Category Archives: Year One

            The wind started howling out of the north an hour before dusk.  The sound of it set J.T.’s teeth on edge and made every muscle tighten.  Tight muscles sent new fire lancing through his shoulder.  Even the bottle of … Continue reading →

            Her name was Phillipa, and she’d been a student at Northern before things went to shit.  We found that out as we stood near the pyre, watching bodies burn down to ash and nothing.  After a while, Matt took … Continue reading →

            If it hadn’t been so cold that day, the bodies might have started to smell already.  I tried not to look at their faces—at the faces of the dead, of the men we’d killed to defend ourselves.             Is … Continue reading →

            Rory gave me a dirty look as I fell into step with him.  “I thought I told you to stay with Thom.             I shook my head.  “I can’t help him right now and if I stay, Jacqueline’s only … Continue reading →

            I was watching Jacqueline finish up with Thom and nursing a lip I’d bitten bloody.  Jacqueline didn’t curse much, but she’d cursed today, and a lot, mostly aspersions on Thom’s character and on his ability to get himself hurt, … Continue reading →

            Jacqueline appeared a few minutes later and immediately took charge.  She brought Davon along to help her carry Thom back to the fire.             “How’s it look?” she asked Carolyn as she crowded in between us.             “Hasn’t stopped … Continue reading →

            It all happened too quickly.             One second, Thom was negotiating with the band’s leader, the next he was on the ground.  I didn’t even see Phelan draw and fire the first shot, though I saw the head raider … Continue reading →

            Cameron jerked awake with a gasp, pain stabbing through his guts from one side of his body and through his belly and lower chest.  He peered up through tears and his lashes at Neve, who bent over him, pale, … Continue reading →

            A magic sword?  A bloody magic sword?             Goosebumps rose along his limbs, not born of any draft driven into their shelter by the storm, but by what she’d just said.             “A magic sword,” he repeated, mouth almost … Continue reading →

            The cold had nibbled its way through his gloves to every part of his hands, leaving them frigid and stiff by the time Cameron stumbled into the second of two lean-tos he’d built at their campsite—one for their horses … Continue reading →