Read right now
The Girl-Prince
Once upon a future time, in a spindle-tower held high by antigravity and the will of engineers, a woman slept, a poisoned trap for princes.
The tower's true meaning had been forgotten by even the most ancient of databanks, and all anyone knew was that the tower was a graveyard for the foolhardy, an unscaleable fable with no discernable prize at the top but the rumor of a woman no one remembered.
The galaxy's bravest and silliest boys threw themselves at the tower for centuries without stop, until one day, on an artificial planet circling an artificial star, a girl-prince came of age.
Huntswoman
In the morning, the huntswoman's gloves were clean again, and her boots creaseless once more.
The Heart That Saves You May Be Your Own
You are a girl alone on a prairie.
You hunt alone and you sleep alone. You sleep alone, with your thighs clamped tight on nothing at night, but not too tight. You carry a rifle and a dream of a white dress. You sleep under the stars. You hunt.
You were a farm-girl once. You fell in love at a husking bee, your heart flipping open like a broken-clasped locket, showing a hidden face to the world ’til you scrabbled to snap it shut once more.
