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I dug into Zee’s pockets and found his phone, but predictably, the battery was long dead. I didn’t own a phone, didn’t have any social media accounts. This world wasn’t meant for me. With an exasperated sigh, I tossed the phone.

Reynard sighed and pulled his phone from his pocket. “Fine.”

“What are you doing?”

“Making a plea for a lust demon.”

He was . . . what? On his own socials? But he despised demons. Especially Zee.

“You don’t have to do that⁠—”

He held up a finger at the same time as holding out his phone, aiming the front facing camera at himself. “How is my appearance?”

I winced. He’d looked better. “Kinda like you’ve been in a fight with an incorporeal beast. Your hair’s a mess, there’s blood on your shirt, and you’re missing some buttons at your collar.”

“Perfect.” He fixed his gaze on me. “You get this one for free. For you, not for him.”

“What?”

“Dear followers,” Reynard began, speaking to the phone, his voice its most smooth and chocolatey timbre. “You may have heard of some commotion at the SOS Hotel, and indeed, there has been. Opening such a hotel was never going to be easy, but some forces have been working to undermine the good work Adam Vex and his colleague, Zodiac, have been doing. Forces with malevolent intent. Several days ago, the popular demon, Zodiac, was taken against his will and used by these nefarious forces, in a bid to destroy both the hotel and everything it stands for. Right now, Zodiac needs your help. I implore you to visit his social accounts, and like his most recent posts. You won’t find anything posted in the past few days, because those were the hours in which he was suffering. Now is the time to come together, and while I know many of you, my followers, may be shocked by Zodiac’s mature content, I urge you to remember, we are all lost and trying to find ourselves in a troubling world. While Zodiac and I do not often see eye to eye, there is one thing we do agree upon—an attack on one of us at the SOS Hotel, is an attack on all.” He ended the message and dropped his phone back into his pocket.

That was quite something. “Thank you.”

“It’s nothing.” He waved. “Just a post.”

“It’s more than that.” He’d told the entire world he was one of us. Lord Victor Reynard, tech billionaire, cared about Zodiac, an ex-porn-star lust demon. I didn’t know much about the internet, but I knew it fed on gossip. Reynard coming out as a Zodiac fan was bound to cause a ruckus. And generate likes.

Reynard smoothed his hair and tugged on his shirt cuffs. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I intend to get cleaned up, visit the bar, then perhaps stalk the streets and ambush an unsuspecting Twilight fan. They’re such easy prey.”

“I’m going to stay with Zee.”

“That’s for the best.” He headed for the door, then stopped. “Oh, Adam, how did you beat the shadowbeast?”

“I talked to it. We came to an agreement. It’s not all that bad.”

“It speaks?” Reynard’s mouth twitched. “I . . . did not think of that.”

“It was nothing, really. Nobody wants to be in chains. I figured it didn’t have a choice, so I gave it one.”

“You truly are remarkable.”

“Oh, no, not really. I’m just me.”

“Of course you are—just you.”

He left, smiling in that strange all-knowing way he sometimes did, and gently closed Zee’s door behind him.

My own smile soon died when I looked down at Zee again. The shadow realm had almost taken him from me. He must have suffered terribly, alone in the dark, cut off from everything that kept him alive.

I shrugged off my jacket, kicked off my shoes, and laid on the bed next to Zee, keeping his hand in mine so he knew he wasn’t alone. “You have to come back to us,” I told him. “We need you. I need you. I don’t know if you can hear me, but when I found you that night in Demontown, I was so very alone. You think I saved you, but you saved me, Zee. There’s a heat and warmth and light in you that I’d lost. You helped me find it again.” He didn’t respond, just stared through me.

As welcome as Reynard’s social media post was, I wasn’t sure it would be enough. “I think Reynard likes you, although he’ll never admit it. He’s . . . well . . . I know you said we can’t trust him, but he’s helped a lot. Maybe he wants something, or maybe he’s just had enough of being who he is, and he wants to be someone different. I know how that feels. He said we’re all lost. And I know you’re probably laughing at me inside right now, you think I just want to jump his bones, and well . . . there’s a bit of that, admittedly, but I honestly think he’s going to be good for the hotel. Also, the shadowbeast lives in your attic now. Sorry. That was kinda the deal for getting you out of there. Gideon is still a dick, and uh . . . well . . . I think I might have to kill him.” I blinked, checking Zee’s face for any reaction, but there wasn’t one. I sighed. “I don’t like to kill people, but some people just need to die. You know?” I was pretty sure he’d agree, since Gideon had been the one who’d hurt him.

I touched his face and the corner of his mouth, missing its permanent smile. “If I tell you something, will you promise to come back to me?” Could he hear me, wherever he was? “I’m not human, not at all, not even a tiny bit. So you can’t bespell me, and I kind of maybe like you, a lot, in ways I shouldn’t, because it’s really, really dangerous. There’s this prophecy . . . It’s been chasing me my whole life. Everyone around me dies because of it, and I don’t want that to happen to you.” I glanced down at the chains around his neck. “You deserve to be free, Zee.” I ran my fingers across his lip. “You’re flashy and showy and sassy, and you flick your wings and tail like nothing can hurt you to hide the hurt of a thousand cuts. After a while, you start believing the pain is all you’re worth.” I laughed at my own idiocy. “I guess what I’m saying is, we’re both really good at pretending.”

He didn’t respond, which was probably for the best.

I drifted into a half-sleep, dreaming of liquid shadows, Reynard’s teeth in my neck, and Zee belting out “House of the Rising Sun.” Flashes of the past came back to me too, images of raging fires, and the people I’d once called family dying in those flames. I snapped open my eyes and stayed frozen, staring at the ceiling, unsure where I was, but then Zee’s hand came down on my chest, over my heart, and his lips brushed my ear.