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“Yes.”

“You built this for me.”

“Yes.”

“You waited a year.”

“Yes.”

I move faster. His control splinters.

“And now you have me.”

Callum drives upward. The scream that leaves me is raw.

“Say it,” he demands.

“You have me.”

“Louder.”

“You have me!”

His body tightens. Callum comes with a violent groan, holding me so tightly I can feel his heart hammering against mine. The final bell tolls. Black candles extinguish one after another. Darkness crosses the chapel until only moonlight remains. For several seconds, no one speaks. Four bodies breathe beneath the crooked cross. Three masks gleam in the silver light. The gold ribbon still circles my wrist. Callum presses his forehead against mine.

“The dead heard that one.”

I smile against the stitched mouth of his mask.

“Good.”

My body trembles. Rhys notices first. He kneels beside us and touches my knee.

“Cold?”

“A little.”

Dante retrieves a blanket from beneath the altar. Callum refuses to release me while Dante wraps it around my shoulders. The hunt is technically unfinished. The masks remain. The final ribbon stays knotted.

But something has changed inside the chapel. I entered Blackwood Farm to become prey for one night. Now three masked men surround me as though sunrise is a threat none of them intends to survive. Rhys strokes my hair.

“Water first.”

Dante gathers the discarded cushions.

“Then something with enough sugar to resurrect you.”

Callum’s arms tighten.

“Then she sleeps.”

I rest my head against his shoulder.

“Bossy.”

“Exhausted,” he corrects.

Beyond the broken stained glass, the moon hangs over the churchyard. The dead remain silent. But the monsters holding me look very much alive.