Velveteen vs. the Consequences of Her Actions (preorder)

(preorder—to be published in early 2026)

Dust jacket illustration by Bengal.

Interior color plate by Dylan Meconis.

We’re pleased to present some of Seanan McGuire’s rarest—and previously unpublished—stories in the new mega-collection (over 600 pages), Velveteen vs. the Consequences of Her Actions. This volume includes sixteen never-before-published stories.

About the Book:

It hasn’t been very long since the Super Patriots, Inc. were defeated by Velveteen and her friends, and the echoes of a world where superhumans could be bought and sold by corporate interests are still shaping the greater landscape.  In order to achieve their victory, Velveteen had to make a devil’s bargain with Santa Claus himself, and now the cost of his aid is coming due.  Even as the rebuilding begins, she has to leave for the Seasonal Lands and fulfill the terms of service she agreed to, or she’ll never be able to come home again, and never be able to enjoy the world she’s fought so hard and sacrificed so much to achieve.

And of course, there’s the matter of what comes after her sentence has been served.

In the aftermath of the fall of the Super Patriots, Inc., Velveteen will have to overcome the greatest challenge she’s faced to date: how does she move forward with her life and become an independent adult, when that’s the one battle she’s never been prepared for?  And what about all the other problems she hasn’t defeated yet, from super villains to death itself?  She’s already won, so why does it feel like the fight will never end?

These short stories continue Velveteen’s adventures, from her service with the Seasons to her attempt to find a way to live a normal life in a superheroic world.  Includes the original volume three, along with the sixteen stories in the never-before-published volume four.

Limited: 1000 signed numbered hardcover copies

Table of Contents

VELVETEEN VS. THE SEASONS

• Velveteen vs. Hypothermia
• Velveteen vs. Santa Claus
• Velveteen vs. Global Warming
• Velveteen Presents the Princess vs. Public Relations
• Velveteen vs. The Thaw
• Velveteen vs. Balance
• Velveteen vs. Spring Cleaning
• Velveteen Presents Polychrome vs. The Court of Public Opinion and Not Punching Anyone
• Velveteen vs. The Melancholy of Autumn
• Velveteen vs. A Disturbing Number of Crows
• Velveteen vs. Trick and Treat
• Velveteen Presents Action Dude vs. Doing the Right Thing
• Velveteen vs. The Consequences of Her Actions
• Velveteen vs. Going Home Again
• Velveteen vs. Everything You Ever Wanted
• Velveteen vs. The Retroactive Continuity
• Velveteen Presents Jacqueline Claus vs. The Lost and the Found
  
  
• APPENDIX A: Velveteen and Allies
• APPENDIX B: Spirits of The Seasons

VELVETEEN VS. LIFE

• Velveteen vs. Recovery
• Velveteen vs. Temptation
• Velveteen vs. Doctor Darwin
• Velveteen vs. Gainful Employment
• Velveteen Presents the Princess vs. The Congressional Committee for Superhuman Oversight
• Velveteen vs. Evolution
• Velveteen vs. Extinction
• Velveteen vs. True Love’s Kiss
• Velveteen vs. The Parliamentarian
• Velveteen Presents Tag vs. Being Alive
• Velveteen vs. Winter
• Velveteen Presents Jacqueline Claus vs. Existence
• Velveteen vs. The United States Government
• Velveteen vs. Uncomfortable Resolutions
• Velveteen vs. Normalcy
• Velveteen vs. A Potential Happy Ending
• APPENDIX A: Velveteen and Allies
• APPENDIX B: Spirits of The Seasons

Velveteen vs. Recovery
(excerpt)

Life at the Crystal Glitter Unicorn Cloud Castle followed a fairly strict set of guidelines. “Magical, predictable, marketable,” was the household motto, frequently proclaimed by any one of a number of rabbits wearing waistcoats. They were, in their own lapine way, the best possible demonstration of how a thing could be both magical and predictable. Sorcery was not a barrier to boredom. Nor should it have been. Magic without predictability was better known as “chaos,” and that was not the way to make the parades run on time.

Predictably, at five minutes past noon, a scream rang out across the sculpture garden. It was followed by the sound of a voice swearing, loudly and creatively. The Princess looked at the decorative hourglass in the center of the table, sighed, and put her teacup down.

Velveteen vs. Evolution
(excerpt)

Doctor Darwin turned back to the control bank, beginning to press buttons and flip switches even faster than he had been before the alarm went off. “We’ll have a single shot at doing this correctly,” he said. “But we’ll have half a dozen shots at doing it incorrectly if this fails, and that should be close enough. Once half the process has been completed, I should be able to get the resources to complete it, even if it takes longer than I would have preferred. Some people may die in their in-between state, but not you, my dear. Your reward for your part in all of this will be a guaranteed ascension into the new reality, with all the position and power that implies.”

