Taken by a Gorgon (Dead City Novelettes)

Princess Calla is a necromancer who vibrates on a frequency entirely different from the rest of her rigid, combat-obsessed kin. While her family demands she master the art of death for the battlefield, Calla yearns to choreograph spirits in a dance of joy. Tired of the stifling expectations of the Dead City, she flees into the forbidden surrounding forests, seeking freedom—only to discover that the wild holds dangers far more seductive than discipline. Nathaira is a cast-out gorgon, a hermit who has curated a lonely, peaceful existence through her art, hiding away from a world that fears her lethal gaze. But when her volatile magic accidentally petrifies the runaway princess, Nathaira’s solitary life unravels. Panic drives her to weave a complicated, desperate web of lies to keep Calla alive and close, entangling the two women in a fragile intimacy born of disaster. As Calla navigates this strange new reality and Nathaira struggles to reconcile her guilt with her growing desires, they find themselves caught in a dangerous dance of secrets. In the shadow of the Dead City, they must decide if an honest connection is worth destroying the illusions that hold them together.