Prophecy Girl (The Five Orders Book 1)

by Holly Roberds

  “I sense a shift in you,” he finally said. “You have been gone too long, I think. I wonder, do you still seek to serve the mission?” His voice softened. “To protect this world from the terrors of the Stygian?”

  “Of course I do.” I was almost offended he had to ask, but I had strayed from the path. My Master had every right to question me.

  He spoke slowly. “I feel you already know how she looks at you.”

  I didn’t respond, unsure of what he wanted me to say.

  “Does she know what you have done?”

  My gaze fell to the floor. He circled around me.

  “Ah, I didn’t think so. You have trespassed against so many, Calan. You have caused destruction, violence, and evil. Do not let her be one of your evils in this life. Or you will doom us all, and her to an eternal hell.”

  “Are you sure?” My words came out strangled, as half of me begged not to ask the question.

  “Of what?” he asked once he came to stand before me again. He released his hands from behind his back.

  “Are you sure nothing can be done to save the Propheros? There isn’t another way to prevent the coming darkness?”

  Master Ylang’s mouth twisted, distressed with my question. “Calan, it is not your place to question such things.”

  If it were any other Master, I would have been whipped ten ways from Sunday. Master Ylang seemed to favor me and granted me more patience than I deserved.

  His tone hardened. “Your mission is ours to give, and the mission is to protect the Propheros at all cost until the time comes for her to be sacrificed. If you cannot fulfill this duty, we will call on another Chevalier who can.”

  I nodded, afraid to speak. I wanted to cry out that no one could protect Emma as well as me. I didn’t trust anyone else. But I kept my lips sealed and face as impassive as I could manage.

  “We’ll discuss this at length with the Order.” Master Ylang moved past me. “Get some rest, Chevalier. There will be much to do.”

  As soon as the grand wooden doors shut behind him, I fell to my knees and shoved a knuckle into my mouth to muffle my scream of despair.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  I wound my way through the large stone halls, sunlight streaming in through the tall, narrow windows. We had traveled a long ways from the dawn where the She attacked us. Looming ficus trees surrounded the Temple like an army. I’d missed their lush foliage in my travels. The heavy scent of moist earth and flowers infused the humid air. Yet, I did not feel the usual comfort in returning home.

  Reaching my modest quarters, I saw the stone tub had been filled with hot water for me. I took my time cleaning and treating the wounds on my abdomen. The scratches on my face from the Crib were almost completely healed. I cleaned the cut on my neck but left it un-bandaged.

  When the door to my quarters creaked open, I did not flinch. Though I was completely undressed and still wet from my bath, I did not move to cover myself. I hid nothing from my Order. During many training sessions, I was required to complete tasks in the nude to shed modesty for the sake of being wholly present in my missions. It also toughened my skin to feel the scrape of rough of bark, brush underfoot, and harsh sunlight or the cold of night.

  When I looked up though, Emma’s back was to me as she peeked out the door to make sure no one saw her enter my quarters. She had changed into a long, sheer white dress, no doubt provided for her. Bandages peeked out from the bottom of her dress. Someone had tended to the scratch wounds on her legs from the She. When Emma turned around, her mouth dropped open and she fell back against the door as if her legs suddenly couldn’t keep her up.

  Paralyzed, I didn’t know what to do. I hid nothing from my Order because my body and person were not considered to be of consequence. I wanted to abide by my teachings, but the way Emma’s eyes hotly soaked in my exposed flesh, I felt the urge to cover myself. It was like when she looked straight into my eyes, reading my every emotion, but this was a million times more intimate. Dark heat flared in her eyes, and I somehow sensed her mouth was watering.

  “Hello,” I said stiffly, unable to act natural. I cursed myself for another unnecessary dalliance with the ego.

  Emma swallowed, but let her eyes slowly travel up my body starting with my feet and traveling up my calves, thighs, then her gaze lingered on my groin. Her eyes were puffy and red, as if she’d been crying but they were dry now. The necklace she’d forced us to stop for still hung on her neck, the pendant disappearing under the dress between her breasts. I looked away from her as I realized my manhood was rising to the attention, but I didn’t move. To cover up, would be admittance I thought myself special and separate. Chevalier were neither of those things.

