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Lilah sed “They were so angry with you When they came back hours after their search, they came in here, to us”

Maddie’s whi sobs

“They came for us,” Lilah murmured

“Who did?” I snapped

“All of them! All of the elders: Gabriel, Jacob, Noah, and Moses”

Maddie clawed at htened child, so I shushed her,with every sob Lilah wiped her eyes

“Maddie, calm You are safe now I a with her?

Lilah sed and looked away “They wanted divine retribution The elders beca the sisters for your disobedience They were livid that you had so in sin” She took a deep, sobering breath “They said the Cursed were shameful, a hex on The Order: you… Bella… They said your bloodline was tainted with evil Said Satan used you as vehicles for temptation”

This time I stilled Maddie She was of my bloodline Did they believe she too was a vehicle of temptation and sin?

I held hter

“They said they needed to o the same way… That they had to break her once and for all Exorcize her demons”

Maddie was now crying uncontrollably Her heart pounded against mine and her chest jerked with the intensity of her sobs “They took her so brutally for hours and hours until she passed out One after the other… sometimes at the sa Then they turned their attention to me…”

“How often? How often did this happen?” I asked, tightly squeezing Lilah’s hand in support

“Several tiain “Every week since you have been absent It truly has been a living hell Trapped in this room, taken until we bled, time after ti like this…”

We huddled together until all the tears that could be shed had been shed Eventually, Maddie shuffled back to sit before h I do believe she planned never to let it go

“Where have you been, Mae?” Lilah asked “What was the outside world like?”

Where do I begin?

“Sisters, it is like nothing you can iy, the way people live It is so, so different When I left here, the elders found me at the perimeter fence”