Zadie Quinn

Wren panicked. If the egg hatched, the queen would blame him. He shoved it into the cold shadow under a boulder, hoping the chill would slow it down. …

The shell broke open. A small dragon tumbled out, wet and silver, no bigger than a cat. It blinked up at Wren and let out a thin, hungry squeak. Then …

Dana told Frank the truth. She knew what he'd done, and she wasn't dragging his son into this room without a real reason. "Then give me a reason to gi…

Eli opened the door. When Dana said the name Frank Mooney, his face went flat and cold. "He's dying," she said. Eli laughed once, with no humor in it.…

The screen replays the river over and over for Eli. He watches himself die seven ways and goes very quiet. Then he points at one loop the others misse…

The strand resists. It snaps back toward the water like something is pulling on the other end. Mara braces both hands and pulls harder. The machine sc…

Mara pulls her hand back. She can't cut a piece of her brother's life without knowing what it does. Instead she leans in and studies the glowing threa…

Mara grabs the cereal box and points at the photo on the fridge: her and Eli at the lake, both grinning. But in the photo, she's alone now. Just her, …

Elias doesn't touch the wheel. He just talks, calm and steady, like he rehearsed it. 'Mara, pull over. Right here. Trust me, please.' Something in his…

Elias holds her by the shoulders and refuses to let go, calling her name over and over while the thing thrashes inside her. Bit by bit, the black drai…

They sit on the shoulder, hearts pounding. Elias tells her everything: the machine, the nine months, her funeral. Mara listens, then opens her phone a…

Halfway up, the girl found an old man frozen stiff against a rock, still breathing slow. His eyes flicked open. 'You're going to the dragon,' he whisp…

Vesper leaned close, smoke curling from her nose. 'No name at all? How unusual.' She plucked a blank silver coin from the wall and held it out. 'Empty…

Dell put a hand on the dash. "We don't leave the plane. They teach you that. Rescue looks for the wreck, not for two kids wandering the woods." He poi…

A flashlight beam cut through the trees and swung onto their faces. A woman in a ranger jacket lowered it, stunned. "You're the kids from the Cessna,"…

They walked all morning, keeping the radio on so the tone guided them. By noon the trees opened onto a wide, cold river, fast and gray. There was no b…

Mireille doesn't sit. She grabs her coin box and runs up the bank toward the city lights. Behind her the Queen laughs, low and wet. The fog thickens a…

The Queen wins by a single point. Every year Mireille bet pours out of her at once. She crumbles to dust at the table, and the painted woman steps ful…

They play three quick hands. Mireille wins two with careful, cold bets. The Queen's painted skin cracks at the edges, and Mireille suddenly feels stro…

Mara skipped the audio and went to the infected. In the med bay, Worker 7 sat calmly. "I'm Aanvi," he said in a voice that wasn't his. "My daughter is…

The numbing spray wore off too soon. Mara felt her throat loosen, and the word she'd locked away rose on its own. She bit down hard, drew blood, anyth…

Mara hit the timer anyway and ran straight at the workers, shoving toward the lift. Hands grabbed her suit. Voices clicked the word inches from her he…

Mara ran the word through the lab analyzer. It matched a pattern buried in the ancient rock cores the miners had cracked open last week. The word was …

Theo stopped typing. The football stuff was a lie. Marcus hated football. He'd only joined because their dad pushed him into it. Theo's hands hovered …

Theo woke Marcus and told him the deadline had passed. Marcus stared at the dark window, then surprised him with a laugh. "Guess I'm taking a gap year…

Theo finished the football essay and hit submit at 11:52. Done. But that night he couldn't sleep. The essay was clean, safe, and totally empty. He kep…

I obeyed the voice and crept down before sunrise, drawn by my mom's stolen words. At the lowest step waited a row of empty chairs, one for every famil…

My little brother Theo didn't wait for warnings. By the time I turned around, he was already three steps down, giggling, counting each one out loud. "…

I went down to find the frost line myself. Twenty steps, then thirty. The wine room glided past. Around step forty the air bit my lungs and my breath …

They ignored Gail's warning and stayed past dark. By the dock, Priya finally cracked the mystery aloud, naming the boy the town had buried in silence:…