Page 133

She drags herself halfway from the Earth. Red ribbon around her wrist. Her face is exactly as I saw it. Young. Beautiful and terrified with roots beneath her skin. Her eyes find Malakai and his entire body goes rigid.

She opens her mouth and dirt spills out then she looks at me and smiles. “Finally.”

My blood turns to ice.

Malakai steps in front of me. “Don’t.”

She ignores him. Her eyes remain on mine. “The Tiller has prepared the Earth.”

I grab Malakai’s arm. “What does that mean?”

The dead woman tilts her head then looks at my bleeding ribbon and her smile widens. “The Bride is ready to be sown.”

9

What grows

Sage

“The Bride is ready to be sown.”

No. Absolutely the fuck not.

I grab my clothes and not gracefully. There is no graceful way to scramble naked through dirt while a dead woman watches you from a hole in the ground. One boot is somehow six feet away. My underwear?

Gone.

Fantastic.

The Earth ate my fucking underwear.

“Kai.”

Malakai stands between me and the woman. “Stay behind me.”

“I would love to, but I’m currently trying to locate my panties.”

His head turns slowly.

I point at him. “Don’t.”

“I didn’t say anything.”

“You thought something.”

“I did.”

“Keep it to yourself.”

The dead woman laughs.

I freeze.

It’s soft. Almost pretty. Which somehow makes it worse.

I yank my camisole over my head. My skirt is twisted halfway inside out but I don’t care.

The woman watches me dress. Half of her body is still buried with roots crawling beneath the skin of her neck. Her red ribbon is filthy and old. The satin should’ve rotted centuries ago.