MY CRUEL PROTECTOR
He looked like a little boy going on a long journey.
"Are we coming back, Mama?" he asked.
I looked at the dark horizon of the Earth—the planet I had broken, healed, and broken again. I looked at the silent cities and the millions of people who now feared my name.
"I don't know, Leo," I said, taking his hand. "But we’re going to make sure that wherever we go, the stars know we're coming."