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“I do when you’re about to do something stupid.”

She gives me a look so cold it should freeze the air between us. “Stupid?”

I lower my voice, stepping closer so no one wandering past the next turn hears. “Going after Danny in the middle of a dark maze by yourself? Yeah. Stupid.”

Her nostrils flare. “Move.”

I don’t.

The breeze shifts, carrying the smell of dirt, dead leaves, and smoke from the bonfires near the entrance. Somewhere far off, a group crashes through the stalks and erupts into laughter, but here, in this tight dirt corridor boxed in by corn taller than both of us, everything feels closed in. Trapped.

Emma laughs once, humorless. “You hid this from me.”

“I was going to tell you.”

“When?” she snaps. “After he disappeared?”

“I was trying to keep you focused.”

“No.” She steps closer, eyes blazing now. “You were trying to control the situation.”

“I was trying to protect you.”

Her face hardens instantly. “I don’t need your protection.”

“Maybe not. But you do need someone to stop you from walking straight into whatever this is.”

She looks past me, deeper into the maze, scanning every break in the stalks, every shadow between the turns. Hunting.

I follow her line of sight and catch movement maybe twenty yards down—just a dark shape cutting across the next opening, broad shoulders, quick steps, gone again behind another wall of corn.

Danny.

Emma sees him too.

Her whole body changes. It still goes in that dangerous way people do right before they explode.

“Emma,” I say carefully.

“Don’t.” Her voice is low, shaking with restraint. “Don’t say my name like that.”

“He could be trying to pull you somewhere secluded.”

She lets out a sharp laugh and points around us. “We are somewhere secluded, Max.”

I glance at the stalks hemming us in, the black sky barely visible overhead. She isn’t wrong. The maze turns every path into a tunnel. Every corner is a blind spot.

Then she looks back at me, and there’s something in her face that makes my stomach drop.

“If you’re scared for him,” she says, “don’t be.”

“I’m not scared for him.”

“Then get out of my way.”

I plant myself in front of her. “No.”

For a second, we just stand there, breathing hard, the leaves around us rattling like whispers.