The Maiden (The Cloister Trilogy 1)

“Adam?” a man calls from the other side of the bonfire pile.

I stand and brush myself off, the solitude busted. Walking around the structure, I find Gene there along with the promised pickup truck full of lumber. “You got here quick.”

“Tony radioed me, and I was already up on the main road. He said you’re needing some stuff built.” Gene is older, with crooked glasses and a warm smile. “My crew is right behind me. We can go ahead and get to work on this before we start working on the decks at the family houses.”

“Yeah, sounds good. I can show you the spots.” I lead him back around the side, and catch movement in the woods.

“Did you see that?” He stops next to me.

“Not sure.” I change direction and head into the trees, Gene at my heels.

Chapter 33

Delilah

“I definitely heard voices,” Sarah whispers and holds a hand out.

We each duck behind trees. After a few moments, footsteps crackle from up ahead. Someone’s coming. Have they already sounded the alarm? Surely not. There’d be more men in the woods beating the brush to try and find us. This is a coincidence. Has to be. Whoever it is will go away. They’ll lose interest and just go back to whatever it is they were doing.

I try to breathe slow and even, but my heart is beating at a jackrabbit pace. We only have a handful of acres to go before freedom. We’re so close.

Susannah has Chastity behind a wide pine tree, the shiv at her neck again. But Chastity stares at me with doleful eyes, as if she’s already seen this drama play out and knows the ending. She’s tried to escape before. Is that where the scar on her forehead came from? A punishment?

The footsteps grow closer, and I can’t tell for certain, but it sounds like two sets. We have to stay still, hidden. Maybe they’ll go back, maybe it’s a deer, maybe it’s nothing at all and we’re just paranoid. I hope it’s the latter, but I know it isn’t. Someone is coming, and it won’t turn out well if we’re caught.

I grip the tree and rein in my desire to peek around the trunk and see what or who it is. This is our only chance, and we have to make it. Go away, go away, go away.

“I think I saw a woman, maybe.” A man’s voice, and he’s close.

Shit. I look at Sarah. She’s pointing toward the back of the property, toward our escape.

Run? I mouth. It’s a bad idea. But the men aren’t going away. We’re almost caught.

Sarah nods vigorously and mouths it back to all of us. Holding up one finger, then two, then three. We all take off, fleeing from cover and rushing at breakneck speed over the uneven terrain.

“Stop!” the man yells, but we don’t. We keep running.

Chastity is ahead of me, her black skirt flying behind her as she passes Hannah. She’s one of us, desperate to live beyond the confines of the Prophet.

Seeing her dash for freedom gives me a second wind, and I hurdle a small fallen tree, my feet skidding on dead leaves when I land. I stay upright, barely, and barrel down a hill, my feet splashing in the cold water at the bottom of the hollow as I fall forward and dig my nails into the dirt on the other side, pulling myself up and out.

Eve yells behind me, and I turn to see her fall. Her ankle is caught between two roots, and she’s fighting like a wild animal to free herself.

“Go!” she yells and wrenches her foot loose.

I climb the side of the hollow until it levels out enough for me to gain speed.

“Get off me!” Eve’s scream chills me far more than the frigid water, and I don’t have to look back to know she’s been caught.

Sarah is ahead of me, Chastity is out of sight, and Hannah is struggling up from the bottom of the hollow.

I keep going, pushing myself even as my muscles burn and saplings scratch and pull at me. One foot after the other, my thin flats doing nothing to cushion my footfalls against the cold, hard earth.

Shouts erupt from behind me, more men coming after us. I have to make it. Down the other side of the hollow I go, the ground sloping away at a harsh angle. I slide on the pine straw, then roll and hit the bottom with a thud. The fence can’t be far.

“Throw it over!” Sarah cries from somewhere to my left.

I sprint toward the sound, my lungs burning, my mind starting to fuzz, and my muscles screaming in protest. I crest the next rise and see Sarah throwing her dress atop the barbed wire. Susannah is already climbing to the top. By the time I get to the fence, she’s stuck, the barbs clinging to her dress and digging into her skin. She howls like a wounded animal, but still tries to throw herself across the metal, to make it to the ground.