I had to keep talking. “Why’d you let him in? He can’t be that smart.” Knocking Tair was the best way to keep myself on Darren’s good side, but the words almost stuck in my throat.

“He’s not.” Darren’s expression turned smug for a split-second, and I thought I was in the clear. Then he sneered. “But the Orpheus family’s well connected. The Doc couldn’t say no.”

“But you wanted to.”

“No one gets everything they want.” Darren took another step toward me and I moved back again. This wasn’t my favorite kind of dance. “Not right away, at least.”

“I don’t need a lesson in reality.” Of the two of us, I was way more experienced in getting the butt-end of life. “Not from you.”

“Orpheus does.” Darren’s grin turned more sickening than usual.

“He’s just another wannabe Seligo” I tried to play casual, but he was slowly backing me up and eventually I was going to run out of space. The options that played out when that happened fluttered more and more insistently, begging me to look, but I was afraid checking would make it worse at this point. “Nothing’s special about him.”

“Is that really what you think?” Darren’s eyes glowed toxic-ooze green and the sight of his glee made my gut clench.

I’d said the wrong thing. “He’s just another rich boy who thinks he’s clever like Marco and all the ones before.”

“You like him.” Darren took another step and the backs of my legs bumped the sofa arm.

Nowhere left to run. “I dislike him. Strongly.”

Darren pressed his lips together, studying me from way, way, way, way, way too close for comfort. “Liar.”

“I’m not. No one’s more annoying than Tair.” And that was the truth—the way he smiled and wormed his way into every little bit of my life. No one else even came close.

“Tair?” The question dripped deadly soft from Darren’s lips. “You’re using nicknames?”

“I’m…” My mouth turned to chalk as the most likely futures whipped at me. Darren grabs my wrist and drags me toward the holo room; he pushes me down, pressing his face closer and closer— I gagged before I saw the end of that one.

“Something you don’t like?”

As long as Darren was in the room, I’d never see a blessed thing I liked. I shook my head, knowing anything I said now would make this that much worse.

Darren shoved; I lost my balance, falling back onto the sofa with a thud. He gazed down at me like a mad king surveying his territory.

Except I wasn’t a freaking wheat field and I didn’t belong to him. “You’re not allowed to touch me anymore.” I scrambled upright and slid away, but he rounded the couch before I could escape. “Nagi said.”