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“Kai, what the fuck does that mean?”

His eyes meet mine. “We have to pull it out.”

“Then fucking PULL!”

All three of them brace.

Ezra looks at me. “I’m sorry.”

Then they pull.

My body lifts off the ground.

The scream that comes out of me doesn’t even sound human.

Something tears inside my abdomen.

I feel it.

Not skin.

Deeper.

A wet ripping sensation drags through me as the root fights to stay buried.

“Again!” Malakai shouts.

They pull harder.

The cord stretches.

Tightens.

Then tears free.

Blood explodes across us.

Hot droplets strike my face.

Ezra staggers backward with the severed root in his hands. Rhett nearly falls with him. Malakai hits one knee.

For half a second, nobody moves.

I’m sobbing too hard to breathe.

Ezra drops the root and crawls back to me. “Sage.” His hands hover over my stomach.

I force myself to look down.

There should be a hole.

Blood.

Something.

There’s nothing.

My skin is completely unbroken.