A life on the water is a constant gamble. Whether a sailor pits himself against the forces of nature or finds himself at the mercy of man, odds are even how the encounter will turn out, depending whose side the luck rolls up on. In Phoebe Wray's Sailor of Kannar, Darcy must take her chances in courts of intrigue to preserve her people's way of life among the marshes. In Danielle Ackley-McPhail's Trouble on the Water, Rishima Blaque clings to faith and a rock in the middle of the sea in the hopes her husband will find her before the pirates do. In David Sherman's Vest of the Pecos, Kitty Belle and Cheyenne Walker join forces once again to pit their wiles against the denizens of a paddleboat gaming salon, only to find themselves facing a gamble of another sort. In Jeffrey Lyman's Unsinkable, Princess Cordolya bows to her father's dictates, setting sail for an alliance with a country across the sea, only to find herself beset by pirates, leviathans, and a mage-borne storm. Will luck be with the lady or will she make her own? No Matter What, Trouble's Coming for Someone...

In the finest tradition of the original Bad-Ass Faeries, the twenty tales in this collection delve into the darkest corners, exploring every tough and terrifying aspect the legends of faeries ever claimed ... and then some.

The collected dark fantasy fiction of Award-Winning Author Jeffrey Lyman including the brand-new story "Immortal Evelyn" Cauterize the Wound A noted professor at a Victorian medical college learns that truth is not always empirical, nor can all reality be weighed and measured, when lore and legend undeniably prove themselves as fact in his operating theatre. Down on the Playground It isn't all fun and games when you see more than just dead people. Elsi's vision reveals forces of power and while she doesn't always understand what she sees, she has enough sense to know that when the lines between madness and reality cross, sometimes you just need to back away. The Quartered Man An overconfident young trader disregards sage warnings to avoid particular crossroads and finds himself in a battle of wits with a malevolent spirit thirsting for revenge. Immortal Evelyn A battle for supremacy fractures more than just a country when magic is involved. Can Evelyn put the pieces back together before things get worse to the infinite power?