Showing results for "Friend" in Fantasy

This is a story from the The Happy Prince and Other Stories collection.

Damien nearly ended the world. Now, his mistake might be the only thing that can save it. Good things come to those who wait. Damien Vale didn’t, and he ended up bound to an Eldritch creature from beyond the reaches of space. It has lived since the dawn of time, seen the world born and destroyed countless times, and wants to be called Henry. Unusual companion or not, Damien was still determined to go to a mage college and study magic.

It has been a rough month for mage private investigator Alice Worth. Alice hasn't had a decent night's sleep in weeks, her relationship with werewolf Sean Maclin is on the rocks, a federal agent hounds her every step, and a powerful vampire whose ulterior motives have ulterior motives watches her every move. It's enough to drive any woman to drink.

Gather round close, for I have a secret to tell. Late at night, while everyone is sleeping, dreaming of white knights and fairytales. I'm making friends with the monsters. They call to me, like finds like, right? My biggest secret, I'm the scariest monster I know. I think I'm the bad guy.

The year is 1988. High school sophomores Abby and Gretchen have been best friends since the fourth grade. But after an evening of skinny-dipping goes disastrously wrong, Gretchen begins to act...different. She's moody. She's irritable. And bizarre incidents keep happening whenever she's nearby. Abby's investigation leads her to some startling discoveries - and by the time their story reaches its terrifying conclusion, the fate of Abby and Gretchen will be determined by a single question.

When my best friend and the only person who knows who - and what - I really am gets selected for the Mating Games, I know the only way to save her is to try and win her for myself. All I need to do is navigate three trials while not letting anyone know I'm a woman, or, and this might be even more important, that I have magic. Easy, right? Easier than slaving away for all hours of the day swinging an ax in the mines. Or so I thought. I certainly didn't count on the one man I've longed for, the one man who stirs feelings of femininity and desire within me, to enter the games as well.

Naughty girls need love too. A beautiful monster, that’s what I am. My packaging is just a little nicer than the creatures you hear about dwelling in your closet. With three baddies for my mates, things are definitely getting interesting. I think I’ve even convinced them not to kill each other. But I have a new purpose, someone is hurting our kind. Stealing Charmed magic in arcane rituals that leave my friends drained and dead, and I won’t allow it. It’s time for them to find out why even the Monsters fear me. I am the bad guy.

In Our Friends from Frolix 8, the world is run by an elite few. And what determines whether one is part of the elite isn’t wealth or privilege, but brains. As children, every citizen of Earth is tested; some are found to be super-smart New Men and some are Unusuals with various psychic powers. The vast majority are Undermen, performing menial jobs in an overpopulated world.

Kate Reese is a single mother fleeing an abusive relationship by starting over in a new town, with her young son, Christopher. But Mill Grove, Pennsylvania, is not the safe place they thought it would be.... Their world begins to unravel after Christopher vanishes into the Mission Street Woods - where 50 years earlier an eerily similar disappearance occurred. When he emerges six days later, unharmed but not unchanged, he brings with him a secret: a voice only he can hear and a warning of tragedy to come.

Brenna McKay got the offer of her career. She was just an intern, but she’d been called upon to assist the heads of the archaeogemology department of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in identifying a rare black diamond. She learned soon enough that the 666 carat diamond was one of the top 10 cursed gemstones in human history called The Black Orlov, but that wasn’t the true mystery.

Good things come to those who wait. Damien Vale didn’t, and he ended up bound to an Eldritch creature from beyond the reaches of space. It has lived since the dawn of time, seen the world born and destroyed countless times, and wants to be called Henry. Unusual companion or not, Damien was still determined to go to a mage college and study magic. He wants nothing more than to live normal life as a researcher, but if Henry’s true nature is revealed, he’ll be killed.

Trouble returns to Cylvania as mysterious threats lurk on its borders and hidden conspiracies seek to undermine the new order of things. Celia is unwell, suffering from problems that Threadbare cannot understand, let alone fix. It is time once more for the little teddy bear to gather his party and venture forth, in hopes of saving the day.

Pretending to be in love with a shifter is dangerous. My sister and I have never gotten along, but she’s adamant she wants me to attend her wedding. The worst part is she’s marrying Tony, who was my high school sweetheart. That’s where Sting comes in. He’s my date for the wedding. When he hears Bridget talking me down - like she always does - he stepped in and offered to be my “boyfriend”.

Theo's family is safe, but the Ten Thousand Worlds are still rife with both danger and opportunity. His old friends are missing, but now Theo's finally caught their trail. For the first time since coming to this strange world of elves and cultivation, Theo must leave the Hearthwood Forest and see the world beyond the trees.

All Tom’s friends really are superheroes. There’s the Ear, the Spooner, the Impossible Man. Tom even married a superhero, the Perfectionist. But at their wedding, the Perfectionist was hypnotized (by ex-boyfriend Hypno, of course) to believe that Tom is invisible. Nothing he does can make her see him. Six months later, she’s sure that Tom has abandoned her. So she’s moving to Vancouver.

My name's Lyra Ridley, and I run headlong into supernatural danger for a living. I love my job protecting the streets of post-magic-revolution Las Vegas - where humans and supernaturals live side by side, or are at least having a stab at it. So when I get suspended and some jackass takes my city hostage? Yeah, there's going to be hell to pay.

My afterlife has sunk to a new level of desperate, all because some badass demon banished my friends to the fourth dimension of the fiery pit. When I signed up for this rescue mission, nobody told me about the bugs, hives, and sweltering heat. That I could handle. Add to that a sinfully sexy boyfriend with serious ex-fiancee issues, three temperamental giants, a psychotic demon dentist, and a really hungry soul-sucking dragon, and this trip to Hell has become the trip from Hell.

When Carter Monk, one of the Circle of Sorcery’s agents, goes missing in Australia, Dasiuke Kugo and his partner Helena are dispatched to find out what happened. But just getting to Carter’s last known location is a challenge since Australia is now a sealed country, no foreigners allowed. When they finally arrive, they’ll have to deal with monsters, demon magic, and an obsessed cult if they want to rescue their friend and get to the bottom of the mystery he’d been investigating. Succeed or fail, nothing will be the same after they mission.

Open a book. Read a spell. Whoop, there he is... a demon. The last single friend in her group and tired of being stood up by her girls, a drunken Rayna turns to her first love, a book. After jokingly casting a spell her favorite character used to conjure a loving boyfriend, the results aren’t nearly as funny. Because the damn spell worked, just not in the way she thought it would!

I blame Rogue, my shifter best friend, for my poor taste in men. He’s always looked after me like a big brother, except my feelings for him have never been sisterly. But when it comes to women, he’s a playboy who has only ever seen me as a friend. Take my latest boyfriend - make that ex-boyfriend. I dumped Harlem because he’s been acting scary possessive, but he doesn’t like the idea of being my ex. Now Rogue’s coming to the rescue again. With a little careful digging, he’s discovered Harlem’s past with women is worse than scary - it’s sick.