The keening began at midnight, as it always did, and Dr. Declan O’Sullivan, who had been listening to it for three weeks from his rented cottage on the Dingle Peninsula, put down his whiskey and went outside to find the source. He was an ethnomusicologist, specialising in the traditional lament traditions of Ireland, and the … Read more
9 min readThe concert hall was empty when Ailsa Drummond arrived for the evening rehearsal, which was unusual. The Lyceum Chamber Orchestra did not typically abandon its Tuesday rehearsals, even when the weather turned foul, even when the heating failed, even when the second violins contracted a collective stomach ailment from the sushi restaurant they insisted on … Read more
9 min readA wildlife veterinarian notices a silver wolf watching her house from the treeline every night. When she leaves food, he leaves flowers. As dark creatures encroach from the deep forest, she discovers that the wolf at her window is a shifter whose instincts recognized her as his mate — and whose protection she is going to need.
11 min readMedium Stella can see the dead — it’s her job. But the Victorian ghost who has been following her for a full lunar cycle isn’t a client. He’s a murdered writer who has been invisible for over a century, and he’s chosen her because she is the first person to see him in a hundred and thirty-three years of loneliness.
10 min readA solitary lighthouse keeper hears singing from the rocks below his tower. When he climbs down, he finds the last siren — a luminescent woman whose voice is failing and whose existence is measured in weeks. The only cure is a true harmonic: another voice singing from the heart. The problem is, Callum cannot sing.
9 min readAcademy student Thea makes a chalk error in her summoning circle and accidentally calls forth a Duke of Hell instead of a minor imp. The ancient demon offers a bargain: seven days of mortal experience in exchange for perfect practicum marks. But when an immortal being discovers coffee, rain, and Barber’s Adagio, going back to Hell becomes unthinkable.
8 min readOn her thirtieth birthday, Vera’s family curse activates: a blood bond tethering her soul to a stranger’s. She has three blood moons to find them or die. The bond leads her to Prague, to a supernatural researcher who has been studying curses like hers from a safe academic distance — and who is now, to his scholarly horror, living inside one.
10 min readWildlife veterinarian Elise finds a wounded phoenix in her rehabilitation centre — a firebird whose regeneration has been disrupted by a magical poacher. As she heals him the old-fashioned way, the ancient being who has maintained the planet’s thermal balance for four billion years discovers something he never expected: a reason to stay on the ground.
9 min readWitch Rowan has waited seven years for her familiar. When a massive black cat finally arrives, he immediately starts playing matchmaker — kidnapping a handsome veterinarian and depositing him on her doorstep. The cat, it turns out, has identified something Rowan missed: Dev has dormant healing magic, and the universe has decided they belong together.
8 min readReaper Iris arrives at a hospital room to collect a dying music teacher’s soul. Instead, she finds a man who can see her, who wants to grade compositions together, and whose soul is singing a love song so beautiful it refuses to detach. What follows is the most unprecedented case in the history of the afterlife department.
9 min read