Page 44 of Wanted

My first instinct is to bite off his head by demanding to know why he even asked the question if he doesn’t know the answer. My sudden irritation with him increasing by the second.

But a loud bang sounds out. A bang that sounds like a door slamming into a wall.

“Father McCall! Stop where you are!” Father Dominic calls out. “You do not have permission to leave the grounds with our property!”

I instantly want to freeze in fear, but Father McCall keeps tugging me along only to suddenly stop.

He slides his hand out of mine, and for a moment I feel lost and abandoned. Left alone to face a strange, foreign world that has become entirely too hostile toward me.

Is he taking Father Dominic’s order seriously? After everything he’s already done?

A car beeps twice before I hear Father McCall saying, “Hurry, get in, lass. We’re out of time.”

Placing his palm against my back, he helps me get in the car then slams the door shut.

The heat inside the car is surprisingly not as bad as it was on the outside, which makes absolutely no sense.

Sliding my arm down, I dare a peek through the windshield and see Father McCall jogging around the front of the car.

When he opens his door, I hear Father Dominic rage, “Don’t think you’ll get away with this, McCall! We’ll find you! And when we do, we’ll make you pay for this sin in flesh!”

Father McCall slams his door shut and starts the car up, ignoring Father Dominic’s threat.

But it worries me.

I squint my eyes and peer out the windshield again, expecting to see an army of the Order’s young warriors bearing down on us.

As Father McCall puts the car in reverse, I ask, “Where is everybody?”

This all seems too easy. Shouldn’t Jeffrey at least be trying to come for me?

Shifting the car into drive, Father McCall declares almost happily, “God smiles on us today.”

And that explains exactly nothing.

Glancing over and seeing my frown, Father McCall grins. “Today is the Grand Induction.”

“Grand Induction?” I repeat, having no idea what he’s talking about.

Father McCall sighs and his grin wilts into a sad frown. “Ah, lass, they truly kept you in the dark, didn’t they? The Grand Induction is when all the young men in the Order are given their holy brands and formally inducted into service. With the Prophet overseeing the ceremony, no one will dare interrupt it.”

That would explain all the cars in the parking lot and the empty halls.

But I’m still not quite convinced. “Are you sure? Not everybody will be at that service.”

“I’m sure,” Father McCall says with confidence. “To interrupt such a ceremony would almost guarantee death.”

“So we have some time?” I ask as I sink into the thick leather of my seat.

When was the last time I sat on something that wasn’t as hard as a rock?

Father McCall turns the air conditioner on full blast and fiddles with the vents, pointing them all in my direction. “Yes, we have some time. Why don’t you get some rest?”

Sleep comes easier than it should.

I’ve wanted to be free for so long, I want to see everything around me. To soak in the real world and see what’s changed.

But I can’t see anything, the glare of the sunlight too bright for my sensitive eyes.

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