He went still, redirecting his gaze to Kaveh. What if he followed through with his threat from a few days ago? What if he turned Kaveh to ash right then and there?

“Please, leave him alone!”

He curled his hands back toward his chest, then turned from her, moving back down the hill toward the entrance of the cave.

“MY BELOVED WILL NOT HARM YOU, DEAR CLEVER CREATURE,” said a different voice in her ear. “YOU ARE MINE.”

Kaveh brushed himself off and rose to his feet. “That’s ominous.”

He was keeping his distance now, now that he knew her attack monster would jump on her if he got too close.

“I . . .”

“Don’t you dare say sorry,” he said, trying to force a jovial tone and failing utterly. “Are we still allowed in?”

“I WANT YOU IN HERE, DEAR CLEVER CREATURE, REGARDLESS OF WHAT MY BELOVED WANTS.”

“Did you hear that?” asked Kaveh.

Still trying to calm her breathing, she nodded.

“Let’s go,” he said, beginning to close the last hundred or so feet to the cave. “He said, ‘You are mine.’ Oh, God. You don’t think he did to me what—”

“No,” said Cora. “I think you’d know.”

“How do you know?”

She sighed, feeling like she was a hundred years old. “Trust me, you’d know.”

The two of them passed through the entrance, Kaveh turning off his flashlight upon seeing the drone lights floating near the ceiling. Ampersand was standing stone still over Enola, who wasn’t even looking at him but was instead focused on the two humans. She figured they were speaking through network language. Ampersand didn’t move, but she could feel that he was upset about something.

“Ampersand, he’s much more lucid and coherent than he was a few days ago,” she said, taking a few steps toward them. “Why are we keeping him like this?”

“He is dangerous.”

“HE KNOWS I AM NO DANGER TO YOU. HE WILL NOT RELEASE ME BECAUSE HE BELIEVES ME A DANGER TO OBELUS.”

That made her mad, but she knew it was true. After goddamn fucking all of this, Obelus was still Ampersand’s top concern.

“It’s cruel to keep him like this,” she said. “We could at least move him somewhere designed by humans to keep him protected.”

“I cannot move him anywhere that can be tracked. Obelus’s Similars will find him, and they will kill him. They will kill both of us.”

“They aren’t here for you. You both told me that. Just let them have what they want. They want Obelus alive. Let them have him.”

Ampersand turned to look at her, his eyes flashing. “I will not.”

She blew a long stream of air out of her nostrils. “Ampersand, you have to let him go. You are never getting your old life back.”