond my family unit was aware I existed.

  Perhaps I can do whatever I want, I thought. Yeah, if I don’t mind turning up dead.

  But the time for random, desperate thoughts had passed. The luxury to ponder what to do while the scene in front of me distilled into slow motion was long gone. I either acted, or the dragon would, extending her sharp, blade-like teeth toward Dram.

  I was in my own small pocket of a cave, one probably a bit too shallow to be safe from the she-dragon—if she noticed me. The dragons seemed not to see me, just like the tribespeople, though I hadn’t sufficiently tested my theory.

  I was about to.

  I should’ve thought my actions through, but I didn’t. There wasn’t time.

  I moved. I slipped from the shallow cave, safe from detection. My brother’s friends wouldn’t be looking my way, and neither would Dram. Besides, it was my experience that people rarely saw what they didn’t believe existed. They saw what they wanted to see.

  I was safe—more or less.

  The she-dragon was stretching her neck in anticipation of catching up with Dram before he reached refuge. The sun backlit her long, strong body, and I drew to a stop for an instant of admiration before remembering that I couldn’t afford to be mesmerized by what I both admired and feared. The big, long, fierce, violet dragon stood out against the dark orange ball of the sun, its claws protracted, its teeth bared, its tongue reaching ahead.

  I saw spots where I’d stared at the sun as I started my own run. I still hadn’t figured out what I was going to do, but I was moving faster than Dram, and I was gaining on him and the dragon. I was faster even than my brother, and he was one of the fastest boys of our tribe. But I’d grown up running and hiding; my life depended on getting out of the way fast enough to avoid detection.

  My bare feet hit the hot rock with a soft slapping sound, but for once I didn’t have to worry about anyone hearing me. I doubted they could hear a thing over their own rapid breathing and pattering heartbeat.

  Dram was no more than twenty strides from his target, and I was no more than twenty strides from him. The she-dragon was farther away, but she could cover distance faster.

  “No!” Rane screamed. No one would realize he was expressing his terror for me, not for Dram; no one else would have seen me.

  Not even the she-dragon seemed to have sensed me. I couldn’t tell whether that was because her focus was on her prey, or because dragons really couldn’t see me, just like people.

  Either way, I wasn’t about to stop. I was close enough to interfere. Maybe. I still had no idea what the heck to do. I grew up in the shadows of the beasts, but I didn’t get to train with them. I occasionally watched others try to tame them, with little success. That wouldn’t help me.

  The she-dragon extended her tongue toward Dram, I assumed to pull him toward her. Instead, she tripped him, and Dram went flying. He sprawled against the hard rock with a loud smacking sound, in this case, that of certain death.

  He didn’t bother grunting from the fall I imagined must have hurt; his knees and elbows took the brunt of the fall. He didn’t even bother turning around to see the face of the she-dragon that would be his last sight. He didn’t watch her pull her lips back to bare knife-sharp teeth, nor did he notice the gleam in her eyes that revealed that the creature was acting on instinct; killing was her nature.

  Dram had already accepted his fate, and he didn’t want to see it come to pass. Which meant he didn’t see me either. Not that he really could have, but he might have caught a glint of my shape as light hit me, or noticed how my body distorted the image of what lay behind me.

  No, I was safe from Dram’s detection. His forehead pressed in defeat against the rock, his eyes clenched shut.

  That was the only way in which I was safe.

  Rane was too far away for me to actually hear him talking, but I sensed him. I always could. He was terrified, and as much as he might like Dram, his terror was for me. I’m sorry, Rane, I thought, because I couldn’t afford to speak, not with Dram so close. This is something I have to do. I needed purpose for my senseless life, and if this was it, then at least it was something.

  It was now or never. I stretched my legs and leapt toward Dram and the violet she-dragon. Still in the air, I slapped, as hard as I could, at the dragon’s neck. Despite the strength I tried to imbue into my actions, my strike resounded with a dull, muted sound. I’d never touched a dragon before. Her scales were thick and dense, as if I were slapping stone instead of living, beating flesh.

  But it was enough to get her attention, and to sting the palm of my hand.

