BETWEEN SEA AND FLAME, by Evan Dicken Hummingbird ran. Branches whipped across her arms, the shouts of her pursuers eclipsed by the huffing gurgle of the thing tearing through the forest behind her. There was a loud crack as one of the Sea People fired his weapon, the shot tearing through the leaves nearby. Hummingbird […]

I AM BECOME DEATH, DESTROYER OF WORLDS, by Raphael Ordonez     Upheld by glee over an abyss of dread, the audacious, black-and-white-painted sacred clown raced up the big slope where blue grama and sagebrush waved beneath a turquoise sky. This night he would win the acclaim of his brother-clowns for generations. He would prank […]

RAKEFIRE, by Jason Carney   This was after several secret meetings in smoky roothouses, where whispered secrets were swapped for more secrets couched in cryptolects and allegories. With them I had been shadowing Qwayas for several years, my erstwhile lover and son’s father, who I had questions for and possibly slow death, depending on his […]

THE DEATHS OF ALL WE ARE, by Liz Colter   Waking before dawn, I shift under the blankets that lie heavy on me; or is it soil covering me, nesting me deep and safe? The stone floor beneath the rushes leeches cold into my bare feet when I rise. Pouring from a pitcher, I dip my […]

SERAPH, by Ian McHugh   There was another frost the next morning, and snow starting to fall. “It should be getting warmer,” said Galya, following her mother to the seraph’s chamber beneath the keep. The cold made her limbs ache, even through fleece-lined boots and gloves and with several layers of undergarments. She could hear […]