"And yet, here you are. In the blue Pacific."

"I just like it out here."

It's raining for real, now, and they retreat inside by wordless mutual consent.

After dinner the rain tapers off. Out on deck, Marika is leaning carelessly against the rail, and Faith has an image of her sunglasses falling off and sinking through the cold water, tumbling, to end up miles below in the silt. Of course they don't.

As she gets closer, she realises that Marika is muttering.

" . . . when my dimensions are as well compact, my mind as generous, and my form as true as honest madame's issue?" She turns, and doesn't even pretend to be embarrassed by Faith's presence. "One of the few good things about getting locked up in an all-girl's boarding school at sixteen is that we got top play all the boys' roles too."

Faith looks at her, at the swing of her hair brushing her shoulder, at her earring.

"So I was Edmund in King Lear."

Faith nods. The earring sways in the breeze.

"You know: 'Thou, nature, are my goddess . . . ' "

"Sounds cool. The only Shakespeare we ever did in high school was Romeo and Juliet. I hated it."

"You never had King Lear in college?"

"I mostly took science classes."

Marika shakes her head and chuckles. "All work and no play . . . "

"The ocean is play. The ocean is beautiful."

Faith isn't looking at Marika at all now, but she feels her moving in, feels the air get warmer and moister in the moment before they kiss.

In the morning, Marika isn't in Faith's cabin. Her skin is, though, neatly draped over the chair where Faith sits to write her blog posts, the only place in the room where something that size could be neatly draped, impossible to miss.

Faith hesitates for a moment before even picking it up. The feathers are warm, which doesn't seem like it should be possible. They leave a fine powder on her fingers like a butterfly's wings.

Marika didn't leave it behind by mistake, that's impossible. She must have wanted Faith to see it, to have the opportunity.

Faith folds it-her clumsy inexperienced fingers can only get it down to the size of a bath towel-and takes it to Marika's cabin. No one is inside. She puts the skin on the bed and locks the door so that no one but Marika will find it. Hook evaded.

Maybe she should ask Vivian for a plus-one for the wedding. It would be nice to have someone there who understands.

But that's months away. Today, they'll have to head east.

CONTRIBUTORS.

Holly Black is the bestselling author of the Spiderwick series. Her first book, Tithe: A Modern Faerie Tale, was an ALA Top Ten Book for Teens, received starred reviews in Publishers Weekly and Kirkus Reviews, and has been translated into twelve languages. Her second teen novel, Valiant, was an ALA Best Book for Young Adults, a Locus Magazine Recommended Read, and a recipient of the Andre Norton Award from the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. Her third teen novel, Ironside, the sequel to Tithe, was a New York Times bestseller. Her new novel, White Cat, received three starred reviews. She lives in Amherst, Massachusetts. Visit Holly at www.blackholly.com.

Richard Bowes has published five novels, two collections of short fiction, and fifty stories. He has won two World Fantasy Awards and the Lambda, International Horror Guild, and Million Writers Awards. Recent and forthcoming stories appear in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, and the anthologies Digital Domains, Beastly Bride, Wilde Stories 2011, Haunted Legends, Naked City, Best Gay Stories, Nebula Awards Showcase 2011, Supernatural Noir, and Blood and Other Cravings.

Marie Brennan is the author of the Onyx Court series of London-based historical faerie fantasies: Midnight Never Come, In Ashes Lie, A Star Shall Fall, and the forthcoming With Fate Conspire. She has published more than thirty short stories in venues such as On Spec, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, and the acclaimed anthology series Clockwork Phoenix. More information can be found on her website: www.swantower.com.

Nadia Bulkin is a writer and political science student. Her short fiction has appeared in ChiZine, Strange Horizons, Fantasy Magazine, and elsewhere; more information is available at nadiabulkin.wordpress.com. When she lived in a dorm in New York City not long ago she was her apartment's designated exterminator, but a very bad one.

