When kingdoms fall, who decides what rises from the ashes?

Ten stories. Ten worlds where nothing is as it seems.

What happens when the knight in shining armor is the real monster? When the villain's victory saves the kingdom? When the hero's journey leads not to triumph, but to terrible understanding?

These authors take the stories you think you know and shatter them like glass. Court assassins question their orders. Street thieves become unlikely saviors. Ancient prophecies lie. Noble quests corrupt the pure-hearted, while monsters discover their own humanity.

In marble halls and shadow-soaked alleys, on battlefields where magic rewrites reality, familiar archetypes reveal hidden depths. Here, true love demands sacrifice beyond death, chosen ones refuse their destiny, and sometimes the dragon is right to burn it all down.

These are tales where tropes become weapons, where expectations crumble, and where the most dangerous magic is the story that refuses to follow the rules.

Magic. Betrayal. Revolution.

But not the way you expect.

Everything you thought you knew changes.

Contents:

"Black Box Theater" by DeAnna Knippling

"Right and Unforgiven" by Chuck Anderson

"Dancing in the Ashes" by Richard E. Friesen

"Beowulf, the Hero" by Jim LeMay

"The Meadow of LeMay" by Denise E Dora

"Worth Her Salt" by Tami Veldura

"Water After Dark" by R.S. Kellogg

"Reborn" by Shannon Lawrence

"To Be a Monster" by Jamie Ferguson

"It Was Limbruner" by Wayne Faust