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The original offerings.

Nothing living dies. Nothing bleeds. Nothing is taken.

I scatter the seeds. “Happy?”

Rhett leans against the tree. “Extremely.”

“I wasn’t talking to you.”

“Oh.”

Malakai laughs.

Ezra watches me. His mask hangs from a branch nearby. Not on his face. Never again unless he chooses it.

Rhett kept his too.

So did Malakai.

We didn’t destroy them.

I thought about it. But destroying something still lets it define you. Sometimes it’s more satisfying to turn the thing that terrified you into decoration.

Midnight arrives and nothing happens.

I wait.

One minute. Two. Three.

Rhett looks at me. “Disappointed?”

“Shut up.”

Five minutes.

No screaming. No roots. No dead Brides. No giant creature.

Just crickets. Wind. Music.

Ezra takes my hand. “It’s over.”

I look at him. “Don’t say shit like that.”

His mouth twitches. “You’re superstitious now?”

“I watched a scarecrow eat a man.”

“Fair.”

I look at Malakai. He presses his hand against the Earth.

“Well?”

He listens then smiles. “Hungry.”

I tense.

He shakes his head. “Normal hungry.”