[Red Moon 01.0] Time Trap Read online

  Copyright © Dianna Love Snell and Mary Arsenault Buckham

  ELECTRONIC EDITION

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  DEDICATION

  To every teen who has faced what seems like an insurmountable challenge.

  Table of Contents

  Glossary

  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

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Acknowledgements

  GLOSSARY

  ANASKO (uh – NAS – ko)

  Be’tallia (Beh – TAHL – ya)

  K’ryan (KRY – ahn)

  C’raydonians (krah – DOE – nee – ahns)

  croggle (KROG – ul)

  dugurat (DO – gah – rat)

  furkken (FUR – kin)

  G’ortians (GORE – shuns)

  Hy’bridt (HY – brit)

  Komaen Sphere (KOE – main)

  Micah Caida (MY – kah – KAY – dah)

  MystiK (MISS – tick)

  Neelah (NEE – lah)

  Phen (FEN)

  prantheer (pran – THEE – er)

  Rayen (RAY – un)

  Rustaad (ROO – stad)

  TecKnati (tek – NAH – tee)

  V’ru (VROO)

  Zilya (ZEEL – ya)

  NOTE: This story is appropriate for teens of all ages and adults.

  This coming of age Red Moon trilogy turns dystopian young adult fiction on its ear with a breathtakingly fresh science fiction, fantasy series that is as much a thriller as it is a romantic tale.

  Time Trap: Red Moon Trilogy Book 1

  Rayen’s memory is blank.

  Her future's in question. Her power is dangerous.

  In book one of this unusual young adult, sci-fi/fantasy trilogy, Rayen awakens in the middle of a desert in a strange land called Albuquerque. She's captured and stuck in an unusual school where she stumbles on a deadly secret that can destroy this world … and the future. All she wants to do is go home. The problem is she doesn’t know where she came from, or who she is, and the only person who can help her is a teenage boy in a world where killing the enemy and surviving is all that matters. Though she’s drawn to him, he is as dangerous as he is attractive, and he thinks she’s the enemy.

  NOTE: Don’t miss the special message at The End. (limited time).

  Young adult and adult readers talking about this epic trilogy:

  "Time Trap is amazingly original and unexpected ... I loved every second of reading it!" ~~ Alexandra Fedor, 15, who also read The Book Thief, The Hunger Games, and Anna Karenina.

  "Creative and exciting … couldn't wait to see what happened on the next page, and it’s a book I would totally recommend to my friends."

  ~~ Emily Skeel, age 14, also read The Hunger Games trilogy, Maze Runner and Delirium.

  “Wonderfully written … I've never read anything like it. Excellent!” ~~Adam, age 28

  CHAPTER 1

  Painful starbursts exploded behind my eyes.

  I clawed awake, tumbling forward, bouncing against a rough surface. Heat scorched my arms and legs. I tucked my head and shoulders. Sharp stones gouged my back and sand coated my sweaty body.

  All at once, I lurched forward and slammed to a stop, flat on my face. Ears ringing, my next breath wheezed out, mouth dry as the hot dust singeing my skin.

  What was happening? No answer. My brain hadn’t unscrambled yet.

  “Get up, girl, if you value your life,” someone demanded in a deep male voice that sounded old.

  Don’t push me right now if you value yours. I opened my gritty eyes to blinding light and a cockeyed view of an endless desert. Not a person in sight.

  “Get. Up!” he ordered again.

  If he yelled at me one more time, he wouldn’t be happy when I did make it to my feet. I bit back the snarl curling to my lips. Who was he anyway? My head still spun and my stomach wasn’t much happier. Gravel bit the palms of my hands as I pushed up on shaky knees.

  Every muscle screamed misery. My body had been battered like a kickball. I looked around at endless empty land. Still no one in sight. I kept twisting in a full circle. Not a thing for miles but desert and mountains. Now I was dizzy.

  Had I imagined that voice?

  Where am I?

  Blinking against the harsh sun, I struggled to my feet, weaving where I stood. I grabbed my aching skull. Slow down and think. Rubbing my gritty eyes, I focused harder. Nothing made sense. Then I looked down at myself. Feet tucked inside short boots made of tanned skins. Familiar, but not much. Buckskin material covered me from shoulders to skinned knees in a sort of tunic and I had a leather thong tied around my waist.

  I swallowed, waiting for some memory to rise up.

  Anything.

  Just a hint at what was going on. Sweat streaked down my face, burning my eyes and soaking my hair. Panic shivered through me at the empty gap in my mind. The longer I waited for answers that didn’t come, the more nauseous I got. What was wrong with me? Why can’t I remember what happened for me to be here? I lifted a shaky hand to shove sticky hair off my face and sucked in air faster ... then froze with a new realization.

