- Book Name:Swift the Storm, Fierce the Flame
- Book Author:Meg Long
- Book Genre:Dystopia, Fantasy, Fiction, LGBT, Queer, Science Fiction, Young Adult, Young Adult Fantasy
- Book ISBN:9781250785121
- Language:English
- Date of Publication:January 17, 2023
- PDF File Size:4.88Mb
- EPUB File Size:4.34Mb
- Downloads:18
A girl hellbent on finding the friend she lost. A planet on the brink of total destruction. Only one way to find answers amidst the chaos: team up with a traitor to stage a revolution, in Meg Long’s Swift the Storm, Fierce the Flame. After a mission gone awry two years ago, Remy Castell has been desperately searching across worlds to find the friend she failed to save–the friend who changed her life by helping her overcome the brainwashing she was subjected to as a genetically engineered corporate agent. Since then, she’s been chasing the only lead she has: fellow genopath Kiran Lore, the same secretive ex-squadmate who left her for dead when she compromised that mission. She nearly caught up to him on Tundar before joining the infamous sled race alongside outcast Sena and her wolf companion Iska. Now, all three of them have tracked Kiran back to Maraas, the jungle planet where Remy lost everything. But nothing on Maraas is how it was two years ago. Syndicates and scavvers alike are now trying to overthrow a megalomaniac corpo director, which Remy wants nothing to do with; fighting against corpos is as useless as trying to stay dry in the middle of the giant hellstorm that encircles the planet. But the storm–and the rebellion–are growing stronger by the minute. When Remy finds Kiran, he doesn’t run away like she expects. Instead, he offers her a deal: help with the revolution and he’ll reunite her with her friend. But can she really trust the boy who betrayed her once before? With the entire planet on the edge of all-out war, Remy will have to decide just how far she’s willing to go to save one girl before the impending storm drowns them all.
As true dark envelops us, the drivers flip on their headlights, illuminating the path in front of the transpos and casting the rest of the jungle in shadow. Iska keeps pace with us, her ears perking and an occasional whine escaping her throat. I know she can smell the creatures out there because my own nose is picking up scents, though we’re traveling too fast for me to register anything specific. Which is fine. I don’t want to know what lurks beyond the beam of light. I have to trust that Emeko knows where she’s leading us, that she knows this jungle even in total blackout. We may have decided to tag along with the rebels, but I can’t help but feel very unprepared as the jungle stretches out around us. All I have is the serrated knife in my boot. No arken blade of my own. No more flash bombs. No firepower at all. Rain continues to blanket us as we move. I’m soaked through to the bone and the cold wind nips at my skin. Without the sun beating down, the heat of the jungle is gone, replaced by a wet, humid cold. Not like the unforgiving ice of Tundar, but a deep chill nevertheless. The darkness here is different than on other worlds. On Ceren or Ish, the lights of the corpo cities make it impossible for true night to be very dark. Even on Tundar, the white snow and ice reflect into the night, casting everything in an eerie gray. Only when we were deep in the splinter wood or tucked into a cave did the ice world dip into full darkness. But here, the night is utterly complete. Beyond the beam of the headlight, it’s impossible to make out anything. As the light bounces off the trees directly next to our trail, I catch glimpses of glowing red eyes and movement too fast for even me to track. With the rain and the shadows, not even the slightest glow of the fiery tahuayo flowers penetrate the night. The darkness and calls of the nocturnal creatures send a shiver down my spine. I spent one night out here before. One of the most harrowing nights of my life. And it wasn’t when Kiran dumped me here. It was before that. The night Alora almost died. The night I realized that I couldn’t let anything happen to her. The night I promised her I’d be better. The memory trigger begins to crawl up the edges of my mind, an echo becoming real. Alora had convinced me that we should borrow her father’s flyer and go on a late-night cruise over the sprawl. She didn’t want to be stuck in her
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