CONFUSİON. Am I conscious? Everything’s dark. A moment later, pain flares my body to life. I’m awake, I have to be to acutely feel every inch of throbbing skin. I grind my teeth together against the agony, but I can’t stop the tears that leak from my eyes. I’m lying on my side, my weight […]
I CAN BARELY remember a time before the war. The green, orderly lawns, the rows of houses, the neatly assigned shelves of food. That quest for perfection was the first thing to go when the king turned his attention to our land. The first, but not the last. War felled more than just order. We […]
THE DAY STARTS off like most others. With a nightmare. The explosion roars through my ears, the force of it knocking me into the water. Darkness. Nothing. Then— I gasp in a breath. There’s water and fire and … and … and God the pain—the pain, the pain, the pain. The sharp bite of it […]
WE FOUND HER. Finally. There had always been rumors that the undying king’s queen lived. That she slept deep in the earth. That the king, mad with grief, put her there. I step up to the golden sarcophagus, my men fanning out around it. They weren’t rumors. The subterranean temple is just as the blueprint […]
THEY CAME WİTH the storm. The sky surged, great plumes of clouds tumbling and roiling together. The desert air thickened, feeling damp and smelling unusually ripe. Lightning flashed. BOOM! The world lit up like it was on fire, and there they were—four great beasts of men astride their terrible steeds. The monstrous mounts reared back, […]
I always knew I would see Famine again. Call it intuition, but I knew that fucker would come back. The coastal breeze blows against my skirt and ruffles my dark hair. Nearby, a woman gives me a dirty look. I stand with what’s left of my town, our bodies lining the road. I don’t know […]
