Novels by Emilia Dan

With my chest heaving, I slammed the cottage door shut behind me and secured it with the iron latch.We were struck by the sound. A shake against the door that was powerful enough to dislodge the iron lock.My sisters Amanda and Celina sprang to their feet, their hearts pounding.We became still.A further setback. With a deafening screech, the lock bent inward.Although the relief was short-lived, I came to the conclusion that it was not a virelya.The door blew out.The doorway was blocked by a body that obscured the remaining twilight. Aside from its twisted horns and eyes—pools of ever-burning, endless green—it had an almost human appearance due to the dark mist that shrouded it.It released waves of intense, oppressive magic.The animal had to be the size of a bear, and his head was clearly wolfish, even though his body was a little feline. I was perplexed by the twisted, elk-like antlers that jutted out of his skul

The mercenary had a thick, dark head of hair that was cut to her chin. Her brown face looked like it was made of granite, and her black eyes squinted a little when she saw me. Such fascinating eyes—not only one hue of black, but many, with traces of brown that shone through the darkness. While she judged me as a possible threat or employer, I maintained my shoulders back and fought against the useless part of my mind that was preoccupied with color, light, and form. I couldn't help but gulp at her gleaming, wicked weapons. And stop a respectable two feet away.With a tone I had never heard before, she replied, "I only take cash; I don't exchange my services for goods." In order to avoid seeming too interested in our chat, especially when I said, "Then you'll be out of luck in this sort of place," a few nearby residents made an effort to avoid making eye contact.Even while sitting, she was huge. "Girl, what is your business with me?"I'm guessing she saw me as a

The beaten snow covering the path leading to our village was dotted with shades of brown and black, the result of passing carts and horses. Amanda and Celina clicked their tongues and winced as we navigated it, carefully avoiding the particularly repugnant sections. I understood their reason for joining me—they had cast a glance at the hides I had tucked away in my satchel and quickly grabbed their cloaks. I chose not to engage them since they had not initiated any conversation with me after last night, even though Celina had risen at dawn to chop wood. Likely because she knew I would be selling the hides at the market today, ensuring I returned home with some cash in hand. They followed me down the solitary path meandering through the snow-blanketed fields, leading straight into our rundown village.The stone homes in the village were typical and unremarkable, made even bleaker by the harshness of winter. However, it was market day, which hinted that the small square at the heart of

By the moment I left the forest my knees trembling, the sun had gone down. Stiff from gripping the deer legs, my hands had gone completely numb miles last. The deepening cold would not even be warded off by the body.Apart from the battery light leaking from the closed windows of our rundown cottage, the world was ablaze in dark blue. It was like walking through a living painting, a fleeting moment of stillness, the blues rapidly changing to complete black.Each step up the path motivated only by near-dizzying hunger, my sister's voice floated out to greet me. Though I smiled a little, I didn't have to interpret her remarks to know she most likely was talking about some young man or the ribbons she had seen in the neighborhood going in lieu of chopping wood.I kicked my boots against the stone door frame to remove the snow. Ice bits came loose from the cottage's gray rocks, exposing the faded ward-markings inscribed around the doorway.Once my father persuaded a wandering charlatan to

The Forest was becoming a labyrinth of snow and ice. Having been monitoring the values of the thickest for an hour, I found my view from the bend of a tree branch to be useless. The howling wind carried heavy flurries to cover my tracks, but buried with them any evidence of possible quarry. Hunger had taken me farther from home than I normally would have dared, but winter was the difficult season. Going farther into the woods than I could follow, the animals had drawn in and left me to pickoff stragglers one by one, praying they would survive until spring. They hadn't. Wiping my numb hands over my eyes, I removed the flakes adhering to my lashes. Here, the deer had not yet moved on to find any telltale stripped bark trees. They would stay until the bark ran out, then moved north past the wolves' territory and maybe into the witches' coven_ where no mortals would dare go, not unless they had a death wish. Thinking about it sent a tremor down my spine, and I pushed it aside to co