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Raffe flattens hiainst a wall

‘We’re not here to harm you,’ he shouts

Another gunshot answers from an upstairsI flinch, my nerves about as taut as they can be

‘I can hear you talking in there,’ shouts Raffe He els, we are ‘And the answer is no I doubt that s There is no chance of you being able to takeyourselves We just want the house Be smart Leave’

The front door sla their rifles in different directions as if unsure where their enemies are

Raffe takes flight, and the locusts follow his lead He sweeps the air with his i back down beside the house

The locusts fly toward hi in and out of the tree line with their scorpion stingers curled behind them

As soon as the ainst, they run They crash through the trees across from the locusts Then they circle around the rubble toward the beach

As theShe races in the opposite direction of theed creatures

She disappears into the hills behind the house, while the men take the rowboats and head out on the bay

Raffe walks around to the front of the vacated house and pauses, listening carefully He waves for us to join him as he walks in

By the time we reach the Victorian, Raffe yells, ‘All clear’

I put h the white picket fence She clutches Raffe’s feathered wings like a security blanket as she stares at the house The Victorian is butter colored with maroon trim It has a porch icker furniture and looks a lot like a dollhouse

One of the locusts drops Beliel beside the picket fence He lies there like a piece of meat The ropey flesh of his body is the color and texture of beef jerky, and blood still trickles froe bit chunks out of his cheek and arms He looks pitiful, but this is one locust victim I don’t feel sorry for

‘What should we do with Beliel?’ I ask Raffe

‘I’ll take care of him’ Raffe walks down the porch steps toward us

Considering all the awful things that Beliel has done, I’ his wings off Maybe he thought the locusts would do it or that Paige’s attack on him at the aerie would be fatal But now that he’s made it this far, Raffe doesn’t seem inclined to finish him off

‘Coe’ My sister walks beside me up onto the wooden porch and into the house

Inside, I expect dust androom looks like it used to be an exhibit A lady’s dress from the 1800s is displayed in the corner Beside it, er needed to keep the public away fro room furniture

Paige looks around and walks over to theBeyond the warped glass, Raffe drags Beliel up to the fence gate He dumps him there and walks behind the house Beliel see victih they’re still conscious That’s part of the horror of being stung

‘Coe continues to stare out theat the shriveled form of Beliel

Outside, Raffe walks back into sight with his ar picture as he wraps the chains around Beliel, forhs He padlocks theether in the center of his chest

If I didn’t know better, I’d be terrified of Raffe He looks merciless and inhuman as he handles the helpless demon

Strangely, it’s Beliel who keeps pulling atabout hi familiar

I shake it off Ifrom exhaustion

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I was never a hts with no sleep, I feel like a zombie I want to crash onto a couch somewhere and sleep for a week

But first, I need to help my sister settle in

It takes me an hour to clean her up in the bathtub She’s covered in Beliel’s blood and gore If the frightened people at the Resistance thought she was a monster when she was in a clean flower-print dress, they’d definitely turn into torch-bearing, lync

h-ers if they saw her now

I’m afraid to actually scrub her because of all her stitches and bruises Norentle when it cae

Maybe thinking the sae asks, ‘Where’s Mom?’

‘She’s with the Resistance They should be at the caerly between stitches with a sponge ‘We caht and taken to Alcatraz She’s all right now, though The Resistance came to rescue everyone on the island, and I saw her on the boat as they were escaping’

Her bruises still look angry, and I don’t want to accidentally pop a stitch I wonder if these are the kinds of stitches that dissolve or if a doctor needs to take them out

That uy who sewed her up in the first place I don’t care what his situation was No decent huled andel told him to I want to kick Doc to pieces when I see how bruised and abused Paige is

So how crazy is it that I’ht that maybe he can help her?

I sigh and drop the sponge into the water I can’t stand to look at her ribs sticking out of her stitched skin anyet anyway I drop her blood-stained clothes in the sink and walk into one of the bedroo for her to wear

I ru to find anything It seems like this place was some sort of historic tourist site rather than anyone’s house But somebody has stayed here Maybe even decided that this could be home

There’s not a lot, but at least one woman had settled here, at least for a while I reach in and pull out a white blouse and linen skirt Thong underwear A lacy bra A sheer camisole A cropped T-shirt A pair of stretchy men’s boxers

People were funny during the early days after the Great Attack Even when they evacuated their homes, they took their cell phones, laptops, keys, wallets, suitcases, and shoes that would have been great for tropical vacations but not for running on the streets It was as if people couldn’t accept that it wouldn’t all blow over in a few days