I would have preferred it if he’d knocked me out. Instead, the Shadowkiller’s spell had frozen me, making it so I could see, and hear, and think but not act. So I couldn’t do a damn thing about him slinging me over his shoulder like I was a bag of feed. My friends were under […]
Shadowspell Academy . . . I was on my way, and I was on my own again. Given I wasn’t much of a team player, you’d think I’d be okay with that, but I really wasn’t. Because I’d gotten to like my crew in the end. We’d bonded while fighting for our lives in the […]
Legend says if the jungle wants you, it will have you. The tree line looms ahead, smothering and terrifying in the dying light. Long tentacles of fog snake around thick trunks, as if readying to choke the life from anyone foolish enough to enter. The sharp trill of birds and buzzing locusts are the only […]
Travel on the commercial cruiser was excruciatingly slow, but the vast Moonchild fleet made few visits to Semay, and the planet’s government had asked that this mission be started, at least, as quietly as possible. So Lieutenant (Special Assignment Officer) Cowen Drake came in by the conventional route, and divided the long slow days between […]
Ilsa did not need to pick pockets any more, but some people deserved it. And the heckler at her shoulder had it coming. It wasn’t just that the boy looked hungry, and his upturned cap was nearly empty of change. Or that he was only trying to entertain, even if his card tricks were well […]
“DO you think a jury would acquit me if I murdered her?” Joy Lansing whispered to her makeup artist. “I’d vote innocent,” Sam Catts said as she scowled in Prissy Penderton’s direction. “If she asks you about Troy Bixby one more time, I’ll—” “Joy,” Prissy drawled in the sickeningly sweet voice she used when she […]
TİMAİAS ADAMA HAD BEEN a guest of the Heaven’s Glory School for almost three months. They were a collection of backwards savages who had forgotten nearly everything about the sacred arts. It was astonishing, really, how ignorant they were. But they let him inside the labyrinth. He marched over scripted tiled floors, past endless rows […]
THE MAN WİTH the white streak in his black hair was diving too close to her again. He was a powerful swimmer, for a human. He kept pulling down through the water with strong arms and hands, propelling himself with big kicks. The sea creature tried to quiet her trembling limbs, so that if the […]
BULLETS DON’T HAVE NAMES. But if they did, chancesare one would have mine. Or someone brown-skinned like me. Metal slats chill my legsand I shimmy sideways, craning for a better view from the bus stop, careful to keep the onyx stones fused to my wrists covered. Up all night, I watched the sun rise like […]
Sissy Connors, PhD, checked her GPS, adjusted her backpack, and continued her trek into the mountains. Common sense told her there must have been an easier way, but none of the trails on the USGS map seemed to go exactly where she needed to travel. She was an experienced hiker—her doctorate was in botany and […]
Never come to Hellfire House without wearing a mask. It was one of the rare rules in a joint without any. The only rule the master of the club did not mind following. He blended in with the sea of suits and white masks that arrived every other night, switching appearances from crowd to crowd. […]
NITA STARED at the cell phone screen, her eyes wide and her mind still trying to process what she was reading. It was eerily silent all around her. Normally, she never noticed the sounds of Toronto, the roar of cars, the hum of air-conditioning units, the honks and shouts and creaks of life. But she […]
A scream ripped from my throat as I hurled my phone across the room. It hit the wall, shattering on impact. The Templars were useless. “We have our own plans for the necromancer. And they don’t concern you,” the last Templar had said. Plans! They had plans that didn’t involve killing that abomination! I shoved […]
Somewhere in the night forest, the boy is running. I cannot smell him, like my sister Luma and our cousin Rhys can, his sweat and his fear. But I can hear him, as well as the creak of branches, the rustle of the leaves that stir underfoot. He’s moving from the birch stands onto the […]
Darkness surged in his veins. It exhaled wisps from his fingers and feathered his every glance. And when he thought too hard too fast, it bled up his arms in streams of black. Fear becomes you. The high sun drew Nasir Ghameq’s shadow across the planks of Jinan’s ship as he slid, for what felt […]
THE DEAD COULD rise on this kind of night. In some ways, they already had. The cool air nipped at my shoulders as I knelt in the dirt, encircled by an elite group of warriors called the Koru who protected the queen. Torchlight reflected off their copper scorpion helmets. The scars they wore on their […]
AS WITH ANY tragedy, it came about because he loved. When he was on the cusp of manhood, a young man met a girl. She was beautiful, desired by everyone in town, and— unbeknownst to him—desired by a powerful sansin. However, despite the many scholars and noblemen offering their love, she chose the young man […]
Esmael told me that teenage girls make the best vampires. It sounded like a line, but he’d already been in my pants so I was inclined to believe him. He’d found me because of the art pinned to the wall at El Café, where I worked. I’d brought in a few sketches and tried to […]
I had a mother once. She taught me to spin the finest yarn and thread, made from silkworms raised in our courtyard of mulberry trees. Patiently, she would soak thousands of cocoons, and together we’d wind the gossamer threads onto wooden spools. When she saw how nimbly my little fingers worked the wheel, spinning silk […]
The building shook with the impact of an unknown force. White marble fell from the ceiling beside me, crashing to the floor at my feet. The room I had called home since I had arrived within the Hallowed Gates was disintegrating around me, and if I did nothing, it would soon be my tomb. As […]
Shadow and Bone – Leigh Bardugo
One of Us is Next – Karen M. McManus
The Dragon Republic – R.F. Kuang
A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder – Holly Jackson
The Lightning-Struck Heart – T.J. Klune
Aru Shah and the Tree of Wishes – Roshani Chokshi
We Hunt the Flame – Hafsah Faizal
Emma in the Night – Wendy Walker
A Face Like Glass – Frances Hardinge
A Tale of Magic… – Chris Colfer
The Rise of Kyoshi – F.C. Yee
Lock Every Door – Riley Sager
The Language of Thorns – Leigh Bardugo
Archenemies – Marissa Meyer
Crooked Kingdom – Leigh Bardugo
Vow of Thieves – Mary E. Pearson
The Scandal of the Deceived Duchess – Hanna Hamilton
Secrets of the Lore Keepers – Angela J. Ford
Between the Devil and the Duke – Eva Devon
The Wicked Wife – Mary Lancaster