Once, among the indigo mountains of Germany, there was a kingdom of blue-eyed men and women whose blood was tinged blue with cold. The citizens were skilled in clockwork, escapements, and piano manufacture, and the clocks and pianos of that country were famous throughout the world.
Read MoreIlse, Who Saw ClearlyThere weren’t many three-bedroom houses that a single woman could afford. 1532 Lachmont Drive was an exception. Built in the 1930s from masonry block, it sat in the middle of a line of houses that had once been very similar to it.
Read MoreHurt MeMy love is a river. My love is a brink. My love is the brink of an underground river. My love’s arms ripple like rivers in the moonlight when he unlocks the garden gate.
Read MoreDawn and the MaidenAs soon as she opens the door of the bedroom, I jump up and down on the bed in excitement. All day I’ve been lying here, watching the square of sunlight drift slowly across the room. But this is when I come alive.
Read MoreBuild-A-DollyLia eases the vintage blue Impala down the meandering gravel drive. She’s sightless in one eye, which makes it hard to gauge proximity to the looming Douglas firs, but she’s so familiar with the place she could navigate blind.
Read MoreThe Lure of Devouring LightEva tossed her backpack on the picnic bench and hollered to Giancarlo. “I’m heading to the creek to cut some willow branches for the summoning spell.”The historian strode up the hill from their car with his gear slung over one shoulder and somehow managed to look like a runway model straight from Milan.
Read MoreWeaving DreamsEmily Yuan, anesthetized by the day’s events, drifted into her apartment, volitionless as a cloud. Her housemate Cece sat on the couch and, without looking up from the glowing tablet in her hands, said, “How was work, Em?”
Read MoreThe Fairy Library
If you were a dinosaur, my love, then you would be a T-Rex. You’d be a small one, only five feet, ten inches, the same height as human-you. You’d be fragile-boned and you’d walk with as delicate and polite a gait as you could manage on massive talons. Your eyes would gaze gently from beneath your bony brow-ridge.
Read MoreIf You Were a Dinosaur, My LoveShe caught treasures from the ship with her sisters; dangerous, exotic objects that plummeted through the water. Metal not yet rusted; fractured glass and timbers not yet smoothed by the sea; woven filaments as delicate as jellyfish, and as treacherous.
Read MoreMermaid’s Hook