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Glad to, assle She’s trying to buck h to hide how bad et her arms behind her and reach for one of the zip ties in the pouch of my belt Even the rain outside disappears under the PSF’s hollering to the others, his wild gesturing, as the woid, listens with one hand on his shoulder The girls, the poor kids, are braced on the ground with their hands over their ears, like they’re waiting for a bo their hellhole, they are now

I know it’s a risk, but I have to try--if she keeps thrashing and struggling to knock me off of her, someone will take my place And that so in one piece

I lean down, pressing a hand harder against her bound wrists When did Saet to be so much smaller than me? Her wrists are like flower stems I feel how easy it would be to break them

Da to hihts inside our heads or hears silent prayers But please--please let this work Let et Sam out of here

"Sammy" It’s one word, spoken so quickly, so quietly near her ear, I don’t know that you could count it as a whisper

But she hearsbody relaxes under where I’ve straddled her, and I pull back just as the woman PSF comes forward Psi Special Forces Officer Olsen Her dark skin is taut against the bones of her face as she cuts off Tildon’s path toward us and looks between ainst the filthy floor There are two horns that coirls next to us each suck in a shuddering breath

My head jerks up I scan the roo into the pouches on their belts--earplugs Dah to pull o, and bracean icy cold bath where the water’s been spiked with razors The Trainers used it on us in the beginning, on and off and on and off for hours, but stopped a year in, when they realized daily use wastoo many kids crack And, let me tell you, you can reset broken bones and stitch up too-deep cuts, but you can’t piece a , furious pieces

I rehts in our white cells on all day and all night, watch for the moments it seemed like you were about to finally pass out and sleep and thenthe explosion of blinding hurt No matter how deep I was in rowling static broken up by piercing screams that knock the breath out of you

I hurt all over, a dull ache that turns into a chill rippling up and downHer breath rips in and out of her in sobs It’s the sairls The Factory fills with these horrible, breathyeaten alive by it

Olsen nods at et up and move I can’t For a second, it feels like round; it feels like if I don’t keep a hold on Sa to blow apart

Get up, I command myself Don’t look at her They would know--that I wasn’t in their grip, that there was soirl I keep my eyes focused on the PSF as I return to ht For a moment, she studies the letter and numbers stitched over my uniform’s pocket: M27

"Situation under control" Olsen speaks into her comm unit; I can hear it in the one in my ear with a half-second delay "Disable Calm Control"

Don’t look at her It is alh the roof The PSFs shere Sa of black I yank out s as the kids around odda "She assaulted aze is so cold, it freezes the words in his throat She knows, I think She sahat happened, and for the first tination in her eyes ain But what can she do? There are tiers of punishments in this place--the Trainers made us memorize them Additional work, missed meals, exposure, isolation, corporal punishment They could pick and choose froets the forced to skip dinner, I’ her

Four minutes pass No one moves I breathe in I breathe out I try to dispel the heat trapped inside ofto borrow the heat frohts and send showers of sparks down over everyone’s heads Control Nothing Nurip on allop I have to slip inside et away from this moment But even my brain doesn’t cutme she doesn’t want to be a princess of Greenwood, she wants to be a knight, thank you very ainst my head