For three years they called me a freak—and I stayed silent—until they touched my little sister in front of everyone, and the truth I buried finally came out and changed everything.

light beneath my skin, my mind completely divorcing itself from the concept of physical pain as the cold logic of Number Seven took absolute control.

“Lily, I need you to close your eyes right now and look toward the eastern tree line,” I instructed, my voice flat, steady, and entirely devoid of any identifiable human emotion. “The tracking hounds are continue reading …