Page 43 of Entity

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. Youtouchedher 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 wassupposedto be beautiful. I thought the beings who lived there would be beautiful, too. Ineededthem 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 tostop him. I’m not the monster.Heis. He threatened me…” Ian pauses, his breathing harsh and laborious. “He said he’d… he’d fucking eatmeif 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 toeatIan?”

“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 tofeedme to Orpheus, so you made up a story to get me here. Isn’t thatright?” 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 bloodstands 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 aboutyou.”

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.

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