We sat on that hill for a long moment, staring at each other, face to face, and then he stepped forward, ignoring the clicking over almost a hundred guns (we had lost many in the battle for the Capital) and embraced me. He squeezed, and I wondered at the touch of actually human hands, and … Read moreAn End for Crows (Part 7)
Jay stepped over to the front of the car and waited. The distinctive noise of the Crow weapons (ever so slightly different from the Fey rifles, I’d gotten used to the difference and found the Crow’s woodpecker guns more comforting) came over the hill, and then noises of ricochets and softer things taking heavier hits. … Read moreAn End for Crows (Part 6)
Tane knelt down and gently picked up one of my crows and put them next to the others, and then ferried them all together. “Come on. You have to be back together. We don’t need a flock right now, we need you.” I didn’t want to be me. Being me was painful, being me meant … Read moreAn End for Crows (Part 5)
Someone was shaking me awake. Hands were clamped to my shoulders, and they hauled me off of the table. The crows that held my mind buzzed uncomfortably, unnerved at the sensation of the first memories buzzing through them, pounding like its own heart beat. I swallowed, and swallowed again, and again. The pain in my … Read moreAn End For Crows (Chapter 4)
We stopped just after midnight, when the shudders had stopped and replaced themselves with a cold numbness that stretched across my skin and down to what few feathery tufts that refused to remove themselves despite my best effort and a buzzing in the back of my head that made stringing together coherent thoughts difficult. Tane … Read moreAn End for Crows (Part 3)
USEC didn’t greet me when I opened my eyes. Nobody did. A bump woke me up. A distant engine was cranked up as high as it could go; the capital’s fleets of vehicles buzzed like the opening notes of a rock concert. The world was a hazy mash of shapes and colors and hostile things, … Read moreAn End For Crows (Part 2)
“This won’t hurt, right?” I asked, sending a side eyed glance at the doctor. The walls were covered in propaganda. Petty pieces, petty symbols and quick, nonspecific ways to recognize when the world wasn’t as it should be. I’d read them all three times while waiting for her to show up. My name was on … Read moreAn End For Crows (Part 1)
Bismarck came in hotter and hotter with each swing. With each step she became faster, and we became slower. Words babbled at the back of our throats, but the static died at our ears. Bismarck cocked her great head to the side at a distant scream, echoing like broken glass. It wasn’t torn from our … Read moreA Throne for Crows Part 51
Jay unfolded like a clam and eyes filled his depths. Squirming beaks and scrabbling claws and things with teeth, and then his touch unfolded and crawled across my skin like hot wax. Words flowed across my mind, hot babbling water, baptized in an unholy creation. Something unfamiliar, something very familiar, and then that form and … Read moreA Throne for Crows (Part 50)
Trellis bled from her wounds. Her heart pounded in her chest. She looked like garbage, and she clutched at her stomach where the bullet had struck and glared in wild defiance at me. I could smell harsh things when her hand moved, and fluid spilled from her guts. I stared back at her, my brain … Read moreA Throne For Crows (Part 49)