Kingdoms and Thorn

Call me what you wish. If it fits, I’ll answer.

— Catherine "Thought" Elena April (Cate)
 

I never lose one of my own.

— Jennifer "Shift" Haller
 

We’re all half monsters.

— Rachelle "The Database" Winslow
 

I’m not good, just loyal.

— Jennifer "Shift" Haller
 
Resources (WIP)

Kingdoms and Thorn

Humanity is all in the genes.

Special humans and regular humans mingle freely in the kingdoms cities—superheroes and former operatives making normal lives for themselves in the aftermath of a rebellion. But the past has a way of chasing down their future.

Science Fiction

When the Clock Strikes Midnight

16 — 02. Summer
Flash Fiction Short Story
765 words
Unlike Cinderella, Shift had no hearth to welcome a prince to...

The clock would strike midnight, soon, and all Shift wants is to remember that she has a heart before her cinderella run is over.

Wake and Thrive

16 — 02. Summer through 03. Autumn
Short Story
3633 words
He began at the bottom, nameless and empty, with a gaping hole where his life ought to be.

Red Wolf remembers nothing of his past or history before he became a member of Storm’s team of operatives. His only reassurance in the face of an uncertain future is the promise he woke to receive.

Its Own Absolution

16 — 03. Autumn through 17 — 01. Spring
Short Story
2208 words

Shift’s team was brutal. They had to be. Storm’s team was bloody. They were a strike team. They had to be. Storm had a conscience. Shift didn’t. The only thing they all have in common is the will to survive.

After the Grief

16 — 03. Late Autumn
Flash Fiction Short Story
100 words
Storm likes to worry about her. Whisper likes to ignore that.

You would think Whisper had ended a relationship instead of started one, but big brother types could be protective regardless.

Battery Acid

16 — 03. Late Autumn
Flash Fiction Short Story
501 words
Battery acid is caustic, but indispensable.

Justus had found the Database’s company to be tolerable, but sometimes she was a little too sharp when he was already feeling raw.

Accounting for Redemption

17 — 02. Summer
Flash Fiction Short Story
819 words
How do you account for redemption in a world where survival is the only law?

Justus once believed that his decisions were being guided by a God whose will was sovereign. Now he doesn’t. These sins were his own and he does not know what to do with them.

Counting Heartbeats

17 — 02. Summer
Flash Fiction Short Story
1083 words
She didn't have the luxury of regret.

Shift may not have had a soul, but she had a heart and for some d— reason it was still beating. And she had Justus. She just didn’t know how to save him.

Song Between the Waking and the Dreaming

18 — 01. Spring
Flash Fiction Short Story
471 words
He had no memory, but he had music.

Red Wolf’s team has taken an assignment they should not have received and the key to its accomplishment awakens the phantom of memories he no longer has.

Echoes of Anchor Lost

20 — 04. Winter
Flash Fiction Short Story
655 words
Moving forward or moving on are the only options.

Tactic and Thought should have been allowed to marry. They were voluntary operatives who did their work and did it well, but it isn’t the Department that’s destroying them.

Don’t Remind Me That It’s Over

21 — 01. Spring
Flash Fiction Short Story
612 words
Ricki had put away the past when she put away the name.

Anna has a new photography job and decides to go back through her old snapshots and memories. Ricki, who is visiting, demands that she stop—before it hurts too much.

Welcome

21 — 02. Summer
Short Story
1042 words
Cate shouldn't have asked, but she did.

Rachelle would rather be anywhere else than the newly formed Special Unit, doing the work she used to be enslaved to. But she will. For Cate.

Name Me Another (or Glass Angel, Redux)

21— 02 Summer through 22 — 01 Spring
Short Story
1,370 words
He wanted to know her name. She wanted him to know who she was.

Ashen hopes to create a new life and a new name for herself with Jordan Michael, a businessman with his own reason to be interested in special type humans like her, but can he ever see who she is beyond the name?

Glass Angel

22 — 01. Spring
Flash Fiction Short Story
100 words
He had to name her to have her.

Jordan Michael gave her the glass angel in Glaston and asked her to marry him, but did he really know her in the first place?

Pause the Sonata

22 — 01. Spring
Flash Fiction Short Story
683 words
Jordan Michael wasn't worth stopping the sonata.

Ashen has just ended a relationship. Her leader is concerned.

Without a Reason

22 — 02. Summer
Flash Fiction Short Story
901 words

It’s one thing to not understand Rachelle’s messed up team relationships; it’s another to ask whether she loves a man she’s never even considered loving.

Learning Legato

22 — 03. Autumn
Short Story
2340 words
Ashen had never thought she was normal.

Ashen was trained as a living weapon from her childhood, and now that she is free, understanding normal life—like coffee or love—is difficult at best. She turns to her mentor and her music to help her find the way.

Acceptable Cost

23 — 02. Summer
Short Story
1761 words
Some things are worth it.

Alaine Shaever is a healer by nature, and she’s studying to become a medic by trade. It’s her first emergency call out in the field. Nobody ever told her it’d be like this.

History Lesson on the Night Train

23 — 02. Summer
Poem
153 lines
she was old, her lines were tired, but her eyes were bright— / to ask what it is, this marking down of history / like stainless steel tines pressed down into meat

Abyss Looking Back

23 — 03. Autumn
Flash Fiction Short Story
996 words
Sometimes Justus wonders why Rachelle is always looking into the abyss.

Justus and the Database have known each other for years, long enough for him to ignore break the anger and silence between them to help her as much as she will allow.

Collateral Damage

23 — 03. Autumn
Flash Fiction Short Story
676 words
No price is too high...

Andre knows a young woman’s genes are killing her, but is saving her a lost cause?

Five Reasons I Love You

23 — 03. Autumn
Poem
86 lines
There are five reasons I love you / (And none of them are the ones you want to hear)

Little Things

23 — 03. Autumn
Flash Fiction Short Story
332 words

Justus never expected to see Rachelle wearing his shirt. He also didn’t expect his reaction to seeing it.

Owning Beauty

23 — 03. Autumn
Flash Fiction Short Story
412 words
She has never been beautiful.

Ashen has never experienced being beautiful—until tonight.

Dream the Dance

23 — 04. Winter
Short Story
1,011 words
She had danced the dance of death so many times.

Ashen is able to kill or heal with a simple touch, but it isn’t until a disturbing dream that she realizes mastery goes beyond the waking world.

Snow Day

23 — 04. Winter
Short Story
1991 words

Ashen wondered briefly if perhaps he was no regular-type human as Pieter had professed but if he were instead a naturally gifted with the ability to charm half-asleep girlfriends who did not wish to be awake.

As the River Breathes

24 — 02. Summer
Flash Fiction Short Story
728 words
They'd taught her to kill. She would learn to heal.

A feud between kingdoms results in a dammed up river and only one half-crazed girl to save them.

Normal written in coffee grounds

AU 21 — 04. Winter
Poem
30 lines
The way you leaned over the bar / foaming milk, whipped and creamed / eyes intense, and called me barista

 

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