Page 5 of Starlight

What if he found something he wanted to do and it was snatched away from him again? Not only that, but his father needed him in the business.

If he walked away, what was his father going to do?

What was he going to do? Wait until his father retired before he lived?

He didn’t know the answers to those questions even though he had been asking them for months. Maybe years if he included the whispers he’d refused to acknowledge because there had been other things to think about.

Sometimes he hoped this was a dream and that it wasn’t his life. Maybe he was still unconscious in the hospital, and when he woke up, everything would be fine. He wouldn’t be so badly hurt, and the door to his future wouldn’t slam on his ass.

He gave his mom another hug. “I’ll be fine, but maybe next time you should come with me and have a few days off. We can buy some new puzzles and games, or just watch the sun move across the sky.” Sometimes he watched the stars because they were so much brighter out there.

Everything felt bigger and brighter out there, like all his dreams were possible…

The trouble was he’d forgotten how to dream. If he dreamed big, it felt as though he were abandoning his parents and his uncle.

Perhaps that’s what Mom was worried about, that he was getting ready to fly away and find a new adventure. But isn’t that what he was supposed to do? Hadn’t that been the plan from the first time the coach had said he was going places?

Now he was spinning his wheels, and they were digging further into the dirt. If he kept doing the same thing, he’d get buried so deep he’d never get out. For whatever reason, this seventh anniversary felt different. He either put something under his tires to get a bit of traction and break free, or he gave up and lay down in the mud.

He’d never been very good at lying down and doing nothing, which had sucked when that was all he could do, but his fractured pelvis had healed. So that meant he needed to find something to get him out of the hole.

He was twenty-three. The same age as Chuck when he died. He was not living Chuck’s life until he died.

CHAPTER TWO

There was over a month before the summer solstice party at Yellowstone, but Akai didn’t like to rush, and there were a few abandoned mines that he liked to return to, so he tended to take a meandering route that also gave him time to make a few more things to sell if he found a particularly inspiring gemstone. He had workshops dotted around the place, hidden in the mines that humans considered either worthless or unsafe.

While they were wrong about the former, they were right about the latter. The mines that he frequented, he maintained because he didn’t want them falling down around his wings.

For the most part, he saw no point in rushing anywhere. Life was for living, not rushing, and his sister’s murder had cemented his decision to make sure he lived exactly as he wanted.

Even after seven years, he missed her companionship. The way they’d scavenged through mines, competing to get the better haul, even though they’d then share their finds and work together on various pieces of jewelry, most of which were sold at the solstice gathering and a few other, smaller gatherings. Not everyone liked to travel, especially now humans carried the technology to record them in their pockets.

Some of the older monsters, like Boone, talked about a time before tech, and it sounded rather glorious. Although it was because of tech that he’d been able to see the men, and their vehicle, who’d killed his sister and stolen from them.

Akai placed some snacks into a pouch that he wore around his waist, then put the backpack on, so it rested against his chest. After doing this for so many years, he’d learned exactly how much weight he could fly with. He also preferred to travel at night to reduce the chance of a sighting.

He did not particularly like crouching and pretending to be a wolf, although it did fool most people, and given that most people held a healthy fear of wolves, it also meant they left the area, and he could return to whatever he was doing.

After giving his workshop a final check to make sure it appeared reasonably abandoned, he climbed out of the mine and launched into the air. His first stop would be the cabin.

A human man had built it over the last year, but he’d been camping there for much longer. It was also quite close to one of his favorite mines. At first, he’d kept watch out of caution…then curiosity. Before the cabin was built, the man had turned up with a tent and some basic equipment. While some days he went hiking with a stick in one hand to help him up the hills, most of the time he didn’t go very far. He sat near the skinny river and watched the water, or he watched the sunrise. Sometimes they both watched the stars. Him up in the tree, hidden from view, and the man on the ground on his back, hands tucked behind his head.

Sometimes, Akai wondered what it would be like to drop out of the tree and introduce himself. He pretended that the man wouldn’t scream—which was very unlikely—and that they lay by the campfire and watched the stars together. He wasn’t sure what they’d talk about, only that it seemed like a nice idea.

A couple of times, he’d been there, and the man hadn’t, so he’d left a pile of flat river rocks stacked near where the man liked to sit, hoping that he’d like the sculpture. The next time he’d been back, there had been another smaller pile. So he’d taken the time to build a third. He assumed it was the lonely man who’d built the second stack.

On the third stack, he’d added a smooth piece of smoky quartz.

The next time, the quartz was missing. While anyone could’ve taken it, he hoped that it was the lonely man. Maybe it would make him feel less alone… He wanted to feel less alone. Sure, there were others like him, and other monsters, but it wasn’t the same as being with his sister. She’d been his nest-mate. His collaborator. And a much better salesperson than he was—he was the better craftsman. Eventually, they might have separated, found mates, and settled down, perhaps only seeing each other at solstice.

He wished he was seeing her at solstice.

This was the time of year when he missed her most. They would laugh and joke as they flew over the treetops and make plans for the gathering. Who they were looking forward to catching up with, and if they were going to seriously look for a mate. Neither of them had been serious.

It was one of those things his parents asked about every so often. And it was one of those things he should think about instead of treating it like a future event that might happen. The thing was, if he really wanted a mate and children, he would be thinking about it seriously. He wanted a companion, but that wasn’t the same as wanting a mate and children.

When he arrived, he was not surprised to see lights on in the cabin. Now the building was complete, the man spent more time up here…and as summer crept closer and the weather was better, he imagined the man would visit every weekend.