by
Available on 
Pages: 247
Pages: 247
Faeries are part of mythology the world over, past, present, and future. Called elves, brownies, the fae, and more, they evoke a sense of wonder and a little danger. Faery has its own rules, and humans enter at their peril.
In this spirit, we bring you the first book in the Myths Untold anthology series—four stories from the land of the Fae: a homeless man in Cardiff and the luck that could destroy him; the trans man in future San Francisco who falls for an elf; the village boy who has always been a little different; and a faery prince whose birthright was stolen from him.
Welcome to Faery.
My story "Through the Veil":
In the not-too-distant future, San Francisco has been swamped by rising sea levels caused by global warming, and has only survived by building a wall to keep the water out of the heart of the City. Colton is a trans man barely getting by on the canals outside the wall. Tris is an elf who has come to the human world on his journey to become a man. Fate brings them together, and everything changes for Colton when he sets out with Tris to find the elf’s missing brother, taking Colton behind the Wall for the first time.
Excerpt – Through the Veil
Tris sat in the prow of the boat, eagerly drinking in all the sights around him. This place was unlike anything he had imagined before, filled with its own kind of magic, and also its own darkness.
He’d had some time to consider what had happened to his brother. Somehow, the tuatha had been waiting for him when he crossed the veil. Had it happened to Laris too? His brother was stronger than Tris, but he likely hadn’t had the aid of someone like Colton, and the sword that now hung at Tris’s waist.
He put his hand on it. He had seen its like many times before at home, one of the swords the Knights of the Guard carried to protect the royal family. So what was it doing here?
“Can I ask you a question?”
“Shoot.”
“Where did you get the sword?” He looked up at his unlikely protector. “And how did you know where to find me?”
READ MOREColton frowned. “It was given to me, and I was told where and when to wait for you.”
“By whom?”
Colton frowned, thinking. “I don’t know her name. She’s called the Pharmacist, and she provides… necessities, for a price.”
Tris thought about that. “And what was your price?” he asked quietly.
Colton didn’t answer for a long time. The steady motion of the oars pushed the boat along, and a large structure appeared ahead, poking up out of the water. Tris
was about to ask again, unsure if Colton had heard him, when he finally replied.
“Myself.” He said no more.
Tris decided it was better not to pry.
The structure ahead grew quickly larger, and Tris saw that it was brick on the bottom, with metal support stanchions on top. It was wide and squat, not nearly as impressive as some of the buildings on the other side of the Wall. But it held a sort of grandeur nonetheless.
“Is that our destination?”
“Yes,” Colton said, sounding relieved to talk about something else.
“What is it?”
Colton laughed. “More like, what was it? It was a stadium where teams from different cities used to play one other.”
Tris looked back at the building once again. A stadium? The place looked like it could hold thousands and thousands. Letters along the top of the building spelled out “AT&T Park.”
“What’s an AT&T?”
Colton shook his head. “It’s too hard to explain,” he said.
COLLAPSEThrough the Veil by J. Scott Coatsworth
In the not-too-distant future, San Francisco has been swamped by rising sea levels caused by global warming, and has only survived by building a wall to keep the water out of the heart of the City. Colton is a trans man barely getting by on the canals outside the wall. Tris is an elf who has come to the human world on his journey to become a man. Fate brings them together, and everything changes for Colton when he sets out with Tris to find the elf’s missing brother, taking Colton behind the Wall for the first time.
This was the only story that ventured into the urban fantasy realm, which made it an exciting and fresh addition to the anthology. I loved future San Francisco with its Venice-like feel, and I loved that it was dirty and dark and on many levels repugnant. I also loved our hero, a transman, who fights for the right to be him every step of the way, and yet because of the environment that’s shaped him, even when his wildest dreams are handed to him by a guardian angel of sorts, he peers at the giver and says, “This for real?” [my paraphrasing]. He was definitely a relatable and dynamic character in a fantastic setting.
Available on 
