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The crowd responds. “BRIDE.”
We run and the corn closes ahead of us. I pull her left only to hit another wall of stalks then I go right…. closed. Behind us, the crowd rises. Not running—walking. Toward us.
“Ezra.”
“I see them.”
“What do we do?”
Think. Choice. It needs a choice.
“It can’t force you.”
“What?”
“The Harvest.” I turn to face her. “It can’t force the rites.”
She stares. “Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“Mercy told me.”
Her face changes, “You saw her?”
“I saw everything.”
The crowd gets closer and she looks over my shoulder. “We need to move.”
I grab her face. “Listen to me.”
“Ezra…”
“Everything you’ve done tonight mattered because you chose it.”
Her eyes widen.
“The cider. The food. The Hunt. Malakai. Rhett.”
Her expression changes at their names but I force myself through it. “It amplifies. It manipulates. It creates circumstances. But it needs consent.”
“Then I say no.”
“Yes.”
She turns toward the crowd. “NO!”
The word cracks across the field and everything stops.
My breath catches and the crowd freezes. Roots stop. Corn stops. Even the fire stops moving.
She looks at me.
Holy shit.
Then the Earth laughs. Not human laughter. Something enormous beneath us and the ground trembles.
