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“I can’t do this right now.”

I push past them and head inside the house.

“Sage.” Ezra calls after me.

I don’t stop.

I can’t.

Because if one more person tells me what the Harvest wants from me tonight, I’m going to fucking scream.

“I’m serious Sage, I wasn’t judging.” Ezra adds and I spin.

“I wanted Kai and Rhett. Fucking shoot me.”

Ezra’s face hardens. “I know.”

“No, I don’t think you do.” My voice breaks.

Fuck. I hate that.

I swallow against the pressure building in my throat and keep going. “Those were MY choices.”

Nobody moves.

Nobody fucking speaks.

“I chose to kiss Kai. I chose what happened in that field. I chose to run from Rhett, and I chose what happened after he caught me.”

My eyes burn, but I refuse to blink. “And every fucking time I make a choice, this place takes it from me.”

The room goes completely still.

“It twists it into something else.”

My voice rises with every word.

“A rite. A mark. A fucking offering.”

I grab at the red line circling my wrist and scrub my thumb over it until my skin burns.

It doesn’t move.

Of course it doesn’t.

“I don’t even get to have my own body without this fucking farm deciding what it means.”

Something breaks across Malakai’s face.

Rhett looks away but Ezra doesn’t.

Good.

Look at me.

Fucking look at me and see what this place is doing.

“I came here to drink with my friends.” My throat closes. “That’s it. I came here because I fucking love Halloween.”