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The thin tendril stops moving. For a moment, nothing happens. Then a tiny bud swells at the tip, green at first before deepening into a dark, unnatural red. Petals unfurl one after another until a fully formed flower rests against the stone floor.

No one speaks.

Then the bloom turns toward me… slowly—deliberately.

“What the actual fuck?”

Malakai’s expression changes. For the first time since meeting him… the eerie calm disappears.

He looks afraid.

“That’s new.”

I throw my hands up. “YOU DON’T GET TO SAY THAT.”

A laugh escapes Rhett before he can stop it.

I point at him next. “Neither do you!”

“Sorry.”

He isn’t.

The flower continues to open until something pale becomes visible at its center. Small and white.

I lean closer.

Ezra’s hand closes around my shoulder. “Don’t.”

“I need to see.”

“No, you absolutely don’t.”

Which pretty much guarantees I’m going to.

I crouch before he can stop me.

Whatever sits inside the petals catches the light. It’s hard and smooth, rounded at one end with something darker clinging to the other.

For a second, my brain refuses to make sense of what I’m seeing… then it does.

A tooth. A human fucking tooth.

I scramble backward. “What the FUCK?”

Malakai catches me before I hit the floor.

The flower snaps shut. Its stem whips backward and vanishes into the crack as stone settles into place.

Gone. Like none of it ever happened.

Silence hangs between us until Mariah finally whispers, “I would like to go home now.”

“Same.” I push myself upright. “North gate.”

Ezra nods. “We’ll use the rear entrance and take the service road.”

“Great.”