Page 26 (1/2)

When she dropped her palms, there were drops on her cheeks froainst her skin “He’s not co for us We’re stuck here…and we’ll die here”

I turned back to her, seeing the raw defeat, seeing the way she’d given up before she’d even tried “We aren’t going to die here, Beatrice We’ll find a way out, alright? It ive up hope”

“Coetting out of here is if—”

“We try” My hand ripped it When everyone panicked, it soave up, it made me try harder I was never the leader in any scenario, but once that position was permanently vacant, I had to fill it…because no one else would “Wethe clock, because they’ll eventually figure out we aren’t really angels and they’ll replace us with another batch So, we need to work together and find a solution I understand you feel hopeless because I feel hopeless too, but think of Claire She’s got two parents Benton did his best…and now it’s your turn”

I was guided through the dark by Rebecca, who led the ith a torch, taking h the ca the wings regularly causeda backpack stuffed with textbooks all the time

Iwith no s, the dark church where Forneus awaited my arrival The Malevolent didn’t scare me as much as they had before because they were clearly bottom-feeders here, just henchmen with a mindless purpose But Forneus did scare me…because he was clearly insane

The door was locked behind me like last time, the room was lit with hundreds of candles, and the space smelled like decades of ripping the jagged edges, his eyes down on the floor and his sinister sone

I loweredmy body to relax despite the anxiety in my chest Laura warned me that their rules were easily broken, and just because they said you were safe didn’t h as it could go

I’d told Rebecca that I wasn’t an angel—and now I feared that et me killed

The best way to survive this place was to be whatever they wanted, even though it made me sick to my stomach to play out their twisted fantasy It was submission—and I didn’t want to submit to these demons and monsters

But I had to survive