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I recognized her too “Beatrice?”

She stilled when she heard her own name Her eyes narrowed, and her beauty faded as the consternation took up residence in her face Claire came up behind her and peeked around her body to look at me After a few breaths, she spoke “How do you know our names?”

“Benton is looking for you”

Beatrice drew a deep breath when she heard that name “How do you know Benton?” She inched closer to uard up, as if she didn’t understand her reality either

Seeing this wo me fear I was in the saet out But knowing she was real, that she and Claire were in the saht now, made me feel less alone She wasn’t covered in bruises and scars She didn’t have a cattle skull on her head “He’s looking for both of you I’e after a performance and asked everyone if we’d seen you”

“Daddy is looking for us?” Claire stepped out from behind her mother

Beatrice’s arhter’s shoulders

I looked into her eyes and saw the hope, the beautiful brightness of her gaze, the innocence of a child “Yeah, he is”

Claire looked up at her mother “He’ll find us, Mom Daddy is the smartest person in the world I know he’ll find us”

She rubbed her daughter’s back and gave a nod, but she didn’t have the sahter did She still looked pained, her beautiful features washed away by her fear But she said what her daughter wanted to hear “I’m sure he will, honey”

“What is this place?” I didn’t fire off ht away, not when Claire was around The bedrooirls looked healthy, but I wasn’t stupid enough to believe we’d truly stepped into heaven

Beatrice sat on the bed besidedown her chest to her stolanced into the other roo up in bed with a book in her lap She watched the girl for a moment before she turned back to me and whispered her answer “I have no idea”

“Have you been outside?”

“No, but we’re in theI have no idea what our location is Not even sure if we’re still in France”

“How long did it take you to get here?”

“I was knocked out cold”