  Clutching a handful of hair, I pulled the strands into view. Black. Long, thick and black. I hadn’t known that.

  I don’t even know what I look like? My heart thumped hard and picked up speed. I took another glance at the barren landscape, hoping someone showed up to help me.

  Wouldn’t my family miss me?

  Wait. What family? Do I have any? My vision turned watery with tears. Had someone gotten rid of me? Who? When? Where?

  Was this empty desert home? I had no idea.

  Why can’t I remember something so simple? I forced my mind to try harder. Still nothing. Trembling started in my knees and tr
aveled up through my chest. I sucked in a deep inhale of hot air through my lungs, anything to stop the rising panic.

  Panic kills.

  Someone had told me that once. Who? Still no answers. I had to calm down or I wouldn’t survive.

  I squinted, looking for something familiar. Mountains and sand. Nothing but reddish-brown mountains and sand. Wait. Red mountains. I knew those. Hope had me excited. I begged my mind and strained to remember. Closing my eyes, I tried harder. Bright colors flashed behind my eyes and a sharp ache stabbed my skull. Grabbing my head did little to ease that, but the pain did clear some of my foggy brain. Slowly, a word came forward. I held my breath as it formed in my mind.

  Sandia.

  Forcing my eyes open, I smiled.

  That was the name of those mountains. Relief flooded through me so quickly my skin tingled. I’m just disoriented. Not a serious problem.

  “You waste time, Rayen.”

  That had been a real voice this time and close by. I froze and took a breath. When I turn around, someone had better be there. And who was Rayen?

  I made a quarter turn to find the owner of that gravelly voice.

  An old man. No, the shimmering image of an old man. An elder.

  This whole situation just rose to a new level of strange. He had white stringy hair, light gray eyes and gnarled limbs. His body flickered before me. In fact, the red and tan cliff rocks were visible through his translucent body. Beyond that, an unbroken sky stretched overhead, wide and empty and so intensely blue it hurt my eyes.

  Ghost man floated above the desert floor, legs crossed. Floated.

  I had been feeling a whole lot better until I saw that. “Who are–”

  The ground beneath me started vibrating and shifting, killing my words. I stumbled sideways.

  “Listen,” he ordered, his voice tense and urgent. “Three things you must know.” The ghost spoke louder with each word, competing with the heavy, shuddering sound in the distance.

  I chugged in a deep breath, as if that would keep my rising fear at bay. With that inhale I smelled a rotted stench. Cloying decay and smoke. A warning smell I couldn’t place, but something I sensed deep in my bones. Danger. I started to look around.

  “You listening?” the old ghost shouted.

  Like I have a choice? I swallowed, not a spit of saliva in my mouth, and gave him my full attention again, but with my arms crossed as a warning. I was in no mood for a demanding ghost. The spooky elder was determined to get his message said, so I nodded for him to go on.

  The thundering sound in the distance grew louder, reverberating through me. Adrenaline stirred my blood, urging me to be ready.

  But for what?

  “First thing,” he enunciated as if I was slow witted. “You die if you eat peanuts and you are seventeen.”

  Peanuts? Who cares about nuts, and wouldn’t that technically be two things? I sniffed at the air. The burning stink thickened. I reached for a knife that wasn’t at my hip, but something told me it should be.

  “Second. Your name Rayen.”

  I’m Rayen? Now I had a name. That would thrill me if I could believe a crazy hallucination. Fear snaked through my body with icy fingers, paralyzing me. I don’t know my name ... or what I’m doing here ... or where here is, other than recognizing those mountains.

  The ground shook harder. Dust and pebbles scattered everywhere. I widened my stance to keep my balance.

  That’s when I caught the distinct sound of hooves pounding. Hard. Behind me ... and gaining speed.

  I looked over my shoulder.

  A beast. My muscles clenched at the sheer size of the thing. A hairy, rhino-hide gray creature blotted out the desert landscape behind it. Barreling forward, rocking back and forth on three legs, wide head low to the ground. Scary fast, churning geysers of sand and dirt, eating up distance quicker than anything its size should.

  Air backed up in my lungs. “What the – ”

  “Third thing, Rayen,” the elder shouted, his voice nearly drowned by the rumble. “Run!”

  CHAPTER 2

  Ghost Man vanished as I raced away at full speed.

  Survival instinct took over. I ran, arms pumping, and rocketed away from the beast. Quick leap over a stray thorny bush. My heels slammed hard rock, feet racing as if demons chased me.

  I spared a check over my shoulder.

  The beast was gaining, yellow eyes burning for blood.

  What was that thing? Shouldn’t I know?

  Didn’t matter. Right now I had no place to hide and no idea how to escape. No trees large enough to hide behind. Nothing.