Stephanie Burgis listened obsessively to 1940s recordings of her own grandpa and great-uncles' Youngstown family band while writing "Blue Joe." She's taken the family immigrant tradition along one more step by moving to Wales, where she lives with her husband, fellow writer Patrick Samphire, their son, and their crazy-sweet dog. Her fun Regency fantasy adventure for kids, Kat, Incorrigible, was published by Atheneum Books in April, 2011. To find out more, please visit her website: www.stephanieburgis.com Seth Cadin lives in Berkeley. He has one daughter, one partner, and sixteen pet mice.

Gwendolyn Clare has a BA in Ecology, a BS in Geophysics, and is currently working to add another acronym to her collection. Away from the laboratory, she enjoys practicing martial arts, adopting feral cats, and writing speculative fiction. Her short stories have appeared in Asimov's, the Warrior Wisewoman 3 anthology, Abyss and Apex, and Bull Spec, among others. She can be found online at gwendolynclare.com.

Leah R. Cutter is the author of three historical fantasy novels as well as several fantasy, science fiction, and horror short stories. Her most recent published novel, The Jaguar and the Wolf (Roc 2005) is about what happens when a group of Vikings encounter the Mayans. Her first novel, Paper Mage (Roc 2003) is set in Tang dynasty China, and her second novel, Caves of Buda (Roc 2004) is set in Budapest, Hungary. Leah has had odd jobs all over the world, including an working on an archaeological dig in England, teaching English in Taiwan, and tending bar in Thailand. She temporarily lives in New Orleans, doing research for more novels. Her permanent home is in Seattle. She works as a technical writer for a California software firm. Her hobbies include walking, hiking, yoga, reading, drinking single-malt scotch, dancing and goofing off.

Renee Carter Hall works as a medical transcriptionist by day and as a writer, poet, and artist all the time. Her short fiction has appeared in a variety of print and electronic publications, including The Summerset Review, A Fly in Amber, New Fables, and the Different Worlds, Different Skins anthologies. She lives in West Virginia with her husband and her cat, both of whom serve diligently as beta readers. (If the cat falls asleep on the printout, it's good.) Readers can find her online at www.reneecarterhall.com.

Elizabeth Hand is the multiple-award-winning author of numerous novels and three collections of short fiction. She is also a longtime reviewer for the Washington Post, among many other publications. A revised edition of Glimmering, her 1997 cult novel of environmental collapse, will be published this year. Available Dark, sequel to Shirley Jackson Award winner Generation Loss, and Radiant Days, a YA novel about the French poet Arthur Rimbaud, will both appear in 2012. She lives on the coast of Maine.

Carlos Hernandez is currently serving as the Deputy Chair of the Department of English at the Borough of Manhattan Community College, CUNY. He earned his PhD in English with an emphasis in Creative Writing from Binghamton University, and is the author of numerous works of fiction, a novella, and the coauthor of Abecedarium, an experimental novel published by Chiasmus Media in 2007. He has so thoroughly failed as a blogger he no longer gives out his web address, hoping it might magically disappear on its own. But he will gladly friend you on Facebook. Search for "Carlos A. Hernandez," and good luck. It's a very common name.

Erica Hildebrand loves storytelling and works on illustrated projects in addition to her writing. She has a soft spot in her heart for superheroes, dinosaurs, and the conquerors of antiquity. A graduate of the Odyssey Writing Workshop, her fiction has appeared in M-Brane SF, The Edge of Propinquity, and Everyday Weirdness. Her comics have appeared in Space Squid and Kaleidotrope. She lives in Pennsylvania.

Justin Howe's fiction has appeared in various online and print publications including Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Crossed Genres, Brain Harvest, and the anthology Fast Ships, Black Sails. Born in Boston, he now lives with his wife in South Korea where he teaches English to elementary school students.

Carrie Laben, formerly a lifelong New Yorker, is currently studying for her MFA at the University of Montana. Her work has previously appeared in Clarkesworld and ChiZine as well as anthologies Haunted Legends and anthology Phantom. She looks at birds.

