The cloaked figure stole into Deidra’s shop, flinching as the bell above her door signaled his arrival. Deidra looked up from the ancient, yellowed pages of her collection on Kumerian legends.
The cloak and hood were not unusual this time of year, considering the cold bite that followed him inside. Yet Deidra got
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The golden surface of the waterfall shimmered as sunlight fell upon it. I gasped.
Finally, I could be cured.
I climbed over the last rock with renewed vigor, but a sudden dread settled in my stomach, stifling any previous excitement.
So many legends spoke of this place
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Roger was reading the ingredient label on a jar of pickles when something bright twinkled at the edge of his vision. He scanned the store. It glinted at him from the clothing department, like candles reflecting off a piece of tinsel. He put the pickles back—too much sodium—and turned his shopping
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“Come.”
The voice rumbles through my dreams, calling me to the waking world. Cool, wet wind swirls over me, flowing through the open shutters of my arched window. When I went to sleep, those shutters were locked and bolted. A smile creeps up from my soul. They should know that locked windows never stop
Sometimes I stand gazing into my mirror for hours, hoping (fearing?) I’ll fall victim to my own trick and end this pain.
It never works.
I’m now surrounded by mirrors. The sunlit courthouse glitters, every judge and juror holding one. They cannot look at me, so they use the mirrors to glimpse my reflection.
Pure, icy silence surrounded the cavern as Kai beheld her. She didn’t say a word. No intake of breath, no movement. Her eyes were the last link of life—two swirling, black pupils attached to a young girl’s body of solid ice. But in those eyes, oh, within those eyes the entire galaxy
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Shallow breaths. Shallow breaths…
Shebalik repeated the mantra as he hurried through Qukamar’s perfume quarter, searching for an emerald-green cleansing stall. Around him, perfumers stirred vibrant powders and plants into jars of oil. Out of habit, his nostrils flared to draw in those varied scents.
The sweetness of coconut and vanilla swarmed him,
Genie smelled the roses before she could see the forest. The sweet, fragrant scent danced across the wind, weaving around her like it was greeting her home. As if it were a friend, like it had been when she was little. But it wasn’t. Genie remembered what the roses had turned her grandmother into—
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“You’ve been gone so long, milady. We thought you might never come back.” Agnes smooths out my blankets, rumpled from my restless sleep. “How was your stay in the country?” She sounds nonchalant, but shoots me a covert glance.
Does she know?
Beeswax sweetens the air, and I lurch from my chair
Hot wax seared Asiya’s nostrils as she knelt before the candlemaker. She touched her face to the dirt, then lifted her gaze. “Alnisa hakim.” Wise woman. “I come to you today to ask that my candle be restored.”
Asiya held out her cupped hands, revealing a candle stump. Its thin tallow was
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Colors splashed behind the blind man’s eyes as he stumbled through a crowded marketplace. An eruption pulsing between blood red and pale blue shouldered past. A burst of yellow and brown darted in front. Kolzak swallowed down a wave of nausea, forcing himself not to collapse under the colors relentlessly smashing into his mind
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“You find them in the weirdest places,” Aida said to me.
She overturned a rock. A black and yellow-spotted salamander scampered beneath a nearby mossy log.
“I haven’t looked for salamanders since elementary school,” I said, getting ready to squat next to her. “I’m game.”
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