Page 101 of Deviant

My eyes find my father on the stage, my heart dipping into my stomach when he turns his gaze away from mine.

“I deserve this,” I mumble to myself.

This is what I wanted, after all.

This was what I planned for.

So why am I trembling all of a sudden?

It’s like an ill premonition hits me square in the chest, a sick feeling in my gut alerting me that the worst is still to pass.

Be careful what you wish for.

And just as the thought crosses my mind, Mayor Davenport announces the last name on the list, turning my world completely upside down.

“And the last name to be added to the Harvest Dozen is…” Davenport states as the name flashes on the screen. “Elias Larsen.”

My heart stops beating when I hear the name of the one person I thought was safe from this madness.

“No,” I blurt out as my eyes scan the loud, rambunctious crowd looking for him.

The energy around the town square shifts from distraught sadness to bewilderment and utter delight.

Just as Moses parted the Red Sea, the crowd parts to create a path, allowing me to see Elias standing ramrod straight, a smirk on his face and an owl’s mask in his grip.

I don’t know what has my heart racing more—the fact that Elias was chosen or that the mask he’s holding isn’t the one he had an hour ago.

“Say your goodbyes, and hug your loved ones, for the Harvest Dozen will part forThe Scourgeat the first sign of dawn,” Davenport reminds.

“I guess that’s that,” Joe says solemnly as he pours the remaining liquor inside his flask to the ground, before chucking the flask away. “Sorry, girlie. You were one of the good ones,” he laments before giving me a hug.

I’m so speechless that I don’t even correct him.

Instead, all I can do is stare at Elias, who is staring right back at me with a threatening glint in his eyes.

“I have big plans for you, Rowen. Big fucking plans.”

Could he have done this?

Could Elias have volunteered just to exert some kind of twisted revenge on me for killing his sister?

Suddenly, the idea that Nora’s little black book miraculously fell into my lap in the nick of time becomes an incredulous fantasy that I should have never bought into.

It was him all along.

He was the one who made sure I had all the information to volunteer forThe Scourge.

He wanted me to be selected.

But why?

And that’s when it hits me.

The Scourgewon’t be the one responsible for my death—Elias will.

The rest of the night is a blur.

I don’t remember how long I’ve been home since the Harvest Festival ended, much less how I got here.

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