The Runaway Offering

<p><span style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Nineteen-year-old Akedia Morestone knows she should be elated that her best friend Lileena will serve as offering. To die upon the sun god's altar will ensure a good harvest honor Lileena's family and elevate her status to demi-goddess in the afterlife. </span></p><p></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Or so the villagers of Bahmisi have been told. </span></p><p></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>To question is to sin but Akedia can't ignore the bleak feeling that perhaps everything she's ever believed isn't right. As the village celebrates Lileena's sacrifice Akedia secretly mourns the loss of her closest friend along with her own faith and identity.</span></p><p></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>She tries to ignore her blasphemous sadness. But when she stumbles upon a cave full of beheaded human carcasses-one wearing the bracelet Lileena wore to the altar-Akedia knows her doubt wasn't unfounded. According to holy scripture the offering ascends. There should be no body. </span></p><p></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>And the high priest's choice for Akedia to become the next offering suddenly seems like a means to silence her for good.</span></p><p></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Running away from sacrificial duty will make her a fugitive. Fleeing into the desert beyond the village where the world is said to end may equal certain death. And getting tangled up in a magical contract with a handsome thief will only complicate the matter. </span></p><p></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>But for the first time in her life Akedia has a clear sense of what she must do: find and return with the evidence needed to expose the lies woven into the sun god's religion so the sacrifices can end once and for all. That is before the high priest's henchmen drag her back to Bahmisi for public torture and execution...</span></p><p></p>