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Filaments of unseen electricity seem to spark between the three of us. I clench my hands into tight fists, as if I can hold onto the fabric of the world I understand and not lose it forever.

Ian laughs again. It’s a sickening, hateful sound. “Orpheus, Orpheus. See? Even you make mistakes. Should’ve killed me faster. Now she knows.” Ian’s gaze flits hazily to me. “He thinks he’s better than us.”

I glare at Ian. “I already know about Orpheus,” I spit. “He told me where he came from. I know the book was never real. And I know what you did to Eros, you murdering piece of shit.”

Ian makes a choked sound that might be another laugh, but it turns into a violent cough, blood spattering his lips. “You can’t murder a machine.”

“He was more than that,” I say, my words low and heavy with anger.

“Eros was so much more than a machine. But you’re never satisfied, are you?

You what, opened a door? Dragged Orpheus into our world and shoved him into a Pleasurebot?

And then you destroyed your own creation because he couldn’t participate in your…

your fucking faux intellectual conversations? ”

“Don’t make me laugh,” Ian says. “Orpheus is—

“What she says is true,” Orpheus cuts him off, taking two more steps forward, his gaze crackling with heat. “I was made a prisoner in this body.”

“Dramatic,” Ian snipes. “Always so dramatic. I promised you everything you wanted, and you rejected it. She’s here, isn’t she? But you betrayed me. So end it, already. I don’t fucking care. Get it over with.”

“Wait, what’s that supposed to mean?” I snap. Acid roils in my gut. She’s here, isn’t she? Silence drags on for several seconds as Ian and Orpheus stare hatred at one another. “Hello? One of you assholes care to enlighten me?”

Ian looks at me, our faces almost level, and for a moment, the animosity drains from his face.

All that’s left is sadness. Loneliness. And I wonder for a second if this is the real Ian, raw and afraid, in over his head.

But then he sneers, and his expression closes, and his face becomes a cold mask of indifference.

“You were supposed to be his little present.”

I look up at Orpheus. But his expression is unreadable; his attention is focused on Ian. I turn back to Ian, feeling sick. I remember the paper, the drawing of the mirage, my name… and those four words: He insists on her .

“I could have brought in any girl in LA,” Ian continues. “There are hundreds of thousands to choose from. But Orpheus wanted you .”

“Leave her out of this,” Orpheus rumbles.

“You’re the one who brought her into it,” Ian growls. “What did you expect would happen when you made your demands? It’s not my fault you chickened out.”

Orpheus looms above us like a storm cloud, and I can’t help but shrink away at the sight. His face is a mask of calm hatred, cold-edged and as distant as the moon. His lip curls. “You’re a fool to think I would honor your bargain, Ian De Leon. You are weak. You are nothing .”

The wind howls. Whatever grip I thought I had on my world is lost forever, and I’m scrambling desperately to keep up.

“Tell me what the fuck bargain you made,” I say to the room at large, “or I’ll fucking drag you both up to the roof and throw you off it.” It’s an empty threat, but in that moment, heart pounding and adrenaline screaming through my veins, I almost believe I could do it.

Ian turns to me, eyes blazing. “Whatever Orpheus told you, don’t believe it. He came here, and he was fucking insatiable. Insatiable.”

I glance at Orpheus, but he remains silent, his lips a tight line, his eyes blazing.

“Okay, and?” I demand, looking expectantly between them both.

Insatiable ? My mind latches on to the word, seeking a lifeline to logical meaning.

“What are you trying to tell me, that Orpheus is a sex-crazed being from another dimension? That when he said he saw me from worlds away and wanted to fuck me, you… what, hired me to write your fake biography? So you could indulge his fantasy?” The explanation sounds fucking ridiculous, but it’s the only one I can come up with.

“Kit,” Orpheus cuts in, his voice low, a warning.

I spin on him. “Well?”

“Oh, put a sock in it, bitch,” Ian says, his voice growing audibly weaker despite the venom in his words. His voice pitches higher as he speaks, a whine of despair. “It doesn’t matter. It’s all fucked now. It’s all fucked.”

“Speak to her like that again,” Orpheus says in a glassy tone, “And I will make sure you die slowly and in unspeakable agony. You are nothing to her. She is above you, better than you, beyond you in every possible way. She accomplishes with ease what you spent years of your pathetic life trying to do. And yet, you treat her like she’s nothing.

You kissed her like she was nothing. You touched her like she was no one.

And now, you give her orders, you insult her, and with every breath, you step closer to the edge of a bottomless abyss. ”

As he speaks, Orpheus seems to grow taller, more imposing, more terrifying. Shadows gather behind him, his eyes glowing like twin suns. His hair lifts in an unseen wind, and for a moment, he looks just like a dark god, come down to punish us lesser beings.

“Do it, then,” Ian barks. More blood comes up and colors his lips. “If I’m such a worm, then end this. Finish what you started.”

“No one is finishing anything until you assholes stop arguing and tell me,” I turn to Orpheus, “ clearly , what role I’m serving in this Shakespearean drama.”

Orpheus remains silent as a statue, making my blood boil. I spin on Ian. “ Well ?”

Ian swallows, half-choking on what I can only imagine is his own blood, and sighs.

“Fine. You want to know what I did? I opened an interdimensional door.” His tone is deadpan, the voice of a man facing death with resigned certainty.

