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Chapter 1: The Proposal

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“Explain to me again why you’re marrying him?” I said. “He’s a total creep and raging misogynist to boot.”  I stared at Lynn with set shoulders as I waited for her response. Lynn glared at me over the laptop. I met her gaze and refused to blink. Lynn was my best friend. We had known each other since kindergarten. We shared nearly everything in common, except our taste in boys. Rain pounded on the windows of the girl’s academic dormitory, and I could actually feel the wind shifting the building. Outside, lightning spiderwebbed across the sky, and then the thunder rattled the windows. I hadn’t had time to draw a breath between lightning and thunder.  Lynn shook her head. “I’m marrying him because that’s how it is. That’s who I marry. Period. No way around it.” I picked up my wine glass and paused. Was it my wine glass? It couldn’t be Lynn’s. She was holding hers. But we were the last two girls standing tonight. Lindsay was asleep on the couch. We had held Sophie’s hair out of th...
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The Husband Poisoning Society, Chapter 21

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“Where are Fiona and Vincent?” I asked the two panicked women in front of me. “Out there. Protecting us.” Amy answered.  I listened. I heard the scream of animals and the sound of enormous bodies crashing. Fiona grunted and then roared back at one of the barghests. “Spear.” Vincent said outside the nook. “Spear.” Fiona responded.  “On your left.” Vincent again. “Duck.” Fiona.  And then the barghest got a grip on the board Amy and Laila were holding. The beast ripped it backwards, dragging both women from the hole where we had huddled.  “Amy!” I yelled and scrambled from the hole. I wasn’t moving fast. But I’d be damned if I was leaving Amy alone against a dog the size of a truck. The barghest grabbed Laila by the arm and shook her. She screamed and struggled in the thing’s mouth. Amy stood and released the clasp on her concealed dagger. I did the same with my clasp dagger. Amy shook for a moment and then her face hardened. She charged the barghest and rammed the dagg...
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The Husband Poisoning Society, Chapter 20

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I stared at the monsters in their cages. Three barghests lay sleeping, horse sized black dogs which could turn invisible. Across the room a manticore watched us from its cell. The monster was a rhino sized lion with bat wings and a human-like head sporting rows of shark teeth. We didn’t move for a minute. I waited as Fiona and Vincent surveyed the situation.  “All the cells are locked. And I see no guards or keepers. We should be able to slip through unnoticed.” A roar echoed from a wide tunnel ahead of us. I flinched. It sounded almost, but not quite, human. “Maybe we should hurry?” Amy said.  “Indeed. Laila, which way?” Fiona asked.  Laila pointed to the wide tunnel that the roar had come from. “That leads straight outside. Any other route is much longer.” “Much longer will have to do.” Vincent said. “I know that roar. That’s a giant. I don’t want to fight a giant.” A moment later the giant stepped out of the shadows of the tunnel. It lumbered into the patchwork torchli...
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The Husband Poisoning Society, Chapter 19

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I saw my mother. My birth mother, from Earth. She was a small wan looking woman. She might have looked pretty with more makeup and without the scar on her cheek. The scar was from when my father hit her with a wine glass. The glass shattered and the edge cut open her cheek.  She stared at me, “He died because of you.” “He was horrible to you.” I answered back. “All I told them was the truth. The truth.” “They didn’t understand. He loved us. In his way.” I shook my head. “He didn’t love us. He wanted to own us. He didn’t love anyone.” “I needed him.” I felt something on my neck. Liquid of some sort.  “No you didn’t.” I said. “I’m sorry. You didn’t have to do it.” “I was nothing without him. And you took him away from me.” “That isn’t fair.” I could feel my voice rising. “You were a terrible daughter.” I struggled to find my footing. I felt something pouring down my throat.  “I was nothing without him. You made me nothing. So I went away. I couldn’t stand the world without ...
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The Husband Poisoning Society, Chapter 18

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Duke Xander rose to collect quill pen and paper. Somebody screamed in the corridor outside the prison. I looked up. Duke Xander drew his sword. Another scream. And then a rattling of keys.  The door burst in and Fiona stepped through the doorway, saber drawn and bloody. She had changed from her evening gown, back into her usual breeches and claw hammer jacket. The two royal guards moved to draw their own weapons. But Fiona drew a flintlock in her left hand and dropped the first guard before he could draw his sword. The second guard got his sword out of its scabbard. Fiona, meanwhile, had dropped her flintlock and drawn a second one. She aimed and fired as the second guard began to charge towards her. He dropped and rolled to a stop in front of her.  The torturer grabbed me and grappled me into a headlock. He then placed a bizarre and very sharp looking instrument against my cheek. I got the message.  “This is madness. What are you thinking?” Duke Xander said, his voice ri...
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The Husband Poisoning Society, Chapter 17

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“I see that we have already begun.” A man’s voice said. I looked up. The torturer was a slim short man with a bald head and prominent nose. He looked like he belonged in an accounting firm. He had set up a folding table and placed a case on it at some point. The two guards brought in a weird contraption. It looked like a clothing rack but for a person. They locked me into it, arms spread, feet dangling inches about the floor. The thing put all my weight on my shoulders, and the pain felt agonizing.  I don’t remember the guards leaving. Perhaps they didn’t and I didn’t notice.  I hung there in the middle of the room.  “Get on with it.” Duke Xander said.  “A moment.” He put a hand on my shoulder. “This has been painful so far. Yes? You should know, I will be worse. I see auras. I will not merely break your body. Do you understand?” I considered this. I’d been talking myself into confessing a moment ago. But would that actually fix things? Would it save anything? I woul...
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