“Kaveh told me—reminded me—what I did,” Luciana continued. “The day you . . . The day the . . . self-harm happened. He reminded me of this one night in 2002, me and Nils and Kaveh and some of their other writer colleagues, we went to this bar in Culver City, and Nils got me drunk, and . . . apparently I told him the truth, thinking he wouldn’t believe me. I swear, I didn’t remember doing this. I was blackout drunk. And I’m sorry for the way I treated you. You were right. You were right the whole time. But the thing is, even if you were wrong, I was wrong to treat you like that. Wrong to distance myself, wrong to let you distance yourself.”

She grabbed a handful of her copper-colored hair, pained by words that were clearly not coming naturally. “And I know I let you rely on him too much. Kaveh, I mean. And I should have reached out sooner, I should have fixed this sooner. And I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry this happened, but I’m also sorry that you had to rely on him as much as you did. I’m sorry to both of you, truly, I am. But I want to be with you through this. I don’t know whether it’s appropriate to ask for forgiveness right now, probably it isn’t, but I don’t think it matters. I just can’t leave you to process this alone . . . this—”

Carefully, like she was afraid she might spook Cora, she moved closer. “Listen . . . it isn’t just you. I’ve been diving into myself for a long time and denying that’s what’s happening. I lost all my friends at ROSA because they suspected me of talking to Nils, and it turns out they were right. I’m losing my mother to her own dementia. I’ve lost Demi. We don’t talk anymore.” She looked at her niece, and Cora saw tears pooling in her eyes. She had never in her life seen Luciana cry. “I can’t lose you, too.”

I can’t lose you, too.

There it was. Every instinct, every fiber of her person, extending from this reality into the noumenal dimensions that bound them together, told her that she was going to lose him. Nikola had already convinced him of his original task; it was time to die. If she didn’t act, didn’t stop it right away, she’d lose him, too.

“Then you have to get me out of here,” said Cora, sitting up painfully. “It’s life or death. I have to go.”

Luciana looked at her like that was exactly what she thought she’d say, but she was disappointed nonetheless.

“If you don’t help me, I’ll move heaven and earth to get out. I’ll dig myself out with a spoon if I have to. But I have to get out. Please, I am begging you.”