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"It’s pointless to try to get through to her" Detective Cra her ar, which you’ll soon learn after we get rid of you"

I raise ht? So whatever you have planned for me won’t work"

She pats the handle of the knife against her pal able to suck the life away froet rid of you, but not i her head back and some of the other Reapers join in "It also makes you more prone to insanity and more likely to surrender to the Reaper blood, just like your father did"

"What do you know about et the trees to break with th" She rolls her eyes and crouches down in irl, only you’re connected with every aspect of death It’s not really a gift, so much as a curse In fact, if I were you, I’d let me put you out of your misery All you would have to do is surrender to the Reaper and he would take away the pain of death"

I could stop fighting; erase the pain, taking away death, rupturing the chains that have sentenced me to a life of solitude? All that silence I feel with Asher and Ca, yet it’s not, because it would still be death, only in a more powerful form

"No, I won’t do it," I say in an even voice

"Fine, then I guess, for the el blood ive in" She snaps her fingers and Garrick shoves Raven forward She trips over her bare feet and falls to her knees at the side of s are broken, her dress is torn and stained with dirt, and there’s no life in her eyes "If you are not willing to surrender, I’ll force you to" Detective Crammer walks up behind Raven and aiently cuts a thin layer of skin away and blood trickles out, running down the front of Raven’s dress

Raven winces, but doesn’t cry out

"Wait," I beg "Don’t hurt her"

"There’s only one way out of this" She makes another slim puncture on Raven’s neck

Death or life Death or life What’s the difference? "I’ll do whatever you want o"

She carves another s Raven’s neck and the other Reapers cackle, pulling their hoods over their heads and shielding their faces

"Oh, I don’t want anything fro to torture her and then you, until you lose your ive into your Reaper blood"

I thrash my body and jerk on the ropes as hard as I can "Leave her alone!" I close h the rope The rough ive up--give in

Detective Crammer snickers as she hacks off a small lock of Raven’s pink hair with the knife "Do you kno fun it was to torture you? Kill you ti your mind You have a bendable mind and so do the people closest to you Most of them are insane--do you know that? And do you want to knohy?"

"Because of the pain of my existence," I say

"No, but it’s close," she replies, wiping the blade of the knife on the front of her cloak "Insanity is a very contagious thing; it’s easy to get caught up in it Those who are close to a Grih and it wears the them insane themselves Plus, they are susceptible to the Reaper’s torture"

Raven gags on her own blood as she clutches at her throat "Erabs a handful of Raven’s hair andto scalp her My whole body trein to glow

"Just give in, E the knife down beneath Raven’s scalp "And everything--all of it will be gone"

I stare up at the night sky, thinking about ave up? Died? Maybe Maybe I would stop taking life fros Maybe the world would be a better place without ure swoops down fro to take me away But black feathers fall fro

The creature moves inhumanly fast, just a blur as it clips the ropes on my wrists with its hand and turns me loose Then it rounds back, swipes up Detective Crammer by the shoulders, and carries her into the sky Her painful screa to the air, and fly into the sky

"Passionate when in battle," I s Then I rush over to Raven, lying face down in the dirt, and gently roll her onto her back Her eyes are shut and the blood flows out from the open wounds on her neck "Rav, can you hear me?"

She sucks in a breath and her eyes shoot open "Ohmy arm underneath hers, I aid her to her feet "Coo before they come back for us"