Adjusting to life on the Graceful Swan had not been easy for Ale Aukema. Yes, it was better than living in the Undercity. Safer, at least.But she had no idea how to handle the social side of things. So...

The spectrum has shades through all hues, just as this collection covers the spectrum of fictional possibilities.From grief driving magic into new worlds in Another Path to Infinity to religion filling...

Merlyn carefully pushed the blackberry vine out of his way. Thing had thorns as long as his thumbnail, about a billion of them.This whole forest was creepy as hell. Both Pema and Ash seemed happy to be...

Jyoti bounced on her toes, eyeing the traffic whizzing by. Could she make a run for it?No, not a chance. Too many cars and too many people brought out by the sudden sunshine in Seattle.Ketut was going...

Mawunyo crouched low behind his shield. Nasim lay beneath the shifting tower of fire, seconds away from death.No.He would not allow it. Eight years married. Twenty-one years best friends. He would not...

Ivory lay at the edge of the bluff, the scrubby grass all around her itchy against her scales. Stupid elders and their stupid decisions about the stupid ancestors' bones.Only sensible thing to do would...

Gavin wasn’t terribly pleased to be tapped as unofficial Clan heir. He’d rather just learn how the business ran and help his relatives.But when his little sister Anwyn came home with dreadful injuries,...

Robin dug her toes into the cold, damp sand. The storm coming would wash away the wood, pull back the bits of shell.It would destroy the ashes that were all that was left of Ikram.A brawl. He'd died in...

Meyari McFarland gathers together six stories of romance in this second themed collection, Tales of Romance.Inside you will find dragon riders suddenly finding love and a sympathetic ear in Dragon Rider's...

Cahya sighed as she collapsed into the couch. Just the thought of having a couch made her skin itch.Or maybe that was the exhaustion. Six assassinations in as many days had worn her down, just like her...

Parris leaned back on xyr heels, studying xyr lovely little balcony garden. Stalks of corn with purple leaves towered over xyr head while beans with bright red leaves and electric blue flowers spilled...

Eko set xyr back against a block. Big, solid, wide enough to hide ten of xem.Needed it. Henny and Ade were missing in the mist, possibly dead because there weren't enough explosions going off. Not enough...

Wisdom glared. They'd taken her ID. They had no right to take it, none at all. Even less right to drug her and question her like she was a Banger from the Undercity.Be easier to bear if the walls stopped...

Jie's new life with xyr adopted parents Kunzang and Dumisani was hard work. Lots of hard work. More hard work than xe'd expected.Gardening and hauling dirt and, most importantly, making sure that Kunzang...

Political plots? Check. Injured shoulder? Yes, check. Still. An infatuated enemy directly opposing her? Oh yes, another check.Raelin's shore leave while the Tourmaline Dreams was refitted and refurbished...

Aravel hummed happily as he carefully picked up the white yarn, working it into the blue ribbing for Mother's new socks. Then Anwyn wailed.Her fury at being bedridden made knitting impossible so Aravel...

Iseul leaped past Chikondi, flinging himself straight down into the deepest part of the pool. Laughter sounded above him as he sank under the churning surface of the water.Beautiful. The peace enticed...

Clouds billowed overhead, monstrous, dark, shot through with lightning that never struck. Kanti stared up and up and up as ashes drifted around her.Her nightgown drifted in a wind she couldn't feel. No...

Imani had a problem: Bala Wirnhier, Platinum Consort of the Crystal Palace.Since her arrival, Bala had taken over. Overnight, Imani had gone from Chief of Staff to clerk. Nothing Imani did made a difference.That...

Dating sucked. Rahat sighed and stirred xyr drink just a bit too forcefully.Xyr blind date had disappeared into the bar, never to return apparently. Xe wasn't what was expected, too chubby and old and...

Esme covered her mouth and nose before sucking in a deep breath.The kill room stank of death. Odd thing was the skull, hole punched through the top. Question was who'd done it and if there was money to...

Shahnaz hummed as he sculpted the Wave around his asteroid tug. It was a simple life, herding asteroids to the space stations at Tasma's core.Until he found a drifting escape capsule. Caelan was everything...

The Mind's Eye: Her crew held her together day by day, scrabbling for a living at the margins of the solar system.Meade would fix everything if she could, her pilot's seat's squeaking on up to the glitchy...

Ten tales of hope from Meyari McFarland: Past choices bring dire consequences as winter threatens death. A single choice allows new opportunities for the future. Stubborn refusal to give up yields a future...

Lindsey jerked, biting back a curse as raindrops fell from the cedar branches overhead right down the back of her coat. That plus the rain on her glasses made her all but blind to the cedar canopy overhead...

Moving always sucked. Truth of nature. Minke let her forehead drop against the moving truck steering wheel. Shoulda known better than to volunteer to move stuff for her friends with a storm coming in.Snow...

Nolan hated parties. Which didn't matter when Mother ordered him to attend a Delbhana ball. He wouldn't risk a beating for disagreeing.It looked to be another evening on the sidelines until Dana Gwen,...

Andy opened his eyes.Two years after the end of the world and he still looked for Torres by his side. Silly of him. Torres was gone and all Andy had left was the morning broadcast to keep him going. It...

Yijun paused at the door of the tiny shop, skin prickling. The smell was old mold despite the icy cold enveloping xem.Creepy as hell dolls all around xem. Xe wanted to run right back outside but the jocks...

In Thrall of Destiny holds ten stories where destiny rules for good and evil. From destiny thwarted by conspiracy to finding a new path in life after discovering hidden secrets, these stories will take...