THE LAST GASP OF LILLYINE
Alexander Gartner
“I saw you die, Lady Shaola.”
His wiry frame rose to meet her, his bony fingers probing for her straw-colored hair.
THROUGH THE DARK
Kristi McManus
All I could feel was pain. No other senses were noticeable.
WHEN LILIES BLOOM
Audra McElyea
I envied her luscious, perfectly styled blonde hair as I watched her browse the store. I was regrettably having a bad hair day myself.
THE CROW QUEEN
Kalyn Josephson
Sometimes all I could think about was fire.
I’d see it in the reflection of the sun on the gray castle walls, or in a flash of red hair flickering in the wind.
ASHMORE UNBROKEN
Christian Smith
I never believed in ghosts until the day I died.
The darkness, the screaming, the fires–I could replay it all as if it had happened just five minutes ago.
WISHES OF FIRE
Sarah Aspen
My fingertips brush along well worn spines until coming to a book squeezed between Bipolar Teens and Cognitive Therapies of Schizophrenia. This is the one I’m looking for.
MOMENTS OF IMPACT
Robin Hall
The first time I met Jeremy Davies he didn’t break my heart, but he broke my ribs, and that was close enough. Since that day in fifth grade, my ribs seem to always know when Jeremy is close by.
ENCOURAGER
Taylor Rew
Sloan Pepper was losing her footing. She eyed the ground, estimated about sixty feet between herself and death, and dug her nails into the cliff.
TRAVELERS
Carla Reighard
Until she was six years old, Triana’s life had been delightfully normal for a mermaid. Her parents, Tymon and Anastasia, had surrounded her with security, laughter, and love, but that had ended abruptly when they had tragically died.
WHEN I WAKE
Beth Wertz
The only thing Raya Steadwell could think as she stood next to her brand new locker was how much she hoped no one would have the opportunity to step on her that day. She hadn’t had an episode in years, but, as her mother kept reminding her since they’d moved, her disease tended to resurface in stressful situations, and moving to a new town for her freshman year of high school probably qualified as stressful.
THE RAVEN IN THE FLAMES
Jessica Ryno
She made her way down the dark tunnel, simultaneously trying to ignore and name the irritating weight in her gut. Nervousness?
AN OMINOUS BOOK
Nancy Foster
“I am totally against it. The idea of taking in two children I never have met before isn’t my responsibility.”
MIRROR’S EDGE
Tara Lehmann
Three hours. Three impossible hours, and the only sound to be heard in the entire house was the deafening shriek of the dying.
THE LUCK EXCHANGE
Karen Bynum
Earthworms of anxiety knotted in Madelece’s belly. She’d barely slept the night before.
THE STORYTELLER
Amanda Malamut
The first thing that Joan could remember was a crippling bright light. The next was that she felt absolutely exhausted.
MOLFAR
Lana Kondryuk
When your mom is a walking lie detector, you master the art of withholding the truth.
Sitting under a shady oak, I grab the closest sack full of flowers and tie it tightly with a twine.
THE PENDRAGON’S SON
Kelly Barina
As I hurried down the castle’s vast stone corridor to meet my half-brother for the first time, his name echoed around me, whispered like a curse: Mordred.
The vaulted doorway of the Great Hall loomed ahead, hewn from stone older than the ages.
