Author: admin

“Can’t hear anything.” Maude put a hand to her bandaged side and winced. “If you dragged me up that hill again for nothing-“ “All I hear is the ocean,” I snapped. Rory pulled me into the crook of his arm and stamped his palm over my lips. “Shhh. Listen.” I made a note to bite…

“Endlessly.” He stretched his wings. Yawned. “The tor was the only home I ever knew. But I have stepped down from its height and seen the world with my own eyes. You can’t take something like that back. Even if I returned to the cathedral, nothing can be as it was.” His fangs pressed over…

Behind me, someone chuckled. Hamelin was there, saddling the horse to our wagon. I walked over. “What’s so funny?” “Nothing. Only-” He smiled, like he was telling a joke I was not in on. “Benedict’s hamlet is Coulson Faire. He’s taken it to heart, that creed. ‘The only god of men is coin.’” He handed…

My voice was strangled. “If you don’t bed me now, I’m going to scream.” He raised himself. Looked me over. Hair fell in errant waves over his brow. And his mouth-his mouth was swollen. Even in the dim light, I could see his pulse racing in his neck. Hear the ragged intake of his breaths….

Were Rory’s bedroom a ship, it would sink for the weight of its cargo. The shelves were laden. I could smell leather and idleweed. Wool. Parchment. There were books-clay vases full of rolled leaflets and quills with broken nibs. Clothes that looked to be from each of the five hamlets. Crates of yarn, then smaller…

“Six?” I turned. There were five chairs pulled near the hearth. In three of them, with large cups in their hands, sat Hamelin, Dedrick Lange, and Tory Bassett. Benji was there, too. Not seated, but pacing, walking back and forth in front of the others. When he saw me, he stopped mid-stride. “It is you.”…

Petula Hall, still in my armor. I thought maybe I’d check in on Benji, but when I ambled past his door, my feet kept moving. Taking me where I needed to go. The door I stopped at had no light dancing under its threshold to invite me. Still, I knocked three times against the wood….

His thumb found my chin-lifted it. He looked so exquisite to me. My shroud had never hidden any of his beauty, nor was I surprised to see it so close. Rodrick Myndacious was exquisite- But it wasn’t that. It was the newness of his expression. There was wonder in his gaze I’d never glimpsed before,…

Rory went to stand in front of Benji. When he slouched as he often did, Rory and the king stood exactly equal, eye to eye. “Perhaps that’s the system’s fatal flaw. If Aisling and the Omens have only ever painted a king as inconsequential, what does it say about them if a king is the…

“I can’t reach the chime. You’re going to have to-“ I was already airborne. I collided with the birke a few hands below the chime, grasping the creature’s mottled flesh, the effect so grotesque my stomach rolled. The gargoyle clapped, and Rory swore from below. When my stomach was not in my throat, I clung…