Monsters. They are not always easily spotted, and often easily misunderstood. Sometimes, the monsters must be slain—and sometimes, they must be saved . . .

In this collection of nine folkloric fantasy and science fiction stories, you will find a motley crew of characters facing off against monsters or accepting the monstrous within themselves, including:

~a ruthless mermaid who must make a deadly choice to free her little sister from a dangerous mistake;

~a galactic gravedigger branded a traitor for burying a rebel—and forced to decide between her beliefs and the future she’s fought to build;

~a once-wicked queen who must face her darkest self in order to help another young woman avoid an unhappy fate;

~a ghostly creature trapped in a spaceship full of secrets—secrets that may destroy the young man set to inherit the ship’s dark legacy;

~and a desperate thief on the run, who must decide whether the wolf shifter tracking her down is a foe . . . or her best chance at survival.

Full of beauty and brokenness, romance and revenge, madness and mercy, these stories may just have you rooting for the monsters . . .