Chosen
“Go calm down the idiots, would you?” said Iskinder, gaze locked on the screen. “It is time for you to use your particular talent for crowd control.”
Easy
Soon, I’ll have enough, and I can step out of this idiot game and I swear, I swear, no one is ever going to touch me again.
Feather Dreams
I done worse things than follow some half-human kid toward the beginning of a new world.
A Form of Love
The soul had been flayed, shredded into suffering ribbons, and Hades had to think carefully about how to handle it right.
Ask Your Parents First
Just a story about magic, cereal boxes, and long-lost Mesoamerica gods. No, who am I kidding? It’s about a badass convenience store manager with a taser.
The Big Palooka
Flappers. Vampires. A thug who stole a necklace and a speak-easy with Jazz to die for. A short, cute story set in New York City in the 1920s. (No spoilers. A side-story from the epic dark fantasy novel, NOTTE.)
Life and Death Holding Hands
He got away with it all. In the end, it was the damned cows that caught him.
Good Dog
Now, he knew what this place held. Monsters, magic leaves, things all meant to stop him and eat him and stop him and hurt him, and he wouldn’t be fooled again.
The Bet
She’d won. She’d won! He had got it wrong, but she’d won. No way was she going to pass up collecting. Dis was nothing if not thorough.She skipped her way to father’s throne, through the decrepit ruins. Her shadow danced over jagged remains of statuary, castellations born of destruction and too much time. Her syncopated steps tapped by themselves ...
Jonathan
He’d always painted what he saw; these visions pushed him, bled out his eyes, and the only cure for augural blindness was to splatter it out in colors, shapes, forms.
Marked
On a hill, he sat.Alex didn’t match the location. Casually ragged jeans and a worn orange shirt stood out in this fantasy-field setting, at odds with distant four-winged birds and the glimmer of unicorn horns. Sunset light haunted the whole of the air, kissing everything pink, softening edges and drawing the gaze up toward the sky, which stretched ...
Tea
Ancient vampire Notte has tea with a friend right in the middle of some… family business. Awkward! (No spoilers. A side-story from NOTTE.)
The Doctor Will See You Now
A sleep-deprived elf prince. An open-minded doctor. Weird physical therapy. This tale contains a TERRIBLE PUN. You have been warned.
Favors
Aiden smiled. “What can I do for you, my friend?” he said, and waggled a finger. “Be sure, it will cost you.” No, It wouldn’t.
No Reparations Are Expected At This Time
THIS WAS A VERY BAD DAY.Salis buffed his shoes, ironed his uniform, used magic to change the shade several times until the seams began to fray, and finally gave up and purchased a brand new one.He’d needed one anyway. Half-troll heritage made regular clothing replacement necessary.“Be respectful,” said Lord-General Ramses Al-Benumm tá Oman, divesting him of his weapons (why?) ...
Nero is Mad, of Course
A mad Roman emperor. An ancient depressed vampire. A bizarre evening to remind the Blood King why life is worth living.
Theron the Thief and the Nearly Stolen Crown
A Fey thief, down on his luck and with a heavy debt to pay. A sentient throne guarding the Unseelie treasure. What could go wrong?
The Kindly Light of the Setting Sun
Sometimes a single afternoon is enough to make up for a lifetime of bad decisions; at least, it comes close. This spoiler-free short story follows the last day of Tsehay, one of the People of the Sun. (No spoilers.)
Someday
Someday, he’d just leave. Nobody would call him prince, or Highness, or expect him to do anything miraculous. Someday could not come soon enough.
Shadow Seed
The Crow King, a dark and powerful being of Darkness, ruminates to his newest lover about strange and intimate things. (No spoilers.)
Club Hedgie
Starring a hedgehog who think he’s a fairy. In honor of National Tell a Fairy Tale Day, this story is complete cotton candy: silly, cute, and cavity-inducing.
Regrets
I do not blame you for your fear. Humans are my prey – but my friend, I do not hunt small children.
Freedom
A dark short story following no one – that is, no major characters, nor even anyone we see again in this universe. If you ever wondered what happens to ordinary folk while heroes are off doing great things, this tale may answer that question. (No spoilers. A side-story from the bestselling science-fantasy novel, THE SUNDERED.)
The Twins
A deliciously creepy side story with vampires, a dying Earth, and a secret organization. Dark, mildly disturbing, and – if you’ve read THE SUNDERED – you might recognize a name. (No spoilers. A side-story from NOTTE.)
Succession
It is as if each generation bled, leaked ink or paint or power. Or perhaps it is something else that has left them.
