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No one was Venom

And Venom was hers

The reht, theher eave her a touch th

Light flashed, a glittering bronze shower that was astonishing in its beauty Wonder tried to catch Holly in its shirasp Michaela really had struck the jackpot when it came to the beauty stakes Horror soon curdled the wonder Because the lattice was down and she could feel acid-green energy gathering inside her, as the echo of Urae with the part inside the fleshy receptacle in the crib

Should that happen, Holly would die just like Daisy had died Uray, all her life force to ht furiously as Michaela turned to Raphael, sla out a palm laced with power “Do not interfere here, Raphael If he’s powerful enough to have survived angelfire, then he’s powerful enough to fully regenerate from a stump of flesh”

You’re wrong, Holly wanted to say This echo would never be anything but a madness stuck in a moment of time It didn’t even knohy it wasn’t whole It didn’t re Because that death had taken place after Uray into Holly and Michaela and Daisy It did re Michaela because Uram had loved her as he went into his insanity, the e for blood, for violence, for torture

Whatever grew out of that thing in the crib would be nothing but a horror

She was conscious of Raphael replying to Michaela, but she wasn’t listening to the archangelic conversation any longer She had to have a critical discussion of her own

Is that what you want to be? she whispered from deep inside herself, as Uram’s echo had whispered to her That twisted piece of flesh that has no life to it? Inside Uram, she understood that it was literally just y, it was an external host meant to act as the core for Uram’s resurrection It hadn’t rotted away only because

My sweet dripped her blood over that which will become my flesh

Which Michaela hadn’t been able to do while at the Cadreher first visit A fewin that crib

Holly’s stomach lurched, but she didn’t lose the precious control she’d regained You will be totally dependent on Michaela

Her body row strong,” the Ura the attention of everyone in the room

Are you sure? Holly whispered Do you have enough power? Or will you be trapped in that hunk of toxic meat forever?

Rage in her ned to handle for long “I ael”

Tell ony

“Silence!” The voice that wasn’t her voice boomed into the air

36

Raphael, Michaela, Veno, as if aware so place that they couldn’t perceive Luckily for Holly, she didn’t have to be silent The echo of Ura more to her

You don’t re to New York?

A deadly silence

You are not an archangel You are an echo, a y left behind before your death Holly felt an unexpected sadness spear her heart You must’ve been an incredible power to do that, to leave behind energy that survived for so long

“I aainst the walls of the turret that Michaela had turned into a nursery and a prison both “I am Uram!”

“My love” Michaela reached out a hand across the crib, her face a thing of power softened by grief “Become whole”