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"Will you help hty despite her circumstances "I will not"

"Not even for a human?"

"Oh, I’ll help a huing nerves A thousand times these past feeeks, he could have killed this woman But he’d never even bruised her

As a child, he’d only ever wanted her love Offered freely And when it was clear he wouldn’t be getting that, offered through bribes Yet tiain she had rejected and denied hi into her defiant, hate-filled face, his restraint vanished His control finally snapped He’d had enough

For once, she would know the pain he’d experienced at her hands For once, she would understand the depths of betrayal For once, she would fear the things Koldo could do to her

"Let’s see if I can change your mind, shall we?" He withdrew a razor from the air pocket at his side and flashed into the center of the cage--the only way in or out "I look like h I despise him I think it’s only fair that you look like him, too, since you’re clearly still in love with him"

Her eyes widened, and she backed away froet "You wouldn’t dare," she cried "My hair has only just begun to grow back"

Her words merely proved how little she knew about his?"

She leaned toward the left, then darted to the right, trying to avoid him as he closed in "You disobeyed me You had to be disciplined"

"Not that way" Koldo flashed to just in front of her and latched on to her upper arms It was their first contact since he’d carried her out of the depths of hell and brought her here She was thinner, practically skin and bones, ree of Nicola But that didn’t soften hirier

"Your only goal was toher "Why?"

He shouldn’t have asked He regretted the question immediately, and knew it revealed the hurt he’d never been able to shed

"I couldn’t allow you to turn out like hiht vanished from her She peered up at him with more of that hatred "I should have known it was a useless cause"

I’ like my father! "So you despised him"

"Yes," she hissed

"Yet you slept with hiht? Yes I could tell you he tricked me I could tell you it was a htened as he gave her another shake "The truth"

Utterly calm, she said, "You were a mistake That’s the truth"

With her words, she ripped a scab off his heart, and the wound bled into his soul "You’re right," he said, wishing he were emotionless Instead, he was so torn up inside he wasn’t sure he would ever be able to put hiether "I was a mistake And now I’ll show you why"

He pushed her face-first into the ground, held her doith a knee in the center of her back and, while she screaht her way free, removed every strand of her hair, until he scraped her scalp clean

The sound of a wo, caused so many terrible memories to rise But even when he closed his eyes and shook head, the i the man his father had made him, he realized And he never would

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

"SENT ONES, CO CO Sent Ones," Laila whispered as Nicola tucked her into bed

"I know"

"Demons, Co Co Demons"

"I knoeetheart But we don’t have to fear them, and Koldo assuredwitnessed what happened in the park, her confience in Team Good was untouchable

"How did I not know they were out there? Why could I not see them?"

"Your eyes were closed Now they’re open"