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The ground erupts.

Something punches through the earth behind us with enough force to send dirt raining across the field.

We run.

A root the width of a tree trunk tears upward, arching high above the corn.

Except…

It isn’t a root.

Not exactly.

Something translucent stretches around a black, branching structure inside it. Dark channels split and divide beneath the slick surface, spreading outward in smaller and smaller paths.

Veins.

I stop dead.

It’s a fucking vein.

“Oh my fucking God.”

Another erupts across the field.

Then another.

Then five more.

They rip through the ground and arch over Ward Farm, connecting beneath the soil until an enormous circulatory system surrounds us.

The ground pulses.

THUMP.

Dark red liquid surges through the veins.

Blood.

Or something close enough that I don’t want to know the difference.

Rhett stares up at them.

“I preferred the scarecrows.”

“Same.”

Another pulse travels beneath my feet.

THUMP.

The three seeds embedded in their palms answer.

Ezra jerks.

Rhett doubles over.

Malakai screams.