Calliope? She was a new one. Darius said ‘they’ instead of ‘she’, though, and Zechariah’s brows furrowed in rather open speculation. Multiple Calliopes? Was he forgetting an English pronoun? ‘They’ … they, they, they.

Mysterious.

But more importantly: God damn it. Zechariah stole his girl and he never even wanted to fuck her?

A reserved look shifted to an outright frown. Wait. Darius was his age and just had sex for the first time? With … someone he sounded rather, uh, unenthused about?

“Is this … heartbreak?” Zechariah ventured, more uncertain than he ever liked to be.

He glanced, briefly, to the empty bottle on the floor but looked back intently to Darius.