This Crow Above Me by Giacomo Kyle

Author:Giacomo Kyle [Kyle, Giacomo]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-03-14T22:00:00+00:00

FIFTEEN

THIS CROW ABOVE ME

SARA’S chest feels sore, as if a bag of sand had just got catapulted at it. Her ears are filled with a high-pitched ringing. She can’t hear the sounds pouring out of everyone’s mouths. It looks like screaming. Where moments before there was complete stillness and order across the entire plaza, there is now only chaos as everyone tries to run in different directions. They whip and flail about as if they had caught fire.

Except, there really is a fire. Two of them, in the middle of the plaza: massive plumes of black smoke unfurling into the sky. Sara can still see the trailing, mushroom-shaped flames spreading out above the two solartrucks that had just burst open.

The three Furies are already at the wreckage, scanning for survivors among the flames. Maddox continues staring into Sara. His right hand comes up and touches her on the arm, tenderly as one might touch a newborn. He says with a pale smile, “I’ll see you again soon.”

She feels the pores of her arm closing where he touches her. By reflex, she steals a glance down at his hand. It’s still on her arm. From this close, she can see the engraving on each of his rings. The thick, silver one on his thumb has an S engraved on it. The tourmaline ring on his index finger has an E. Continuing across his digits, there’s a D, then an A.

On the pinky’s ring, there’s engraved an H.

The letters glisten as he squeezes her arm. Then he walks away towards the three remaining solartrucks. Their cold thrusters are stirring with new life in preparation to leave. Several of the large supply crates prepared for New Athens have been abandoned. No one is sticking around to bother with them. Despite the crowd’s panic, they still part in a wide radius to let Maddox pass, fast as soap on water.

Sara stands on the courthouse steps. There’s nothing in her that can make sense of what just happened. Why did those two solartrucks explode? And why is that enough to prompt Maddox and his Furies to pack up and leave?

She watches Maddox walk up the ramp to one of the three intact solartrucks, the one he had arrived in. Later, when Sara rehashes the events of this day like she’ll do thousands of times if not more, it won’t be the flailing of the crowd that stands in the forefront of her memory, nor will it be the flaming solartrucks or even the look on Colby’s face when the Furies had surrounded him. Those moments, too, will always own a part of her, indeed. But there is something more important about this day, something that she won’t fully understand until later.

It’s a flash in Maddox’s eyes right before they leave in their solartrucks. It’s only for a few rapid heartbeats, then it’s gone again. Right before he disappears into one of the solartrucks with the Furies, Maddox stops at the top of the ramp, turns around, and looks out across the crowd of shattered and mortified people.

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