Showing results by narrator "Cassandra Parker" in All Categories

In this short story collection of courage, adventure, and magic, heroes—ordinary people who do the right thing—bravely step forward. But running toward danger might cost them everything.

Cursed with powers she can’t name, Sloane Cabot has vowed to catch the Rogue who turned her into a monster and killed her family. Too bad a broodingly hot mage is bound to keep her on the straight and narrow.

The games and rituals performed by Katherine Heiny’s characters range from mischievous to tender. In ‘Bridesmaid, Revisited,’ Marilee, suffering from a laundry and life crisis, wears a massive bridesmaid’s dress to work. In ‘Twist and Shout,’ Ericka’s elderly father mistakes his four-thousand-dollar hearing aid for a cashew and eats it. In ‘Turn Back, Turn Back,’ a bedtime storxy coupled with a receipt for a Starbucks babyccino reveal a struggling actor’s deception. And in ‘561,’ Charlene pays the true price of infidelity and is forced to help her husband’s ex-wife move out of the family home.

Meet Darby. Coffee addict. Homicide detective. Oh, and she can see ghosts, too. There are only three rules in Darby Adler's life. One: Don't talk to the dead in front of the living. Two: Stay off the Arcane Bureau of Investigation's radar. Three: Don't forget rules one and two.

In this harrowing story based on authentic historical documents, we follow the career of Dr. Silas Weir, “Father of Gyno-Psychiatry,” as he ascends from professional anonymity to national renown. Humiliated by a procedure gone terribly wrong, Weir is forced to take a position at the New Jersey Asylum for Female Lunatics, where he reigns. There, he is allowed to continue his practice, unchecked for decades, making a name for himself by focusing on women who have been neglected by the state—women he subjects to the most grotesque modes of experimentation.

I was burned at the stake at 14...I was drowned in a lake when I was 24...at 27, I was stoned in a public square. I have died a hundred times in a hundred different ways, usually at the hands of the humans I've tried to save. But when a pregnant young woman finds her way into my tattoo shop with a demon on her tail, things go from bad to worse. Being a centuries-old witch isn't going to help me—nothing will. This time I might just die in a way that sticks...permanently.

Ten years ago, June’s beloved husband drowned on their honeymoon. Josh’s body was never found. Now, a decade later, June is finally ready to move on. She owns a natural wine bar in Brooklyn and is engaged to a patient, supportive man named Kyle. She’s excited to begin a new chapter in her life, enjoy a picture-perfect wedding, and start a family. But out of the blue, she sees…him. Josh, her first husband. Is this just a hallucination from the guilt June carries about finally moving on, or is it possible that her husband never died in the first place?

I was burned at the stake at 14.... I was drowned in a lake when I was 24.... At 27, I was stoned in a public square.... I have died a hundred times in a hundred different ways, usually at the hands of the humans I've tried to save. But when a pregnant young woman finds her way into my tattoo shop with a demon on her tail, things go from bad to worse. Being a centuries-old witch isn't going to help me - nothing will.

Waking up at the foot of your own grave is no picnic…especially when you can’t remember how you got there. Cursed with powers she can’t name, Sloane Cabot has vowed to catch the Rogue who turned her into a monster and killed her family. Too bad a broodingly hot mage is bound to keep her on the straight and narrow. Whether she likes it or not....

There are few things worse than being on the Arcane Bureau of Investigation's naughty list. To keep herself out of hot water, Darby Adler has made a deal with the devil - using her skills as a grave talker to help the ABI solve some very cold cases. But there is something mighty amiss in this task, especially when quite a few of these cases lead Darby right back to her home town of Haunted Peak and the secrets buried there.

When I was offered a seat on the Ethereal Council, no one said anything about meeting the actual Fates. On the day of my presentation, not only do I offend the three women who control every single thread of life, but an Angel's thread is cut short, and no one knows how. Now, it's my job to find out who did it before the death gets pinned on me, and starts an all-out Angel-Demon war.

If it's not her death-dealing father, her back-from-the-dead mother, or her ghost grandfather, it's her long-lost siblings and their bid for power. With the ABI radio silent and her siblings to find, Darby's got a major problem on her hands - especially when the local coven figures out that her father is no longer bound.

After inadvertently taking the mantle of Warden of Knoxville, Darby has painted a huge target on her back. With bridges burned and the ABI on her tail, she’ll have to decide between staying a small-town detective or leaning into her new role. It’s not only her job on the line - it’s her life.

A Council full of Ethereal Elders wants me dead. Yep, it's a regular Tuesday. When you kill a demon there are consequences. Centuries-old witch, tattoo artist, half-demon...none of those titles are going to save me this time. The only way I'm going to get out of my death sentence is to take down the biggest, baddest demon there is...my father. And I thought being burned at the stake was bad....

Seeing dead people and solving their murders is Darby Adler's bread and butter. What's not on the menu? A nosy Fed poking around her crime scenes, who seems to know a hell of a lot more than he's saying - especially about the ghosts surrounding Darby and the murderer who's desperate for her attention.

Just about everything Sloane Cabot knows about her past is a big old pile of malarkey. Couple that with the blank spot of how her family died, and she needs answers, like, yesterday. But when a man shows up dead on her family’s grave, she knows it somehow has to be tied to that fateful night a year ago.

If there is one lesson I've been taught in my life, it's that fairies are the absolute worst. Finding a fledgling succubus in Faerie is like locating a needle inside a realm-sized haystack. With a guide I can't trust and a goal more ephemeral than smoke, my odds of success are tenuous at best. Not to mention, as the last Elemental in existence, I have a giant target painted on my back. Because one half of Faerie wants me dead, and the other half wants to use me as a sacrifice to open the gates to Earth.

I thought I'd get a little time off before the veritable poop hit the fan, but fate - or rather the Fates - have other ideas. The witch who tried to have my sister possessed has escaped, and not only do I find him dead, but I don't have a clue who he was working with. Or working for.... Now I have a Council Member in human jail, a ragtag bunch of stuffy law-abiders to lead, and a solid inkling that the next person on the chopping block is me.

A crown I don't want. A bargain I can't take back. A life I refuse to sacrifice. After 400 years on my own, one would think I'd be able to walk away and never look back. I'd done it a thousand times before with nary an inkling of guilt. But with my brand new predicament, there is no way I can turn down the offered bargain - not if I want everyone I love to stay alive. Now, all I have to do is trek through the very realm I nearly died to keep sealed. Sure. Because there's no way that could go wrong. Unseelie Court, here I come.

Some secrets should stay buried. After accidentally freeing a demon, ticking off the werewolf alpha, and possibly inciting a war, Darby Adler’s Warden job is in serious peril. With the council up in arms and a literal god on her doorstep, Darby needs to figure her life out, and pronto. If she can’t, losing her job might be the least of her problems.