Havok Publishing

Thriller

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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Abiral’s Goblet

Sand flooded back into the hole Suresh was trying to dig. Cursing, he blocked the flow with his shovel. At this rate, it would take him a lifetime to locate Abiral’s Goblet.

Sweat stinging his eyes, he gazed around the dunes of Dryagana Mrtyu: Dragon’s Death. No movement, and most importantly, no sand dragons.

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Beware Said the Man of Straw

“If we don’t pull over right now, I’m going to release the floodgates all over your car,” Gavin growled. He knocked the panel of the car door with the edge of his fist. “And I mean right now!”
I pulled over to the shoulder, next to a field filled with row upon row

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Golden Child

Halfway up the drive of his sprawling estate, Master Oros encountered the first silver statues. Sunlight slid over them in a soft yellow hue, matching the shimmering, golden tips of his own fingers.
The front gate guards stood motionless, bent over, hands clasped to their knees

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S2 Thriller Thursday featured image (season 2)

Through the Darkest Night

Aster leaned into the cold stone sill and gazed out the window. The night sky was brushed with the haze of winter clouds, shrouding the stars to a ghostly hue and cloaking the evening star. No moon swam behind them. In the pale light, Aster could see the orchard

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