Sage didn’t understand what had happened to make them hate her so much. She couldn’t ask simple questions. She felt like a prisoner in her home as each day passed. Her faith was so shaken, she didn’t think she’d ever recover.
“You’d do best to watch your mouth, Sage. Morgan won’t tolerate your insolence once you’re wed.” That was the first time they’d come out and said it.
She couldn’t hold her tongue. “Wed?”
“I’m warning you, Sage, Morgan has a temper.”
“And you’re handing me over to him?”
The glare Alma shot her way shut her up. She knew she had to get out, but she just didn’t know what to do.
All the way home and to church, it was all she could think about.
“Avoid it. Resist it. And pray for help.” Bishop Marlowe, her father, the leader of their communion and all things Grail had the entire congregation chanting and praying together.
He was God, their God. And he knew what was right. Her father was the key to the path to the Holy Land, and she must follow. Her sisters, brothers, and mother pushed for her to better understand the promises of God and His mission.
The problem was, Sage didn’t understand anymore. Not her faith, nor her life. She felt things. Things she was taught would lead her to the devil and a sinner’s way.
If it was so wrong, why did it feel so good? Why did God allow her to feel for a man who didn’t know her if she was meant to be a servant of the Lord? How was she to remain pure and untouched when she didn’t comprehend all these new feelings and emotions?
Frustration beat a drum in her mind as Sage listened to her father continue his sermon. She wanted so badly to go back to a time when she didn’t question if what she believed was true. That marriage wasn’t arranged for her. That when her mother was fifteen, it was illegal for her father to take the young girl to his bed.
Ashley Powers opened her mind to a way of free thinking and choices. She helped Sage realize that maybe, she could serve God’s will and be happy. That a marriage of love was possible.
“Pay attention, Sage,” her oldest sister Anastasia hissed in her ear, not for the first time in recent months.
“How can I believe any of this when the real Bible, the one from the library, speaks so differently. Forgiveness and redemption are possible.” Scathing looks from other members quieted her from saying anything further.
“Let Him guide us free of temptation and sin. Let Him show you how to free your mind from the chains of anarchy. Grace will lead you into His eternal love.” Murmurs flowed through the room of parents telling their children as her sister had told her, to quiet down and pay attention. The problem was, the only temptation the children faced was playing in the ponds across the field on hot summer days.
They weren’t given access to things like candy or ice cream. Not yet old enough to understand the temptation that the bishop spoke of. Every day she watched as the children of the compound were browbeat into believing the twisted views her own father chose to bestow upon them.
There was no longer free will.
Life was chosen for you, and should he see fit, it was taken away from you.
She’d witnessed more than one rebellious member be burned at the stake—not literally, of course. It was a term used to terrify children into complicity.
What actually took place was a complete cleanse. Almost a reverse baptism. Offenders were taken to a swamp-like watering hole filled with snakes where they were forced to enter, and a prayer for their soul was chanted. If they remained in the water until the end of the prayer, they were granted leave but banished for all eternity and smote by the Lord’s hierarchy. They left with nothing but the clothes on their backs, and anyone caught conspiring with them would suffer the same fate.
Sage never realized how awful and degrading the ritual truly was. She hadn’t thought it anything but normal. After all she’d heard, other compounds across the state and country, everyone practiced the exact same rituals.
When she met Ashley at a rec center in Denver, about an hour’s drive from where their compound was located outside of Adna in Weld County, she was just as broken as Sage often felt. She liked to think that the older woman took comfort in her continued prayer to repair her spirit. Sage certainly took lessons in all that the woman shared with her.
After Sage ran into Lochlan when they’d gone for repairs in Loveland, things changed for her. He was all she cared about. What she wanted more than anything.
Her Lord’s forgiveness and blessing included.
Three months later.
“Sage, you will get out there and speak to the man. He is to be your husband.” Anastasia stood in the doorway to her room getting more frustrated by the moment.
“No,” Sage reiterated for the fifth time. She hated Morgan. Loathed him, in fact. He had this lecherous stare that made her skin crawl with all kinds of revulsion. He wasn’t a good man, no matter how hard her sisters tried to convince her.
“Sage.” Kaidence huffed an aggravated breath. “This is your chosen man. By your bishop. You will stop with this insufferable childishness and get your butt in gear and down those stairs.”
Turning her head from the window, Sage glared at her oldest sisters. “If he’s so great, why don’t one of you marry him?” The shared look at her words proved her point. “See? You don’t even believe the crap you’re spewing.” “Sage! You better watch your tongue around him,” Anastasia condemned.