Bias Fantasy Short Stories & Novels

I am a mermaid from White Tide Bay, born with a tideheart scale hidden beneath my sternum. Mermaids from White Tide Bay can live among humans on two legs for as long as they choose. Only when fully submerged in seawater and willing to drop the glamour do their legs merge back into a tail. But once the tideheart scale is damaged, seawater becomes a necessity for survival. Freshwater, medicine, and ordinary IV drips can only buy time; they can never replace a return to the sea. The tideheart scale is not a mate bond. It cannot control anyone. It only awakens after a mermaid has truly fallen in love. Should the beloved betray that love, the scale turns on its bearer, pulling moisture from the blood and gnawing through flesh and bone after nightfall like countless tiny teeth. Unless the mermaid lets go of her feelings completely, the tidal decay will never stop. On the night of our wedding anniversary, I sat in the most sought-after oceanview restaurant in Greyport, brimming with anticipation, and waited for my husband, Adrian Hayes, for two full hours. He never came. But the tideheart scale on my chest suddenly began to burn. Through the glass water curtain that divided the restaurant, I saw Adrian having dinner with a woman. Cecilia Roland. His first love, the woman he'd dated for five years, the one he once claimed he had long since left behind. Adrian leaned forward and gently wiped a trace of sauce from her lip. He hadn't shown me that kind of patience in a very long time. I endured the growing burn in my chest and called him three times in a row. He declined every one. A moment later, a text came through: "Evelyn, an urgent meeting came up. Don't wait for me. I'll make it up to you next time." Everyone in Greyport knew Adrian Hayes never declined my calls. So he wasn't in a meeting. He simply didn't want me interrupting his dinner with Cecilia. The seawater felt as though it were being drained from my blood drop by drop. The scale on my chest cracked and curled at

Everyone thought my sister, Nyssa, was the cursed one, except me. I knew that on my eighteenth birthday, Death would come to claim me for the Underworld. I was the Dark Elf Death had chosen. But to protect my sister, my family chose to sacrifice me. My parents abandoned me, my kin reviled me, and Caelum, the elven prince I had loved for centuries, chose to stand by Nyssa's side. They said I was a harbinger of disaster. They told me to offer Nyssa my blessing. Little did they know, they were pushing Death's true acolyte toward her awakening. When the Night of the Shattered Moon arrived, I finally met my fate. I died in the mortal realm and was reborn as the Underworld's new emissary. And those who once hurt me would come to pray for my forgiveness, trapped in the eternal punishment I had wrought. I was no longer a girl who waited for love.

Tonight was the night I was to be invested as Commander of the Dragon Rider Corps. It was also my sister's coming-of-age ceremony. But my mother was afraid my investiture would steal my sister's spotlight. So she had my brother lock me in the basement with anti-magic chains. They said they'd make it up to me after Lina's celebration was over. They didn't know that dragon hunters broke in and carved out my heart. I used the last of my dragon flame to send a mind-link plea to my blood kin. My brother's voice finally came through. "Can't you just let Lina have one happy night?" He was busy placing the coming-of-age crown on my sister's head, and with his own hands, he snuffed out my mind-link to them. Later, they thought I was sulking and refusing to leave the basement. They didn't know I was already dead. I was never coming out.

Dragons lay only one egg per clutch, yet my sister and I hatched together, a twin pair. I am favored by the elements and am naturally protected by the ice element. But Aithne is a non-elemental white dragon, called a "crippled dragon". So my parents ordered me to give her everything she wants and protect her at all times. When my fiancé ordered me to take the place of Aithne to test the drugs again, otherwise he would terminate our engagement. I calmly dissolved the betrothal contract. I gave my wedding ring with him to Aithne. When Aithne caused a huge mess, I went in her place to apologize and take the punishment. When they asked me to conduct the drug test on behalf of Aithne, and I calmly agreed to do so. "Noxivira, once this experiment succeeds and Aithne gets better, we'll get married." Morpheus gazed tenderly at Aithne, as if already planning how to celebrate for her. My parents were also eagerly waiting for the drug test's results, hoping to make Aithne the new princess of the Frost Dragon clan. But none of them knew—I won't be coming back anymore. Because the Forest Witch said I have a terminal illness that drains life. I'll be dead soon.

