Screechers

 For seventeen-year-old Echo, life in the southernmost outpost of Shaava is simple: love and honor the goddess; hate the foreigners and their invasive treaties; dream with her little sister of visiting the capital city; and never leave the outpost walls after dark.

Night is when the screechers hunt for human flesh. But Echo’s life falls apart when screechers breach the walls and kill all the adults. Several days later, masked soldiers arrive and herd all the children onto their armored caravans. Any child who resists, the soldiers shoot—but not Echo. She has always been fast, and she uses her speed to escape.

Now, all alone, Echo vows to find the murderous soldiers and rescue her sister from their clutches. That promise leads Echo far across the scorching desert and through screecher territory to the capital. But the journey there is nothing compared to what she finds in the city: scheming foreign politicians, a powerful church, and a growing rebellion—all of whom claim to know something about the masked soldiers, yet all of whom are preoccupied with the newest foreign treaty.

And each faction demands a price for their information: Echo’s loyalty and the use of her unbeatable speed in their plans. Now if Echo ever wishes to rescue her sister, she’ll have to decide whom she can trust and whose cause is worth risking her life for.

And she’ll have to decide quickly, for somehow, screechers are sneaking through the city walls at night, and the monsters seem to be stalking only one person: Echo.