Audie Award, Fantasy, 2016. As the smallest dragon in the Heartstriker clan, Julius survives by a simple code: keep quiet, don't cause trouble, and stay out of the way of bigger dragons. But this meek behavior doesn't fly in a family of ambitious magical predators, and his mother, Bethesda the Heartstriker, has finally reached the end of her patience.

Sara Grey's world shattered 10 years ago when her father was brutally murdered. Now, at 17, she is still haunted by memories of that day and driven by the need to understand why it happened. She lives a life full of secrets, and her family and friends have no idea of the supernatural world she is immersed in or of Sara's own very powerful gift. In her quest for answers about her father's death, Sara takes risks that expose her and her friends to danger and puts herself into the sights of a sadistic vampire.

Surrounded by secrecy, it is home to the wildest dreams and darkest nightmares. Incredible amounts of money have been lavished on it. The best minds of two generations have labored to build it. And somehow, bit by bit, it is claiming the Earth's most valuable resource - its children.

Thirteen-year-old Anthony Faircloth hasn't spoken a word in almost a month, and with each passing day his near-catatonic state worsens. No doctor, test, or scan can tell Anthony's distraught mother what has happened to her already troubled son. In desperation she turns to Mira for answers, hoping her unique abilities might succeed where science has failed. At their first encounter, Mira is pulled into Anthony's mind and finds the child's psyche shattered into the various movements of Modest Mussorgsky's classical music suite Pictures at an Exhibition.

In this short story collection of courage, adventure, and magic, heroes—ordinary people who do the right thing—bravely step forward. But running toward danger might cost them everything.

When Conrad Davis crashes his car, he should be dead. Instead, he finds himself in a parallel universe with a single difference from ours - Jesus Christ did not come 2000 years ago! Conrad finds himself in the midst of events surrounding a man named Eli - events that carry strong contemporary echoes of the life of Jesus. Following Eli, Conrad is challenged to accept what he witnesses, just as Christ’s apostles must have been challenged. Eli gives a unique twist to a question many people have asked themselves over the past two millennia: How would I react if I lived in the time of Jesus?

Gabriel Delling might call himself a professional con artist, but when walking superstitions start trying to bite his face off, his charm is shockingly unhelpful. It turns out living nightmares almost never appreciate a good joke. Together with a succubus who insists on constantly saving his life, Gabe desperately tries to survive a new reality that suddenly features demons, legends, and a giant locust named Dale - all of whom pretty much hate his guts. And when an ancient horror comes hunting for a spirit locked in his head, Gabe finds himself faced with the excruciating choice between death...or becoming some kind of freaking hero.

Cooper Bennett is a high school senior living a hard and abusive life in the sleepy town of Goodman, GA. One night, a monstrous burden is thrust upon him with the potential to unlock the better life he’s always wanted; one filled with love from the girl of his dreams and strengthened childhood friendships. However, the effects of his actions do not go unnoticed. Grayson Manning and his athletic son Liam see things far differently, doing everything in their power to send all Cooper has affected into ruin before he and the dangerous Lance Goddard manage to do the same to them.

It begins in the most boring place in the world: Chickentown, U.S.A. There lives Candy Quackenbush, her heart bursting for some clue as to what her future might hold. When the answer comes, it's not one she expects. Out of nowhere comes a wave, and Candy, led by a man called John Mischief (whose brothers live on the horns on his head), leaps into the surging waters and is carried away.

A secret sect of the Catholic Church, armed with an ancient book of the undead called The Gospel of Shadows, has been slowly destroying vampires for centuries. Now the book has been stolen, and the sect races to retrieve it before their purpose is discovered: a final purge of all vampires. As the line between saints and shadows grows ominously faint, private eye Peter Octavian is drawn into the search. And he'll do anything to find the book...for Peter Octavian is also a vampire.

That there is darkness at the heart of the Yuletide season should not surprise. Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol is filled with scenes that are unsettling. The hideous children - Want and Ignorance - beneath the robe of the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come. In the finest versions of this story, the best parts are the terrifying parts. Best-selling author and editor Christopher Golden shares his love for Christmas horror stories with this anthology of all-new short fiction from some of the most talented and original writers of horror today.

For the Shadows, nothing can ever be the same again. Their existence revealed to the world in Of Saints and Shadows, the truth of their divided heritage revealed to themselves in Angel Souls and Devil Hearts, they must now fight the hardest battle of all -- against others of their own kind.

Anora Silby can see the dead and turn spirits into gold coins, two things she would prefer to keep secret as she tries to lead a normal life at her new school. After all, she didn't change her identity for nothing. Hiding her weirdness is just one of many challenges. By the end of her first day, she's claimed the soul of a dead girl on campus and lost the coin. Turns out, the coin gives others the ability to steal souls, and when a classmate ends up dead, there's no mistaking the murder weapon.

Elana Black has the power to make herself fictional. But when she decides to start saving all the people in books and TV shows who die just for the sake of advancing the plot, she quickly learns that she's not the only one with her powers. All Elana wants to do is save people. But these others don't want the stories to change, and they'll do everything they can to stop her.

Nick and Allie don’t survive the car accident - and their souls don’t exactly get where they’re supposed to go. Instead, they’re caught halfway between life and death, in a sort of limbo known as Everlost: A shadow of the living world, filled with all the things and places that no longer exist. It’s a magical, yet dangerous, place where bands of lost kids run wild and anyone who stands in the same place too long sinks to the center of the Earth.