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Then Ezra. “And you couldn't give your choice until you remembered why you were afraid to make it.”

Silence.

The Harvest's mouths stop smiling.

Oh.

“Oh, you don't like that.”

The thing moves and I point at it. “You gave them back pieces of themselves, because you needed them capable of giving them away again.”

The creature roars.

“That's what three must give means.”

Ezra turns toward me. “Sage.”

“No.”

I'm thinking too fast now.

“It needs three offerings.”

I look at Rhett. “Life.” Malakai. “Earth.” Ezra. “Choice.” Then me. “What does the Bride give?”

The answer comes from every mouth.

EVERYTHING.

My blood turns cold.

Of course.

Rhett's expression becomes murderous. “No.”

The Harvest raises its arms and the crowd begins chanting again.

COMMUNION.

COMMUNION.

COMMUNION.

My mark burns. KEEPER.

Not Bride. Why?

Mercy's voice comes back. “The Harvest existed before the Bride. The founders made the Bride. Made the anchor. Made the cage. The Harvest needs excess. Energy. Offering. Growth. But the Bride… the Bride was a human invention. A way to contain it. Control it. Keep it here.”

I look at the three men, at the Witnesses, at the Brides then at the altar beneath me and suddenly I know what we're missing.

“The Communion.”

Ezra looks at me. “What?”

“It's not finished.”

Malakai's face tightens. “Sage.”