Marta endures body scanner and pat-down, secures her possessions in a locker, and proceeds to the room where advisors explain how to speak to Monkey. “You must know the intricacies, for Monkey’s offense with visitors is easily roused.” Guidelines come like bullets from a mini-gun. “Never make eye contact. To do so is to challenge…
The house sat a little back from the road, its leaning porch and sagging roof giving it a slump-shouldered look. In the front yard, the rusted shell of a pickup perched on blocks amid an ocean of weeds. Connor pulled his rented Acura off the road and studied the house for a while. Aside from…
Tyran had nearly reached the top of the jagged mountain when the ground beneath him crumbled away. Of course, so near the summit of the Mountain of Death, after facing monsters and hoards of the Shadow Lord’s minions, the last few feet had to yield one last challenge. Even so, Tyran did what he did…
When I die, my mother always said, bury me in the forest. She probably didn’t figure on me being the one to kill her, but life’s funny that way. I came over trying to be a good son, for starters. Trekked all the way out to her half-collapsed shack in the middle of a storm,…
It started off as little more than headphone static, a drone that had been within him for some time, without any recollection of it ever starting. Finding himself focused, it resolved into music: bells and horns and something almost but not quite a melody. Was this what they had warned him of: the stresses of…
Dog is Berty’s first choice, cat a poor second, and anything’s better than rat. Anything. Three years ago, at Berty’s eleventh birthday party, aunty Terrine said God was punishing the world for our many sins, and it wasn’t the Moreau virus like the leaflets said. But even though aunty Terrine went to church, the very…
“I have a gift for you,” Tokelark says. He glides across the dark matter of space and gives the star to Arem. Arem cradles the star in her hands. The cool fire of the dead star bites at her fingers. She turns it over and feels the sunspot stains and the cracks, a web of…
The only people riding the Blue Line on a night this cold are people trying to stay alive. I almost didn’t make it onto the train before the doors closed, and I doubt I could’ve lasted till the next one arrived. Two coats, and a scarf—that shit means nothing in this weather. Hungry and tired,…
In two and half minutes, I’d either become the twelfth certified wormhole pilot or the seventieth-odd loser ripped apart by Jupiter’s storm shear. The decisive moment was speeding up to me. I’d ghost my electricals, coast through the eye of the storm, and slide through the tiny aperture halfway to another world. Even after all…
Corbin collapsed outside the dragon’s lair, acrid smoke wafting from his armor. He was getting too old for this. He’d never asked to be the gods’ favored champion. Sunlit forests spread out below him, a peaceful world unaware and unconcerned that he’d almost been eaten. Twice. Corbin drew a shuddering breath and wrenched a dragon…
