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I drop with him, catching his face between my hands. “Kai. Look at me.”

Nothing.

“Kai!”

His eyes snap open.

I stop breathing.

Black.

Not his pupils. Not his irises.

Everything.

His eyes are completely fucking black. “Kai?”

For one horrible second, he only stares at me.

Then he blinks.

The black disappears. Brown floods back into his eyes as he drags in a violent gasp, his whole body jerking beneath my hands.

“There you are.” I barely get the words out. “Jesus fucking Christ.”

Malakai grabs my arm, but before I can help him sit up, something red flashes across his wrist.

I freeze.

A thin line burns its way around his skin.

The same red as Rhett’s.

“No.”

Symbols begin appearing beneath it, one after another, darkening as if they’re being branded into him from the inside.

Rhett moves closer. “Is that…”

“Yeah.”

Another mark.

But as the symbols settle into place, I realize they aren’t the same ones Rhett had.

Not Given.

Something else.

Malakai stares at it.

Ezra grabs his arm to read it then his face falls.

“What?” I look at him. “Ezra.” He doesn’t answer. “WHAT DOES IT SAY?”

Malakai answers for him with a hollow voice. “Rooted.”

Outside, thousands of voices whisper through the corn.