After the war between humans and beastmen ended, both sides agreed that half-beast nobles would govern the world together. Under the marriage pact, every hundred years, each couple must bring their children before the altar. The High Priest cuts each child's palm and lets their blood drip into a chalice. The child with the purest blood becomes the next King. I married Todd, heir to the fox clan, and gave birth to a half-beast fox with the purest blood of them all. My sister, drawn to the wealth and status of the hawk nobility, chose their proud and distant heir. But he had no interest in women, and their marriage drove her mad. Consumed by jealousy, she demanded another test of my son's blood. She used a potion from the hawk clan to corrupt his blood, and my son and I were flayed alive after being accused of falsifying his claim to the throne. I woke again on the day we were supposed to choose our husbands. This time, my sister had already chosen Todd. Then I knew. She had been reborn too. What she didn't know was that the foxes lived for pleasure. Todd was always surrounded by women and made a terrible husband. I didn't want the hawks or the bears. I chose Leon of the white dog clan instead—the only man who had tried to save me in my previous life. But the white dog I chose was no dog at all. He was the last of the ancient celestial lions.

On the day of the Dragon Bloodline Awakening at the Magic Academy, I became the laughingstock of the entire school. Lucia, the most popular girl in our year, awakened the rare Phantom Dragon, while my boyfriend, Miles, resonated with the noble Frost Dragon. As for me? My entire skin was covered in a thick layer of brown mud. I looked like a stray beggar. Pictures of my disastrous awakening were pinned to the top of the academy’s forum. The comment section was howling. "Covered in mud... definitely the lowest-tier Swamp Dragon!" "Oh my god, a Swamp Dragon Knight? Might as well be a normal person!" "Can she please wear a mask from now on? Just looking at her makes me want to throw up my dinner!" Lucia intentionally recorded my miserable state and put it on a loop online. Miles even started a betting pool on the forum: "Taking bets! Do you think our Swamp Loach will dare to show up at the Contract Ceremony tomorrow night?" "I bet 5,000 crystals she won't dare! She might even drop out tomorrow, hahaha!" The whole academy went crazy placing bets, the mocking comments rolling in one after another. Everyone was waiting for me to become a joke, hiding and crying in my dorm room. I stared at the soaring prize pool and couldn't help but smirk. They bet I wouldn't dare to come. I was only worried that when my dragon appeared, they’d wet their pants. After all, the bloodline I resonated with was the Primordial Divine Dragon.

I spent five years beside Kaelan, heir to the Elf King, and bore him a son, yet he never once acknowledged me in public. He said that when he became Elf King, he would give us the highest standing there was. Instead, at the Elven Assembly, he announced that another woman was his fiancée, then personally handed her our son's life-saving elixir to use as a facial treatment. Later I took my child away to the border, and he was finally willing to acknowledge us. But the child who used to run after him calling him Dad no longer needed a father.

On my birthday, my husband, Tristan, gifted me a white rabbit. He claimed it was a familiar that would bring me boundless luck. I took great care of it, but the rabbit kept sinking its incisors into me. It went from sipping a few drops of blood to ripping open my neck, draining me day by day until I was deathly pale. When I tried to get rid of it, Tristan called me petty. "Sera is an anniversary gift. You can't even tolerate a little rabbit?" Even my daughter went on a hunger strike. "If you get rid of Sera, I'll hate you forever!" Ultimately, I was entirely drained of my life force, dying a gruesome death on our wedding anniversary. After death, my spirit watched the rabbit shed its furry pelt and transform into a breathtakingly beautiful woman. It was Tristan's former lover, Seraphina. Even my daughter threw herself at her, gleefully calling her "Mom." That was when the truth finally hit me. Tristan had always been after my golden Elven blood. He needed it to break the curse on Seraphina and restore her humanity. Even my daughter's body had long been possessed by their twisted love child through dark magic. When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the day Tristan gifted me the rabbit. I smiled at him. "I'll take excellent care of her." But the moment he turned his back, I threw the beast straight into a witch's boiling cauldron.

