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Beliel thrashes against his chains He’s so frantic I think hefree These are not the screahtht in front of hihter of Man For the girl who even now looks to him to rescue and protect her Maybe even for their children, who are likely being hunted and killed by soht was his friend A friend like Raffe

8

I’ht of the two lovers that I haven’t been paying attention to anything else But now, the back oftoin front of me

I look around And that’s when I see that the deht at host in Beliel’s ht atlike he lives in a world of perpetual sry at the sa hi here’ His words sound like a hundred slithering snakes, but I can still understand him

As soon as the demon says the word spy, the hellions all look at h they can’t believe their luck It doesn’t take ure out that I’m not invisible anymore

The deood look at me with his bloodshot eyes Then he whips his stick in , bloody heads – shoot out towardwhip

Their expressions are a hted to be headingback, reaches toward me

At the sas

I sturound trips lass and shards of bone

The heads screa

I stumble backward and fall onto less and shriveled again, lies on the ground in front of me

Then a hellion jumps out of Beliel’s back It leaps atbackward

It swipes my shoulder as it flies past me Blood flon my arm

The tip of my sword is still buried in Beliel’s back I try to pull it out There’s resistance, like so on the other side Revulsion reverberates through h the blade is an extension ofmy sword like conjoined twins They pop out of Beliel’s back, which is bleeding fro out of his memories

I finally yank out my sword and scooch back as fast as I can away froarden with a thu their heads anddrunkenly as they look around the sht and lift their hands to shield their eyes That gives et on my feet and catch my breath