“ANY NEW SIGHTINGS ON Aiti’s hashtag?” I asked via our mate bond after the first rush of adrenaline had settled into a warm puddle of joy in my belly.
“Several,” Ryder answered. He flipped through mental images for me, snapshots of the glorious bird who used to be my mother. She’d become a social-media sensation—#ResplendentStinkbird—sighted throughout North, South, and Central America.
The rat was seldom mentioned even though she was occasionally caught on camera in the same vicinity. I found the oversight hilarious given the Queen’s relentless need to be the center of the world.
At first, I’d marked down each sighting on a map in our living room, hoping to find a pattern that indicated shreds of remnant humanity. But that pursuit quickly became too painful, a reminder of a loss I coul
