A cold chill filled me with dread. Ahead of me stood the seven council members. Andrew, Rose, and Harrison were part of the group. Beside me, Jamie. Behind us lay the rest of Haven Valley, now silent except for my whimpering mother.

What felt like only moments earlier I’d been confessing in search of absolution. And now I was being cast out of my home and tossed to the Fury.

They had given us enough supplies for the night. These were strapped inside a pack over Jamie’s shoulder. My brother’s only words to me had been “Don’t worry.” They provided no comfort. We were facing certain death.

I tried to hold to the truth that maybe Jamie was right after all. That beyond the gate was nothing but a Fury-less world. But my skin was crawling as imaginations of the Fury crowded my mind.

Rose stepped forward. “We send these two out with our blessing,” she said, addressing the crowd and repeating her earlier words. “May they find truth and faith.”

The doors began to open and the woods beyond them came into view.

“May we all benefit from whatever they discover,” she continued.

“Where is Grace going?” a little voice asked behind me. Bart, speaking to his mother, who hushed him. “But isn’t it dangerous?” he pressed.

I looked back at him and offered a reassuring smile. “Don’t you worry, Bart. I’ll be safe. I promise.”

But my voice was thin and his round eyes were filled with doubt.

Tanner approached me, as did Marshall Flint, another guardian with kind brown eyes and a booming laugh. They urged us forward. I wasn’t sure my legs could move. Tanner gave me a soft shove, and I stumbled forward after Jamie, through the open gate and into the wild.

“And all God’s children replied?” Rose finished.

“Amen,” came a chorus behind us.

The gate closed with a soft thump that might as well have been a terrible crash. We were on our own to face the Fury.

Fear filled my chest like wet cement.

Chapter
Six

I CANNOT BEGIN TO EXPRESS HOW I FELT AS I FOLlowed Jamie into the woods beyond the perimeter that had kept me safe for so many years. The only way I was able to move one foot in front of the other was by resigning myself to my certain fate.

I was going to die.

True, Jamie had gone past the perimeter and come back without a scratch, and I kept telling myself that. But deep inside I knew: God would punish all who strayed, and at any moment the Fury would streak out of the forest and rip us both limb from limb.