  “Jesus,” she breathed. “You’re like a goddamn Greek statue brought to life.”

  Desire ignited in me like gasoline set aflame. My sex stiffened so hard, I gasped. It ached with desperate desire to press against and then into the woman before me. My length took on a will of its own the way it demanded its needs be acknowledged. My inner voice swore that I would die if I did not make this woman mine this very instant.

  Finding her feet, Emma slowly crossed the room as if worried she’d startle me. I briefly wondered what she thought of my barren quarters. Where hers had been full of colors, pictures, and books, mine was gray and devoid of life. There was a narrow bed and a simple table with one chair tucked under it. She wasn’t looking at my room though.

  Through her dress, I could see the slight darkening of her areolas. It wouldn’t take much to remove that slip of a garment. She hadn’t yet washed her hair and it wildly framed her face in a way that reminded me how it looked after I ran my hands through it when I kissed her senseless.

  Emma reached out a shaking hand and touched the side of my abs that weren’t bandaged. I felt it then. Underlying the electric heat was pure unadulterated fear.

  She knows she’s going to die.

  Looking up into my face, my normally powerful and confident Emma was without hope. As she spoke, her words broke. “Calan, I need you.” With that, she reached down and closed her hand around my hardness.

  My eyes slammed shut and my head fell back as my body surrendered to her touch and begged to claim her. I too was ready to give in to oblivion, to forget everything that threatened to tear my heart out from my chest.

  I pushed the straps of her dress over her shoulders and tugged them down until she was forced to release me. The fabric of her dress slipped down and over the peak of her hard nipples and at once I knew the scratch of the material against them sent a wave of moisture to her sex. I felt the feminine sensation like an echo, resonating through my body.

  The sight of her bare breasts overwhelmed me. They were the perfect size for me to palm and a blush crept along her pale flesh. Each time we had given in to lust, we had been clothed. This exposure took my feelings for her to a new depth when I thought I could not delve any deeper. My desire now felt utterly raw in the wake of her naked breasts. Having trapped her arms at her sides with the straps, I leaned over and worshipped her tight nipples, laving them with my tongue. They were tangy and sweet, and my straining length begged to bury itself in her hand again but I refused and kept her arms pinned at her sides.

  Moving up, I lavished her neck with slow, hot kisses then dipped back down to flick the tips of her nipples with my tongue. She gasped with each tap of my tongue and I sensed through our strange connection pleasure jolting to her sex in time with my tongue. I pushed the dress further down her body and over her delicate hips until it puddled on the ground leaving her clad in nothing but her necklace. She whispered my name in a husky voice, and her need went from hot to molten. Again, I knew wetness was rapidly pooling between her thighs.

  She took my breath away. Her limbs were so delicate in comparison to mine and lacked muscle definition because she had lived a softer life than I. Her skin reminded me of the baby lambs after they’d been shorn, but it was pulled taut over her slim, nubile limbs. My sex twitched in despera
tion.

  I was so in awe of this angel, I wanted to fall to my knees before her. So I did. Tracing my hands down the sides of her stomach, my grip tightened at her hips for a moment before one hand slipped to the small patch of soft, tawny curls between her legs. My fingers explored the folds of impossibly soft flesh. I reveled in each gasp of pleasure, every moan. I felt the twist of her pleasure echo in my own body as the psychic biofeedback of her arousal fed my own. The amount of restraint it took to not throw her on the ground and enter her caused me physical pain.

  Emma’s face contorted as my thumb brushed over a small nub. I brushed it again and she gasped harder than before and begged for more. So I gave it to her. I brushed against it lightly, over and over again then dipped my mouth to those now dripping hot folds. I touched my tongue to it. The intoxicating taste mirrored the tanginess of her nipples but was a darker, deeper flavor. I craved more. I sucked on her lower lips and Emma’s nails bit into my shoulder.