  I landed roughly against the beast’s neck, crashing into her. She whipped her head my way, in the direction of the attack, her teeth still bared, and knocked me off my feet.

  I held my breath while I scrambled to stand as silently as I could manage. When she swung her head back and forth, looking for me, I ducked to avoid her head and neck.

  I flicked a look at Dram. He was still on the ground, unmoving, every muscle clenched as he awaited the death he believed inevitable.

  He still hadn’t noticed he now had a window to escape. I wanted desperately to yell at him to get up and haul butt, but I couldn’t. If I survived this, then my secret had to survive as well.

  I felt the threat before I heard the dragon’s movements. For half a breath, my entire body tensed, then I was running again, this time because my own life was at stake. I knew what would happen the second the she-dragon scented me.

  Already a few strides away from her, I heard the dragon flick the air with a hiss of her tongue.

  My feet pounded across the rock, so fast I was a blur. But all I had to see was the small cave from which I’d emerged.

  A mighty, enraged roar shook the rock, concealing the sounds of my retreat. The beast wouldn’t fly now, I realized this from years of watching the dragons from afar. Their bodies were too big, their wingspan too wide to use flight to cover short distances. The dragon would run to catch me, and even though she was far more agile in the air, she was still fast on the ground. Nothing about the creatures was deficient. If she didn’t run, she’d release her fire, and I’d watched the stream of flame span forty, maybe fifty feet.

  I was quick, but I wasn’t that quick. What was I thinking? As usual, I hadn’t been.

  I pumped my arms, grateful my body was as swift as it was, and I urged myself forward. Magic—what the Ooba people called faithum, a remnant from our ancestors’ time in the royal city—was forbidden, but I still wanted to believe in it. How could I not, given what I was, whatever I was?

  I willed faithum to whisk me to the cave. I didn’t even blink as I felt my body move almost impossibly fast.

  “Run, dammit, run!” Rane shouted, and again I was the only one to understand he was calling to me. His friends would think he was talking to Dram.

  Dram reacted to Rane’s shout, and finally scrambled to conceal himself in the cave while the dragon was distracted. If only I hadn’t been the distraction.

  I felt the heat a second before the dragon released her fire, just as I was within reach of the dark cool cave.

  Something was happening to me, though I had no inclination to question what. My mind was suddenly blank of anything but streaming my movements for one purpose, and one only: to reach the safety of the cave.

  I could do this. I was the impossible girl. I could achieve the impossible; I’d been doing it all my life.

  I stretched my legs to inconceivable lengths. I lunged and pumped. And I leapt inside the cave just as the forefront of the she-dragon’s flames licked at the soles of my feet, an
kles, and calves. They burned, but I moved too fast for the burn to take hold.

  I dove into the back of the cave, wishing it weren’t as shallow as it was. Because if the she-dragon figured out what was going on, I’d die burned to a crisp.

  2

  “What the hell were you thinking, Anira?”

  Rane only called me by my full name when he was mad or afraid. Today, I’d made him experience both emotions, and my brother tried hard not to be afraid. I understood him better than anyone, and I knew that being afraid was the one thing he didn’t allow himself often. Even though he was just coming into manhood, he’d self-appointed himself the head of the family when our father and older brother left one day and never returned.

  “You almost died.” His voice was low despite the harsh tone of his words, just as it always was when he spoke to me. Even when we were in the confines of our home, the one place where I could be myself, he kept his voice down. I was never fully safe, no matter where I was, not even in the forest we were traversing, not when someone could be hiding behind any one of the trees. If my brother was anything, he was careful, and when it came to me, he was paranoid. “It’s nothing short of faithum that the she-dragon didn’t scent you out and eat you.”

  I hadn’t said much at first, resigned to the berating. I figured I owed Rane at least that; after all, he was right, what I’d done was reckless and irresponsible. But he’d been saying different versions of the same thing for half the forest, and I was finished allowing him to beat me up about what I’d already done. I couldn’t take it back, so enough was enough. “But she didn’t eat me.” I wouldn’t deny that she’d scented me, because she had, but if Rane hadn’t realized that from the distance, I wasn’t about to tell him. “And she didn’t burn me to death either.” I knew my twin well enough to anticipate what he’d say next.