Page 190

A shaky breath leaves me. “Okay.” I cling to that word. “Okay. I came back.”

Mariah starts crying harder.

And just like that, whatever relief I found disappears.

“And?”

“You weren’t alone.”

My entire body goes rigid. “No.”

Ali sees where my attention goes. “No,” she says quickly. “Sage, not like that.”

I snap my head toward her. “What do you mean, not like that?”

“There was something behind you.”

“Behind me?”

She nods.

Some of the pressure in my chest releases, only to be replaced by something colder. “What?”

“I couldn’t see all of it.”

“Why?”

“It was too tall.”

The hairs along my arms lift. “How tall?”

“I don’t know. Its head was above the corn. Above the trees.”

My mouth goes dry. “Was it human?”

Ali shakes her head. “No.”

Wonderful. Somehow, that’s worse than demonic cornfield pregnancy.

Much fucking worse.

Mariah reaches for my hand. “There was something else.”

Of course there fucking was.

“What?”

“Everyone was bowing.”

The image forms whether I want it to or not. The field split open. The table. Three masked men on their knees. Me climbing out of the Earth with something impossible towering behind me. “To it?”

Mariah shakes her head. “No.” She looks directly at me. “To you.”

My legs nearly fold. I catch myself against the bed, fingers sinking into the mattress as a violent shiver races up my spine.

Everyone bowing. Not to the thing behind me.

To me.