  “Calan, I don’t think I can stand for much longer.” As she said it, I noticed her knees wobbled unsteadily.

  I thought to move her to the bed, but it was so small. I decided to pull her down to the ground instead. As I laid her back, she brought her knees up. I crawled in between them and tested the wetness of her sex again with one finger. The sight of her exposed and laid out was the most erotic sight I’d ever know. The image burned itself into my memory right then, and I knew I would never be more fulfilled than this moment where I was allowed for a time to worship her body. Dark thoughts of Emma’s impending sacrifice threatened to swallow my absolution. I fought them back, they would overcome me soon enough.

  I dipped my finger in as deep as my second knuckle a couple of times before Emma gave a guttural growl. When I looked up, she was scowling down at me. I added a second finger and pushed them all the way into her body. Her body arched off the floor like she’d been struck by lightning. Her wrist flew to her mouth where she bit on it to suppress a scream. I pumped my fingers into her again and again, feeling the shooting bolts of her pleasure go through me.

  Continuing to pump, I grabbed my length tightly with my other hand to keep myself from coming. My balls were drawn tight and the tip of my manhood was sticky and wet. Swallowing hard past the lump in my throat, I waited until I was sure I could control myself then bent over and sucked on the nub that had caused her so much pleasure before.

  Her hips shot up again and I felt the orgasm rip through her body. Not just squeezing and pulsating around my fingers, I felt it from the inside. It was like a rubber band had been twisted almost past its breaking point, then when it broke, the bands wildly shuddered as they released at the speed of light. I had to reach back down immediately to grab ahold of myself to stop from orgasming. I grasped myself painfully tight.

  Emma screamed my name into her wrist as she bit down on it again. When her body relaxed and her hand fell away, I saw she had drawn blood with her teeth. I slowly removed my fingers from her now gushing center. She jerked when they slid out.

  Her hand moved to cover her eyes instead of her mouth this time, and the shudder rocking her body was no longer sexual. It was a sob.

  I crawled up to lie next to her on the floor, propping my head up to better observe her. I wished I could see her eyes but what I saw were the tears rolling down from under her palm, dripping off her cheeks and onto my bicep.

  “I don’t want to die.” Her voice was ragged, and a gang of razors tore through my heart. I reached over and pulled her into my body where she buried her face in my chest and broke fully into sobs. Tears formed in my eyes and soon wet trails led down my cheeks, too. We held each other, unable to pretend everything was going to be alright anymore.

  Prophecy is the powerful river dragging us all toward the inevitable.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  There on the floor, crying with Emma, I closed my eyes, trying to block out the fear that threatened to engulf both of us. I thought I knew the hardness of a life of repentance, but this was almost more than I could bear. For a moment, I didn’t care if the Stygian claimed this world, because the thought of losing Emma brought hell on earth to me. I held her tight, never wanting to let her go.

  When she pulled back, Emma realized I was still hard and reached a hand down to touch me but I stopped her.

  “I can’t,” I said softly.

  “Do you want me to use my mouth?” She asked, wiping her eyes.

  I shook my head, my heart tired and leaden now. “No, I mean I can’t, Emma.”

  She looked at me with disbelief before extracting herself from my arms and trying to get to her feet, but her legs were unsteady and it took a moment. “So what, you are just doing me a favor? Servicing me before I go to my death? Preserving my virginity for the sacrifice?”

  Getting to my feet as well, I watched Emma grab her dress and angrily tug it on. “Emma, we can never be together because I’m a Chevalier.”

  Officially boiling with rage, she yelled, “What does that even mean?”

  Deep down I knew it was despair fueling her anger, but it still didn’t dull the sting. I lowered my voice hoping she would bring down her volume, too. “I have no soul.”

  Whatever she had been about to say died on her lips. She stared at me, agape this time with shock so very different than when she had first walked in on me naked.

  “You have no soul,” she repeated slowly.