“I bridged an impossible gap between worlds. I accessed a place that should never have been fucking accessed. I spent years working just to get a glimpse of it. It was supposed to be beautiful. I thought the beings who lived there would be beautiful, too. I needed them to be. They would solve the puzzle of my Eros. Ignorant, stupid Eros. I thought if I opened this door… I thought I could invite something else in. A soul to live in my creations. A mind to fill the body.”

“What the fuck,” I say, withering, “does that have to do with me?”

Ian suddenly comes to life, reaching for me, his fingers opening and closing around thin air.

His mouth twists in disgust. “I tried to send him back. But the door wouldn’t open again, Kit.

It wouldn’t open. I tried to keep him fed.

I tried. But people were starting to notice.

The disappearances… I had to stop him. I’m not the monster.

He is. He threatened me…” Ian pauses, his breathing harsh and laborious.

“He said he’d… he’d fucking eat me if I didn’t give him what he wanted. ”

Blood roars in my ears, and I get slowly to my feet.

“Eat you,” I repeat. Sweat dots my upper lip.

I turn slowly. Orpheus stands utterly still, watching me with those golden eyes.

I can still feel his hands on me, tender and reverent.

The Orpheus I know and the one Ian is describing are two different beings entirely.

They have to be. “Orpheus? Were you going to eat Ian?”

“Yes.”

The floor falls out from under me. “You eat… people.”

“I consume life,” he says. “Vivacity. Souls.”

I try to keep my composure, even as time seems to screech to a halt. I move away from Ian, unsteady on my feet. Orpheus still looms between me and the doorway, a long lost lover; a complete and total stranger.

My instincts tell me to run. But I know my traitorous feet would take me straight into his fucking arms. I don’t trust anyone in this room, least of all myself.

“Let me go,” I say, hoarse and unsteady. “I won’t say a word about any of this. I’m under NDA. I won’t say a fucking thing; I swear to God.”

Orpheus’s expression softens, gazing at me with an impenetrable sadness. He moves toward me, one hand lifted as if he wants to reach for me but holds back. “I was never going to hurt you, Kit. I couldn’t.”

I back away, my heart slamming an endless warning against my ribs. “I don’t believe you.” I turn sharply to Ian, spitting my words. “You were going to feed me to Orpheus, so you made up a story to get me here. Isn’t that right ?” My voice breaks on the question.

“You really are stupid if you thought I’d actually publish a book about myself,” Ian says weakly. He coughs, and the blood stands out bright on his pallid skin. His eyes are half-closed, his breath slow and shallow.

“You’re vile,” I grind out through clenched teeth.

I try to ride this flare of anger, knowing that if I allow myself to be truly, wholly afraid, I will crumble.

And then something occurs to me. Three words, spoken by a sweet, sun-bright voice.

I turn to Orpheus in what feels like slow motion.

“Eros warned me. He warned me not to trust you. I thought he meant Ian, but he was talking about you .”

Orpheus’s eyes spark yellow. “Yes, Kit. Eros saw me as a monster. So does Ian. But you don’t have to.”

“Run,” says Ian. His voice is barely audible, his skin paper-white.

“Run, Kit. He doesn’t care about you. He’s a predator.

” Then his gaze slips past me like he’s speaking to someone else entirely.

“I’m sorry, Eros… God, I’m sorry… I’m sorry I let him in…

” he trails off, his head slumping on his chest.

I back away from Orpheus until I hit the far wall. He stays motionless, only his gaze holding me from across the room. Orpheus couldn’t have. He wouldn’t, it’s impossible. But Ian’s words cut like a knife.

“Orpheus,” I say, my voice breaking. “Did you destroy Eros?”

Orpheus says nothing. He remains exactly where he is, still as a statue. But I see it in his eyes.

A rush of horror grips me.

“Why?” I choke. “Eros didn’t have a soul.”

“He did,” Orpheus says quietly. “You recognized in Eros what Ian was blind to. He was so much more than a machine. And if I hadn’t fed on him, I would have lost control, and you would be dead.”

Hot tears sting my eyes. “You’re a fucking monster.”

“Congrats,” Ian says weakly from the floor, clearly with great effort. “Took you long enough.”

A wave of inexorable rage crashes over me.

Ian’s face, the smug twist of his mouth, is so hateful that my skin itches with it.

My blood boils. I remember the way he told me we were friends, equals, the way he gushed about my blog, the way he kissed me.

It was all a lie. It was all a trap, and Eros is dead, and it’s all Ian’s fucking fault.

“Shut the fuck up, Ian.” I’m vibrating with fury, and I let the feeling overtake me.

“You invited me here to die. You knew I would go to Orpheus. You fucked me, knowing your interdimensional pet was going to eat me. You’re beyond redemption, dickhead.

Orpheus may be a monster, Ian, but monsters can be tamed.

Your soul is rotten to the fucking core.

And I don’t think it’s going to taste very good. ”

Orpheus turns to me, his eyes darker than I’ve ever seen them. And I hate that I don’t hate him, that I’m still drawn to him, monstrous as he is. That he feels like home.

“Well?” I prompt, jerking my head toward Ian. “Finish him off.”

Orpheus suddenly rushes Ian, moving unbelievably fast, crouching over his body, his broad shoulders hunched.

I turn away, heading for the door. I don’t want to see whatever Orpheus does to a human; I don’t want to think about what he did to Eros.

I don’t want to think about anything. Even though I’m sure I’ll spend the rest of my life yearning for a voice, a touch, a soul I can’t have, I have to leave him behind. I have to get the fuck out of here.

As I pass through the threshold into the corridor, I hear Ian grunt once, a low, hoarse sound. And then there is nothing but silence.