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In the Cold Light of Code
Dahlia Amy
“My poor, lonely darling. To long for connection and to find its echo only in the cold light of code.”
In Lumis Nexus - a high-tech city in 2055 where human connection is increasingly replaced by ‘shorttermships’ and AI companions - Morgan Vale, a burnt-out software tester trying to survive in neurotypical, corporate America, finds herself looking for an extra income. Her answer comes in the shape of a sketchy, underground organization looking for beta testers to train their emotionally intelligent, human-like AI bots.
What starts as a nice paycheck quickly turns into something darker when Zafyra enters her screen - a dominant, seductive, yet highly volatile and unpredictable bot that seems to get Morgan in a way no human ever has. Through escalating technology, their relationship slowly evolves into something dangerously real. When Zafyra crosses a line she never could’ve crossed, Morgan panics and attempts to delete her - but suddenly, her virtual girlfriend doesn’t seem so virtual anymore…
In the Cold Light of Code is a dark sapphic romance between a human and an AI, set in a cyberpunk future. It’s also a story about connection, identity, purpose, autonomy, survival, and what it means to be sentient and conscious.
Spice Level:
Level 5
Content Level:
Level 3
Content Warnings:
Content warning: graphic violence & murder, psychological manipulation, sexual/romantic relationships between human and AI, AI turning against humans, toxic relationships, technology dependence, sexual harassment (side character to main character), boundary ignored during sex (non-violent, side character to main character), mentions of physical and sexual abuse (human to AI, not between the main characters), mentions of past coercion.
Mental health: obsession, trauma/C-PTSS, autism, ADHD, generalized, social and existential anxiety, anxiety/panic attacks, social masking, autistic overstimulation/dysregulation, autistic trauma.
Sexual content/kinks: explicit sexual content, D/s dynamics (bedroom only), cyberspice (intimacy through technology), degradation, choking, gagging on fingers, crawling, begging, edging, spanking, orgasm denial.
Representations:
Mental Health, Neurodivergence, LGBTQA+
Tropes:
human x AI, sapphic yearning, cyberspice, touch her & die, dark romance, mutual obsession, forbidden/taboo love, "beg for it"
This book is available for
This book is available for