My fated mate shut me out of our bond for the ninety-ninth time just as the last spark of dragonfire inside me began to die. I walked into the Oath Hall of Obsidian Keep alone. Black stone stretched beneath my feet, cold enough to bite through my slippers, and every step made the cracked channels around my dragon core grind deeper into my chest. “I’m here to renounce the Obsidian Court and dissolve my life-bond with the Dragon Lord.” The clerk took in my bloodless face and lowered his voice. “Lady Ashton, once I set the seal, the Court will no longer be required to protect you. Are you certain?” My dragonfire had been unstable since birth, leaving me weaker than most dragonkin. When I was ten, my father adopted Cecilia. She had a gift for explaining every disaster in the gentlest possible voice until everyone believed I was the jealous sister who couldn’t stand to share. My parents hadn’t always been unloving. They had simply forgotten how to tell the difference between the daughter who was crying and the daughter who was lying. Cassian and I had been fated for years, yet he had never crowned me his Dragon Queen. He rarely took me to Court gatherings. Most of Obsidian Keep didn’t even know I was his mate. “That’s all right.” I swallowed the taste of blood and kept my voice steady. “I’ll be dead in three days.”

When my sister and I were born, a prophet foretold that my sister would fall into a deep depression because I was more gifted than she was. On the day of the Fire Dragon Clan's Trial, she would throw herself into the frozen lake and never resurface. To protect her, my parents locked me in the freezing chamber on the day of the Trial. I knelt and begged them until my knees bled. My mother shoved me inside and sealed the door from the outside with a barrier. "You know your sister will die because of you, and you still insist on taking the Trial? How is that anything but trying to get her killed?" The chamber had already dropped to a hundred and twelve degrees below zero, yet I was wearing nothing but a short-sleeved shirt. I threw myself against the barrier, desperate to break out. "Mother, it's freezing in here! Please let me out!" "You're a fire dragon. A little cold can't hurt you. Who are you trying to fool?" My mother's voice was edged with impatience. "The barrier blocks your magic, but we didn't even turn on the refrigeration system. Your sister will be safe soon. Can't you think of her for once?" The sound of their wingbeats faded. My scales cracked from the cold, and blood dripped onto the floor. The barrier had sealed away my magic, and the chill quickly sank deep into my bones. I knelt on the floor as my body stiffened, inch by inch.

I was an elf with powerful healing magic. While I was restoring the ancient sacred tree, I found a wish-granting lamp. My younger sister, Ilona Ashwood, had always been sickly, so the lamp became the surest way to protect her. When Ilona got scratched by a branch, our mother, Grace Ashwood, had me wish for the wound to heal right away. When Ilona sprained her ankle jumping around like a brat, she demanded that I wish for a body that could never be hurt again. Little by little, their demands grew. A strong body. A beautiful face. Endless wealth. Even power... What they didn't know was that the lamp had bound itself to me. I paid for every wish with my life force. The bigger the wish, the more it cost. When Ilona wanted to become Queen of the Elves, I had no strength left. I clutched the front of Mother's dress and begged, "Mother, my body can't take another wish." Mother's face went cold. She shoved me away hard, and a dead branch cut my forehead. Mother acted as if she hadn't even seen it. "You're the most powerful healer among the elves. You can heal yourself!" When I tried to make the wish with the last of my strength, the lamp shattered. Mother kicked me square in the chest. "Lucia Ashwood, you are so selfish! You actually destroyed the lamp? Go down to the cell and fix it! You're not coming out until you're willing to!" What Mother didn't know was that I was just like that broken lamp. My life was nearly over. And if the lamp was destroyed, every wish it had ever granted would be undone...

Seven years married to Adrian Locke. For me, he tore the unbreakable scale from his own body and left the deep sea for dry land. For him, I left everything and moved to the beastkin world. To everyone else we were the most loving couple. Even I believed it. Then he started coming home carrying a fox scent that wouldn't wash off, and every illusion I had about him shattered. The late nights came more often. The nights he didn't come home at all came more often. I knew it was time for us to end. And then that woman sent me the results of her pregnancy test. I filed to dissolve our marriage with the Beastkin Authority and bought a one-way ticket back to the human world. Adrian, if you can't promise me your love is mine alone, then I won't take any of it. From now on, we never see each other again.