Marissa Lingen lives in the Minneapolis suburbs with two large men and one small dog. She loves lakes, snow, hockey, and just about every stereotypical Minnesota thing you can name except mosquitoes. She writes short stories and is working on (surprise!) a fantasy novel.

Nick Mamatas is the author of three and a half novels, including Sensation (PM Press) and, with Brian Keene, The Damned Highway (Dark Horse). He has also published over seventy short stories in venues such as Tor.com, Asimov's Science Fiction and the anthologies Supernatural Noir and Lovecraft Unbound. His fiction has thrice been nominated for the Bram Stoker award, and as an editor for Clarkesworld Magazine, Nick has been nominated for both the Hugo and World Fantasy awards.

Sandra McDonald's debut collection, Diana Comet and Other Improbable Stories, received a starred review in Booklist and is an American Library Association Over the Rainbow book. Her short fiction about enchanted firemen, sexy cowboy robots, and more has appeared in more than forty venues. Her science fiction novels follow an Australian military lieutenant and her handsome sergeant. She earned an MFA in Creative Writing at the University of Southern Maine and teaches college in northeast Florida. Visit her at www.sandramcdonald.com.

Mario Milosevic lives in the Pacific Northwest of the United States in a county which once passed a law making it illegal to kill Bigfoot. His fiction and poetry has appeared in many publications, both print and online. Learn more at mariowrites.com.

Michelle Muenzler was born in the broken pines of East Texas where she fought boys with concrete-sharpened pine spears and mastered squeezing through rabbit trails for quick escapes in the games of childhood war. This particular short story was first published in the third issue of Shroud Magazine where the surrounding gore made it seem quite tame in comparison. The rest of her short fiction can be found in publications such as Daily Science Fiction, Electric Velocipede, and Space & Time Magazine.

Cherie Priest is the author of ten novels, including 2010's Dreadnought and 2009's Boneshaker. Boneshaker was nominated for both the Hugo Award and the Nebula Award, and it won the Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel. Cherie's other books include Four and Twenty Blackbirds, Fathom, Wings to the Kingdom, and the Endeavour-nominated book Not Flesh Nor Feathers from Tor (Macmillan). Her short novels Dreadful Skin, Clementine, and Those Who Went Remain There Still are published by Subterranean Press. She lives in Seattle, Washington, with her husband and a fat black cat.

Vandana Singh was born and raised in India and now lives in the United States where she teaches physics and writes. Her fiction has been published in Strange Horizons and numerous anthologies and reprinted in several Year's Best volumes. Her novella Distances (Aqueduct Press) is a 2008 Carl Brandon Parallax Award winner and a Tiptree Honor book. The story "Thirst" first appeared in The Third Alternative (now Black Static) and is also to be found in her collection, The Woman Who Thought She Was a Planet and Other Stories (Zubaan/Penguin India). Her website is http://users.rcn.com/singhvan/.

Maria V. Snyder switched careers from meteorologist to fantasy novelist when she began writing the New York Times best-selling Study Series (Poison Study, Magic Study, and Fire Study) about a young woman who becomes a poison taster. Born in Philadelphia, Maria dreamed of chasing tornados and even earned a BS degree in Meteorology from Penn State University. Unfortunately, she lacked the necessary forecasting skills. Writing, however, lets Maria control the weather, which she gleefully does in her Glass Series (Storm Glass, Sea Glass, and Spy Glass). Readers are invited to read more of Maria's short stories on her website at www.MariaVSnyder.com.

