Chapter1
At three in the morning,the compound was eerily quiet.Wren’s nervousness deepened as she crept through the darkness, praying no one would catch her.Her pulse pounded in her ears, her breaths coming in ragged, shallow gasps.She adjusted her backpack and tried to keep her footsteps light.
She also tried not to think about what would happen if someone caught her slinking through the night while she carried a backpack that held all her worldly possessions.But it was no use.She couldn’t stop picturing the events that would transpire if she were caught, and she struggled to suppress the tremors that began to rack her body.
The alarm would blare, waking the entire compound.People would come pouring outside, including men with guns.She would be seized and dragged before the Prophet.She would be publicly shamed and likely sentenced to a few months of hard labor.She would also probably be forced to wear the Shroud of Disgrace, and the members of the Order of Harmony would shun her for a set period, likely for a full year.Her parents would be livid, especially her father.
A shiver rushed through her as she considered the devastating fallout of being discovered.
She paused and flattened herself against a storage building, trying her best to blend into the shadows.Was she making a mistake?Most residents of Harmony seemed blissfully happy, but she couldn’t understand why.No matter how hard she tried, she never really fit in, and for too many years, she’d harbored dreams of escape.
Everything about this place felt wrong.
Corrupted.
Tears burned in her eyes, but she blinked them away, determined not to cry.
She gazed beyond the locked gates as a sense of longing swept through her.
Freedom.Oh, how she wanted to be free.
She wanted to make her own decisions about her own life.With every passing day, the walls of the compound felt more like a cage.If she didn’t leave now, she might never get the chance.
Her twentieth birthday was fast approaching, and that meant she would be forced to get married soon, forced to marry whichever man her father selected for her.In Harmony, it was tradition that young women got married shortly after their twentieth birthdays, and the women had absolutely no say in the matter.
Another shiver cascaded down her back.If she got married, there was a good chance she might find herself pregnant soon, and she couldn’t fathom raising children in the compound.
If her parents hadn’t joined the Order of Harmony, how would her life have turned out?She couldn’t help but wonder.She’d been ten when they moved to Harmony, and she had only vague memories of the outside world.
After gathering her courage, she set off again, dashing from building to building as she worked her way closer to the gates.She glanced at the watchtower that stood in the center of the compound.Her brother, Alec, was on guard duty tonight—alongside two other guards—but she doubted any of them were still conscious.Earlier, she’d handed Alec a large container of cookies for his shift… cookies carefully laced with a fast-acting sedative.
Even though he was an unwitting participant, she felt guilty for involving Alec in her escape plan.She sincerely hoped he and the other guards didn’t get into trouble because of her.
Finally, she reached the building that stood closest to the gates.She paused for a moment as she caught her breath.A cold wind swept down from the sky, but she didn’t let the frigid weather deter her.She’d donned her warmest clothing, and she reminded herself that the sun would be up in a few hours.She might get a little uncomfortable, but she wouldn’t freeze to death.
The nearest town was only ten miles away.She could do this.She could make it.By sunrise, she would be well on her way to starting a brand-new life.A life that didn’t feel so dark and suffocating.
A sudden howl in the distance made the hair on the back of her neck stand up, but she didn’t turn around.She drew in a deep breath, then dashed toward the gates.She flattened herself along the wall, where a rarely used emergency door had been built seamlessly into the stone.She removed one of her gloves, and her pulse quickened when her hand grazed over the cold, metal keypad cover.
If she entered the wrong code, the alarms would blare.But she knew the code, and she wouldn’t fail.At least that was what she kept telling herself.Last week, she’d found a random sequence of numbers scrawled inside an old, faded prayer book hidden in a secret compartment of her father’s desk.The moment she’d glimpsed the numbers, she’d immediately thought of the emergency door near the gates.Then she’d started to plan her escape.
Please let it be the right code.
Only one way to find out.
She faced the keypad and lifted the cover.
As her fingers hovered over the illuminated numbers, she glanced to the left and studied the towering gates.If she typed in the wrong code and set the alarm off, would she be able to quickly climb over the metal gates?She swallowed past the abrupt dryness in her throat and squinted down at the keypad.
Here it goes.
She held her breath as she typed in the code: 5-6-3-1-0-9.
Relief surged through her when she heard a faint click, and thankfully, no alarm.Aside from the wind rustling the trees and the occasional howl in the distance, the night was blessedly silent.
She clasped the doorknob and sent up a prayer of thanks when it turned.Slowly, she opened the door and slipped outside the walls of the compound.After pulling the door shut behind her, she took off into the trees.
The full moon provided just enough light for her to navigate the nighttime forest, though she had a flashlight tucked in her pocket in case clouds suddenly obscured the moon.
