Starglow Basin destripado

in time soto would learn his eye would not heal. he would draw parallels and wonder if this very second was the moment his right eye was doomed forever.

the witch's back turns to him, but even he can see the subtle fingerspell. furious, soto strikes her once more -- and again, and again -- waiting for the cries and whimpers that never come.

he should know better; he should remember the man from his villa -- but soto is lost in the moment and reliving all he has lost

juarez

nino

the garden in luneshale he had worked so hard to cultivate

safiya --

his dulce lluvia

and then, unbidden in his memory
an unb
the seeping, hideous image of marciela

soto beats the witch until her spine slumps beneath his teeth, his muscles tremoring with exhaustion and an unbidden, mortal fear that the jaguar that comes for them all is hunched over, lingering just out of sight.