The ground leaped up to smack Nico in the face. Air exploded from his lungs as he tumbled down a steep slope. The drone barely missed him, buzzing the grass before shooting out over a cliff choked by dark, swirling mists. Nearly killed by my own quadcopter. Jeez. Nico heard pounding feet. A wide-eyed Tyler […]
A perky female voice sounds in my ear. “Great Scala, you’re on in thirty seconds.” Blinking sleep out of my eyes, I snap up my head and look around. “What? Who? How?” After a few seconds, I realize where I am. My husband Lincoln and I sit on the sidelines of the set for Good […]
Lady Helen Wrexhall refolded the letter and pressed its wax seal back together, as if she could lock away the news it contained. Aunt Leonore, soon to arrive at Bath. Lud. Of course, she loved Aunt and wanted her to be part of the wedding, but it was a complication none of them needed. She […]
Do you not know you’re pregnant? Do you not know? Do you not know? I sputtered, “I-I . . . what?” Tick-tock. Tick freaking tock. I’d been struggling to wrap my head around Jack’s possible survival, trying to decide if Matthew was bent on driving me crazy. Now this? Aric’s blond brows drew together. “You’re […]
THE DEAD PRINCESS OF ARROD returned to her kingdom at sunset. The kingdom itself was none the wiser. Wil arrived unceremoniously, amid weary travelers and crates of fabric bolts and sewing notions. Moments after disembarking and regaining her bearings, she could already see that the kingdom was different. Darker somehow. The winter clouds were gray […]
I’ve worked with many writers, but no one quite as special as Jo. She knows her characters and her universe inside out, she’s one of the most dynamic thinkers I’ve ever met, and for someone who has enjoyed so much success she is incredibly grounded. Her storytelling is singular, yet she approaches the filmmaking process […]
Matt had walked to Lady Buckland’s house, so there was no rumble of carriage wheels to announce his return to number sixteen Park Street, only the quiet click of the front door unlocking. The sound wrenched my frayed nerves and echoed through the deep silence of the small hours. He was home, thank God. I […]
Years later Lenson Ornill would reflect on the irony that his time as a religious man would be bracketed by a single and particular word. “Well, fuck,” Gonre Ornill said, to her husband, Tans, on the bridge of their spaceship, the We Never Agreed to This. Tans looked up from his own workstation, where he […]
Wren had learned early on that trouble comes in all sorts of packages. Even vanilla ones with rose petal frosting. “Tell me about these cupcakes,” a cold voice demanded from the storefront. Wren froze on her stool, her ears perked to listen, the cocoa bean she held in her hand forgotten. “What would you like […]
Ising the city. Fucking city. I stand on the rooftop of a building I don’t live in and spread my arms and tighten my middle and yell nonsense ululations at the construction site that blocks my view. I’m really singing to the cityscape beyond. The city’ll figure it out. It’s dawn. The damp of it […]
“I’ll have your money tomorrow, I promise.” “See, that’s a problem, because you promised Lord Beswick you’d have it tonight.” The man struggled against the giant, pig-faced guards who kept an iron-clad grip on his arm. “Pplease, give me more time. I need more time.” Ignacio, a tall, thin man with a pencil mustache, sighed […]
He was an easy mark. Nahri smiled behind her veil, watching the two men bicker as they approached her stall. The younger one glanced anxiously down the alley while the older man—her client—sweated in the cool dawn air. Save for the men, the alley was empty; fajr had already been called and anyone devout enough […]
The creature circled below Cade like a shark around a sinking ship. It leaped for him, its jaws snapping just below the narrow ledge he stood on. He shuffled back, pressing his shoulders into the cold stone of the canyon wall. There was an eight-foot drop to the ground, and the bare earth had been […]
Will, along with most of the other children, followed the carriage as it rolled through the village. Newcomers of any sort were always a major event, but a gilded carriage was big news. He had never seen anything like it before. Unlike a wagon, the carriage was entirely enclosed, and it was constructed with such […]
The American Wild West was precisely how I imagined it would be. The hot sun beat down on the dry earth, horses’ hooves kicked up dust as cowboys chased off the Indians, and characters I’d only read about in Willie’s dime novels whooped and hollered. Willie didn’t appear to be enjoying the show as much […]
The Skyweaver’s Knife Once there lived a man named Sunder who loved everything about his life. He rose every day with the dawn and walked out into his fields. He marveled at the rain that nourished his crops and the sun that made them grow. He cherished the strength of his own two hands—hands that […]
In the empire of the Seven Satrapies, some people are born with the ability to transform light into luxin: a physical, tangible substance that exists in one of nine colors. The process is known as drafting, and each drafted color has unique physical and metaphysical properties and innumerable uses, from construction to warfare. Trained at […]
No. I refuse to share this part of my story. It was the lowest, most humiliating, most awful week in my four-thousand-plus years of life. Tragedy. Disaster. Heartbreak. I will not tell you about it. Why are you still here? Go away! But, alas, I suppose I have no choice. Doubtless, Zeus expects me to […]
He saw her at last—she was up on the grassy dune above the harbor, a pale shape cut out of the darkness. How long had it been since X had seen her? He had no way of knowing. He’d been in his cell in the Lowlands, deep in the earth, where there was no clock, […]
When I was a little girl, I thought my father was the king of Vinalia. Our family lived in a round-walled castle that seemed to grow from the mountainside. Father’s favorite chair had been carved out of a black walnut tree. When I squinted long enough, it became a throne. The first time I saw […]
