He crouched down on both knees to look under the vehicle. When he said, “Oh God!” it wasn’t in his adult voice, but in a child’s voice, like the time he had accidentally run over his little brother’s leg with his dirt bike.

Walking into the room for the first time, my eyes were drawn to the grand, wooden table covered in a red checkered tablecloth piled with steaming plates of basted turkey, creamy mashed potatoes, and wobbly cranberry sauce.

And the last time he’d feel his heart thumping, which it was doing in spades. From dread? Excitement? Both, he supposed. Like a bungee jumper. Yes, the ultimate jump. Down, down, down, then up forever. A phoenix from the ashes.

The Victorian Mansion, as its previous owners often referred to it, sat a half-mile from the quiet road. Rows of massive oaks lead along the dusty driveway, all the way to the front door, and dense woods framed the home like a knotted head of hair.

For the first time, Becca truly realised that grown-ups couldn’t see magic. Magic that nevertheless was very real, very powerful, and very frightening.

“I do hope he likes them,” Doris thought to herself over and over again. They were, after all, very special cookies for a very special person.

With its now-familiar rattles and wheezes - some belonging to the van, some to the myriad of potions, weapons, and equipment in the back of it - Iggy got his trusty van to Kysham village.

Eight years ago, it had been a joyous day when Jasper and David had arrived home with their two newly adopted babies. The twins had been abandoned not long after their birth and had come to the couple at a perfect time in their relationship.

Uncle Joe’s liver and heart weren’t original equipment, but they squashed out flatter 'n a pancake along with the rest of Uncle Joe when a boulder rolled off the side of the abandoned quarry.

They wanted to believe. And they certainly weren’t going to deny their son every advantage for his future.

Lancastrian Nights, a true story, tells the wonderous tale of a chance meeting and highlights the magic of life.

She was not unused to calls of distress, the groans of the feverish, or the cloying stench of broken bodies and all their expulsions, but never so many at a time and never so twisted and ripped.

Melissa believed the human race could be divided into two groups. Those who have an innate desire to explore, and those who are anchored to a specific place from birth until death.

Was this a riddle? Breanna put the peeler down and peered closely at the message. Her Dad loved entertaining her with riddles and rhymes but she wasn’t sure she’d ever received one by text message! Was this about dinner...?

For thirty generations his family had ruled these lands. In the view of the Council of Vicars, the esteemed priests of the Church of the Edd, he’d eclipsed all predecessors in seventy years as Sovereign. But who would follow him?