Dirge and Gleam
Novelette 10,203 words Recommended by 2 award/anthology sources
"My ghost bled through the shadows, an icy wind stirring the leaves. Eyes like candle flames shuddering and crescent moon mouth, it had found me as a girl and never let go—the only thing that was really mine. It led me to an overgrown graveyard, pelts of moss eating like acid through fallen tombstones."
Content warnings 3
deathdeath-of-a-loved-onesexual-violence
Quasar links out; the story lives on Lightspeed, where the author gets the click.