Twist: A Crimson Dust Cycle Prequel: The Crimson Dust Cycle

By J.S. Arquin

TO ESCAPE A BOY MUST PLAY...

TO PLAY A BOY MUST PAY.

BUT WILL THE PRICE BE HIS LIFE?

The only way out of Canyon City is to win the Game.

But Theo Maro is a terrible player.

When he finds a strange object in the scrapyard,

It looks like his luck might be changing.

But luck can change for the better...

Or the worse.

Fans of Ender's Game and Red Rising will loved this fast-paced prequel to The Crimson Dust Cycle.

Get it now.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Words on the Wind, LLC
• Release date: Jan 15, 2020
• ISBN: 9781951968038

J.S. Arquin

J.S. Arquin is an author, audiobook narrator and producer, podcaster, entertainer, and adventurer. He has lived in inspiring and disturbing places all over the world, and currently makes his home in Portland, OR, where he dodges raindrops on his bicycle and sometimes writes about himself in the third person. He has voiced dozens of audiobooks, and his fiction has been featured all over the web. You can catch his ramblings and some breathtaking speculative fiction on his bi-weekly podcast, The Overcast. You can also find him on Twitter @JS_Arquin. He is hard at work on the next book in The Crimson Dust Cycle.

Book preview

1

I’m elbow-deep in circuit boards when the office light snaps on, throwing a square of brightness onto the dark scrapyard around me. I freeze, huddling behind a mound of dead monitors. Three centimeters to the side and I’d be lit up like a flitbat.

Through the open window I see Kaida, the head of the Crystal Clan, stomp into the office, her black hair braided tight to her skull. She’s built like a tank, the muscles on her arms and shoulders shining with sweat beneath her loose-fitting vest. Even at night it’s stifling in the summer here in Canyon City.

Kaida’s yelling at someone I can’t see, gesturing with her hands and stabbing the air with her fingers. Something about shipments and quotas. I don’t know. I’m too scared to pay attention. If the Crystal Clan catches me in their scrapyard, they’ll break my fingers.

And that’s if I’m lucky. If I’m not… well, I don’t want to think about that. Let’s just say the options start at bad and get worse from there.

Another woman steps into view. She’s tall and thin, and wears her blonde hair shaved around the sides and back, twisted up into a spike on the top of her head.

I gulp. It’s Zetta, the hunter. Kaida’s dangerous, but Zetta is a tool designed for pain, like a whip or a strand of barbed wire.

She argues with Kaida quietly, matching the force of Kaida’s words without matching the volume.

Kaida steps forward and slaps her, hard. Something small and white flies out the window, skittering across the scraps near me. Neither of the women notice. Their eyes are locked on each other, a predator’s stare-down, waiting to see who will blink first.

The hunter’s face darts forward. To my shock, she licks Kaida across the lips. Kaida growls and grabs her by the back of the neck, crushing their faces together for a hungry kiss. The pair of them tumble out of sight.

Now is my chance. I stuff one last chip into my backpack and quietly zip the pouch. As I turn to go, the white thing catches my eye, resting on a small metal disc beside me. It’s an earcone, really high quality, all smooth lines and seamless construction. As I run my thumb over it, I realize it’s shaped different than any earcone I’ve seen before. Bulging and bulky around the back. I pocket it. I can examine it more closely later. Right now I have to go.

I slip away from the window as quietly as I can, wincing as the scraps shift and clink beneath my feet. I pause to let my eyes readjust to the dim blue light of Eros. The just-risen moon is only a thin sliver on the horizon. I know Eros means love or lust or something in ancient Greek, but in Canyon City we call Eros the thieves’ moon. The blue light is perfect for slipping in and out of shadows, unlike the pink light of its sister moon, Hera.

Not that I make a habit of stealing stuff. I mean, everyone raids the scrapyards from time to time, but that’s not really stealing. If junk is sitting around slowly turning to dust, it’s hardly someone’s prized possession, is it?

Of course, the Crystal Clan probably doesn’t see it that way.

Where are you going, Theo? Rattle’s voice almost stops my heart. It takes a moment to find my tongue.

I’m bugging out. Kaida’s back.

Is your backpack full?

Rattle looms up out of nowhere, a black silhouette in the dark, blocking the stars like one of Canyon City’s spires. I shrink away.

No, but…

You owe us. You don’t touch the Game again until you fill that bag.

I slump.

Rattle and his partner, Bone, rule the Game terminals at Wayfinders. The only way for anyone else to get on is to challenge one of them. But