Topher Lydon - Stories

Mickey Ryder is twenty-three, deeply in debt, and the captain of a barely-functioning mail ship held together by salvage tape and bad decisions. When a runaway cult boy named Isaiah hides in his cargo bay, Mickey does the one thing he never does—he says yes. Now they're running from New Eden, hauling mystery cargo, and trying not to kill each other. But between a dead exploration ship, a screaming alien in a crate, and a religious mandate that just dropped a nine-year-old son on his doorstep, Mickey's about to learn that surviving is easy. Living? That's the hard part.

A blind boy hailed as a saint. A sorcerer-prince branded a monster. Bound by magic, divided by war, and caught in the crushing grip of the First Crusade.

As thirty thousand starving crusaders batter the walls of Antioch, Wylan—a stable boy turned reluctant holy icon—discovers his soul is tethered to Ishan, the Seljuk prince sworn to destroy his army. Together, they share visions, stolen warmth, and a truth that could burn them both.

The city bleeds. The earth shakes. And when the sky turns red, their swapped bodies become the least of their sins.

A runaway criminal sidekick teams up with his missing boss's monstrous mentor—a sociopath with a taste for precision and an even bigger secret—in a chase across the UK. Riley Shaw, scrawny and scared, is used to being an afterthought. But when Kieran Varys, disappears in a haze of blood, the only person left looking for him is Kieran's terrifying, obsessive architect: a man named Ben. Now Riley must navigate a landscape of motorway services, posh houses, and monstrous authority, and figure out if he's bait, a witness, or something more terrifying—a student.

A demon baby, a custody battle, and one very dysfunctional family.

When a desperate woman dumps a fire-breathing toddler on Taine's doorstep, the philosophy professor's life explodes into chaos. Now he's navigating demonic family court with his undead ex, his wrestling-obsessed almost-boyfriend, and a cherub who hasn't practiced law in 3,000 years. Between the Latin-speaking infant, the thousand-soul debt, and the wedding they accidentally crashed, this found family is about to learn that hell hath no fury like a grandmother with a fireproof cardigan.

A grumpy hedge knight desperate for a squire buys a blind stable boy for three years' wages. He expected useless. He got a boy who can hear lies in a man's voice, calm any horse with a touch, and navigate by sounds others miss. Now they're marching to crusade, surrounded by enemies who'd destroy them—if the magic rising in the East doesn't kill them first.