Page 89 of Sunsplitter

“That’s just a spool of wire. Did you pick that off the floor?”

“Are you sure?” She squinted at the mess of wiring. “I think it could be what you’re looking for.”

Antal glared. Fi returned a challenging brow.

They broke into laughter at the same time. There was his smile, soft as sunshine and just as warming. Antal leaned in, nose pressed to her cheek. For a moment, everything was fine again, just the two of them sheltered from the world.

He handed her the broken part, an odd-looking tube with a wider center.

“Ah,” Fi said. “Thisdoeslook like something.” She pecked a kiss to his cheek then went to retrieve the proper part.

Machinery had never been her strong suit. Her school had taught the basics of storing energy capsules, replacing simple conduits. After some searching, she found a part that resembled the one Antal had put in her hand.

“How did you do that?” Yme asked—waytoo close to Fi’s side.

Fi wasn’t proud that she jumped. Even less so, the undignified squeak of surprise.

“Fuck,” she hissed. “Not ok! Sneaking up on people,not considered okin this part of the Planeverse!”

Yme, still standing uncomfortably close, looked only more perplexed.

“Noted.”

Not at all how Fi had envisioned her first real words with Antal’s mother. Fi had hoped for zero words, in fact, but here they were. The daeyari stared her down with eyes the same black and crimson as her son’s, a scent of ozone and something floral, an imperious swish to her tail.

“What do you mean, what did I do?” Fi asked.

“Antal. Hesmiled. I haven’t seen him smile in a century.”

“You haven’t… Well. Shit. That’s all kinds of depressing.”

“What did you do?”

“Antal smiles plenty.”

“For you?” Yme pressed, tail lowering. “Why not for me?”

She stood too close. Eyes too sharp. Brow creased too tragically earnest.

Fi almost cared.

“Well,” Fi said. “You did kill the man he loved. And ate him.”

“What?” Yme pulled back, indignant. “That? That wasn’t…love.”

“Ohhh, ok. Yeah.” Fi circled a finger between them. “You might want to start by dissectingthat,in particular.”

Yme scoffed. “I’d know if my son was in love.”

Fi knew Antal loved her. She’d seen it in his eyes that very morning, the slow way he’d taken her in as they woke, the trace of his thumb across her cheek.

But damn her to the Void. Yme’s words still hurt.

Yme pressed closer. “And what are you to him, vavraesa? You think you know him better than I do?”

Fi didn’t need fangs. Just a flat, “All I know is, he smiles a lot more here.”

She grabbed the part and walked it back to Antal.