Mercedes held her breath as the airship landed, its solar sails radiating energy. A gangway lowered toward a long line of eager passengers with tickets in hand.
First: board the airship.
She exhaled a slow breath. It had to be this airship, heading for the district housing the prestigious Leric Institute.
Bang!
My shoulders slammed into their favorite indentations on my locker, and I gazed up into Rex Norman’s baby blues for the fourth time since second period. What does Dino King want this time? He’d already taken all my money, my math homework, and my secret snack.
“Hey, dweeb, homecoming pep rally
“I don’t see why we need to have it around, Paulson,” Merrik grumbled. “Damn bug gives me the crawls.”
The sergeant stomped his boot hard against the tunnel floor. The wet thud echoed up and down the cavernous hollow, touching off ripples along the scattered patches of bioluminescent algae.
“Shut it. You want
“Shape-shifter!”
The words echo in my ears, but this time, they’re not aimed at me.
I’m not a shifter, merely an illusionist. It’s people’s eyes who change, not me. We can take on a few characteristics of the animal, like super-speed, flight, or deep-sea swimming. And even if it weakens my other senses,
A bitter breeze rakes over my cheeks as I step from the Jackson Hole Aerial Tram, but it’s not the cold that sends shivers skittering through my gloved hands and up my arms. It’s excitement.
Up ahead, my best friend, Brandon, faces me, a wide smile plastered on his face. He signs the words,
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.
Molly checked both ways before she skittered across the street. Jack kept pace on her right, his hand a warm support on her lower back. Within minutes, the two had traversed several smaller avenues and alleyways, burrowing deeper into the unsavory part of town.
Molly stumbled as her vision wavered, split between two worlds,
Read it now
“I come bearing grave tidings.” Suraeldor the elf swept into the workshop, clutching a candy cane-striped telescope.
Tiggles set aside a half-built jack-in-the-box and focused on his friend. “Can I guess why? Is it because you stole the big guy’s Kringlescope?”
The tall elf handed the device to Tiggles. “Fear not—I will
Read it now
Green light emanates from my skin, illuminating the deep-sea darkness. Flicking my scuba fins, I swim deeper into the underwater cave and scan the walls for any hint of scarlet.
“Can’t make that light any brighter, can you?” Gino’s voice echoes in my comm.
I scowl. “You know I can’t control it.”
Read it now
Most students went home for the holidays, but not us boys at the Reformatory School for Troubled Young Monsters. We had to stay and face the longest, hardest exam of the whole year. That’s what we got for being little criminals.
The morning of the exam, I went to the library,
Read it now
“Can you help me?”
Charles blinked several times to make sure he wasn’t dreaming. He was proud to be among the skeptics who placed fairies into the same category as little green men, ghosts, and the Man in the Moon.
Yet there she was, collapsed on the ground in the middle of the rose garden
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
Read it now
Recent Comments