This story has been nominated for multiple awards and tells the story of a young couple, Adriana and Lucian, and their daughter Rose. Lucian is a robot and must make difficult decisions about his capacity to love his family and child despite all of their human flaws.

She has the magic to save her friends-but it'll cost their trust to use it... Lallie Nonsire Cobbleson is no stranger to prejudice. Between her heritage and her childhood spent in an orphanage, she knows full well how most folks like people they find strange. So when her friend, the illegitimate Evonalé Yunan, gets a crown and a husband, it doesn't surprise Lallie that assassins soon follow. Assassins that Lallie can assassinate in return, if she wants to. If she dares admit what she's become. But folks fear and hate what she is with good reason. Mages, folks who use magic, commonly go insane, and Lallie's magic is far stronger than most. Strong enough that it's taken control of her before, and done things she never would. Protecting her friend the queen will force Lallie to stop playing human and to admit what she is, abandoning the only life she's known. And that's only if she survives the friends whose trust she'll shatter by admitting her lies-and the magic she'll have to use in doing it. -------------- Features someone who with a mental illness that's unique to Aleyi.

Imperial law enforcer Amaranthe Lokdon is good at her job: she can deter thieves and pacify thugs, if not with a blade, then by toppling an eight-foot pile of coffee canisters onto their heads. But when ravaged bodies show up on the waterfront, an arson covers up human sacrifices, and a powerful business coalition plots to kill the emperor, she feels a tad overwhelmed. Worse, Sicarius, the empire's most notorious assassin, is in town. He's tied in with the chaos somehow, but Amaranthe would be a fool to cross his path. Unfortunately, her superiors order her to hunt him down. Either they have an unprecedented belief in her skills... or someone wants her dead.

Daniel Sheppard's life as a priest was continually filled with controversy. His thirst for knowledge and his desire to question everything ruffled feathers within the church, but his passion and inspiration moved and stimulated his parishioners. Going against the will of the Archbishop, Father Daniel joined Osiris, a group of scholars from various religions. Using their combined knowledge, and that of a leading quantum physicist, they sought answers to the deepest of questions. But even together, the forces of religious segregation sought to undermine all that they stood for. Daniel was no stranger to this sort of intrigue, but he did not expect this path would lead him toward one of the most amazing and wondrous spiritual revelations of the modern era.