No Home
A sad little tale following a type of creature even the ancient vampire Notte knows nothing about: a creature of The Dream. Explanation is given at the end. Enjoy. (No spoilers.) No Mercy
A Hotel room, a Knife, and a Bottle of Chardonnay
A brand-new vampire, abandoned by his maker, trying desperately to stay sane. Warning: This one’s a little bloody. (No spoilers. A side-story from the epic dark fantasy novel, NOTTE.)
Dante’s Inferno
A different take on the Princess and the Frog. I apologize for the pun in the title. Pfft, who am I kidding? I apologize for nothing. (No spoilers.)
They Come
I thought we’d have longer. I thought I’d grow up. They only come when the oldest natural dies. Then they come, and they take our hearts. I don’t want to die.
Wolf
A word of advice: if you see him, don’t run. A dark and disturbing short story. (No spoilers. A side story from NOTTE.)
Short Stories For the New Year
Good news! I’ve joined a writing club, and that means you get free stories.
Ten Tips for Raising Your Baby Dragon
You didn’t know you needed advice from a brand-new adoptive mama and her baby dragon, did you? Well, you do. Trust me on this. I’m (not) a doctor.(Mild spoilers. A side-story from THE CHRISTMAS DRAGON.)
A Hero’s Journal
We were tasked with stopping the end of the world, but it’s too late for that. So, failing that, we are tasked with preserving what remains. Easier said than done.
Redacted
CROSSOVER FICTION: Eugene discovers he is Kin (part-human, part… something else), and then runs into monster-buster LUCY DECEMBER (a Jewish vampire detective written by John Morey). Hell of a day, Eugene. (No spoilers.)
Ravena, Age 8
A strange event in the life of little girl who will one day turn the world on its head. (No spoilers. A side-story from NOTTE.)
I Know You
SPOILER WARNING(If you’ve read The Sundered, you’re good to go. Otherwise, head back to the short stories for safer fare.)I know you.I knew you when you were born, a squalling red creature of wrinkles and tears.I knew you when you fell into the cold, dead water of the Academy, and counted yourself fortunate that was ...
Love Makes Whole
SPOILER WARNING(If you’ve read The Sundered, you’re good to go. Otherwise, head back to the short stories for safer fare.)This is a very special set of short stories.The idea for these stories came from a suggestion by faithful reader
By the Numbers
SPOILER WARNING(If you’ve read The Sundered, you’re good to go. Otherwise, head back to the short stories for safer fare.)One, two, three, four, fifty-three alive – no more!Quimby loved numbers. She loved to count, to hold the infinity of counting in her head, to know the number of stars seen and unseen (yes, all of them. How ...
Love Makes Whole: Five Four Two
SPOILER WARNING(If you’ve read The Sundered, you’re good to go. Otherwise, head back to the short stories for safer fare.)To say Gorish loved was like saying the black water hated humans: it was an easy given, and never changed.He’d fallen in love with Harry the moment he saw him — a human toddler with big hazel ...
To Amend This Fault
SPOILER WARNING(If you’ve read The Sundered, you’re good to go. Otherwise, head back to the short stories for safer fare.)He’d been born first, of all of them. There was Motherwater, and then suddenly, there was him – no gender then, of course, but that didn’t matter. One with Motherwater and so new he knew nothing, he ...
Love Makes Whole: Paint Something 2
SPOILER WARNING(If you’ve read The Sundered, you’re good to go. Otherwise, head back to the short stories for safer fare.)The boy stared at Gorish, then at the orange paintbrush balanced between his fingers (bright orange, crazy-orange, the same orange as Gorish’s skin and Aakesh’s eyes). A perfect brush, made of fibers unlike any Harry knew. “Why?” he ...
Love Makes Whole: Paint Something
SPOILER WARNING(If you’ve read The Sundered, you’re good to go. Otherwise, head back to the short stories for safer fare.)If you didn’t know anything at all, you’d know that the boy was the picture of sorrow. He sat on a small round nub of land barely big enough for him to lie down. It wasn’t normal ...
Love Makes Whole: Let Slip (the Dogs of) War
SPOILER WARNING(If you’ve read The Sundered, you’re good to go. Otherwise, head back to the short stories for safer fare.)Never again.The Human sat (and oh she hated him, and oh she lusted for his destruction, and oh her children were mad to love such filth) on one of her precious exposed mounds and argued about ...
Beautiful Boy
SPOILER WARNING(If you’ve read The Sundered, you’re good to go. Otherwise, head back to the short stories for safer fare.)Rage was fire, and fire was beauty, and beauty was rage, and everything was mad and joyful and furious and right for the first time in hundreds of years.(Four-hundred and twelve, supplied Quimby.)Screw that. They were free now, ...