Aaron Sterns' "Watchmen" originally appeared in the tri-country anthology Gathering the Bones edited by Jack Dann, Ramsey Campbell, and Dennis Etchison, receiving an honourable mention in the The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror. Sterns' first story "The Third Rail" appeared in the World Fantasy Award-winning collection Dreaming Down-Under and was shortlisted for the 1998 Aurealis Award for Best Horror Short Story. Subsequent stories appeared in Orb: Speculative Fiction and the recent follow-up to DDU, Dreaming Again. Sterns served as script-editor for the film Rogue, and appeared in Greg McLean's earlier Wolf Creek as a nasty truck driver. A former editor of The Journal of the Australian Horror Writers, he has also presented papers on American Psycho and Crash at ICFA (as part of PhD work on postmodern horror), written non-fiction articles for Bloodsongs: The Australian Horror Magazine and other publications, and was the Australian correspondent for Hellnotes: The Insider's Guide to the Horror Field. Sterns is currently working on a novel based on the dark world of "Watchmen"-Blood-and a number of screenplays. He lives in Melbourne, Australia.

Lavie Tidhar grew up on a kibbutz in Israel and has since lived in South Africa, the UK, Vanuatu, and Laos. He is the author of steampunk novels The Bookman (2010) and Camera Obscura, literary novel Osama, and weird SF novel Martian Sands (all three in 2011). He is also the author of linked-story-collection HebrewPunk (2007), novellas Cloud Permutations (2010) and An Occupation of Angels (2005 UK; 2010 US), and is a prolific short story writer.

Genevieve Valentine's short fiction has appeared in magazines such as Clarkesworld, Fantasy, and Lightspeed, and the anthologies Running with the Pack, The Way of the Wizard, Teeth, and others. Her first novel, Mechanique: A Tale of the Circus Tresaulti, will be published in spring 2011. She has terrible taste in movies, a tragedy she tracks on her blog, genevievevalentine.com.

Kaaron Warren's short story collection The Grinding House (CSFG Publishing) won the ACT Writers' and Publishers' Fiction Award and two Ditmar Awards. Her second collection, Dead Sea Fruit is published by Ticonderoga Books. Her critically acclaimed novel Slights (Angry Robot Books) was nominated for an Aurealis Award, made the preliminary ballot for the Stoker Awards, was shortlisted for the Ned Kelly First Novel Award, and won the Australian Shadows Award fiction, the Ditmar Award and the Canberra Critics' Award for Fiction.

Jen White is an Australian writer of speculative fiction. She lived for many years in the Northern Territory and, although she has now moved to gentler climes, she still finds inspiration in the vibrancy and mystery of Australia's north. Her fiction has been published in various anthologies and magazines, and has recently appeared in the anthology The Tangled Bank: Love, Wonder and Evolution. She has a story in the upcoming anthology Dead Red Heart.

A.C. Wise was born and raised in Montreal, and currently lives in the Philadelphia area with her husband, two cats, and a very short dog. Her fiction has appeared in publications such as Clarkesworld, Strange Horizons, Realms of Fantasy, and ChiZine, among others. Along with Bernie Mojzes, she is co-editor of The Journal of Unlikely Entomology. For more information, please visit the author's website at www.acwise.net.

Melissa Yuan-Innes likes werewolves (warm, furry) better than vampires (cold, dead). Her fiction has appeared in Indian Country Noir, Nature, The Dragon and the Stars, and other fine venues. She practices emergency medicine and dotes on her son and infant daughter outside of Montreal, Canada. Her website is www.melissayuaninnes.net

COPYRIGHT NOTICES.

"The Poison Eaters" by Holly Black. 2010 Holly Black. Originally published in The Poison Eaters: And Other Stories, Big Mouth House, 2010. Reprinted by permission of the author.

"A Song to the Moon" by Richard Bowes. 2011 Richard Bowes. Original to this volume.

"Coyotaje" by Marie Brennan. 2011 Marie Brennan. Original to this volume.

"Infested" by Nadia Bulkin. 2011 Nadia Bulkin. Original to this volume.

"Blue Joe" by Stephanie Burgis. 2009 Stephanie Burgis. Originally published in Shimmer Magazine, No. 10, March 2009. Reprinted by permission of the author.

"Extra Credit" by Seth Cadin. 2011 Seth Cadin. Original to this volume.

"Grotesque Angels" by Gwendolyn Clare. 2011 Gwendolyn Clare. Original to this volume.

