30
KILONOVA
We are together—the bitter remains of two monumental stars locked in a gravitational death spiral.
(God, save my daughter and my grandson. I’m begging you, Jesus, have mercy.)
Richie’s bedraggled spirit bear wanders through the apartment wall, growling. We see what it wants us to see: Tricksters buried alive in a field, a cacophony of voices we can’t understand, pleading, shouting. The firefly descends from the ceiling to join the bear and shows you the hexes in the Tricksters’ hearts that hold them prisoner.
You sense Sarah as she rockets towards Jared in a rusty minivan driven by an otter in human form. The Wild Man of the Woods is with her, as are his friends, who don’t bother with human forms. They’re too far away, the firefly tells you. They’re not going to get there in time.
(Burn the hexes from their hearts, oh Lord. Free them.)
(Free them. Free all of them.)
We don’t have enough power between us. We burn, we burn. The bear fades first, groaning as the last energy it has joins theirs, and then he’s gone. The firefly pulls away.
(Anita’s heart, Anita’s heart, you want her to stop before her heart stops.)
(I want my grandson safe.)
(A final surge of her power and then her heart spasms.)
You are alone. You want to live. You have always wanted to live. Anita leaves her body in a burst of gold light, a halo.
You can live or you can follow her.
All the things you wanted to do, all the plans you had—they’re empty because you’re alone, you’ve been alone all your life except for those brief years with her. You thought you had known love, but you’d never known it until she held you in her arms.
The fear, your fear, this cowardice that’s always held you back, you push through it, you keep pouring yourself against the hexes, and you feel yourself going past the point where you can sustain your own life. You push.
Anita wears a blue sundress, her long hair in a single black braid. She holds a basket of freshly picked salmonberries, laughing as she waits for you.
31
THE GENERAL FEATURES OF A SYSTEMS COLLAPSE
Zip Tie grabbed one of the shed human skins and ran, raising her gun as she turned to back out the front door. The other coy wolves began fighting each other over the other one, the humans fighting the humans and the wolves snarling and rolling together on the floor.
A tiny blob, no bigger than a pea, left Bear Trickster’s nose and rolled up Jared’s shoe. It slithered up his pant leg and under his shirt. He clenched his mouth shut as it climbed up his neck. He shook his head to try to get it off but felt it crawling into his nose, moist and smelling like blood. He fought against the zip ties. He felt the blob oozing through his sinuses and tried to sneeze it out, but it wiggled so deep he could feel it touching his brain.
This isn’t permanent, the little blob told him. Fucking relax. Don’t give the game away.
Couldn’t you get the charm off me first?
It took everything we had to get me here. I’ve got nothing left to move your charm.
Okay, Jared told himself. Okay. So you’re here to help?
All the futures say you’re going to bring her back.
I can’t. I didn’t do it by myself the last time and the fireflies won’t help me. I thought Sofia would come, but she hasn’t.
Fireflies?
They say they’re super-aliens.
The little blob radiated irritation. Remember what they told you.
A tumble of memories, mashing together.
Ah, they’re massless explorers from the universe the ogress is stuck in, the blob said. And you’re Anita Moody’s grandson.
You know Gran?
She’s notorious. She would date other Tricksters whenever Wee’git fucked around on her.
Ew, Jared thought.
When all the fighting calmed down, the human skin was torn and the coy wolves all began shouting about whose fault it was.
When you bring Jwasins through, you’re both malleable.
What’s malleable?
Within the limitations of this universe’s physics, you can reassemble her into a different body with a caveat that you can’t cause her harm.
What’s a caveat?
The ogress is covered in protection spells. You won’t be able to harm her. You can’t kill her. You need to think of something that limits her but doesn’t hurt her and cause her protection to react.
Okay. But what do I do?
It’s amazing you tie your own shoelaces.
Nice.
Did you ever watch Ghostbusters?
The theme song rattled through Jared’s head and the blob almost exploded with irritation.
I’m his pituitary gland NOT a blob, the blob said. Stop fucking singing.
Sorry.
Do you remember when they were all supposed to clear their minds of thoughts, but one of them imagined the marshmallow guy?
Yeah.
I’m not saying you can turn her into a marshmallow guy. Got that? I’m saying it’s like that. You use your imagination to turn her into something that is to our benefit but doesn’t hurt her.
Like what?
Seriously, how are you Wee’git’s son?
Just tell me what to do!
Here we go, the little blob said.
The crawling, toe-sucking sorcerer poked its head through the wall then slithered over to Jared, circling and circling the chair he was zip-tied to, thrilled at this turn of events. Mallory came in, skipping through the shouting coy wolves.
“Hi, Puppy,” she said, ruffling his hair. “You’ve been bad, but I forgive you.”
“Goody,” Jared said.
“Don’t make me mad.”
The coy wolves finally noticed Mallory and circled them both.
“Cut on his mother until he brings Granny G back,” one of the men said.
“It doesn’t work that way,” Jared said. “You can flay Mom dead and I can’t bring Georgina back without power and without making a connection to her.”
“Still, it’s worth a try,” Mallory said. She blew him a kiss before she skipped to the back of the room, putting her hand in his mother’s hair and yanking her head back.
“No,” Jared said. “No, no, get her away from Mom!”
“You have that for power,” one of the coy
