It’s been three days since she’s been home.

Bell has been dreading this moment. The moment she would have to go back home. If she can even call it that anymore.

Home is where you feel safe. Where the people you trust live. But she can’t trust her mother. Not after lying and manipulating her about so many aspects of her life.

But it isn’t fair to her sister or her father (Hai is still her fathe...

**_Finnian_**

I suppose it’s alright, no, not alright—normal’s the right word—for me to feel…disconnected at a local high society gathering such as this.

The many aristocrats are dressed in their finest clothing: lords and their ladies, dukes and duchesses. I think the Dean of Magickal Affairs is here too. I’m nowhere near the center of attention. Just a minor lord’s son with hardly any money to...

I feel a

Ping of

Embarrassment,

As a choir of

Crickets fill the room.

My face is

Radiating heat,

My cheeks

Are cherry,

My palms sweaty,

I sink down in my seat,

Wishing to disappear.

The awkwardness

Weighs heavy

In the air, and the

Silence stretches on,

Mocking my discomfort.

My tongue,

A traitor,

Betrays me,

Turning the

Conversation

Into a

Ghost town....

why was i invited?

why am i here?

was it for some sick sense of satisfaction?

or digging for unreal rumors of revenge?

why must you do this?

why must i keep silent?...

Weeks ago, on a winter day with clouds of grey and frost, Rowan had proposed to Aubrey under the stars for all the courts to see. Now she stands under the same stars, draped in pure white.

She was a different girl when she said yes. She believed in fairytales and happily ever afters. She believed that every girl would get her prince. She believed, that love was her only way to find true happines...

“I can’t believe I let you talk me into this.”

I tugged at the hem of the shorts Anna had put me in. It was a miracle my underwear wasn’t showing.

“You look amazing. You’ve barely gotten out since the beginning of term. I’m gonna get you a drink.”

Before I could grab her arm she slipped through the ascending crowd leaving me alone in a sea of drunk college kids. It was true that I hadn’t gotten ou...

For as long as I could remember, I’d been taught not to associate myself with the wizards. They were mysterious and odd; a cult of sorts. Their spells were strange and mystical, complicated myriads of words and incantations.

But everything changed when I was sent to the big school of wizardry to finish my training. I was shocked when my teacher Freya told me the news, it was a direct contr...

Tiberius shifted on his stool. The damn thing was sending splinters into his skin – even through his toga. He’d thought he’d been terribly smart, opting for his finest garment, but no. Everyone else in the bar was wearing tunics – which made sense now because he was dripping with sweat – and looked like they’d rolled through the streets before arriving.

The stench of nutmeg was heavy in the air, ...

Dug stood out like a flame in a firework factory in his football helmet, oversized shoulder pads and red and white school jersey number 29. Not a piece of meat on his bones compared to the other boys, and truth be told, if he flexed his bicep might turn down, but he had a crush on a girl and wouldn’t be stopped. She always wore strawberry lip gloss and her red cheerleading uniform on game days. Sh...

I entered into the church for youth group. I was already feeling pretty nervous and shy. I mean I was the new kid. Youth leaders welcomed me warmly. Some of the kids set a quick hello welcome to youth group.

But pretty soon they were all in their own world. So I just sat there quietly. Feeling like an outcast. Like I don’t fit in. Asking myself why did I decide to come here? I felt like I didn’...