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The Harvest bends over them.

Every mouth across its body opens.

The Witnesses bow until their foreheads touch the Earth.

And from hundreds of mouths, from the roots beneath us, from the corn surrounding us, from somewhere so deep below Ward Farm I feel the word vibrate through my bones, comes a single whisper.

“RIPE.”

The three stalks turn toward me.

15

Communion

Sage

The roots continue to dig into the altar which makes the entire thing pulse beneath me.

THUMP.

My body answers and a violent cramp tears through my stomach causing me to curl onto my side.

“Sage.” Ezra's hands are on me immediately. One against my cheek and the other gripping my shoulder. “Look at me.”

“I am so fucking tired of people telling me to look at them.”

His mouth almost moves… almost.

Then another cramp hits and I scream.

His expression shatters. “Okay.” He slides an arm beneath me. “Don't look at me.”

A laugh punches through my pain.

Wrong time. Wrong fucking everything.

But it's him. Ezra. Finally here. Not running. Not hiding behind orders. Not looking at me like wanting me is another sin he has to drag around for two centuries.

Just here.

I grab his shirt. “Don't leave.”

He looks down at me. “I won't.”

The altar pulses again.

THUMP.

Malakai kneels beside the stalks with his fingers hovering above the soil. His eyes turn black.

“Kai?”

He doesn't answer.

“Kai.” I call out again.

Rhett crouches beside him. “What do you hear?”