He flipped another switch, this one larger than the others around it, and turned to give Velveteen an expectant look. Something bright and silver-blue began to flow through the tube attached to her hand, drawn from her body and into the waiting containment tank that stood nearby. Drop by drop, the viscous substance flowed out of her, until it finally seemed to reach its end, and the tube ran dry.

As this happened, Velveteen opened unfocused eyes, staring up at the laboratory ceiling, and began to scream.

Velveteen vs. The Parliamentarian
(excerpt)

“Are you quite sure this isn’t magical?” asked Victory Anna as they joined the queue for a water ride in which they would steer a two-person boat through what were advertised as dangerous rapids and glorious scenes of true wilderness. Polychrome was fairly sure that meant mechanical bumps and animatronic gorillas, but she would have been willing to ride something far more artificial to put that look into her girlfriend’s eyes.

“The Princess is magical,” she said, squeezing Victory Anna’s fingers lightly. “Isn’t that quite enough?”

“I’ve been told, but I still don’t fully understand how her powers are meant to function,” admitted Victory Anna. “Can you explain them?”

“I can try,” said Polychrome. “Basically, she has all the powers that the children of the world attribute to a fairy tale princess.”

“A fairy tale being your world’s term for a wonder story, yes?”

“Ye-es,” said Polychrome, hoping she was correct about that. “So her hair is always perfect, and she can run in really high heels without hurting herself, and she can make anything beautiful with the wave of her hand.”

“Don’t forget about her heartless subjugation of our avian brethren,” said an unfamiliar voice. Both turned.

Behind them in the line was a woman, whip-thin and dressed entirely in black spandex, with owl-themed tattoos crawling along the length of her arms.

Velveteen vs. Winter
(excerpt)

“Sing a song of Halloween, pumpkins everywhere, cats and bats and witches are all flying through the air,” she chanted, voice far more solemn than her words implied. Stepping forward, she rang the doorbell, holding out the paper sack she’d stolen from the kitchen. Crude bats were scrawled on the front and sides in Sharpie.

Seconds ticked by. She had no way of knowing whether the bell had rung inside the house at all: if it had, her housemates were under strict instructions not to answer, while if it hadn’t, that implied that it had rung somewhere else instead. The doorbell worked, under normal circumstances. But she had spent the last hour making sure that they weren’t dealing with normal circumstances, while her housemates looked on in confusion. Now was when she’d find out if it had worked.

It didn’t help that she’d never actually needed to call on Halloween before. Halloween had always just shown up, uninvited and eager to crash the party. Any party, from birthday to funeral. Halloween wasn’t picky.

Velveteen was. That was why she’d told Halloween she didn’t want to belong to them, didn’t want to join their endless masquerade, no matter how tempting it might seem, no matter how well she fit into their holiday games. So calling on them now felt awkward and wrong, like she was doing something forbidden. Like it was, in some way, a trick.

The thought seemed to be the last component needed to bring everything together. A cold breeze blew across the porch, tickling the back of her neck, making her hands close tighter on the handle of her bag. The door creaked open with a grating screech of hinges, and the girl on the other side looked at her with dismissive curiosity.

“Oh,” she said. “It’s you.”

“It’s me,” Velveteen agreed. “Can we talk?”

“I guess. It’s a free timeline.” Hailey Ween, the Halloween Princess, folded her arms and eyed Velveteen suspiciously. “What did you want to talk about?”

“Jacqueline Claus.”

Velveteen vs. Normalcy
(excerpt)

Arms over her head to protect her from being swooped, Velveteen ran along the line of the roof, swearing constantly. She’d been sure she was hidden from the bats, and to be fair, she had been, at least from the bats in front of her. The bats behind her had proven to be a different story, and once they’d started screeching and kicking up a fuss, the others had come swarming. Being back on the active superhero circuit meant she worked out more than most people these days, and had the training to run along a narrow concrete boundary without losing her balance and toppling to the city. And that was about the only positive thing she could say about her current situation, which seemed likely to end in rabies shots, if not outright consumption.

Neither of those things sounded like a good time. So she ran as hard and as fast as she could, hoping her flight would bring her to either her team, or something with a face. The limitations on her powers were strange and likely self-induced, some deeply-buried function of her wounded inner child’s refusal to let go of what little control she’d been able to seize. That didn’t make them less real. Without a face to focus on, she was frankly and fantastically fucked.

The bats continued to screech and swoop, getting closer with every pass. It wasn’t going to be long before they made contact, and “near miss” was replaced by “hit” in the vocabulary of her night. Mind racing, Velveteen hunched over and ran as fast as she could.