Tenever grudgingly released the spell in his hand, but readied his wards all the same. They were complex, interlocking affairs with Byzantine safety procedures and a hellish rate of drain, but they were effective.

"Guys, this is Eraeon of the Firsts. Era…

I remember the grey light. I pulled her close to me in the aftermath of our lovemaking. It was then that I told her I was leaving, not yet knowing I was wrong. Our lives were not yet to diverge.

She cried.

Her face pressed against my shoulder, I felt he…

Grafham Road; left into Cable Street.

The sun was sinking. The flow of people on the street ebbed as people sought warmth and the company of their families.

Tessa drifted onward, the sound of cracking pavement filling her head with every step she took. …

Stella trundled along the brook's edge, gazing behind her all the while when she could. The moon, the MOON! It was always there behind her, even when the brook changed directions like an eager puppy on its first trip to the park after a water-drinking con…

She was waiting for me the next morning, sitting at my table with a bowl of hot porridge and a packed bag. A small bag, I thought. Either she was leaving it all behind, or there was little to leave behind anyway. I rather suspected the latter.

My pastry …

My 15-year-old son hugged me yesterday

My teenage daughter begged me for a bedtime story

My husband and I started sleeping in the same room

-

I've lost my racist grandmother's ashes and my tax reports

the dress that made me look fat

I have no dishes to cl…

Story is marked as mature

Klaxons. Klaxons everywhere. Truly this was it.

It was the dead of night, of course. They never attacked during the day. That was too obvious, and we'd see them coming a mile away -- on a cloudless day. (And even on overcast days, they always mysteriousl…

“You have the wrong man.” he said, slowly putting the bowl down and setting his hands flat against the counter.

“You don't recognize my voice? Maybe I can jog your memory. How about these words: no, don't, stop, please, you're hurting me!” She echoed her…

At last Malika leaned away from the stranger, shrugging off his embrace like a cloak. She wanted her pain, needed it in order to do what must be done. She reached down and plucked Morduth from the ground where it had fallen.

Mistress, are you alright?…

The Lesser Dead in all their varieties watched as the swordmaiden passed, followed a moment later by the holy man, now made impotent by their master. They allowed both to escape unscathed. Indeed many still held the swordmaiden in fear, for the way she ha…

A bell rang in the distance, and Malika rose from her cot, plucking Morduth up from where it lay beside her. She knew the sound of that bell because she had heard it regularly most of her life. This was not quite like the bell in her village, though. The …

The medics found Minla unconscious next to a shattered vase, a small pool of water and a bouquet of exotic-looking flowers. One of them, taking pity, picked up the flowers as they loaded her up into the ambulance.

The attending doctor took the toxicology…

Malika shivered. The events of the night still weighed heavily upon her, and it was difficult to wrap her mind around the loss of her village, the fight with the Lycanders, the destruction of the lesser deathless, and the conflict with the greater deathle…

The Water Seller stood on the steps of the palace after every meal. Her arms itched, the sand dust like a second skin, caked on to keep her safe from the three suns' heat. She shifted from her right to left foot and dipped her rag back into the bowl.

Th…

"what are taxes"

"DNA is vital"

...........................

I changed in the years of my exile, and though no one in the streets recognized me beneath the beard and rough clothes, I had found my home with little effort. Heavy leather gloves with large stitching were the only reason I made it inside the gates. Ever…

Story is marked as mature

The time of feasting had ended. I watched my father untie from the other floating homes around us. Joyfully, my sister waved her teddy bear's arm to all the neighbors, young and old, as they also untied and pulled their anchors up. My mother stowed the ro…

Ryle inclined his head, eyes flicking left.

Kill them, he was saying. I'll take the left.

I had no choice. We drew our revolvers and split up.

They entered the chapel from the great wooden doors. We waited until they were fully inside, the better t…

Orthael came back slowly, as if he had been diving in a lake and sought the surface from deep below, and found himself gripping Judgement in his right hand. This did not surprise him: he had always assumed implicit, even in the warm domestic comfort of hi…

My name with foul insinuation's tarred

By people who seek easy victims meek

To charge with crimes in public. Life is marred

And razed for me. Now, everywhere I seek,

.

I picture enemies in friends I knew

Before this whole fiasco. Do they now

Believe tho…

A yearning pit of doom. This place felt like death. Empty. Desolate. Yes, someone or something had killed everything that was good here long, long ago. Privately, she knew what it was. She could see it. She could feel it. She watched as the creatures walk…

It's amazing how the seasons seem to cycle through my life.

For a moment there is comfort, and a second later, strife.

There is warmth, and then I'm frozen; rain is followed by a drought.

Briefly I contain my feelings, till they blow the ceiling out.

Fir…

Out in the garden on a sunny day surrounded by flowers I sat. The aroma of roses and climbing clematis didn't blot out the smell of my own shampoo. The hum of bees busily gathering nectar an undertone to the bird song announcing their territories and call…