Havok Publishing

Thriller

Ice Fishing in Lake Athabasca

The trees around the lake huddled together, the biting cold eclipsing any warmth from the sunlight glinting off the frozen surface. Through the window of the lodge, there was complete stillness. I often watched inquisitive squirrels and grunting moose from my chair, but they were conspicuous in their absence. Even the gently rippled ice

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The Gaze of the Ocean

The balmy April evening was fast becoming a frosty spring night. The full moon lay hidden behind a wintry haze. Amelia rubbed her arms vigorously as she hugged herself.
He strode through the mist, with a tip of his hat and gleaming cobalt eyes. The gentleman cut a dashing figure in his classic blue-grey

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Set Free

Vahni tightened her grip on the hilt of her dagger and kept following the trail of blood. She was miles into the forest that surrounded their village, and while she could occasionally hear her comrades in arms tromping through the underbrush, she hadn’t seen anyone for hours. She was tired and hungry, and

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After the Fall

I arch my back and gasp awake.
I lie in a circle of grass. Blades flutter in a gentle breeze. Despite the wasteland of ice and snow that swirls outside the circle, the wind reaches me as a warm summer breeze.
My ruined mech lays at my feet, inches past the green.

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Enemy Chef

“We walked into a war zone for a leaf?” Axel crossed his arms.
Remy scanned the trees for folha, one of the many ingredients they’d left camp to find. The bark was sadly free of green vines.
Her stomach growled. Though the emerald canopy hid the sun overhead, Remy guessed it was around midafternoon,

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Sweet Waking

All I need is a nightmare.
Alora paused on the threshold of the Dream Mines and took a deep, steadying breath. For the past century, she’d mined dreams to occupy herself while she waited for the chance to break her sleeping curse and leave the dreamworld forever. Sweet waking rather than sweet dreams.

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Green Limbo

Your murderer wears a green coat.

High collar, turned up. His unwavering eyes lock with yours from across the bar as he discreetly pays the door fee and enters like a kryptonite bullet nobody notices but you. His shadowy fedora is olive-tinted, matching every lime-tinsel and kelly-painted shade in this sweaty watering hole.

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Bad Wolves

Freezing rain slicked the sidewalk and dripped from the remaining bulbs around the dark marquee. I sighed, my breath frosting in the air. Really, an abandoned movie theater? Some people have no sense of subtlety.

I ducked through the broken door, boots crunching on shattered glass, and followed

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Girl #24

If it weren’t for the street dog lazing near the curb, Daeng might have caught the songtaew heading north. The red truck teetered to a crawl as passengers leapt from the open back. Daeng lurched forward and stumbled, knocking his tall, cylindrical cargo pack off balance. The songtaew accelerated

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The Sylph of Heartbreak Woods

This was the last time I’d ever let Matt drive Baby, my gorgeous poppy-red ATV.
We hit bump after bump trucking up the mountain. I hung onto Matt for dear life as we rumbled over clumps of clay rocks, spewing pebbles. Finally, he swung Baby to a stop. Around us stretched Heartbreak Woods,

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Guardian

Kabr slithered across the bloodstained cobblestones, eyeing the shadows bordering the backstreet of Veerion. The sharp twang of fresh death flared through his nostrils, stoking the fire in his chest. Beneath the foul stench, Merna’s perfume of old pages and secrets still lingered, even hours after her body

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Lana’s Demon

I first suspected she had a demon when I was twelve. I’m thirteen now, but when I was twelve, our dog Barkley started acting funny around her. At first, he followed her around everywhere—even the bathroom—instead of napping all the time on Mom’s bed.

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