Short Stories/Novellas

Five ordinary girls discover magical powers in this new series of interconnected short stories from Isabel Yap When Alex, Ria, Aiko, Natalie and Selena met at summer camp, they never expected the goddess would ask for their help, enlisting them as soldiers to protect the world from the forces of darkness. Gifting them each with a different object of power—a bracelet, a ring, a watch, earrings, a necklace—the goddess’s grace grants the friends the weapons to fight, the ability to heal, and the magic to strike back against the Grey. Now, over a decade later, the five best friends are still fighting. But the burden of secrecy, the inevitability of pain, and the magnitude of their responsibility to keep saving the world has left them questioning their goddess. How much longer can they keep saving the world? Can their friendship survive if one of them leaves their fold? And can they keep it together just long enough to get through Selena’s wedding?

Winner of the Hugo Award for Best Short Story, S. L. Huang’s “As the Last I May Know” is a Tor.com original tale of alternate history. Nyma was raised by the Order Elders to be one of the President’s Carriers. Now she is ten years old and the nation is being ravaged by devastating war. It’s only a matter of time before she is required to fulfill her duty. For implanted in her body is a capsule containing operating codes to the country’s weapons of last resort—missiles capable of annihilating entire civilizations in a single blast. If the president is willing to execute an entire populace with the push of a button from a remote distance, he must first be willing to murder a child in order to access the devastating arsenal. But Nyma’s duty is not to sacrifice herself. She must develop an empathic bond with the president to remind him that the price of victory is too high to pay—for all of humanity… At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.