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    Dreams Both Real and Strange II
    Dreams Both Real and Strange II
    Dreams Both Real and Strange II
    Ebook53 pages50 minutes

    Dreams Both Real and Strange II

    By K.W. McCabe

    ()

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    About this ebook

    1.Choices: The reaper must save his daughter from eternal bondage to Death.

    2.Siren: A Short Story

    3.Muse: A Short Story

    4.Mourning: A Son’s Good-bye

    5.Escape: A Short Story

    6.Wraith: Anne, Wraith and Lena must find a way to break the curse before it destroys them all.

    7.Extra Short Story! Fairy Foibles

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherFantaFire Press
    Release dateJan 5, 2012
    ISBN9781466153677
    Dreams Both Real and Strange II
    Author

    K.W. McCabe

    K.W. McCabe is a Californian transplant to Minnesota. She lives there with her family where she tries very hard to stay warm in all the snow. She has loved fairy tales, Sci-fi, and fantasy all her life, and has been writing stories and poems of that nature since she could first spell. She has worked, in the past, as a library assistant, a baby sitter, a counseling hotline intern, and as a case manager. She maintains that art and writing can only be done when inspired, and inspiration comes from a sufficient amount of laziness. Currently, she is working on Dragon Kin. Check out her blog to get more information on how to read The Dragon's Call for free. Contact her at: http://kwmccabe.net https://twitter.com/#!/kw_mccabe http://www.facebook.com/#!/kywmccabe http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5269189.K_W_McCabe

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      Book preview

      Dreams Both Real and Strange II - K.W. McCabe

      Dreams BOth Real and Strange II

      By

      K.W. McCabe

      Smashwords Edition

      Copyright © 2012 K.W. McCabe and FantaFire Press

      Published by FantaFire Press

      All rights reserved.

      This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are product’s of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental.

      All rights are reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any printed or electronic form without written permission from this author. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights.

      Other works by K. W. McCabe:

      Dark and Light: A Small Collection of Poetry

      Dreams Both Real and Strange I: An Anthology

      Dreams Both Real and Strange II: An Anthology

      Fantasies of the Waking Dreamer: A Small Collection of Poetry

      *The Dragon’s Call (Coming Soon)

      DEDICATION

      For Yve.

      Dreams Both Real and Strange II

      7

      Choices (Part II)

      The return to Death’s presence was punctuated, as it always was, with the clench of my stomach and the sheen of cold sweat slicking my forehead underneath the hood. I could not avoid what could come next. I had earned it, and more, with my actions. I knew and it did not matter. Were I to be placed in the same situation again—and there was no doubt I would be—I would change nothing. I would do it again if the chance presented itself.

      Despicable as my duties were, I retained what little honor was left to me and clung to it fiercely. It was the only thing which reminded me of who I had once been.

      Moving through shadow and darkness, my footsteps became insubstantial as I shifted from this world to the next. When I appeared, at last, in front of the guardians of the dark gate, I was weary with effort.

      My weariness could have been worse: I could have been carrying a soul bright with purity and translucent with death. Those nights were always dire. He could not hold those souls. He would take his fury at the failure out on my own flesh. Nevertheless, those times were preferable to the empty-handed defeat I suffered this night.

      Those nights, at least, were a victory against him which could be savored.

      This night there would be no relishing of his failure to soften the punishment. He had won this round. There was a soul, darkened with the corruption of the Choice, awaiting the day and hour of Death’s final call.

      Bowing to the guardians at the gate, I waited, shoulders slumped, for them to let me pass. Finally, the two shadows, bulky and red-eyed, moved apart. Moving between them, I passed through the gate.

      Stepping onto the floors of his domain the first time had been a shock. Cold marble shot through with glints of gray had been the opposite of what anyone would have expected. I certainly never expected Death’s home would mimic one of the more luxurious castles in the earthly realm.

      Striding quickly, I moved down the hallway. The stone walls were covered with burgundy and black tapestries and lit on either side by flickering torches. My footsteps became firmer with each step, ringing hollow as I moved closer and closer to his presence.

      I swallowed against the constriction in my throat. It didn’t help. He must be very angry to force my flesh into substantiality this soon. When I reached the end of the hall two large black doors, twice my height, blocked my entrance. The symbol etched upon them moved and changed. I had never been able to determine its actual shape. I laid my hand against it, tensing as its magic swept through me, and the doors opened.

      Come in, Thomas.

      I shuddered as his sibilant words slicked over my skin, defiling me. I faltered, but delaying would do me no good. It only amused him, and his amusement was almost worse than

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