Three stories this week. I’m gonna do this every Friday-ish, so if you are:

• A pub who regularly posts free-to-read stories, or
• A writer with a free-to-read story or stories posted this week, or
• Another fan with a lead on more free-to-read stories …

Drop me a line and I’ll happily add to the list. 

2026-05-20: Conquerors by Nick Wolven at Clarkesworld

Mayzelle hurried from her hab-hut, tacked shut the canvas door, and hustled down the bamboo steps. She’d sworn she wouldn’t stand for this anymore. She’d sworn.

A society splitting, and a family reunion. Also available in audio.

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  2026-05-19: Glass, by Beth Dawkins at Apex Magazine

I slipped the piece of reflective glass into my upper arm, right under the skin. 

It came from your grandmother’s antique dresser. I’d joked about burning the dark mahogany monstrosity. You insisted it had to move in with you. 

A metaphor, a heartbreak, a transformation.

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  2026-05-18: Hymn To Scylla, by Elena Goh at Strange Horizons

Why don’t you talk to me in real life, she asks.

What do you mean real life.

Outside of this. She shrugs, hair swirling in a gentle halo, anemone-like. When I’m not dreaming.

You understand me better here.

She shifts against the weeds, glances up blindly at the skeletal underbelly of the floating city. I don’t know about that. Above, a network of steel and burbling pipes. Below, the suggestion of coral bleached to the colour of bone.

Gasping for breath, grasping for significance, drowning in the vastness of time.

Happy reading! Support your favorite authors! Support your favorite pubs!