Ignition Point: A Progenitor Anthology (The Progenitor Saga)

Two hundred years after the cataclysm that annihilated fossil fuels, Sparks keep electricity flowing through their control of energy-giving Dust. The Council of Nine rebuilt civilization on the backs of Sparks, offering citizens a comfortable life in a relo-city in exchange for power, particularly over the children able to fuel the future. The strongest of the boys are taken as Wards and raised to become elite agents, the Council’s enforcers and spies. Strong girls—those who could advance the rapidly evolving matrilineal power—don’t exist. Not according to the Council.
* “Ward” introduces Thomas, a thirteen-year-old boy rescued from Scavengers, marauding slavers who murdered both his biological and foster parents and sold the highly powered boy to the highest bidder—the Council of Nine. Dumped at the Ward School to train his abilities, Thomas must learn to survive among a new breed of savages…the boys who have been training there since they were five and the men who must hone them into weapons.
* “Blood and Water” is the story of Lucas, a young man who has spent his childhood shunned by his powerful, religious family for the crime of being born a Spark. On the cusp of attaining his place in the world his grandfather intends to re-shape, Lucas will discover the heavy price of belonging. Will he pay it, or will he count the costs and deem them too high?
* “Ghost Story” shows how lives lived on the edge—of society, of safety, of sanity—intersect. Lena, a highly powered runaway, fled a life of hiding from the Council. Elias is one of the so-called New Barbarians, those who choose to live free, if hard and dangerous, lives. Wounded and dying, he hunts the Scavengers who killed his family and took his brother to sell. A chance meeting in the desert of what was once New Mexico will change them both forever.
A collection of three related short stories, Ignition Point offers a glimpse into the lives of characters from the upcoming novel, Spark Rising.