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“Once” Holly tugged away the necklace and stepped out to face what ht be her final hour of life

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I’ll fight it I’ll run

The defiant thoughts were hers and they came from deep within

Fuck the world if it thought it could crush her She hadn’t asked to be changed and ht not to be prejudged, a right to be given the chance to fight the monsters within If she failed, that was a differentblock then No one had the right to steal the battle from her, steal her chance at life

Driven by fury, she strode into Dmitri’s officeand came to a sudden halt The leader of the Seven wasn’t alone Illiulass that faced the balcony, while Honor stood on this side of the desk, frowning, the deep green of her eyes on the blue-winged angel’s back

Daze was on his hunter wife

“I’ she’d interrupted so

Dmitri’s dark eyes landed on her “No, come in”

“I asked that Honor and Illium be here” Venom touched his hand to her lower back

Holly looked up at hi himself so openly with her? Didn’t he know she was toxic? A creature who fit nowhere But he didn’t break contact “The change in Holly,” he said, “it’s escalating”

Then, though he’d told her she’d be the one who’d have to explain, he laid out the bare facts to set the stage It gave her enough time to find her balance so she could tell her side of the story “There’s beenan alien thing inside me since the attack” It took furious effort to keep her voice flat instead of giving in to the screa terror of the memories that haunted her

“I always thought you were having trouble accepting the changes inside you when you spoke of theainst Dmitri’s desk, her soft ebony hair woven in a braid and her body clad casually in a fitted T-shirt and orn jeans that hugged her perfectly “But I rong, wasn’t I?”

“Yes, and no” Anger siiven her room to breathe; she knew she’d achieve far more if she put her points forward in a rational manner

And HonorHolly couldn’t yell at Honor Ever Her heart wouldn’t permit it; she wanted never to cause the hunter any hurt Honor had conquered her deht her that she could trounce grown ht had already suffered more than her quota of pain

“Uraoes bone-deep” It was no use fighting that truth “But there’s a part that’s foreign, and alill be”

The whispering rated with her psyche

Holly had worried it was a sign of severe mental illness, a total breakdown of her sense of self, but s blaze on a wo for this body, too powerful”

“Did the changes accelerate only after Daisy?” Dlass wall and just listened, the extraordinary beauty of his wings shot through with the cutting sunlight of a New York that had shrugged off yesterday’s rain with the nonchalance of a catwalkoutfits

“No Theintruder inside th for a while,” she admitted, her feet set apart and her ar because I didn’t want to be put down like a rabid dog”

Der “I see”

But Holly wasn’t backing down Not this time Tears threatened to burn her eyes, but she refused to be that broken girl anymore “I have no place,” she bit out “I have no stability My right to exist is conditional” She wanted to throw so, to scream and shout, but that was partly why no one took her seriously Because she was young and scared and sometimes, she panicked