Skyglass: Chapter 14 (final)

PHOENIX

I sat with my tiny sibling on the roof of the speeding ship, watching dust and gas skim by, lit green by the Pixilikker’s protective veil. I stared out at the white hole that our mother made in the fabric of space.

I sat there for a long time, eventually focusing on my sister’s magenta fizz-fire instead of space dirt and parental figures. I mouthed stories to her, told her about how great it was going to be when she got old enough to really appreciate a good orgy, asked her to say hi to mom–plus said a bunch of other sentimental piss I’d never say to anyone but another heat-creature like myself. When I finished, I double-checked her home-route, activated her own protective veil–fiery blue, instead of the Pixilikker’s green–gave her vessel a kiss and a lick, then tossed her up into the black bosom of space.

I watched her, sighing and sighing, ’til I could no longer see her sapphire spitfire self–and then I stared at our mother, not sure what to think. After a moment, I decided that I didn’t need to think anything–the loss, the hole, the rage, would always be there. No escape. I already knew that and had accepted it. All I could do now was keep streaking forward and never put myself out.

With that tiny bit of comfort in mind, I returned to the ship.

I joined everyone in the busy kitchen. Over by the stove, Sable and Yunayuna were struggling with a giant, neon green cycloptic lobster. Zinn and Devin were stirring up deliciously noxious-looking alcoholic beverages. Moss stood at the counter chopping a cucumber into stupidly precise, paper-thin rounds.

“It tastes better this way,” he said defensively, before I could even make a comment.

“Whatever you say, Mossy,” I lilted, and stole a handful of the olives he’d somehow managed to pit without ripping them clean open. At least he was putting his compulsions into the preparation of food, rather than sending all sustenance into exile.

“Where’ve you been?” he asked as I tongued a sip of the spicy drink Zinn had just delivered into my waiting hands.

“Just gave my sister her send-off,” I said. “She should be reunited with our beloved mother soon.”

Moss smirked. “At least someone got a happy ending.”

“Oh?” I prodded. “Did you break Marko’s heart?”

The smirk fell from his face. “I think I did that a long time ago.”

“Probably,” I agreed. The man would get over it. “So,” I said, sidling closer. “How was it?”

He rolled his eyes. “What–Marko’s cock?”

I rolled my eyes right back at him. “No. Afterwards. How do you feel? Completed? Sore? Hungry for more?”

He put the knife down for a moment and looked to the side, rubbing his thumb back and forth across his bottom lip in deep, brooding thought. “I feel…like myself. Which is new. But that has nothing to do with the sex.”

“Do you miss him?” I asked.

He hesitated. “Yes? No? I mean, he was a good friend, but being with him was so…messy.” He narrowed his eyes. “And I don’t mean the fucking, Phoenix.”

“I know,” I said as I sent a ribbon of fire skating through the air, a harmless breath or two above his face. Moss didn’t even flinch, just resumed his cucumber chopping.

“I’m not happy he’s gone,” he went on. “But I’m glad we’re in different places for awhile.” He dragged a hand over his face, groaning. “Rotting piss, I’m not making any sense. Am I?”

“As hopeless as ever, sweetling.”

An explosion from the stove rocked the kitchen. I turned to see the lobster pot’s lid clatter on the floor; a single stalked eye peeked over the rim, followed by two ominously clacking claws.

“Don’t worry,” Sable called, poking the shellfish nonchalantly with a knife. She ducked and hit the floor as it hissed, emitting a spray of rainbow sparks.

Moss sighed, the sound brittle with thinning patience. “I think the pyromaniacal lobster team needs your help.”

I stamped over to the stove, thrust my hand into the sparks–but before I could give the creature a good, hard bop on the head, Devin plucked it away with a pair of oven mitts. He sank to the kitchen floor, cradling the beast to his chest.

Zinn let out a mournful breath. “We aren’t having lobster tonight, are we?”

Moss came up beside me, gnawing the ass end of the cucumber. “Lobsters are gross, anyway. They smell.”

Devin played an intense game of keep-away as Sable and Yunayuna tried to wrestle the clacking crustacean from his arms. It blew another stream of indiscriminate sparks, and Devin barely managed to twist his face out of the way as Sable and Yuna dove for cover.

“Yeah, well–it looks like it’s part of the family now,” I sniffed.

“Family?” Moss repeated the word incredulously, but his scowl grew wry as his gaze swept across the crustacean-catalyzed chaos. His flame-bright gaze settled back on me.

“Family,” he said again, and actually smiled. “Sure. Why not?”

end

The final ebook release of Skyglass contains two additional stories: The Surprising Intellect of Combat Chickens and a brand-new epilogue story about Marko not available online: A Box for Wolves.