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“Ahhhhhh!”

Claire i on to my arm as she tried to become as small as possible

The Malevolent turned their heads away fro their attention to the source of the screams

The screams of a woman

I already kneho it was

I grabbed Claire’s hand “Co, past the torches, past the sculptures

“Ahhh!”

I ht back”

“Where’s Mo for her “Mo because even a seven-year-old could figure it out “Mom…”

I grabbed er from beneath the mattress, ready to carve a deht? Stay here and be quiet”

Tears strea, her arms folded over her body

I couldn’t console her Not when those screams were still in ed past the stone statues and burning torches, a line of s to the sky

Her screaony

I sprinted up the steps, weaved through the cabins, headed to the place where my hand had been sliced, as quickly as possible A sea of Malevolent swept across aze, white bone, antlers, dead eyes

I made it to the dais

Beatrice was tied to the cross, her back exposed, her de a bloody knife into her back

“Oh od…”

The other deether in their black robes, the Malevolent on the stone benches behind them With stoic expressions, they watched, as if this horrific act were no different fro attention

A black robes, tall and muscular like Forneus, his bloody knife now at his side He was brutish, with shaved hair that made his scalp only have a shadow He had s mouth, thick cords down his neck

The dagger was in e failed me

I was scared

I couldn’t pretend that I wasn’t

This was theshit I’d ever seen

It would haunt me for the rest of my life

Aer on the dais, the blood dripping to the stone “I will find your wings, Angel”

Beatrice collapsed, her body held up by the leather bands

There was nothing I could do I stayed in the distance by the trees, er still in hand

Aestured to the Malevolent

They moved to the cross and untied her, her shirt ripped open and in bloody tatters, her chest bare They grabbed her and carried her, more a corpse than a person

I was in shock, unable to process the brutality

All I could do was breathe

In

Out