Black Gate is very pleased to offer our readers an exclusive short story by Levi Black, author of Red Right Hand, on sale now from Tor Books.

“Is that an agreement?”

“Yes. Take away my cancer. I want to party some more.”

The words were barely past his lips when the Man In Black was on him.

The coat wrapped around Grady, slithering over his head and face, making the world go dark. Cold, so bone-achingly cold, seared his chin and cheeks. He couldn’t breathe.

He felt something digging in the crease of his hip and then a rough tearing sensation, as if his skin had been ripped asunder, and the pain flared to a white hot scorch.

Something curled in his guts and it sent a wet tickle up his spine and into his brain. Tug. Yank.

And something tore free.

Levi Black lives in Metro Atlanta with his wife and an array of toys, books, records, and comics.

The complete catalog of Black Gate Online Fiction, including stories by Mark Rigney, John Fultz, Jon Sprunk, Tara Cardinal and Alex Bledsoe, E.E. Knight, Vaughn Heppner,  Howard Andrew Jones, David Evan Harris, John C. Hocking, Michael Shea, Aaron Bradford Starr, Martha Wells, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, C.S.E. Cooney, and many others, is here.

“Grady Spades Second Opinion” is a complete 1,500-word short story of dark fantasy.

Read the complete story here.