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It made me think of all the snakes from my nightmare, slithering over Mason as he commanded them. I felt a sharp pain in my stomach as I wondered if he was the true serpent, attempting to lead me away from the righteous path. I’d given him everything. Let him all the way in. Let him strip me of my innocence and purity. Why?

Because he is everything that is good in the world and you love him. That’s why,said a faint voice in the back of my mind. He loves you too. Don’t let the drugs mess up your mind. Dreams are just dreams, and Mason is a real man. You know this. You know you love him!

I pondered this, trying my hardest to form cogent thoughts and cling to them long enough to consider them properly.

Until now, I was sure I loved Mason, but I’d never actually felt romantic love before I met him. So how did I know this was it? It certainly felt like it, and it seemed just like the love described in my forbidden romance book… but what if it wasn’t? What if it was all a wicked trap? What if I’d been tricked and led astray all along, and there was no real world out there for me to see? No love?

Now that the terrible seed of an idea had been planted in my head, I couldn’t stop it from growing and sprouting vines throughout every part of my mind.

Mason had never shown me much in the way of proof for his recent claims. It hadn’t bothered me until now. I’d been happy to go along with whatever he told me because he said he loved me, and it all made so much sense when I wasn’t taking the vitamin pills. But I still hadn’t seen the outside world or anything from it, aside from the cameras he showed me and the plane which flew overhead that night three weeks ago.

Those little things could be demonic tricks. He could’ve made me see things that weren’t really there.

I’d asked Mason to show me photos or videos of the outside, but he’d always refused. He said he wanted to save it all for when I was finally free, so that he could take me around the world and show it to me. Let me see it all for myself. He said he thought it would be better that way. More exciting.

He also said he would take care of me for as long as I needed to adjust and learn everything there was to know about the world. He could easily do that because he was rich. Even richer than my father.

What were the odds that a wealthy, handsome man would fall in love with me and whisk me away, always taking care of me when he could have anyone else in the whole wide world? Was I really that lucky, or was it all part of the Devil’s dark deceit?

I blinked rapidly, my thoughts cycling through what would happen if Mason was a truly honest man like I’d always believed he was. I would be rescued from this place and this life I hated, and I would travel the world with him, always loved and cared for. We would lie in the sun and say and do whatever we wanted, and one day we would have babies. Because we wanted to, not because it was supposedly my duty as a woman to reproduce.

Then my mind turned to what would happen if Mason was actually the Devil. I’d let him all the way in, given him full access to my mind and body, and that meant he would be able to send his minions marching in to destroy everything. Soon. My friends here at New Eden would be consumed by darkness, destroyed by demonic forces. It would be worse than anything the cruel men here could ever do to us, and it would be all my fault.

I looked up. Mason was in front of me now, standing on the altar. Only it wasn’t him. It was the nightmare version of him, all teeth and claws and blood. Black and red snakes curled around his arms as he grinned down at me.

I moaned and lurched forward before vomiting again, horrified by the sight. Was it a hallucination from the drugs I took, or a warning vision from the heavens?

Oh, God…

I needed to make up my mind about this once and for all; needed to decide whether or not to keep trusting Mason and everything he told me.

It wouldn’t be an easy decision. If I decided to trust him and it turned out that he was really the Devil, I would doom everyone I knew to fall to his wicked ways when he brought hellfire to reign at New Eden. But if I decided not to trust him and he turned out to be good, I would doom myself. I would destroy my only chance at true love, all because I couldn’t stop doubting.

I was running out of time. The decision had to be made. Now.

I took a deep breath and willed myself to think clearly again. Suddenly the answer to all my questions crystallized in my mind, and I let out a gasp and let my eyes snap open.

I was sure now. I’d never been more certain of anything in my life.

“Thank you for the drink. I have to go,” I said, wiping my face and standing up again.

Martha and Lauren stared at me. “Jolie, you need more water, and you need to rest,” Lauren said insistently.

I vehemently shook my head. “No. I’m fine. I’m just making my choice.”

“What choice? What are you talking about?” Martha called to me as I dashed out of the church.

I didn’t reply.

I headed for the men’s section of the shelter. I knew my father and the Elders were having an all-morning conference in their main meeting room to discuss some sort of ‘volatile situation’. I’d heard them discussing it when I served them breakfast earlier.

A moment later, I burst into the meeting room. My father was at the head of the table, talking about a passenger manifest, whatever that meant. One of the Elders was holding a black device while another took down notes.

“Jolie!” my father said when he saw me standing near the doorway. “You can’t come in here during our meetings! You know that. What on earth is wrong with you?”

I swallowed thickly. “I’m sorry, Father,” I said. “But there’s something I need to tell you. Something big. It’s about Mason Ashwood…”

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