So this is the price of magic. I should've known.

He told me I'd be broken by the end of my journey. Told me I'd lose everything.

Why in the _world_ did I still go?

Marcus is gasping for air. He looks at me, eyes pleading. The hole in his chest is already too large. I watch my hands raise the sword again. I try to stop, but they don't listen to me anymore.

"Please..." My sword connects with hi...

“Magic comes with a price,” her boyfriend said across the room, “are you willing to pay it?”

She shook her head. She wasn’t ready to get married yet. She hoped he would understand, and yet his mouth turned slightly downward. She felt a bit guilty, but it was the right choice for her at the moment. Not at this age, so young, only a naive girl at eighteen!

Her hand touched the turquoise silk dress...

I saw him in my dreams, holding a picture of my long-dead sister. His hair fell in neat tresses to his kneecaps and floated lightly around his slim torso. The picture he held sat on my mantle; I wondered how this stranger found it.

“Do you want her back?” He asked, his lips oozing nectar.

I nodded. She had died years, over a decade, ago, but yes - I wanted her back. More than everything.

“Ju...

There were some who called him God. Others called him the Devil. Me, I called him Uncle Frank. Frank had always been my mom's eccentric brother; wearing cloaks and robes, speaking in made-up languages, and talking about made-up places and creatures. And even though I didn't see him much, he was an awesome uncle.

It was the evening of my sixteenth birthday when a knock sounded from the mirror on ...

She held her head high, standing straight. Of course, all good things come to an end, that's a dystopian future. And it always happens. But something came out of the world getting hit by an overly large meteor. When dinosaurs were alive they had something you could never imagine, though many people try. Magic. You can't find any of this in historical records because there is no way to find out fro...

Love is like a flower

It grows until it doesn’t

But flowers can die

A little acid quite does it

Love is like a stove

It cooks something delicious

But don’t come close

You may get cooked with it

Love is like a virus

It can be so contagious

But a virus can kill

If you don’t try to tame it

Love is like magic

A spell cast your way

But magic comes with a price

Are you willing to pay?...

Magic, Dad? I’m starting to wonder if the “magic” you left out here for me is all just my imagination. After all, no one else has noticed the amazing birds that I keep seeing and hearing. Maybe they’re just birds.

I keep trying to get Charlie to see the funny little birds. That would prove that I’m not imagining them. I would love to see Charlie’s reaction to seeing a bird dressed up as a cheerle...

I stare at the beautiful man cloaked in the silver moonlight smiling while waiting for me to speak.

"Are you the man that answers wishes?" I ask hesitantly, fidgeting with my fingers.

The man smiles and responds in a smooth, luring voice, "I do something quite like that. What do you wish for, Aurelia?"

I take a deep breath and repeat the words I've practiced many times over. "I wish to be strong...

**_MAGIC_** comes with a price.

Are you willing to pay?

The fee of a soul

but a soul isn’t owned

nor blood or bone

or fleshly home

pay with your fate, mortals

the staff becomes serpent

then Aaron’s bloom

pay your price to the prince

cast tomorrow to pharaoh

to Horus and Ra

wade to the Nile

see it red again

write your fury on the reeds

your piece on papyrus

on sandstone sphinx

pry it fr...

Magic comes with a price are you willing to play?

My art long dormant, I began to create one day

And long into the night

My lines were fluid my colors sublime.

Shapes and forms filled the page and trailed to the edge of the handmade paper

The texture it provided enchanting the piece

I was high and solitary and felt like I were home again

The light on my studio steady and bright

Moonbeams through ...