"Seven Year Itch" by Leah Cutter. 2011 Leah Cutter. Original to this volume.

"Swear Not By the Moon" by Renee Carter Hall. 2008 Renee Carter Hall. Originally published in A Fly in Amber, November 2008. Reprinted by permission of the author.

"Snow on Sugar Mountain" by Elizabeth Hand. 1991 Elizabeth Hand. Originally published in Full Spectrum 3, 1991. Reprinted by permission of the author.

"The Aphotic Ghost" by Carlos Hernandez. 2011 Carlos Hernandez. Original to this volume.

"In the Seeonee Hills" by Erica Hildebrand. 2009 Erica Hildebrand. Originally published in Queer Wolf (ed. James EM Rasmussen), Queered Fiction Press, 2009. Reprinted by permission of the author.

"Go Home Stranger" by Justin Howe. 2011 Justin Howe. Original to this volume.

"And Neither Have I Wings to Fly" by Carrie Laben. 2011 Carrie Laben. Original to this volume.

"Tusk and Skin" by Marissa Lingen. 2011 Marissa Lingen. Original to this volume.

"(Nothing But) Flowers" by Nick Mamatas. 2011 Nick Mamatas. Original to this volume.

"Moonlight and Bleach" by Sandra McDonald. 2010 Sandra McDonald. Originally published in Daily Science Fiction (dailysciencefiction.com), October 2010. Reprinted by permission of the author.

"An Unnatural History of Scarecrows" by Mario Milosevic. 2011 Mario Milosevic. Original to this volume.

"The Fowler's Daughter" by Michelle Muenzler. 2008 Michelle Muenzler. Originally published in Shroud Magazine, Issue 3, summer 2008. Reprinted by permission of the author.

"The Heavy" by Cherie Priest. 2008 Cherie Priest. Originally published in Apex Digest #12, 2008. Reprinted by permission of the author.

"Thirst" by Vandana Singh. 2004 Vandana Singh. Originally published in The Third Alternative, Issue 40, Winter 2004. Reprinted by permission of the author.

"The Coldest Game" by Maria V. Snyder. 2011 Maria V. Snyder. Original to this volume.

"Watchmen" by Aaron Sterns. Copyright 2003 Aaron Sterns. Originally published in Gathering the Bones: New Stories by the World's Masters of Horror (ed. Jack Dann, Dennis Etchison & Ramsey Campbell), HarperCollins, Australia/Tor, US, 2003. Reprinted by permission of the author.

"The Werewizard of Oz" by Lavie Tidhar. 2011 Lavie Tidhar. Original to this volume.

"She Drives the Men to Crimes of Passion!" by Genevieve Valentine. 2011 Genevieve Valentine. Original to this volume.

"The Gaze Dogs of Nine Waterfall" by Kaaron Warren. 2009 Kaaron Warren. Originally published in Exotic Gothic 3 (ed. Danel Olsen), Ash Tree Press, 2009. Reprinted by permission of the author.

"Red on Red" by Jen White. @ 2002 Jen White. Originally published in Redsine 10, 2002. Reprinted by permission of the author.

"The Thief of Precious Things" by A.C. Wise. 2011 A.C. Wise. Original to this volume.

"The Sinews of His Heart" by Melissa Yuan-Innes. 2011 Melissa Yuan-Innes.

ABOUT THE EDITOR.

Ekaterina Sedia resides in the Pinelands of New Jersey. She is the editor of anthologies Paper Cities (a World Fantasy Award winner) and Running with the Pack. Her critically acclaimed novels, The Secret History of Moscow, The Alchemy of Stone, and The House of Discarded Dreams were published by Prime Books. Her forthcoming novel, Heart of Iron, will be published later this year. Her short stories have sold to Analog, Baen's Universe, Subterranean, and Clarkesworld, as well as numerous anthologies, including Haunted Legends and Magic in the Mirrorstone. Visit her at www.ekaterinasedia.com.

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