Melody Of The Deadwood Novels & Stories

The kindness of this stranger nearly broke her. “I . . . I’m not worth it,” she said, and her face crumbled, and her skin crawled, and her hair was matted and she had just endured some of the worst hours of her life, listening to this mad man grunt and groan and howl as he ripped at her skin and bit at her breast. She was glad Aleta was dead. She was glad of it. Because if she had lived with these memories in her head . . . The hunter’s shine from earlier melted and turned into tears, which ran down her cheeks and dropped onto the freshly polished floor.

At that moment, she felt as if she could do anything. When the song was over, Melody flipped the last piece of sheet music over and realized that was not the last song on the stand. She gasped when she saw that Mrs. Gregory had also set a copy of the last song her father had ever written there before her. It was the song he was going to play for Melody to sing that night, the night he died. Melody wasn’t even certain how Mrs. Gregory had gotten a copy, and suddenly she felt the fear she’d banished begin to creep back into the recesses of her mind.

Melody readied her daggers, their edges sharp enough to slice through trees, prepared for the next attack. "Did you really think we'd let you mess with this pack?" Melody demanded as she charged into the fray. She faced off against three rogues, but they were no match for her. She easily defeated them, yet more kept coming. Melody noticed that the rogues were high on drugs, their eyes filled with a terrifying bloodlust. "Who ordered you to do this?" Melody asked, but none of them answered. "No one wants to talk? Fine, since you won't use those tongues, I'll cut them out myself!" Melody shouted as she dashed towards the enemies, attacking them one by one.

He stopped mid-sentence as he spotted Melody. His expression shifted, a flicker of surprise breaking through the mask of indifference. He crouched beside her, checked her neck, then looked back at his partner. “She’s dead. You'll have to write a report of suicide” Suicide? “No!” I gasped, the word tearing from my throat. “She didn’t… she didn’t kill herself!” “Shut up!” the other guard snapped, slamming the cell door back in my face. I watched helplessly as they dragged Melody’s limp body away like she was nothing more than trash. My heart ached so badly it felt like it might split in two.

Aunt Olivia, on the other hand, could barely contain the grin on her face. I then said, "Mom, Dad, and Draco passed away so suddenly, so I'd like to wipe down their bodies and fix them up again to give them a more decent send-off." I covered my face and went into the kitchen under the sympathetic yet approving looks of the crowd. I looked at the water boiling rapidly in the pot and smiled, wondering how they would handle this since they were so good at playing dead.

"You better watch your mouth." I stepped in front of him. This was still a hospital, and hitting a pregnant woman wouldn't end well for anyone. Just then, Jude came running through the door. His eyes were red, fixed on me like he couldn't believe what he was seeing. "Lyra..." His voice cracked, raw and breathless. "You're alive... Thank goodness. I knew it… I knew you weren't dead!" He walked over excitedly, looking like he wanted to embrace me. However, Lucas stepped in front of me with a cold expression. Only then did Jude notice his presence, his gaze stopping on our clasped hands.

There, right beside my husband Brandon in the photo, was my so-called best friend, Melissa. … Snapping out of it, I stared at Melissa's two-faced expression. She must have known about the lottery win by then. They had probably plotted the whole thing, faking his death to pocket the cash. "Noelle, don't take it so hard. You're already unwell. What if Brandon's death makes you worse?" I shrugged off Melissa's hand and asked with eerie calm, "Where's Brandon's body? I want to see him." Melissa blinked, thrown off by my composure. "In the ward," she stammered.

she said. Vaeron said nothing. But something in his chest cracked and he whispered: “She’s remembering who she is.” Deep in the Deadwood, they howl without sky. No moons. No law. Outcasts among outcasts. I came to them bleeding. They laughed, they bared teeth. But when I spoke, the ground trembled. And they bowed. “Luna of No One,” they said and gave me their dead. The night was quiet. Too quiet. Seris struck while I slept. No blade. Just words.