Havok Publishing

Fantasy

Nectar

I glanced between the “phoenix” chick perched on the countertop and the shopkeeper attempting to sell me said chick. I narrowed my eyes. “Are you sure this is a phoenix?”
He smiled broadly, his teeth blindingly white. “Of course.”
“Then why is he blue?”
The shopkeeper’s

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Burn Out

Brad clutched his rooster, Leopold, by the neck as he trudged up the steep mountain path.
As a farm boy, he was used to long days of hard work under the elements. But the trek up Flaimen Peak always winded him, and he wasn’t looking forward

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Master of the Tide

I floated nervously, trying to hide my twitching tail. To my left, my twin brother Ellion swam proudly, confident—perhaps too confident—that he would be the next Master of the Tide, King of the Merpeople. His soul-bonded shark swam in menacing circles beneath him.
My soul-bond

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The Toad Prince

In her pink dress, with her golden hair, the girl looks like a rose—if the flower was human.
I stepped behind a pillar edging the palace portico as she approached. Dashed inconvenient, but I don’t want to shock her when I turn green and slimy.
She paused on the other side of the pillar.

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A Taste of Lightning

Although she’d finished smoothing soil over her seeds and was growing wetter by the second, Gerda was in no hurry to leave her garden. She savored the rain. Too little had fallen the year before, resulting in meager fare ever since.
I’m lucky to have that much. She smiled. Well, I do have a good luck charm.

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A Mathematical Story Problem

Hunched over her desk, Snowfall shielded the fairy with her hands. The fairy perused the math problem on the sheet of paper then tapped a tiny hand against Snowfall’s palm.
Tap-tap-tap.
Snowfall wrote the number three.
Tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap.
Snowfall added the number six.
Tap-tap-tap-tap.

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The King’s Birthday

The kingdom shimmered in anticipation of the king’s birthday, and Blackguard grimaced at the iced cupcakes, foil balloons, and dragon bobble-heads in shop windows. Beneath his stealthy feet, the cobblestones glistened from a recent scrubbing; around the castle’s main courtyard, the lampposts with

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Csilla’s Star

“I’m going to the tail, Papa!” I rush out the door, pole in hand. “I’m sure I’ll catch a star this time!”
“Wait a tick, young lady,” Papa calls after me, hustling to the porch. “Don’t go too far! Oh, Csilla, you forgot your shoes again. Te

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The Tailor of the Trees

“Oh, ho! What have we here? Off to war, squirrel?” King Oswain chuckled. The monarch, clad in a purple velvet tunic, elaborately embroidered breeches, and boots of the finest leather, slowed his stallion to a walk on the sunlight-dappled forest path. As he circled

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The Vigilante and the Queen

Queen Majorie’s coronation ball had been meticulously planned, down to the minute. Except for the kidnapping.

Marjorie was sprawled in the middle of the ballroom floor, her sapphire blue coronation gown puddled around her. The rest of her guests sat around the perimeter, held in place by the threat of circling black-cloaked figures.

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A Grand Gesture

Scarlet slammed her textbook down in front of the Head T.A. of Color-Based Synesthetics. “Teach me color transfer.”

The tired-looking elf didn’t look up from his book. “Hello to you, too, Scarlet. And no. You can’t learn color transfer for two more years.”

“It’s important, Aeris!”

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Where Treasure Lives

I land in the field behind the castle, and the impact sends a jolt of pain through my joints. I yelp, then grimace.
Pathetic. I may be over a thousand years old, but I have a reputation to uphold!
Spreading my carmine wings wide, I roar.

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