One autumn day, long ago, a willow seed played and lost several games with her brothers and sisters. She became cross and jumped up and down until she was caught up by the wind and borne into the high hills — a heavy dew set about her and through her...

Delphine couldn't remember the exact moment she became a hired assassin, but here she was atop a roof, examining a carriage as it rolled past.

She lived alone in a small cottage in the woods, far from the palace and town. Perhaps a mother and father o...

Becky Fantour swallowed her tears and turned from her mother’s eyes. “No, Ma, it’s okay. I’ll go to university next year.” She lied, clicking her mother’s seatbelt.

“Boston Medical,” Becky told the cabbie. “I’ll come see you tonight, Ma.”

After waving...

Back when the hills were young and forests covered the land, the ruler of a kingdom — ancient even in those times — was troubled by his advancing age. Each morning, he would awaken, take up the crown — through possession of which he ruled — and ask h...

Waking in the middle of the night, I stumbled into the bathroom, and was surprised to discover that someone — Maya — was sleeping in the bathtub. The light was off, but she’d lit my candles — one next to the sink and one by her…her tail? I rubbed my...

A mother with twelve children — a thirteenth in her belly — had more mouths to feed than money. Their father had gone to El Norte, The North, for work, and he sent back what he could, but it wasn’t enough.

Needing a padrino, a godfather, she visited v...

At first they came for the food. Later, they stayed for the stories.

They appeared one summer morning on the fire escape, munching on some ginger cookies I had left outside to cool. They were dirty. Not the delicious dirt of kids who are given the fre...

The soft tears of the begonias dewed softly in the early dawn as the creole moon journeyed to her bed. Before she could take her rest she had one last thing to do. The moon leaned down. Her shawl of silver moonbeams draped the bayou in soft light.

“To...

My breath emerges like a fog and then dissipates. I pull my coat closer as the train trundles down the track. I recede into myself and avert all eyes. The Revolution stole many things from us: first it was our churches, then it was our books, then it...

Clara could hear the rustling of the satin and tulle down the hallway. Her heart pounded wildly. Nervously, she smoothed her clothes and hair.

As the aging queen entered the room, Clara was overwhelmed by her grace and beauty. After proper introductio...

A single beam of light formed a little yellow rectangle on the cement floor. She hates it and tries to avoid looking at it, but the room is bare except for a gym mat, a fridge, and four cardboard boxes.

The little yellow rectangle reminds her of a you...

Tabitha loved to play with the vast collections in her grandmother’s sewing room, a whole wall of seashells organized by species and size, two boxes of elasticized lace on plastic spools, and thousands of hand-cut pink and red tissue-paper hearts. He...

My name is Hiramel.

I was born a girl, but named and raised as an elf.

A foundling — a polite term for a baby with no future in its original home, exchanged for another. Humans called us changelings.

Humans have the wrong idea about why elves take their...

Peter pulled his collar up and tucked in his scarf. Mist wove around him, squeezing in between the seams of his clothing.

The forest was deathly quiet and cool, silver tree trunks and soft fluttering leaves. He was used to walks in the bush — noise an...

Everyone knew there was a witch in the forest. No one spoke of her in polite company, but there was hardly a person in town who hadn’t used her services. Young people went to her for love potions (that she watered down for everyone’s health and safet...