by Harn, Darby
I squeeze his hand. “I see.”
On the other side of the atrium, Vidette leans on a pair of crutches, waiting for me with a smile. The only part of her unbroken. Mike stands behind her. The Uniform. They stand ready.
“Tell me where to start,” The Uniform says.
“Don’t suppose you know any electricians.”
“I picked up a thing or two in the service,” he says. “Mostly hotwiring enemy vehicles. I doubt that helps.”
I sigh. “I can wire together something.”
“Didn’t go so hot the last time,” Mike says.
“I feel like I’ve learned my lesson.”
Vidette nudges my shoulder. “Have you?”
A tremor shudders through my magnetic field. Ba-dumm. Abi comes out of the crowd, smiling easy. I defeated Blackwood. The Interdictor. I faced this monster inside me. I still doubt.
I fear.
“You came back…”
“So did you.” Her nose wrinkles. “Without Valene.”
“She’s where she wants to be.”
“Are you?”
I bite my lip. “Abi… we can never touch.”
“No, I get it,” she says, stepping back. “I get it.”
Dozens of birds cloud the dome of the atrium, knocking against the glass, trying to follow the blind lines of my magnetic web. Everything tugs on me now. The silver buttons of Abi’s jacket. The living energy of every person in City Hall. The responsibility I have for them all. Somewhere within all that, stretched and pulled like a rubber band, is this desperate loneliness. A desperate need to be wise, for once.
“I don’t want to make the same mistakes I did before,” I say. “And I have a whole set of new things I have to consider.”
Abi’s nose wrinkles. “This went different in my head.”
“How did it go?”
“There were tears. And slobber. Basically, a lot of face.”
Someday, somehow, I’m going to kiss this girl. I’m going to give her back all this life she gifts me, ba-dumm.
I hold on to her hand. “We need help. There’s a lot of work. It will take time. And we’re a good team, Abi.”
Abi winces. “What are you saying?”
“Give me a chance,” I say.
She squeezes my hand. “Where do we start?”
“Patrol,” Mike says, before I can. “Round the clock. We need to establish order and security.”
“Doesn’t come cheap,” Vidette says.
I shrug. “I have low overhead.”
“I have first watch,” The Uniform says.
I smile. “What’s your name, Classified?”
He pats me on the shoulder. “First name Light, Last name Beer.” He winks as he heads off to his new post. “See you at shift change, Baldwin. Don’t come empty handed.”
Vidette nudges me again. “I’ll take second shift.”
“You still need a name,” Mike says to me. “Something perfect. Something awesome.”
I shrug. “I think people kind of know who I am.”
“The Ever,” he says.
“That was who we were.”
“Special K.”
“No,” I say.
“Crimson Dawn.”
“No.”
“Electric Twistout.”
“Hmm. No.”
“Alright, alright. What do we call you, then? Just Kit?”
Shadows flutter across the floor of the atrium, and all at once, the tide breaks toward light.
“Call me Kitsie.”
Acknowledgments
The MRI machine hummed around me and I thought, I’m going to quit my job and focus on my writing. It was 2014. I hadn’t finished a novel in over five years at that point. My life had exceeded its design tolerances. I wasn’t doing what I needed to do. So I quit my job, moved to Ireland, and started writing.
This is not that book.
This is the book after. The best part is, there are two more behind it. Pretty soon it will be three. No one can do this without friends or family and I am endlessly grateful for their support. The road to publication isn’t exactly the one I imagined, but it’s been full of strange and lovely detours, some of which put me in the company of special, special people without whom you would not be reading this.
Steve Mager, Yvonne Stammer, Mike Nielsen, Gregory Janks, Curtis Parrish, Anita Perez, Shelley Campbell, and Leigh M. Morrow have all provided feedback and support and helped me immeasurably.
Ben Kral has suffered, egregiously, hours upon hours of listening to me rattle on about this book, this series, this world and he only stopped listening long enough to say, There should be a robot.
Polly Brewster has always supported me through thick, thin and most importantly, all my crazy ideas.
Wayne Santos helped this book find its inner explosion.
Jennifer Lane helped me in understanding exactly what it meant to dip my toe back in the water of being an independent author. She helped me dig down deeper in this book and I couldn’t have done it without her.
Alia Hess - what can you say? Every comic book writer wishes for their Jack Kirby, and though this isn’t a comic, Alia is certainly a Kirby. Their art, encouragement and example has been beyond essential. Alia brought Kit to life.
Essa Hansen has, among her many other wondrous abilities, the ability to make dreams come true. Helping this book come to fruition is just one. I don’t have the words to say what her friendship and support have meant, but here are about 100,000 of them all the same.
Sunyi Dean found me in the rubble and made me work again. She was the first to read this book, and her support and encouragement made it possible. Without her, I would not have a community or a prayer.
Thank you all, so much.
-Darby
About the Author
DARBY HARN wanted to write something really witty here but mostly just wants you to know that you can find his short fiction in Strange Horizons, Interzone and other publications. He graduated from the University of Iowa, has lived in Ireland, and on occasion, knows what’s doing. These occasions, like common sense, are exceedingly rare.
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COMING SUMMER 2020
Excerpt
Blackbirds peck at snow gone to rust. Hawks circle low and sure over the emaciated body of a coywolf, just shy of the tree line. His yellow eyes open in shock. Bleeding Jesus.
I’ve never seen one so big.
“We need to find out what happened to him,” Vidette says, “or we’re going to have a war on our hands.”
I shake my head. “War?”
Her hand trails down the streak of red on his back. “I’ve only ever heard stories about the Bloodbacks.”
“Bloodbacks?”
She smiles. “You didn’t think it was just people with powers, did you?”
BLOODBACK
An EVER THE HERO novella
Coming Summer 2020!