Three novellas of winter magic and loves lost and regained. THE DEVIL IN MIDWINTER by Elise Forier Edie. December in the orchard town of Mattawa, Washington, is usually quiet, and the biggest stories in the local newspaper center around the annual Midwinter Fire Festival. But a murder, sightings of a fantastic beast in the orchards and the arrival of a handsome new vintner in town have kindled reporter Esme Ulloa’s curiosity—and maybe her passion as well. However, the more she untangles the mystery, the more the world she knows unspools; until she finds herself navigating a place she thought only existed in storybooks, where dreams come alive, monsters walk the earth and magic is real. TAMING FATE by Amalia Dillin. In 15th Century France, Eve would have burned as a witch if it hadn’t been for the too-timely arrival of the Marquis DeLeon to save her skin, but their hasty marriage is off to anything but a smooth start. As tensions in the town grow, Ryam DeLeon knows if he and Eve cannot find common ground, their first Christmas may be their last. (This novella can be read as book 2.5 in the Fate of the Gods series.) OPAL by Kristina Wojtaszek. White as snow, stained with blood, her talons black as ebony… The worlds of Fae and Men collide. The daughter of an owl, forced into human form by the death of her Fae mother, must seek the truth of her parentage. The son of a king, deep in the snowy woods, finds the love he’d only dreamt of in the arms of a Fae shapeshifter. The past is shrouded in secrecy, and the future wrapped in snow.