I was a runaway mermaid princess. To break the curse on a pirate captain's two sons, I sacrificed my radiant tail and the voice I treasured above all to a witch. I was left crippled and confined to a wheelchair, and whenever I opened my mouth, my voice came out in an ugly, breathy rasp. But they swore that one of them would marry me and the other would guard me for the rest of my life. Then, during a clash at sea, they rescued a human woman and kept her aboard as a maid. From that day on, everything changed. They were both addicted to the maid's body and could not tear themselves away from her. The younger one said, "You're so beautiful. Far more beautiful than Heloise, that fish with no legs..." The older one said, "If we didn't owe her our lives, neither of us would ever marry her." I wheeled myself onto the deck and released a raven with a letter tied to its leg. I had accepted the proposal of the most terrifying overlord of the oceans. The Basque brothers still didn't know that the witch's contract spelled out one condition: the moment they betrayed me, the curse would return. One would turn back into a toad, the other into an octopus.

Everyone at the Golden Crown Court knew I was the Dragon King's youngest, most beloved daughter. A childhood injury had left my dragon breath — the power inside me — unstable. Every seven days, I needed someone to help steady it. But my three childhood friends had stayed by my side for more than a decade: Lucas Ashford, commander of the dragon knights; Darian Stormwell, my father's personal guard; and Silas Wintermere, a dragon priest. They'd sworn before my father that they would always take care of me. Then everything changed. On her first day at court, Kassan Blackthorn, a black dragon, defeated three of our dragon knights. Lucas was impressed. He called her a true dragon warrior. He forgot his promise to practice sword fighting with me and spent the next several days following her around, eager to please. Darian said Lucas was like a sailor under a siren's spell. "He's not worth getting upset over," he told me. A few days later, Darian missed his turn to help regulate my dragon breath, too. Pain swept through me, burning hot one moment and freezing cold the next. Just before I passed out, Silas burst through my door and gathered me into his arms. Holding me tight, he said, "Evelyn, whatever happens, I'll always be here for you." But three days later, I watched him fasten around Kassan's wrist the very dragon crystal bracelet I'd wanted for myself. He gave her the same tender smile I knew so well. That was when I realized I had nothing left. So I knocked on my father's study door and told him I wanted to go north and marry Derek Frostborne, chief of the frost dragons.

I'm a daughter of the Rayne family, part of the Black Dragon Clan, and I have a twin sister. Our family is about to hold an investiture ceremony for my sister Cecilia and me. We would each receive our own title and domain. The Elders argued for an equal split, but my brother insisted on giving all the domains, mines, and guards to Cecilia, leaving me with nothing but an empty title stripped of land and power. Lorne, the boy I'd grown up with, was the first to agree. My parents went along with it. All because Cecilia was prettier than me, better at charming everyone. In their eyes, she deserved everything. What they didn't know was that although my dragon soul had awakened later than Cecilia's, I carried the oldest bloodline of all! This time, I would never be Cecilia's stepping stone again.

The Southlands priest once prophesied that the Duke of Winslet's house would produce a Saintess who could command every beast alive. I'd hidden the golden serpent mark on my wrist since childhood, but my cousin, Rose Winslet, flaunted a poisonous snake coiled around hers every day. When the marriage decree came, she got exactly what she wanted: the Crown Prince. I was given to the Seventh Prince instead, a man with two ruined legs whom the entire court despised. For six years after that, I trained hawks to carry messages and drove wolves through enemy lines, and it was my hands that put him on the throne. The day he was crowned, I told him, overjoyed, that I was the true beast-commanding Saintess all along. He had my hand tendons severed and threw me into the Serpent Pit. "Monica, if you had to pretend to be someone, why did it have to be Rose? If you hadn't hidden that mark on purpose, how could I have mistaken my true savior for someone else? "Rose was tortured to death by the Crown Prince, and it's all because of you!" When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the day the priest tested the Saintess's identity before the entire court. The Seventh Prince got there first, slicing open his palm and letting his blood drip into the mouth of the venomous snake Rose kept as a pet. "Father, I'll give up my claim to the throne. I only want to marry Rose Winslet."

