Page 381

He slips out, pulls me back against his chest, his cum already slick between my thighs. I close my eyes, boneless, marked, and feel his heartbeat slow against my back.

“Always,” I breathe and before I can catch my breath Malakai sits upright.

Fast….scaring the shit out of me.

“Sage.”

“Nope.”

“Sage.”

“If you’re about to tell me the corn is doing something, lie.”

Rhett lifts his head from the pillow. “What?”

Malakai looks toward the window. “The tree.”

I sit up.

Ezra is already moving.

We go outside barefoot and half-dressed.

Rhett somehow remembers pants.

Growth.

Cornelius stands beneath the moon.

Except something hangs from one of its branches.

Fruit.

One.

Round.

Deep red.

Not an apple.

Not anything I recognize.

Malakai approaches.

“Don’t touch it,” Ezra says.

“I wasn’t going to.”

Rhett looks at me. “You should touch it.”

“Why me?”

“Keeper.”

“I hate you.”

“No, you don’t.”