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“I don’t care how long you’ve wanted it.” I shove him. Hard. “You don’t get to want it now.”

His eyebrows rise and anger flashes. “That’s not your decision.”

“No, clearly decisions are the fucking theme tonight.”

“Sage.”

“No. Fuck you.” I shove him again. “You don’t get to chase me through a field and make me trust you, make me fucking like you, then stand here smiling because you’re finally going to die.”

His face changes.

Fuck.

I said it.

Like.

Too late.

“I don’t care if that’s selfish.” My voice breaks. “I don’t care if you’ve been waiting two hundred years.” I grab his wrist. “Wait longer.”

Silence.

Rhett stares at me. Then his hand slides behind my neck and pulls me against him. Not sexual. Not hungry—just to hold me. Hard. His mouth presses into my hair. “I don’t want to die tonight.” The words are so quiet I almost miss them.

My arms tighten around him. “Good.”

“I did before.”

“I know.”

“Before you.”

Fuck.

I close my eyes.

Something crashes upstairs.

I pull away from Rhett.

Mariah.

I’m running before anyone can stop me.

“Sage!”

I take the stairs two at a time as another crash comes from the guest room.

I hit the door hard enough to send it into the wall.

Mariah is on the floor beside the bed.

“Mariah!”

Her eyes are open. Wide. Terrified.

Ali sits upright against the headboard, crying so hard her entire body shakes.