Going Concerns (Chapter 5)
"They did a good job cleaning up." Scava had dropped into a crouch to examine the floor right after entering Annie's apartment, just three steps ahead of her. She managed not to trip over him, but made a point of walking around him with exaggerated...
Going Concerns (Chapter 10)
As the three walked in--Annie and Rowell both soaked, the fox bound and bedraggled--Captain Snow dropped the clipboard she held with a clatter. Annie felt a momentary burst of smugness at making the human genuinely surprised, even though she knew it...
Trade All the Stars (excerpt)
At this exact moment, everything aligned to make daylight in New Coyoacán the brightest it could be. In another twelve minutes, the Ring would face Ceres' dark side and the ambient light would dim, if only by a few dozen lumens thanks to mirrors and...
A Day With No Tide (excerpt)
In Asharia, thousands of years pass with the same leaves on the same trees, the same blossoms opening at sunrise and wilting by dusk. To mortal eyes no seasons pass. But the day the universe became aware of its own existence was the first day of...
A Gift of Fire, A Gift of Blood (4)
Memory! You have the key. The little lamp spreads a ring on the stair. Mount. Put your shoes at the door, sleep, prepare for life. _from "Rhapsody on a Windy Night," T.S. Eliot_ * * * Her voice was quiet, the glow in her eyes less fierce than...
A Gift of Fire, A Gift of Blood (3)
Because these wings are no longer wings to fly But merely fans to beat the air The air which is now thoroughly small and dry Smaller and dryer than the will Teach us to care and not to care Teach us to sit still. _from "Ash Wednesday,"...
A Gift of Fire, A Gift of Blood (2)
What might have been and what has been Point to one end, which is always present. Footfalls echo in the memory Down the passage which we did not take Toward the door we never opened Into the rose-garden. _from "Burnt Norton," T.S. Eliot_ *...
A Gift of Fire, A Gift of Blood (1)
Twelve o'clock. Along the reaches of the street Held in a lunar synthesis, Whispering lunar incantations Dissolve the floors of memory And all its clear relations, Its divisions and precisions. _from "Rhapsody on a Windy Night," T.S....