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“No one is going back into the corn,” Ezra says.

Sage narrows her eyes at him. “Then… what?”

“We figure something else out.”

“Inside?”

“Yes.”

“Where my friends are magically unconscious?”

“They’re safe.”

“You don’t know that.”

“I know they’re safer than you are out here.”

The whistle comes again. This time Sage flinches. Her hand closes around the red ribbon. I hear her heart speed up.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

And mine answers. Not physically. I don’t have a heartbeat. Haven’t in centuries. But something inside my chest remembers. For one impossible second… thump.

I freeze.

Sage’s head snaps toward me. “What?”

I press my hand against my chest. Nothing. Then her heart beats beneath my palm. Thump.

A second later, something answers inside my chest.

Thump.

Mine.

Fuck.

Malakai sees my face. “What happened?”

I look at Sage. “Do that again.”

“Do what?”

“Get nervous.”

She stares. “Sure. Let me just activate my anxiety on command.”

“Think about the field.”

Her expression changes and her heart accelerates. Mine beats once really hard.

I stumble backward and Ezra catches me. “What the fuck?”

I stare at Sage. “My heart.”

Malakai goes completely still.

Sage’s face pales. “What about it?”