Just a girl who walks dogs and hangs out in cemeteries. Stay feral, y'all.
Jessie Wilson did not frighten easily. Fear was useful. She had learned that young. Fear sharpened the senses, accelerated thought and reminded you that whatever was happening mattered. Panic was the problem and panic made people stupid. Jessie had watched armed men panic. She had watched experienced criminals make catastrophic decisions because somebody unexpected knocked... Continue Reading →
Brooke had been planning the community picnic for almost three months, which meant she had spent almost three months worrying about things no reasonable human being should ever have to worry about. Were sixty folding chairs enough? Would anyone actually eat the quinoa salad someone had volunteered to bring? How many balloons constituted “festive” before... Continue Reading →
Everyone in Briar Hollow knew that Isobel Leach wore gloves. She wore them in summer, when the heat made the roads shimmer and everyone else rolled their sleeves above their elbows. She wore them while buying bread, while gathering herbs beside the river, and even while standing alone beneath the rain. What no one knew... Continue Reading →
Jessie Wilson had spent eleven months learning how to sleep like a normal person. It had not gone particularly well. Normal people, she had discovered, apparently went to bed without checking the hallway twice, without noticing whether the same car had been parked across the street for three consecutive nights, and without waking instantly when... Continue Reading →
In a city that never slept, there was one woman who had been awake longer than almost everyone in it. Her name was Lenora Vale, although it had not always been. Over the centuries she had answered to Lenora, Leonora, Eleanor, Nora, and once, during a particularly inconvenient decade in France, Madame Valois. Names changed.... Continue Reading →
Jessie Wilson had spent twenty-two years learning how to take things from people. Jewelry was easy. Cash was easier. Information was easiest of all. People liked to believe their secrets were hidden behind passwords, locked doors and carefully constructed lies. Jessie knew better. Most secrets were protected by nothing more complicated than the assumption that... Continue Reading →
The cart appeared on a Tuesday morning. It wasn’t particularly impressive. It had four slightly crooked wheels, a faded green canopy, and a hand-painted wooden sign hanging from the front that read: TAKE WHAT YOU NEED.EVERYTHING IS FREE.EVERYONE IS WELCOME. There was no cash register, no donation jar, no price list - just food. Fresh... Continue Reading →
Elara had been a witch for twenty-seven years before she finally accepted that she probably wasn't getting a familiar. It wasn't that every witch had one. Plenty didn't. Familiars were not magical accessories handed out alongside cauldrons and suspiciously large collections of jars. They came when they came, if they came at all, and supposedly... Continue Reading →
There are people who begin their mornings with meditation. They wake gently to the sound of birds, stretch their arms toward the heavens, drink lemon water, write three pages in a gratitude journal, and thoughtfully set an intention for the day. I sit in my car and talk to the internet while dogs breathe directly... Continue Reading →
Claire Morgan had spent years studying crime. She had a degree in criminology, shelves filled with books about criminal investigations, and an almost embarrassing ability to identify obscure murder cases within three clues. Her friends joked that if they ever disappeared, Claire was the person they wanted looking for them. At five-foot-two and barely over... Continue Reading →
