Mariah Montoya

On the island of Eshol, a ruling council gifts magic to all its citizens - whether they want it or not. Eighteen-year-old Rayna Drey should be excited for her Branding, when the island's Good Council will infuse her blood with one of five sanctioned magics: the ability to wield elements, summon objects, shift forms, talk to wildlife, or manipulate minds. The Good Council is good. The Branding doesn't hurt. And the institution she must attend afterward, to learn how to control her new gift, is only a little dangerous. Or, at least, that's what Rayna has always heard. As soon as she arrives at the Esholian Institute, however, a peer-pressured dare makes her explode with a power as deadly as it is forbidden. Worse yet, the only one who can teach her how to hide it from the Good Council is Coen Steeler, a much-too-handsome fifth-year who can manipulate minds as easily as he breathes. He alone understands Rayna's forbidden power...because he has the same one. With their secret in each other's hands, Rayna soon uncovers other dark secrets that threaten the very foundation of the island itself. And the worst of them? If the Good Council finds out what lurks in her and Coen's blood, they'll both face a fate beyond obedience - and a punishment worse than death.

Night is dangerous. Day is deadly. On a planet that rotates the wrong way, where day and night last thirty years, humans can only live in the twilight zone, constantly moving to stay ahead of the dark night and the cruel Nocturnals that call it home. Joah Cadshaw used to retrieve people the Nocturnals had taken, until his wife came back broken. Now, sent out west to spread word of the coming Move, he finds signs of another person gone missing - a young boy. If Joah wants to save the boy, he must face the monsters who haunt his dreams.

Night is dangerous. Day is deadly. On a planet that rotates the wrong way, where day and night last thirty years, humans can only live in the twilight zone, constantly moving to stay ahead of the dark night and the cruel Nocturnals that call it home. Joah Cadshaw used to retrieve people the Nocturnals had taken, until his wife came back broken. Now, sent out west to spread word of the coming Move, he finds signs of another person gone missing - a young boy. If Joah wants to save the boy, he must face the monsters who haunt his dreams.

This issue marks a new era for Space and Time. We survived 2020. Like many people, we had a lot of plans for the "unprecedented" year that never came to fruition. Fear and loathing dominated the global mindset and everything inverted. But here we are still-both you reading these words and us writing them. This is something worth celebrating. Table of Contents: The Ghost, the Goat and the Robot by Mariah Montoya (fiction), haiku by Scheila Scheffler (poetry), Ode To An Ancient Priestess With A Golden Prosthetic Eye by Scott J. Couturier (poetry), Word Ninja by Linda D. Addison (nonfiction), The Algorithm by Louis B. Rosenberg (fiction), From The Tales of Finale: The Genesis of the Animae by Roy L. Post (poetry), The Black Hole by Ronald J. Murray (poetry), Take Two at the Movies: Mighty Like a Rose by Daniel M. Kimmel (nonfiction), When Gods Die by Maxwell I. Gold (fiction), Leonard Speiser: Professional Beginner Angela Yuriko Smith (nonfiction interview), His Garden by Flavio Troisi (fiction-translated), January Exquisite Corpse: Edges of Hope (poetry), February Exquisite Corpse: Love You to Death (poetry), Graggon Speak: Spring 2021 by Austin Gragg (nonfiction), Degradable Mermaid by Karen Bovenmyer (poetry), Substance by Blaise Langlois (poetry), The Bone House by Manny Blacksher (poetry), Director's Cut by Nick Marone (fiction), Cosmic Commerce by Ken Poyner (poetry), Pterippus - A Riddle by Carol Edwards (poetry), Feverish Fiction with John Shirley by Angela Yuriko Smith (nonfiction-interview), The Hum of the Wheel, the Clack of the Loom by K. G. Anderson (fiction), Gravity by Geoffrey A. Landis (poetry), Vision in a Block of Ice by Marge Simon (flash fiction), The Paradox of Desire by Alicia Hilton (poetry), Once Wicked by C. H. Lindsay (poetry), The Dunes of Ranza by Grace Chan (fiction), Science or Fiction in 50: Mind Reading by Leonard Speiser (nonfiction), Contemplations on Flora by Megan Branning (poetry), A Walk in the Woods by Pete (poetry), Loneliness Amidst My Wrath by Irving Gamboa (poetry), And I Have Served by Alina Maciuca (fiction), and The Horror at Red Hook (pt 1) by Alessandro Manzetti and Stefano Cardoselli (Graphic Novel)