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“No.”
“Then...”
“But I choose to keep it.”
I stop.
Of course. Choice.
Rhett steps beside him. “Me too.”
Malakai doesn’t need to say it. His expression does.
My chest tightens.
“You don’t know what it means.”
Ezra takes my hand. “Neither do you.”
“It could bind you to me forever.”
Rhett lifts an eyebrow. “Terrifying.”
“I’m serious.”
“So am I.”
Malakai’s thumb brushes over my wrist. “You aren’t the farm.”
“What?”
“The old binding chained us to this land.”
He looks at the seed in his palm. “This feels different.”
“How?”
His eyes meet mine. “I can leave.”
Silence.
Ezra goes still.
Rhett stops breathing.
“What?” Ezra whispers.
Malakai looks toward the road. “The boundary.” He takes a step. Then another.
Nothing.
No pain. No roots. No pull.
Rhett looks at me then starts running.
“Rhett!”
He crosses the old boundary.
