Total pages in book: 144
Estimated words: 137871 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 689(@200wpm)___ 551(@250wpm)___ 460(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 137871 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 689(@200wpm)___ 551(@250wpm)___ 460(@300wpm)
“Your control over your gifts will improve with age.”
She glanced at Adriel, her gaze unsure. “How old are you?”
Embarrassed by her longevity in the face of such youth, she said, “Much older than you.”
“How much?”
She drew in a long breath and sighed. “I was born in the first half of the fifteen hundreds.”
“Holy shit. For real?”
“Watch the road.” Adriel glanced ahead as the girl gaped at her. “And yes. For real.”
“So that makes you… Over five hundred years old?”
Another sigh. “Yes.”
“You guys are like wine, though, right? You get better with age?”
“That’s one way to look at it.” While her bones were solid, her muscles strong, and her body functioned without aches or disease, there was still a weariness to her mind. She remained sharp but jaded by the things she’d seen. Half a millennia was a long time to live, even from a mostly sheltered standpoint. “Time hardens a person, especially if life isn’t kind.”
Juniper glanced at her again, taking a quick measure of her form. “Do they mistreat all women?”
“Females are cherished among our kind, but not all males are honorable.”
“Ain’t that the truth?” Her expression turned contemplative. “You must have seen so much in your lifetime.”
“I’m old, but my experiences in this world are limited. I’m shamefully ignorant.”
Juniper frowned. “I doubt that.”
It was humiliating just how naive she could be. “I never would have considered taking a vehicle to travel. And if I had, I never would have known where to find one.”
“Adriel, you would have eventually figured something out. Cars are everywhere, and no one can run forever—including immortals.”
But even after Juniper suggested a motor vehicle, it had not occurred to Adriel to use compulsion to steal one. If she couldn’t run forever and she wanted to evade a male as evil and conniving as her mate, she needed to start thinking like a lawless rogue.
“All of my adult life, I’ve been disciplined to obey the rules.”
At that, Juniper smiled. “Rules are meant to be broken, Ade. There’s no one here to discipline you now.”
Wringing her hands in her lap, she sensed a tiny thrill at such a thought. “I’ve never lived outside of someone else’s authority.”
A dark, slender brow arched high on her brow, and she smirked. “Sometimes you just gotta say fuck it and do what feels right. Take charge of your own destiny.”
Adriel swallowed, every instinct inside her tensing with reluctance. Regardless of a person’s belief system, certain crimes came with great, unavoidable consequences. That was why they abandoned Europe in the 1700s. Order was sometimes a luxury, and living without it could lead to devastation and uncontrollable chaos. They craved a lawful society, and so they created one.
The Order had strict laws by design. Anyone who violated the fundamental principles faced The Council of Elders and was typically met with harsh punishment. Unfortunately, those laws were curated to maintain authority, which belonged solely to the males. Even her son, by age five, had more authority than she.
Females were not invited to debate their charges but were forced to silently endure the sentencing. Adriel had been publicly flogged many times for her strong-willed defiance. Having the bishop as a close friend did nothing to save her from such painful humiliation. Eleazar often begged her to reel in her stubborn campaign for equality because even he, her closest friend in this world and the most decisive authority within The Order, could not see past the imposed limits of her gender defined by their faith. And even the bishop could not overrule an edict of The Elder Council.
The religion the elders selected upon arriving in America required female obedience. As a female older than many elders, Adriel rejected such expectations and argued countless times for equality.
Not without penalty, of course.
Females were born with the same abilities as the males in their species. But, among The Order, time and Amish culture constricted female potential like an ever-tightening vice. The expectation was indeed meekness. Anything more was corrected, including the expression of personal identity, which was likely why she had no sense of who she was. Without her faith, without The Order, she seemed as lost as a fallen leaf drifting through its final bow.
She shook her head slowly and scoffed. “I’m not sure I believe in destiny anymore. I detached from my faith long ago. Why should I honor a God that would call me to the devil himself?”
Cerberus was pure malevolence. No decent God would sentence her to such an eternity.
“My aunts believed in the power of three,” Juniper said, her voice quiet and reminiscent. “What is done will be repaid in kind. Good is rewarded with good, and evil is repaid in suffering. Man created society. The universe created natural order. Everything takes care of itself.”
Was that true?
In the old days, Adriel’s family’s faith had been steeped in the belief that evil deeds would be punished by an all-powerful god. Guilt and fear seemed all she ever knew.