Erasmus stuck Zen-ji at the top of the grand staircase for good reason. A ten-foot samurai in full armor, meditating cross-legged on a large dais: that sent a clear message—that, and the man-sized sword that […]
Category: Fiction
(Fiction) A Minor Exorcism
He was making a proper nuisance of himself, whoever he was. I could hear the screams from the street. I stepped from the car and met the officer in charge, a woman named Ballantine. I […]
(Fiction) As If To Swallow Me
Bistro Indigenes was packed with the dinner crowd. Male and female servers scurried about in neat black aprons and matching bandannas. By the time I got there, Amber was already waiting, which embarrassed me a […]
(Fiction) The Knife That Killed Albert Gallagher Twice
I pulled Etude down, down, down endless flights of stairs: stairs that curled, stairs at right angles, stairs that cut a straight line, our feet quickstepping across stone. By turn after turn, we descended deep […]
(Fiction) You Don’t Even Wanna Know
We tracked the kidnapper to a swanky private club on the Upper East Side. The old stone building looked like any other row mansion on the street—walled and immaculate and seemingly impenetrable. The only hint […]
(Fiction) The Desire of Alchemy
The police of any country tend to take the murder of a rich man very seriously. I could only imagine the important people pressuring them for an arrest. I was clearly one of the last […]
(Fiction) This is kidnapping, you know that right?
I tripped hard that night. I don’t remember all of it. Supposedly, I freaked out at some point and told everyone death was stalking me, that it was coming, that I could feel it. I […]
(Fiction) In the Library of Thieves
After Beltran’s visit, some of my restrictions were lifted. I was not allowed to speak to Etude and had no idea where in the cavernous dungeons he was being held—the same dungeons where the Eye […]
(Fiction) Dark Opera of the Gods
Crows. I heard them before I saw them. “Get down!” Etude didn’t move. He stood in the bramble above the narrow river and watched the far shore as agents of The Winter Bureau walked in […]
(Fiction) Trouble
The bus pulled onto the shoulder to report the bleeder on the side of the highway. A car had clipped the man’s leg, which bent awkwardly to one side. His hands were frozen into fists […]
