Havok Publishing

Smell

S2 Mystery Monday featured image (season 2)

A Sense of Guilt

Marshal Roland Chadwick pressed his nose to the desert floor and sniffed. A whiff of sulfur entered his nostrils, receded, and returned stronger. He snorted and coughed. The smell of hades wasn’t easily dismissed. But it came with the territory. Without it, he’d be out of a job.
He mounted his horse and rode,

Read it now
SS - Staff Saturday featured image

Of Cedar and Death

The carved scenes on the face of the casket looked alive, despite its intended purpose, and with it I would bury my nightmare.
The shop smelled of fresh-shaved cedar, delicate curls collecting in small drifts upon the dirt floor as I poured my pain into finishing this task.
The shop door scraped open,

Read it now
S2 Fantasy Friday featured image (season 2)

The Queen and I

“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

Read it now
S2 Thriller Thursday featured image (season 2)

The Smell of Home

 “Alice, are you sure you properly calculated the accelerant?” Alpha set the custom incendiary at the base of the wall. “These were meant for breaching reinforced alloys. They’ll vaporize this wood.”

His AI’s smooth voice answered. “I performed a thorough study of the combustibility of wooden structures. The combustion should be appropriate

Read it now
S2 Wacky Wednesday featured image (season 2)

Mama Louise’s One-Eyed Gumbo

Minotaurs are dangerous enough when they ain’t toting semi-automatics. These young bulls are looking to cause trouble, and I just want lunch.

“My gumbo’s getting cold, Quigley.”

“I don’t care about your stupid gumbo, LaFaye.”

My partner has no soul. He’s crouching behind a wooden shed with me, both of us surrounded

Read it now
S2 Techno Tuesday featured image (season 2)

Anxiety

“Don’t worry,” Ben whispered to himself. “Nothing bad is going to happen.”

He crept down the path beside his childhood home, breathing a heady, floral scent into his lungs. He stopped under an arbor covered with the red blooms of a climbing rose.

The backyard was packed. Dozens of relatives and friends gathered

Read it now
S2 Mystery Monday featured image (season 2)

Scent Across the Miles

Sherry held the letterman jacket’s collar to her cheek and inhaled deeply. Polo cologne, her first Christmas gift to him. The herbal overtones had always reminded her of spiced cider. Like him, it brought warmth on a cold winter’s night. A hint of aloe from his shaving cream to ease the roughness of life…

Read it now
SS - Staff Saturday featured image

The Wild Hunt

tore through the woods, paws churning up soft dirt. The smell of mud and recent rainfall filled my snout as I raced through the bracken, desperate to reach the castle. Her scent was fading quickly. Soon even my powerful senses would be useless.
But I had to keep moving. Please let me be on time.

Read it now
S2 Fantasy Friday featured image (season 2)

The Candlemaker

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

Read it now
S2 Thriller Thursday featured image (season 2)

Waypoint Guardian

The signal was weak but unmistakable: the rebel waypoint. They had made it!

Staggering through thick forest undergrowth, Sam and Tony picked up their pace as much as Sam’s mangled leg would allow. Even though Tony helped support Sam’s weight, every step sent a spear of pain shooting up his hastily bandaged leg,

Read it now
S2 Wacky Wednesday featured image (season 2)

The Scent of Change

The official communication mirror flickered into life as I sat in the throne room reviewing correspondence with Prince Corduroy. I may be a princess, but I was also his employee.

“Corduroy,” boomed the Magic Administrator. The most powerful man in Afteria, he always spoke in bellows. “Your latest petition has caught our attention.”

Read it now
S2 Techno Tuesday featured image (season 2)

The Purple Dawn

he flower, if indeed it could be called a flower, looked like nothing on Earth.

Iris squinted at the purplish inkblot staining the vast green landscape of her garden shrubbery. It seemed to have bloomed overnight in the middle of an otherwise unremarkable hedgerow.

Without her glasses to aid her, Iris struggled

Read it now