There was no doubt, at all events, of the authenticity of Kermadec’s story. A few months ago, when he found René on his hospital bed, his professional examination of him forbade his admitting for a moment the hypothesis of insanity; and now, Kermadec’s loyalty could not be questioned. Besides, th...
For a moment at least he had the best of both worlds. She was not in the room blurring his focus but neither was she blurring his focus by not being in the room because he would shortly be seeing her again. Therefore, for the time being he could address his intellect in its entirety to the job in...
As a giant, spinning, metallic something smashes out from the wooden rafters, which are piled up with decades upon decades of dirt, the overlord scoffs, and leaves to the deep caverns to live out its last minute of life with some semblance of peace. There’s a great crash of the machine as it fall...
He could not help but be angry for being pulled from Luana’s arms to spend the evening with a bunch of old men. I am to be a father. I should be celebrating. Not planning more strategies and warfare. The long hallway was lined with blazing torches, giving it a deceivingly warm look even during th...
The weariness of days on the road and the scent of airport bars clung to him like some unwanted traveling companion. He tossed his keys on the counter and grabbed a beer out of the fridge. Pike strolled into the kitchen, pulling a worn Toadies concert T-shirt down over his...
Jessy squinted at the clock, but the numbers were blurry, dancing before her grit-filled eyes. Her mouth tasted like grit, too, and her head was pounding. Again. The sunlight creeping into the room at the edges of the window blinds seemed brighter than it should have been for six forty-five a.m. ...
Clive’s phone call had broken the pleasure of the morning, the respite with her family before she started work. ‘There’s a dead woman waiting for you. Jacqueline Ryan.’ A sentence spoken as if it were a blunt instrument. He’d sent a team to the Royal Hotel to pick Ryan up but they’d arrived too l...
The men waiting outside in the narrow hall all jumped, and the oldest of them gripped the youngest man’s shoulder, holding him up just as much as imparting comfort. There was no power, their battle fought earlier having knocked everything down but what the generator was running in the make-shift ...
All the anger evaporated and my body went on high alert, taking in every detail of the room from the lack of a guard to the fact that the place looked like it had been ransacked. Blood splattered the walls, books were thrown haphazardly, and power was so thick in the air I could taste it. &...
Real, and divinely beautiful. Sleep drags at me, but I struggle to keep my eyes open, not wanting to miss a moment of my death. I wonder how the god will summon my soul from my body, and if it will hurt the way it does when ogres steal a soul. I won...
“She okay?”“What?” I tried to focus on him. To be honest, I’d forgotten all about him.The kohl around his eyes had smudged underneath, giving him a Halloween haunted look. “Is Desiree okay? Did they arrest her?”I appraised him out of the corner of my eye—to me, his question held a hint of hopeful...
The morning had been overtaken by afternoon, and despite their speed — they’d been going for over two hours — Colin was sure they hadn’t travelled far. Most of that was Dougal’s fault. If he’d let Veronica take the lead, then they wouldn’t have had to stop so often, as they did now. But it wasn’t...
Metal pumping and flexing, pistoning and scraping, stretching and bending across the earth, metal tearing into the ground, thudding deep into the soil, metal rising up into the air in a swarm . . . The swipe of blades, the crash of cannon-balls, the spung and ricochet of bullets, the whirling of ...
She’d wait to discuss it with Maxx, before deciding whether to wake Micah or wait until morning to break the news. She retreated to the library, to sit by the cold fire in her favourite chair. With her coffee, a magazine, and a few biscuits, she passed nearly half an hour ...
In it the sun was rising high and bright in the sky. It felt warm and comforting against his skin and fur. He could feel his yet to be born body stretching in the new dawn light and drinking in every drop of delicious warmth and comfort. Then a darkness came. &...