Page 268

Not because the Earth is splitting apart beneath us.

Because he said my name.

Sage.

His eyes hold mine while the entire fucking field tears itself apart around us.

“Not the Bride.”

The Harvest screams.

His thumb brushes my cheek again.

“Not the McBride.”

The Earth splits wider.

“Not what you can give this place. Not what your blood can grow. Not what some dead men decided you were supposed to become.”

His voice breaks. “You.”

The word tears straight through me.

“You, Sage. Whatever happens when the sun comes up. Whatever you decide tomorrow. Even if that choice takes you somewhere I can’t follow.”

A sob catches in my throat.

Because that’s the difference.

The Harvest wants me because of what I can become.

Ezra wants me even if I choose to become nothing it wants at all.

He looks at me like the answer is already enough.

Like I’m already enough.

Then he says it again, so quietly I almost lose it beneath the Harvest’s screams.

“I choose you.”

And for the first time tonight, being chosen doesn’t feel like being claimed.

It feels like being free.

My tears fall.

“Sage.”

Something burns around Ezra’s wrist and he grits his teeth.

A red line appears.

The third with symbols crawling beneath his skin.

Malakai and Rhett move closer at the same time.

I grab Ezra’s wrist. “What does it say?”