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The roots stop moving. One. two. Three.

The corn straightens. One. Two. Three.

The voices return “Sower.”

Ezra’s entire body goes rigid.

“Reaper.”

A scream tears through the field behind us—Rhett.

“Tiller.”

Malakai answers with a roar of rage.

Then silence.

I already know what comes next. Still, when hundreds of voices speak the final word together, I feel something inside me answer.

“Bride.”

My body arches.

Ezra catches me before I hit the ground. The thing inside me spreads up my ribs across my stomach and between my breasts. Thin black lines branching under flesh—roots.

I claw at them but Ezra grabs my hands.

“Kill me.” I growl.

He shakes his head.

“Ezra.”

Another root crawls under my skin. “KILL ME.”

He pulls me against him. I can hear him breathing behind the mask. Fast and broken.

“Please.” I beg, as the red ribbon tightens around my wrist by itself. The end of it lifts then moves like it’s alive.

It coils around Ezra’s hand. His eyes widen behind the mask.

Then the Earth beneath us opens. It doesn’t crack. It doesn’t split. It opens… like a mouth waiting to swallow us whole.

I scream his name.

He reaches for me, catching me just as the ground gives away.

Then we fall.

The corn swallows the moon above us. The village disappears with it, but their cheers follow us down into the dark.

Ezra holds on.

So do I.

Then something presses against my stomach. Not from above but from inside me.

I stop screaming.