Havok Publishing

Archive - July 2021

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The Escape

“Are you sure there’s nothing else you need, princess?” The maid hovered over Katriel.
Katriel snuggled deeper under her quilts, leaving only her head visible. “No, I’m fine.” Now shoo.
“As you say, princess.”
When the overbearing maid finally closed the door behind her, Katriel tossed off the blankets and snatched a pair

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Ashes to Trade

Florence’s knuckles creaked as she clutched the bottle of phoenix ash.
What if it’s not enough? She bit her lip. The medicine is almost as rare as the ash.
Threadbare skirts rustled around her legs as she ducked through the rough-hewn doorframe of the Emberstone Tavern. Her stomach clenched in hunger as the rich

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Out of Hell

“We’re clear of the stockade. Twenty yards or so.” Corporal Tiller’s sullied head emerged from the hole, poking into the shade of the primitive lean-to. “I reckon we run like hell, we can reach a river by dawn. Lord willing.”
Lieutenant Roland Chadwick helped the Union soldier from the tunnel’s entrance. Tiller

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Fines and Flames

Of all the things to deal with right before a room check, of course I have to put out dragon fire.
“Venus, what did you do?” I gape at the flames eating my dorm room’s floor, then glare at the perpetrator.
Venus, the tiny dragon living under my bed, preens her golden

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Cold Fury

The blast doors gave way, pummeled into slag metal by relentless energy blasts.
Cody lowered his hands and marched into the centrifuge. The surviving Takton sentries retreated, their clawed toes clacking on the icy floors. Frost bitten wind whipped Cody’s hair and tugged at his tattered wool coat. Fists clenched and teeth

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What Lurks in the Attic

Someone had to be in the attic, or else Alice Horton was mad.
Thick fog curled across the grounds, shrouding the vibrant gardens in ghostly white.
Alice’s head pounded from lack of sleep. The footsteps pacing above her room had kept her awake most of the night. She even thought she’d heard

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The Dragon Cake

Min’s hands shook as she applied the final layer of icing. She’d longed to present the dragon cake at the festival of Hero Bai—but not like this.
Not when the Horde saw it as another Ki’anin treasure to defile.
Not when the deliverance of her people rested on her deception.
Not when the cake

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I Just Love This Town

The Taxman’s Cull could lay easy claim to being the seediest bar in the country—and the country itself was no picnic. It was a loose confederation of drug kingpins, mobsters, and pirates—barely stately enough to call itself a nation. Police and military tried in vain to keep order, but the city of Oryphon overwhelmed them.

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All’s Fair in Love and Prison Breaks

“I’m Luke Skywalker, and I’m here to rescue you!”
I stride through the doors of my time machine, my compact, titanium blaster swinging jauntily from my hand.
Beneath her white lace cap, the young woman’s eyes widen. She scrambles to her feet. The iron chains clamped to her wrists rattle loudly.

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The Loophole

The synaptic probe slides into my brain, battering down the doors to my treasured memories. There is no time to prepare for the pain. Instead, I focus on the memory of a kindly old face.
Would my creator be proud of me?
“Are you smiling, RS-47? Such emotional mimicry will not hold sway here.”

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Duplicity

“D’Aulnoy. Jacobs. Now.”
I enter Grimm’s office with my partner, Nero Jacobs, at my side. He shoots me a quizzical glance. I shrug back.
The lieutenant, never one for words, gestures to the chairs opposite his desk, then thuds into his own wingback chair as I sit and cross my legs.

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