  “I— I should have told you before. In my last life, I committed unspeakable atrocities. The gods took my soul but have afforded me a chance at redemption in this life. They made me a Chevalier. Chevaliers must serve the Light, the mission the Order of Luxis serves, until perhaps, one day the gods would deem to grant us our souls again. So you see, we cannot be together. You deserve a man, not a soulless monster.”

  One eyebrow arched higher than I’d ever seen before, and the corners of her mouth tugged down in displeasure. “Are you kidding me?” Then rolling her eyes she answered herself, “Of course not, you don’t even know how.” She repeated it again as if trying to absorb. “You have no soul.”

  I looked away from her, shame burning me up. “I know I should have told you. It’s why I tried so hard to stay away from you. I don’t know when, or if, the gods will ever return my soul.”

  “Bullshit.”

  I reared back. “What?”

  Emma’s expression had morphed from incredulity into a hard mask. “I said bullshit. You absolutely have a soul, Calan.”

  “I understand this is difficult for you to hear, Emma. To find out while I protected you from monsters, I was a monster all along.”

  Her eyes were dry now, and sharp with clarity as she stared up at me defiantly. “No Calan, you have a soul, I’m telling you. And I can prove it. The soul eater went after you every time we fought it. It wanted your soul, too.”

  I gave her a wry smile. “No, Emma. It recognized me as a threat and we fought because it knew I would prevent it from feeding, not because I have a soul.”

  She rolled her eyes but wouldn’t let it go. “How did you know you were a Chevalier?”

  “My Masters told me.”

  “And how do they know you don’t have a soul?”

  I struggled to answer her questions. These were simple facts I knew to be as true as the ground beneath my feet, but I lacked the knowledge-base and eloquence of my Masters.

  “Magic, I think. They find Chevalier when they are babies and bring them back here to the Temple.”

  Her eyes widened. “You mean, those people from that other Order really could be your parents?”

  I ran my hands through my hair, scarping my blunt nails along my buzzing scalp. “No, no that’s not possible. Chevalier are not born into Orders. Those agents are liars. The Chevalier should not be reared in civilian circumstances. It is too dangerous for the general public.”

  “I thought you said to separate yourself from others was to turn away from the Light.”

  “Yes. Well no, this isn’t the same.”

&nb
sp; Her eyebrow arched. “This doesn’t count, because your Order… said so?”

  Anxiety at not being able to explain churned agitation through all my limbs until I began to pace. “No, the way you are saying it, that’s not right. It’s not the same.”

  “Because the Order of Truth or Veritas, whatever it’s called, serves the dark?”

  “No,” I said, my voice getting louder with frustration. “They don’t serve the dark but turning against them isn’t turning against the Light like it would be against anyone else. My Order, they know more than I do about why.”

  Emma stood in front of me, stopping my pacing. Her hand cupped my cheek in a gesture to soothe my obvious distress. “Calan. Look at me. I know to my very core that you have a soul. You are the most loving, compassionate, strong, soulful person I have ever encountered.” Her voice hardened. “I think your Masters have been lying to you.” Hope suffused her voice next as her hands slipped to my shoulders. “Which means they might be lying about me. Maybe I’m not the Propheros. Well, I guess the bad guys kind of outed me and why would that soul eater thing lie? Unless your Order actually controls the bad guys, but that’s a bit far-fetched. Maybe your Order is just lying about the sacrifice. Maybe I don’t need to die.” Her words squished together as they came out in a torrent.

  I gently pushed Emma’s hands away from me. “Emma, stop it. My Masters would never lie. They protect this world from the darkness and they know best.”

  My head throbbed from Emma’s chattering. The things she was saying were blasphemous. I had been afraid of her seeing for the monster I was. I hadn’t anticipated this.

  She tried to grab my face again to make me look at her but I jerked away. “Calan, you have to believe me. You have a soul.”

  “You can’t… you can’t say these things, Emma. You don’t know what you are talking about. I’m scared too, okay? But it is clear what must be done.”

  “Because they told you what to do, Calan. You’ve got to use your own senses for once.”