"Today is supposed to be a good day. We're choosing Wendy's dowry. Stop standing there bringing bad luck down on us!" My mother pulled my sister back in disgust, afraid the blood I had coughed onto the floor would splash the silver-bound chest. When a forest elf girl is born, her family plants a bonded tree for her, a tree that lives and dies with its owner. When a daughter marries, her eldest brother takes the old branches the tree has dropped on its own and builds her a dowry chest, a sign symbolizing a lifelong covenant of love and kinship. The chest is filled with gowns and with whatever the family gives her, and the larger the chest, the deeper the blessing. My brother cut my tree down and damaged its roots as well. "Wendy's tree is too thin and weak. It isn't worthy of the Royal Court. I had no choice but to saw yours into boards and put together a respectable chest for her." My sister stroked the silver-bound chest made from my ancient tree like a highborn princess. The whole family gathered around her to pick out what would go inside, as though they had forgotten that I was a bride that day too. My voice shook. "Then what about me?" My mother looked at me shaking there, and her face filled with disgust. "You insist on marrying that short-lived human. A wicker basket is dowry enough for you." Only in that moment did I understand that to them my life mattered less than Wendy's dignity. So I no longer had to treat them as family.

I get injured thanks to my mount trampling over me during the hunting rite. When I get sent back to Aureveil Citadel by my follower, Caelum Dawnmere, the strongest general in Auremount as well as my fiance, is currently dancing with my younger sister, Elara Aureveil, on the altar. My parents, Aldric Aureveil and Vaelis Sorenwyn, as well as my older brother, Darren Aureveil, surround Elara happily as they celebrate the fact that she has become the Sacred Huntress of Aureveil. My follower asks to meet with the Aureveils multiple times, seeing as she wishes to inform them of my injury. But all of her requests are denied ruthlessly on the spot. In fact, Caelum even tells my follower to send me a message. "Stop being dramatic, Sylara. Today is Elara's first time holding the title of the Sacred Huntress of Auremount. You can tell me whatever it is that you want to tell me after the ceremony is over." I no longer ask my follower to tell my family or Caelum anything. Since then, I calmly allow the healers to continue healing me. This is their 99th time abandoning me for Elara's sake. That's why I'm abandoning them as well. I no longer fight with Elara over any titles of glory. In fact, I go along with every order they give me. Finally, I become the perfect princess who doesn't fight with anyone over anything. But what my family and Caelum don't know is that I will be leaving them permanently.

In my last life, I fought for power, kept the books, and built alliances for my fiancé from the Fire clan until I had secured his position as heir. On the night of the victory banquet, he killed me with his own hands. He said Sophia was the woman he truly loved. I had taken her place and forced their love into the shadows. They had been conspiring all along, and even the child I had raised so lovingly was their illegitimate son. I died consumed by hatred. When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the day the marriage contract was to be signed. This time I wrote Sophia's name on it.

At eight, I swallowed the Tear of the Abyss, hidden in the holy font by my grandmother. After that, my skin was like pearl. It would never age. She called it a curse. Left by the Sea God. Every year, on the Night of the Tides, someone had to prove they truly wanted me to stay—press a Golden Scale to my heart. Or the scales would tear through my skin. My legs would fuse into a tail. The tide would drag me back to the abyss before dawn—a mermaid, trapped beneath the waves forever. Before she died, Grandmother left three Golden Scales. She gave them to my fiancé Alaric, my brother Caspian, and my childhood friend, Crown Prince Lucian. Their promises were so easy. "Just a scale? We'd get you the stars if you asked." But on the Night of the Tides, I saw all three. Pinned to a brooch on Evelina, the orphan from the Sanctum. They said she'd suffered, never known love. The scales would soothe her "fragile soul." But me? A princess didn't need trinkets to know I was loved. She danced. "I'm the luckiest girl in the empire." I pushed through the crowd. I just needed one. Alaric grabbed my wrist. "Haven't I given you everything? Don't be selfish now." Caspian shot me a look. "Let the artist finish, then you can have them." I showed them my hand. Sharp scales were already breaking through the skin. Lucian touched them. Laughed. "Illusion magic? Seraphina, your pranks are getting old." They escorted her to the throne. In their eyes, my life-or-death curse was just a pathetic play for attention. The blood moon was setting. T he gills behind my ears tore through my flesh. Blinding agony. I finally understood. I was meant for the sea. The water is cold. But at least I won't have to beg to stay anymore.