Hearts of Stone: A Tor.com Original

By Emma Newman

For over 25 years, the Wild Cards universe has been entertaining readers with stories of superpowered people in an alternate history. In Emma Newman's "Hearts of Stone", a young woman learns how to control her deadly powers from an unlikely ally.

Kerry —a.k.a Stonemaiden— is a monster. Or at least... she thinks she is. Ever since she turned her parents into granite statues, she lives in constant fear of hurting other people. To prove herself a hero--someone worthy of joining the Silver Helix--she embarks on her first field mission to Central London where she's tasked with surveying a Russian diplomat named Kazimir Nazarenko. When she finally comes into contact with Kazimir, it becomes evident everything is not what it appears, leading her to question everything she's been led to believe.

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Macmillan Publishers
• Release date: Jun 1, 2022
• ISBN: 9781250853172

Emma Newman

Emma Newman was born in a tiny coastal village in Cornwall during one of the hottest summers on record. Four years later she started to write stories and never stopped until she penned a short story that secured her a place at Oxford University to read Experimental Psychology. In 2011 Emma embarked on an ambitious project to write and distribute one short story per week – all of them set in her Split Worlds milieu – completely free to her mailing list subscribers. A debut short-story collection, From Dark Places, was published in 2011 and her debut post-apocalyptic novel for young adults, 20 Years Later, was published just one year later – presumably Emma didn’t want to wait another nineteen… Emma is also a professional audiobook narrator. She now lives in Somerset with her husband, son and far too many books.

Book preview

St Alban’s, England, September 2005

"Stories From The Great War?" Captain Flint picked up one of the books piled on the sofa, opened it to find the library label, and then flipped through the pages. "What made you choose this?"

Kerry turned to look at him. He stood in the middle of the living room, a stone giant who made everything else around him seem tiny and flimsy. His eyes glowed red from deep in the sockets, and from the slight tilt of his head she deduced that he was puzzled.

She nudged the fridge shut with her backside and shrugged. It looked interesting. She didn’t tell him that she’d spotted it at the library when she was hunting for another book to feed her schlock thriller habit and had grabbed it in the hope of finding some morsel in its pages with which to impress him.

Flint dropped the book down on the sofa and opened the French doors out onto the small patio. There was a stone bench by the fish pond that he preferred to sit on when the weather was good and it was a fine autumn day.

It made me think about what the men must have felt like, when they went into battle, she said, following him out with her drink.

Flint sat on the bench with a dull thud and rested his elbows on his knees, the closest he ever came to appearing relaxed. She sat on the grass next to him, her head level with his knees, and put her glass next to the pond. He stared down at the koi turning in their slow circles. A lot of fear before each push, and a lot of boredom in between, I imagine.

She wondered how much of that was based on his own experience of combat. She wanted to ask him what it was like, how he’d coped, whether he’d ever been scared. But she had to pick her moments with Flint, and she had the sense that this wasn’t the time. He usually visited every couple of weeks, work permitting, and it had only been six days since his last visit.

"You had a psych evaluation a few days ago," he began, and her stomach sank into the grass. "I received the report."Kerry chewed her lip and pulled a lock of her curly black hair from her ponytail to twist it around her fingers. She too looked down at the koi, nervous about what he was going to say. She hadn’t liked that evaluation. It was only because Flint had ordered it that she actually stuck it out.

She was very impressed with you.

Her head snapped up. She was?

You’ve had a lot to adjust to. And as she points out in the report, there aren’t many eighteen-year-olds who have lived alone for several years and adapted so well considering the … challenges you have.

Kerry plucked a strand of grass and tore it down the middle. She had tried, very hard, to play down all the negatives. She’d shut down any discussion of what had happened with her parents. She resented even being made to think about it and for days afterward had been left with a grim emotional hangover that only miles of running and a lot of trashy movies had been able to lift.

She looked up at Flint, whose glowing eyes were now focused on her. Well, I had a lot of help, didn’t I? There are lots of people who’ve been through a lot worse and didn’t have you to look after them.

Kerry…

No, I’m serious. You gave me a safe place to live. She waved a hand at the cottage. Yes, it was a mile away from the edge of St. Albans, which had to be one of the most boring towns in England, but it was safe and secluded, and when the briefest touch could turn any living thing to granite, that was a definite advantage. "You gave me an education, and personal trainers, and … and you never used