Total pages in book: 39
Estimated words: 36036 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 180(@200wpm)___ 144(@250wpm)___ 120(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 36036 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 180(@200wpm)___ 144(@250wpm)___ 120(@300wpm)
Her words are shaky. “I don’t want to damn myself by losing my faith.”
Margarete and I have already broken our vows by loving each other. There’s no going back because, according to The Covenant, we’re despicable sinners.
“I think we’re far past that, don’t you?”
“I know we already broke the rules, but that was different. We can ask forgiveness for our infraction, but if we abandon our faith, our people, there will be no coming back.”
“Why would we want to come back?” I sigh and grab her hands. “Faith is a spectrum. Loving God is not an all-or-nothing concept. I refuse to believe that someone who is supposed to be loving and kind would force his daughters to live a life of subjugation.” Her breath hitches as I tuck her hair behind her ear. “I don’t know much, and I’m not sure of a lot, but I know that no good divine power would want you to be his. I wouldn’t love you the way I do if that were the plan. God isn’t cruel, Margarete. He can’t be.”
I place a gentle kiss on her forehead before tossing her satchel across my shoulder and tugging her hand.
“I’m scared of what will happen to us out there.” Her words are a whisper, barely audible, but they might as well be a thunderous roar in my ears.
“And I’m terrified of what will happen to us if we stay.”
Margarete nods. “We can’t make it by foot, Hans. They’ll catch us.”
I pull her further into the darkness. “We aren’t walking.”
CHAPTER 3
Xander
Johannes Adir, son of Elder Gabriel Adir and a man destined to lead The Covenant one day, has made a pact with the devil and is now fleeing into the dark to save Margarete Donaldson’s life.
My mother cautioned me about the allure of the women from The Covenant, their beauty rumored to be a symbol of virtue and piousness. Yet their outward display of righteousness is a facade, masking a callous willingness to wreck lives to protect the nightmarish secrets of their cult. These women are brought forth to the masses to proclaim The Covenant as a place of holy prayer and devotion to God. These women preen about the sanctity of love and mercy. And these women sit silent and watch the mistreatment of their sisters, willing to sacrifice them repeatedly based on the word of deceitful and demonic men. The Covenant’s victims, stripped of their defenses, become easy targets for those who use religion to mask their wickedness and ignore zealots to line their pockets.
It doesn’t matter what the survivors tell the authorities if they’re lucky enough to escape. Those placed in positions of power never listen to the cries of these victims. As long as the donations pour into the pockets of the rich, they look the other way. What are the lives of children worth to these men and women? What monetary amount makes a politician ignore abuse? A thousand? Ten? A million?
Too bad for The Covenant that women they shamed, shunned, and slandered survived to give birth to men like me, ready and willing to fight. But I never expected to find myself trapped between two siblings on a path of wreckage.
Perhaps that’s how I managed to entangle myself with them. I recognized twin flames in them. Usually, I would slit the throat of any man from The Covenant who touched Margarete. But Johannes isn’t any man.
One hour, forty-two minutes, and fifteen seconds. That was how long I’d waited, shrouded by the shadows of the trees. I was dressed in black as usual, and my mask was firmly in place. There was no way I was risking it falling and someone accidentally seeing my face. The plastic mask held no significance, but it was menacing.
One hour, fifty-seven minutes, and six seconds. That’s how long it took for the lights to go out in her parents’ room.
I turned to him. “Now. Get her now.”
He grabbed the collar of my leather bomber jacket and tugged me toward him, his steel-gray eyes stern as they pierced mine. Did he know that his eyes were a weapon? One look was like the tip of a sharp blade cutting through me. “How am I going to explain everything to her? What if she fuckin’ hates me?”
I shook my head. We didn’t have time to worry about the repercussions. “Better that she hates us than be sold to him. Get her. Now.”
He nodded before jogging toward her window.
I know Margarete’s world will crumble if she finds out about Hans and me. A part of me hates how things have escalated between us. Nothing was supposed to happen, but it did. And if I’m honest, I don’t regret a moment of it. Hans has filled parts of my heart that I didn’t know had the capacity for emotion. It’s different from Margarete but the same in many ways.