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“Yes, I fucking can!”

The Earth pulls and her wrist slips.

“No!”

“Let me go!”

“NO!”

“EZRA!” Her fingers slide through mine and now I scream.

“TAKE ME!”

Everything stops and she stares up at me.

“What?”

I don’t know who I’m talking to. God. Devil. Earth. Harvest. Anything. “TAKE ME INSTEAD!”

The roots stop and Rhett looks at me with wide eyes. “Ezra.”

“I GIVE MYSELF!”

The Earth shudders.

Malakai screams, “DON’T!”

But I don’t listen. “TAKE US!”

Rhett grabs my shoulder. “What the fuck are you doing?”

“All three of us!”

Mercy screams, “NO!”

“If you need the Sower, take me!” The ground shakes. “If you need the Reaper, take him!”

“Ezra!”

“If you need the Tiller, take him!”

Malakai stares at me with horror and betrayal written all over his face but I don't care.

I look at Mercy. “Let her go.”

She starts crying. “You fucking idiot.”

The Earth speaks… not with words but in agreement. Roots explode upward and they wrap around Rhett… Malakai… then me.

Unimaginable pain crushes my body but all I hear is Mercy’s scream for me and the last thing I see is her face—last thing she says, “Don’t let it choose for you.”

Then darkness.

I wake up screaming… no longer in the past but thrust right back into the present, with my hands buried in the dirt and blood pouring from my nose.

The Communion rages around me.

I remember everything.