One thing was certain: if sin was allowed to enter Haven Valley, our purity would be lost and Sylous’s protection would fail us even here. We all would suffer the same fate as the rest of the world. Our objective now was to remain pure as we waited to inherit the kingdom of heaven on a new earth. Some called that coming day “the new millennium.”

Jamie quickly tied his hair back with the rubber band around his wrist, glancing past me to be sure we still hadn’t been seen. “My hair came loose while I was running back,” he said.

“You were being chased?”

“No. Though I wish I had been.”

“What do you mean? You wish for death?”

“I wish for certainty and clarity.”

“You’ve lost your mind, Jamie. This is all a horrible mistake!”

“On the contrary, like I told you earlier, I’m reclaiming my mind.”

“Then you’ve lost your faith. Either way, it’s terribly dangerous.”

“Five times, Grace. Five times I’ve been beyond the border, each time venturing a little farther in search of my faith. Each time encountering not a single Fury.”

“Jamie, please—”

“This time I made it to the end of the forest, where it breaks out into a clearing. Beyond this mountain, there’s a large town. Who knows what’s down there. People perhaps, others who weren’t destroyed.”

“If they haven’t been, they will be. Never again.”

“But what if I’m right, Grace? What if the time has come to claim our inheritance? What if we aren’t alone in this heaven on earth? What if it’s now!” The light in Jamie’s blue eyes drew my own curiosity.

“Rose would know if it was time,” I said.

“Would she?” Jamie asked.

I shook my head as outrage gathered in my chest. “How can you doubt her? Doubt Sylous? You’re going to get us all killed!”

He fell silent for a moment, his eyes searching my face. There had been doubters in our community over the last ten years, but all had eventually come back to truth. Now my own brother was walking a similar path—so persuasive that I’d finally agreed to help him find out for himself. But I couldn’t do it any longer.

“Why haven’t I encountered the Fury?” His voice was low, and I shifted my eyes because it was a question I had asked myself more than once.

“You doubt the guidance of our shepherd and the existence of the Fury,” I leveled at him. “Do you also doubt the existence of God?”

“Of course not.”

“Just his laws?”

“They’re the laws of Sylous!” he snapped.

“Sent to us by God! Isn’t it the same, brother?”

He jabbed a finger into the air. “Remember who you’re speaking to! Mind your voice!”

I recoiled from his disciplinary scolding. “Now Sylous’s laws mean something?”

“Silence!” he shouted.