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"True"

I swung aze back to Ronan "Then why is he even here?"

The question had been rhetorical I hadn’t expected hi, "Perhaps the vampires believe he will be tractable"

Tractable They’d bend this poor, dim boy to their will And then they’d use his outsized physical strength against the rest of us

Either I could do as I was assigned and kill Toby Engel nohile he was still an innocent, or I could kill hiuys on this island who’d discovered just how fun it was to torirls

My vision wavered I had to flee That Ronan could see how upset I was e to escape all the et the hell out of there "Gotta go," I blurted, scooping up o that easily He snarfed down a last bite of his apple and hopped up to follow me to the dish cart, the majority of his dinner left untouched "See you at wilderness workshop," he said,a s degrees of trust for hiuessed I needed that

The prospect of h the sea of bodies back to the htmarish to consider, so I headed to the service exit near the kitchens instead I shoved open thethe cocoon of wared into the cold, quiet air of the back hallway

Alone again

Until I heard the clip of shoes behind e to turn around If my folloere friendly, they’d call ahead to me But they didn’t speak I toldthis same back exit at the same time as e at all To test the theory, I walked just the teensiest bit faster

Their pace increased toclip-clip, right behind e area, the outside door in sight But they walked faster, and faster still until that clip-clipping burst into a jog It definitely wasn’t a benign, let-me-catch-up-so-we-can-chat sound

I felt the person at an to turn, but before I could get into position, he’d pinned me from behind, my throat trapped in the crook of his ar and bucking "Get…off" My voice was a rasp as he choked the air fro and leanlyover the shoulders ofme from behind I clawed frantically at his forearh," I croaked "Stop"

"You didn’t stop," he growled, and it was a feral sound, like he’d alreadyht her This is for Ereeaker, slower I needed to think this through, but it was so hard He’d choked off blood flow tofast If I didn’t stop him, he would kill me

No ! a voice shrieked inthat killed me The first order of business was to caler than this I grew utterly still, envisioning a self that didn’t require oxygen to survive

We’d practiced choke holds in Priti’s class I knew the move I had to do Pictured the h to pry ht twist, the right flex and angle…It was all physics

Power, not strength

The thing about grappling, it was counterintuitive To get away, first you had to get closer

I grabbed Yasuo’s wrist and wrenched ly into the crook of his elbow The ap for htly around the waist I ducked, bowed, and then was free

I shoved off hi back and away, under no illusions that I could beat hihed and clutched atmy breath "Don’t talk…about Emma"

When he didn’t pounce on me, I slowed Stopped And then I stared

He was si like a shell of the Yas he’d been He was off his gaht have been able to beat hi hs racking ed to catch my breath and s "She wouldn’t want this"