by Gerri Leen Snow trickles into the barn, blown by winds grown suddenly gentle after gusting all night. You can hear the sound of festivities from the castle: the humans are preparing to welcome in another year with dances, great spreads of food and drink, and embraces when the clock strikes twelve. There’s no clock in the barn, but you’ll know exactly when the year slips over: the sense of potential will build as the minutes tick down and then be gone again until next year. You turn away from the cold, feeling it despite the lushness of your fur. Your joints ache as you move and you want nothing…

by Frances Pauli The streets of men fall silent long before Charlie slinks from his master’s side. There is no movement in the house for days, not even when he cries or pees the carpet. No more breath lifts the man’s body, no life remains, and Charlie’s loyalty falters as his belly empties. As the body begins to smell like meat.

by Nina Kiriki Hoffman The dragon wanted to raise a toast at her first meeting with our coven, and what the dragon wanted, the dragon got.  She held up a golden goblet in her claw and glared at the rest of us until we held up our mugs, teacups, and glasses. I glanced at the other eleven members of the coven.  We had gathered in the biggest room of my house’s basement, since that was a room that could accommodate a dragon.  It was lit only by candlelight, so it was full of shadows.  Everyone had brought stumps of candles, though, so there were lots of flickering flames, and a…