Neron Skies

d it’s there. I don’t think either of

shut ri

want to push that door open, and I

out the Bahiri. He hasn’t tried to contact me

my brain, thi

us knows wh

ll do

d deck, I look around. I’m

of me. My palm up, my finger

a breath that travels to every nook and cranny

ed for a moment, b

fe, in everything. I feel the existence of a mil

thes out over my lips, but th

s, it’s there. The

wild and untamed. It bucks and threatens to dissipate. But I

. I’m holding it

breaks, and a single t

ing breath, and th

ot a

no

not

st it. The surface is cool but not cold. It’s amazing, that just on the

hrough the frame of the ship. I’d be a

ne of the space frozen meals from Stippe. Zayne managed to talk Reena into pl

eel like I’m on this self-destructive path. There’s a war going on inside of

om everyone. I know Dad an

the weight of seeing all tho

ly a small fr

ife, so I know the sounds of my dad’s feet. He makes his way across th

o the side so I

his hand, his elbow dug into the pad of his bed. There’s a serious

oice is comforting. It’s deep and rattlin

iately. I bite the inside of

ke he’s trying to read my soul. “But I’ve noticed how unhappy you became. Starting about

prisingly, I’m okay with it. I need to

ed getting involved wit

de, mirroring his

eath me. I draw little patterns into it, and I realize they look like Neron arcs.

dn’t have risked so much to help him. But h

his open expression. My father is a quiet man. He observes. He absorbs. “I felt like I’d broken ou

willing to buy th

I didn’t ask questions so I didn’t have to feel guilty about whatever they were g

us statement I just made, the one I’ve been thinking about non-st

ing through in four solars. And then I was saving up to get us off Korpillion. I quit m

jaw harden. Now he knows. He knows ju

fix my eyes on him, trying to show him that I have no

p. He looks away from me, and doesn’t say anything for a long moment. He fixes his