I didn’t think my eyes could get any wider, but they did.
How did he know about that?
I shivered as he slid the hand that wasn’t slapped over my mouth down my arm. He paused over the scar I’d received from the car accident, and it seemed to cause him to immediately soften, which confused me.
“I’m going to let you go, if you scream, I will drag Sebastian back in here and cut his fucking dick off in front of you, do you understand me?”
The blood drained from my face, and I forced myself to nod again, and he held me for a beat longer before releasing me.
I scrambled up and away from him, leaning back against the headboard and watching as his towering form turned away from the bed in frustration to look out the window at the midnight skyline of the Neurovance campus.
“Fucking ridiculous…” The Forgotten was muttering to himself.
“It won’t be much longer. Try to keep it together.” The soft, feminine voice of his portable AI—I think I heard him call her NOVA—responded from his mask. The glowing ring pulsed as she talked, punctuating each of her words with a ripple of blue light.
“It’s hard when he’s fuckinggoadingme like this.”
“You know this is all Luke. Seb’s basically a puppet.”
“Yeah, well, he didthatentirely chip-free. It’s like hewantsme to fucking kill him.”
“Come on. You know what it’s like to be… lonely. He’s probably so desperate for companionship. Try to cut him some slack.”
“No! Not when it comes to?—”
The AIlet out a long-suffering sigh, as if this was an argument she had with her user often, and I cleared my throat loudly.
“Not to—uhm, interrupt… but… could you maybe… get out of my condo?” I meeped. “I’m sure this place is under heavy surveillance, and Luke Stevens is…scary.If you want me to… you know, do thatthingtomorrow, this is probably a good way to make sure they never take me to that cave place. It was a near miss already after I failed the security scan.”
The Forgotten tensed, then slowly turned to face me. His matte-black hooded tactical jacket was strapped close to his athletic frame with a utility harness. His matching pants were structured and just as full of straps and tiny pouches as his jacket was. My attention caught on a tiny glint, and I realized with a start that he had Melanie’s chili pepper keychain secured to one of the straps wrapped around his thigh.
I expected him to lash out at me for asking him to leave, but instead, he chuckled softly.
“Brave, brave, little Milo,” he purred, stepping back up to the bed.
I inched away from him until my back was pressed up against the headboard.
“Not brave… just…practical.”
“And here I thought you said you weren’t up for the challenge of… what did you call it?Corporate espionage?”
I wrinkled my nose at how amused he sounded.
“I’m not, but you haven’t given me a choice.”
The Forgotten planted his fists on the bed, leaning forward so his mask was inches from my nose again.
His proximity sent a rush of adrenaline through me, though it felt much different than the zing of anticipation I’d felt from Sebastian earlier.
“You can have anything you want, Milo. All you need to do is ask.”
I was hit again with a strong sense of deja vu.
I shook my head aggressively, trying to shake away the strange feelings that didn’t make any sense. Everything smelled like birch and oak, and it was making me… Why did my chesthurt?
“I—”
This odd rush offeelingwas welling up so quickly, and I felt like I wanted to choke on the amount of emotion that was flooding my throat.
