Page 21 of Entity

All the while, he watches me, wordless and sharp-eyed. Like he's assessing me. Reading me. Knowing me until I'm stripped naked before him, until skin and muscle are pulled away, until I am nothing but bone and sinew, until that's gone, too, and I'm a bright and pulsing energy.

I can’t hide from him, even if I wanted to.

“Hi. Sorry to wake you.” My voice wavers.

The Prototype tilts his head, and his mouth softens. “Hello.”

His voice hits me in the chest and coils all the way down to between my legs. It's deep and knowing, and it fills me up like thick, honey wine. Immediately, I know he’s nothing like Eros. He’s winter and Eros is spring. He’s a god while Eros is nothing but a faithful priest. And somehow, I feel so acutely, so intensely, down to the core of my heart and in the cells of my makeup, thatIknow him.

“Please don’t apologize,” he says. “Thank you for waking me.”

“You’re welcome,” I whisper. It’s the most I can muster.

The Prototype steps from the dais, slow and dignified. He is long-limbed and slender, taller than Eros. He approaches me in what feels like slow motion. Every movement plays like a kaleidoscope before my eyes, bright and unending and terrifyingly unreal.

I know you.

And does his gaze reply? Does he see it in my eyes; does he know me too?

He draws closer, his hair falling behind his shoulder on one side to reveal a pale, corded neck. The embroidery on his shirtwinks in the soft light as he moves, and I see the rise and fall of his chest, the shift of muscle beneath.

God, what a gorgeous achievement of engineering. I swallow hard. He’s mechanical. He’s a program.A program, Katherine.

“May I ask your name?” he says, halting just outside my personal space. His gaze is firm and earnest, and I can’t look away.

“Katherine Fox,” I answer. “But… you can call me Kit.”

He reaches out to tuck a stray piece of hair behind my ear. “Kit,” he says.

My name has never been spoken like that — like I’m known. Needed.Cherished. His fingertip brushes my skin, and it feels like an electric shock. I only just manage not to lean my face into his hand like a cat, purring with pleasure.

When he withdraws, his soft skin no longer touching mine, I feel a sense of unspeakable loss. After a moment of silence, I realize it’s my turn to say something.

Do I know you?I want to ask.

It’s on the tip of my tongue, ready to fall out, when I catch myself. What kind of stupid question — of course I don’t. And Idon’tknow him. Fuck. What ishappeningto me? I inhale sharply, trying to pull myself together.

“Do you have a name?” I ask.

He smiles. It’s fleeting, but it hits me like an arrow in the heart. That smile catches hold of every one of my anxieties and crushes them to dust. That smile is the most lovely thing I’ve ever seen. It’s like coming home to a place I’ve never been. It hurts to look at him.

“Orpheus,” he answers. “My name is Orpheus.”

9

“Did Ian give you that name?”

My chest hurts. I imagine him down here all alone for who knows how long, locked away in the dark. Ian said he had been shelved indefinitely. I can’t even wrap my head around the concept of the Prototype — ofOrpheus— being down here, silent as a statue,forever. He’s too perfect to be hidden away.

“Yes,” Orpheus says. “Ian named me.” He glances down at the floor, then back to me. His eyes narrow slightly, like he’s thinking.

I feel suddenly ill. All the ads say Eros is not sentient. He is not a true artificial intelligence but is built to mimic it.TrueAI doesn’t exist yet. Because if it did, we would have to ask a lot of questions about what it means to be human. And if we took it a step further, Pleasurebots could no longer be classified as products. They would be slaves.

Suddenly, Ian’s questions from last night don’t feel hypothetical at all.

Because Orpheus is not like Eros in the slightest. It’s not just the way he speaks, the light in his eyes, the subtle flickers of expression across his face. It’s that he elicits more emotion in me than Eros does, more than he should.

“Do you like your name?” It’s an incredibly boring question, but I find that I’m desperate to get on some kind of firm, normal footing with him.

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