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The realization makes him more frightening and somehow more beautiful.

His eyes open. “They need to leave.” He looks at Ezra and Rhett.

Ezra laughs once. “No.”

“The Earth won’t open while you’re here.”

“I don’t care.”

“It called—the Tiller.”

“It can go fuck itself.”

Rhett leans against a stalk. “I’d pay money to watch you tell the ground that.”

Ezra ignores him. “I am not leaving her alone with you.”

I fold my arms. “Again. Standing right here.”

Malakai rises. “You can’t protect her from this.”

“I can protect her from you.”

Silence swallows the whole fucking field as the tension ripples between them.

Malakai’s face changes. Not anger—something colder. “You think I would hurt her?”

“I think the Harvest is inside your head.”

“It is inside all of us.”

“Exactly.”

“Then perhaps she should fear you too.”

Ezra steps forward but I step between them. “Nope.” They both stop. “This testosterone shit is getting old.”

Rhett coughs into his fist. It sounds suspiciously like laughter.

I point at him. “You too.”

He straightens. “Completely neutral.”

“Bullshit.”

Malakai looks at me. “The Earth won’t open.”

“Unless?”

“We’re alone.”

My stomach turns. Not entirely from fear.

Fuck my life.

Ezra says, “No.”

I turn. “Ezra.”