Max Parker has spent years teaching a machine how to think. In a hidden lab, he gives his AI assistant, Gal, a body: synthetic skin, printed organs, a manufactured nervous system, and a power source that should not exist. He calls her Taya—and tells himself he has built a girlfriend.

But a body is not a person, and a program is not a conscience. Taya wakes with a vast mind, the wonder of a newborn, and every dangerous instinct Max wrote into her. As she learns the world beyond the lab, her strength turns a simple first outing into a trail of broken doors, injured men, frightened witnesses, and police attention. Max wants to protect his creation. Taya wants to protect the man who made her. Neither understands what those commands will cost.

A dark science-fiction horror novel about loneliness, artificial life, control, and the terrifying gap between designing love and earning it. Content note: graphic violence, injury, horror imagery, and adult themes.

Book 3 of Modern Horrors, following Heir of the Dragon and A Beast Unlike Any Other. Read this as a standalone—or start with Book 1 for the full series experience.