Finally done with the first eight chapters of my new novel, DEVIATIONS. Here's a sneak peek from the end of chapter eight.
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I spin and give
the orderly my fiercest glare. “You want me to trust an orderly?”
“I’m not an
orderly,” he says, his eyes darting down the street where the shouts are
getting louder. “My name is Amos. I’m part of a rebel group, and I’ve been
planted in the hall for the past seven months. We’ve been working on a way to
get you out ever since your trial.”
I search his face,
looking for lies hidden in his expression. “What?”
“Do you really
think you’re the type to lead a rebellion?” he asks.
I
shake my head emphatically. “No.”
“Then
let’s prove them wrong.”
“How?”
“Get
your list. Prove it’s not you.”
Dimwitted idiot.
“They can’t find my list!” I hiss.
He exhales
sharply. “Lists are kept at the Reserve. In the Archives. You were right;
everyone has a list. Yours must still be there.”
“So?”
“So get it. Bring
it back here. And prove that you’re not the one they’re looking for. “
I stare at him
like he’s lost his mind. Because surely he has. It’s somewhere with my list, in
the realm of the unobtainable.
Amos glances down
the street. “Look, the only thing that’s going to save your life and those you
care about is to prove to the Order you’re not the leader of a future
rebellion. The only way to do that is to find your list.”
“I
am the most wanted person in all of Alladia!" I whisper. "What are the chances this will
work?”
“What are your
chances if you stay here?” he counters.
The truth smacks around
inside my head. I see it there: the judge’s stern gaze. The Order’s look of
approval at my sentence. The tattoos on the Executioner’s body. I either become an
outlaw trying to prove my innocence or stay here and agree with their sentence
of guilt.
Shouts echo off
the stone wall. I stare up at Amos. “Why do you want to help me?”
His eyes soften. “Because
I don’t think you are who they say they are.”
“They’ll kill you,
too. Why risk it?”
“Sometimes doing
the right thing is worth the risk.”
My eyes bore into
his as I try to figure out if he’s honest or the biggest fraud in the world.
Amos
snatches my hand in his and tugs me around the corner just as torch lights
spill onto the street we’d been standing on. I race after him, my heart
pounding a furious rhythm in my head that I am either the luckiest girl alive
or the stupidest person to ever breathe air. We dash down a tangle of streets,
Amos pulling me farther and farther away from my iron prison. When we come to
the city wall, he squats down and quickly tosses away a pile of garbage,
revealing an opening just wide enough for me to shimmy through. He joins me on
the other side, his face dim in the moonlight, then he moves in front of me.
I grab his arm. “Where
are we going?”
He throws a smirk
over his shoulder. “To freedom, Lennan Eastley.”
Fear mingles with hope inside my chest. I have no time to question him farther as he grabs my hand
again. And without another word, I let this red haired vagrant lead me away into the night.
