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Certainty.

Anything.

Then he pulls his mask down and disappears into the chaos.

I watch him go.

He doesn’t move like the asshole who chased me through a corn maze anymore. There’s nothing playful about him now. He cuts through the panicked crowd with terrifying precision, fast enough that people barely have time to get out of his way.

Predatory.

Except this time, he isn’t hunting me. He’s hunting for them.

Bodies swallow him before I can watch any longer, and the second he disappears, fear claws its way higher into my throat.

The ground splits open a few feet away. Something thick and twisted punches through the dirt, sending people scrambling as screams rip across the field.

This isn’t a party anymore.

The music died. Every string light across the farm remains dark, leaving the bonfires as the only illumination while hundreds of terrified people shove toward the exits. Employees scream directions over the chaos, trying to funnel everyone toward the north gate as the Earth continues to tremble beneath our feet.

Someone falls.

Another person screams for help.

Glass shatters somewhere behind me.

And I can’t see Mariah. I can’t see Ali… I can’t see Rhett.

Fuck.

My hands start shaking.

I curl them into fists, but it doesn’t help.

For the first time since we arrived at Ward Farm, I don’t want to know what happens next. I just want my friends back.

Nobody listens. Of course they don’t. Hundreds of drunk people plus homicidal landscaping isn’t exactly an orderly evacuation situation.

A hand closes around my shoulder. I startle so hard, I nearly swing before spinning around.

Malakai.

Relief hits first then I see his hand. There’s blood smeared across his thumb.

My blood.

The blood he wiped from under my nose.

I stare at it before lifting my eyes to his. “You.”

His expression remains unnervingly calm. “Yes.”

I point at him, my hand shaking badly enough that I hate that he can probably see it. “You said the land knows me.”

“It does.”

“Explain.”