Crypt of the Moon Spider (Lunar Gothic Trilogy, #1)

by Nathan Ballingrud

Veronica recalled a local myth, which held that the moon was the inhabited skull of a long-dead god who once trod the dark pathways of space like a king through his star-curtained palace.

She thought she heard a voice whispering something to her. Perhaps it was her madness, emboldened by this mad place.

“I didn’t used to be this way. I was happy when I was a child. I had such grand ideas about how life would be. What happened to me? What happened to us?” “We grew up.”

Mother first, because she was the stronger of the two, unbeguiled by pretty dreams.

And then his face crumpled in grief. “I wanted to live. Isn’t that stupid? It turns out, after all, I wanted to live.”

She peered down through the long gulf until she found the little girl staring back up at her, a flag of life in the blowing wheat.