  Except the mountains. They were my safe haven. I knew that, somehow. But how do I know? Was there a place to hide in those rocks up ahead? Maybe that beast couldn’t follow me up a sharp incline.

  Keep moving.

  Ragged breaths brushed past my dry lips. Hot air scorched my chest. I gagged on the creature’s nauseating smell. I could hear it gaining on me. Shaking the earth beneath my panicked feet.

  I’m running too hard. Won’t last at this pace. My lungs were going to burst. Have to find cover.

  Where?

  Stinging sweat poured into my eyes when I lifted my gaze to see what lay ahead. I searched ahead where boulders had tumbled into a monolithic pile along the nearest ridge, as if stacked by a giant’s hand.

  Tell me that beast can’t climb.

  If I could just get far enough ahead and reach the peak on the other side of those boulders.

  I veered slightly left, pistoning my arms and breathing as hard as any other small prey run to ground.

  Fifty feet. Run faster.

  Thirty feet. Not going to make it.

  Ten feet. Come on. Almost there. Almost.

  A roar screamed through the air.

  I leaped from ground to rock. Slammed a knee. Slapped raw palms against jagged surfaces baked by the sun. Heat seared my skin. Ignore the pain.

  Climb, climb, climb!

  Scrambling fast as a lizard, I reached for crevices, grinding my knees and thighs.

  Another scream, higher pitched this time but farther away. The thing pawed the ground. Dust erupted, choking the air.

  I stretched for the next handhold and risked a quick glance back. What did that thing want?

  At the base of the rocks, the creature started morphing from a huge, low-to-the-ground Rhino beast to a tall, thin whippet shape with a short, sleek coat of sand-colored hair.

  And talons.

  Is that possible? No way in blue blazes. I’m so dead.

  I bit my lip, tasting blood. Can’t quit now. I sucked in a blast of baked air and clawed my way up the next rock outcropping. Sunlight poked through crevices from the other side. Maybe if I can get to that side there’d be someplace to hide. Or people.

  Like me? Where were my people?

  Worry later. Right now, I’d take help from anyone I could find.

  But could I stay ahead of that beast long enough to find someone?

  The sun roasted my exposed skin and beat down on my back. Muscles burned the harder I climbed. Blood pounded in my ears. I jammed the toes of my boots into whatever crack I could find and shoved my body higher, faster. My fingers clutched sandstone and slipped. I dug in deeper and scrambled hand-over-hand.

  The sound of loose rocks falling behind me warned not to look back. Keep moving.

  Hot breath licked the air around my legs.

  The beast was almost on me.

  A space between rocks gaped to my left. Crunching my shoulders as thin as possible, I plunged into the narrow V opening, raking my back raw.

  A shaft of blue sky yawned on the other side.

  Deadly panting echoed right behind me. Closing in.

  Fighting panic, I scrambled forward and lunged through the opening to the far side ... and too late saw nothing below.

  Just air.

  My feet flipped over my head. I tumbled. An ocean of sky and rusty-brown rocks blurred through my vision. I hit hard, face planted
on dirt.

  It knocked the breath out of me. My head spun and every bone reverberated. I took a wheezing gasp that hurt.

  “Son of a bitch!” a strange young male voice called. “Hey, dude, we got a skydiver.”

  Did I know the name Dude?

  I opened my mouth and groaned. The only sound I could make.

  “Hey, babe, where’s your chute?” the same voice asked, closer.

  Babe?

  “Idiot, she fell from the rocks.” Another voice that sounded just as young and male joined the first. “She’s a mess. Leave her.”

  “No way she fell. From those rocks?” the first male argued. He whistled low. “Should be dead.” Then he whispered, “Hey. Maybe she is. We better go.”

  We’ll all be dead if that beast follows me. I twisted my head enough to look up at the cliff face I’d just dived from.

  There. In the crevice of dusty-red boulders loomed a shadow. Long and thin. Waiting.

  Even from this distance, I felt the danger. Predator eyeing prey. But what kept it from attacking? The other people? The distance? Could that thing not shift from land animal to a winged creature and swoop down?

  Beware the beast whispered through my mind.

  As if I hadn’t figured that out? That voice stirred a memory, almost. A female voice filled with worry. Who is she? Why can’t I remember?

  The flicker of knowing slid away faster than dust through my fingers.

  Fear coiled in my chest. I’m so confused. The blank spots in my mind threatened me on a gut-deep level, far more than the beast did.

  But I’d gotten my wish. I’d found people.

  I rolled onto my back, sucking air at the pain that movement caused. My entire body complained. Body slammed twice and feeling as if I’d been squeezed from the inside out.

  The second voice called from a little further away. “Come on, Taylor, move it. We gotta get out of here before—”