The Chapter Before Their leader, a tall man with glowing icy blue eyes, pointed his sword at her. He was young, broad-shouldered and dressed like a soldier. She gasped, remembering the masked man who pinned

Jacqueline flung her purse onto her bedside table and began pacing the room. She had been stalked thrice by masked strangers, yet when she had reported the matter to the police, their indifference left

The time said 8.55pm on the table clock and I shuddered, glancing at Mommy. Daddy wasn't home yet and that was a bad sign. He worked at construction company downtown and anytime he wasn't home by 6 or

The door bell rang and it did at the exact moment I was about to win. I muttered, reluctantly took off my headphones and put my computer into sleep mode, leaving my video game paused. Christina was bringing

As Nancy gingerly slid the hair comb into my French chignon, she patted my hair and occasionally glanced at my face to make sure the hairstyle suited me. It was my wedding day. Then Mom burst into my dressing

I sat across from him at a candlelit table. The restaurant was beautiful, not a place I had expected him to bring me. Not a five star place but somewhere in between with a natural, calming ambience. A

The tingling sensation moving through her tiny veins alerts her that the sun will soon be up. The forest daughter smiles but it fades quickly at the sound of a creak barely audible. It reaches her through

The Chapter Before..... Shari was a fledgling, burnt to a crisp and desecrating in the belly of the Underworld when Derek's ancestors found and rescued her. It took two decades for her to shed the charred

As Derek crashed through a wall of wet ferns with his black cloak torn at the shoulder, he heard the distant whistle of an arrow and ducked before it pierced the branch above his head, splintering it.

Lily Cupid and Peony Cupid sat on the ledge of Maggie Knightley's office window, their wings neatly tucked behind them, wondering why the arrows of love they had shot at her and her colleague, Albert Rimmer,

After a decade in Houston, armed with her luggage and the confidence of someone who believed she remembered how things worked in Nigeria, Chioma drove calmly to shop at a supermarket. Her confidence lasted

Athena knew something was wrong when her pen refused to write. It was no ordinary pen but a fountain pen lined with a sliver of bark from the oldest oak tree in existence. She had no memory of how it came

Adunni yelped, palm resting on her chest where pearl necklace had been only a moment ago. The necklace her father gifted her on the day she was born. In all her eighteen years, she only took it off for

Sara alighted from her horse and ran like her life depended on it from the ramshackled house she shared with her mother to the local morgue. Chaotic were her thoughts that she didn't think her horse would

My chest and biceps screamed for relief but I turned a deaf ear. Just one more. I brought the axe down and split another log, increasing the mound of chopped pieces beside me. Just one m—. I paused, slowly

BEFORE….. Nadaya, my sister, had always been afraid of failing the kingdom since she was little. I had given her the throne because I believed the people would accept her. She inherited the magic in our

I cocked my head at the mournful whistle of the wind through the thick, tall trees overhead my cabin deep within the forest. Everything in nature had a voice and I'd learned to listen. This particular

When the shark exploded out of the water, Kevin was certain their end had come. “Row faster!” he yelled, coughing as water and saliva drooled from the side of his mouth. His wide eyes darted between his

Beneath the easy smiles And laughs that make the eyes sparkle Warmth nearly wraps me in them Until the fangs appear. The smiles and laughs stay for a long moment I almost believed It was real, a gem In

I had nightmares on nights when mum didn't read or sang to me before bed. That night, she was too tired so I helped her into bed and kissed her forehead, just as she did to me most nights. She chuckled