Instead of giving into my direction, Emma disappeared and I found myself swallowed into the impossibly scorching wetness of her mouth. I grabbed at the ground, seeking purchase and control and everything in me threatened to snap.
“Oh gods, Emma.” I cried out, not sure if I was begging her to stop or continue. I reached down and was more careful to grasp at her hair, needing another point of contact to focus on other than her mouth. She engulfed my hardness, though she could only fit half in her mouth, before she sucked her way back up. Releasing the tip, she dove back down trying to take even more of my length down her throat. Finally she brought her hand to wrap around the base to cover that which she could not take into her mouth, and I bucked under her with a deep groan.
“Please, Emma,” I begged, still not sure what I wanted but knowing she could give it to me. She let me go with an audible wet smack from her mouth that was almost my undoing. Emma paused and I knew, whether from the look on her face or our unique connection, she was soaking in the sight of me with the feminine pride of bringing a man to his knees. I was on my back, but I would have done anything she asked me.
When she crawled on top of me, I lifted my knee until it firmly set between her legs. Emma threw her head back and groaned, grinding harder and harder back onto my thigh. Her wetness ran down my thigh and I knew my pleasure had been hers, and she too was on the verge. We were desperate to both give in to what we wanted, but also to make it last. Her body wriggled wantonly against mine until she raised herself slightly. When she reached down to touch herself, my mouth dropped open in shock as she pleasured herself on me.
Lost in the moment, she seemed to barely notice me but I knew I was the true source of her pleasure. I clenched my fists to keep from grabbing at her, mesmerized by her building orgasm. Emma’s back arched forward as her eyes snapped open. Her emotive, honey-brown eyes met mine in an expression of pure shock and elation and I felt it all. Her body was engulfed in a trembling, rolling orgasm that swept all rational thought away.
Closing my eyes and steeling myself against the sensation, I let her ride it out above me. The moment she slowed, I rolled her over, hovering over her body, my tip nuzzling her dripping wet folds. The silver light of the moon filtering in through the cave entrance, finding its way to the top half of her face. It perfectly lit her glassy, lust-filled eyes. I couldn’t believe she wanted me, except I knew it with every fiber of my being.
My back arched and my balls drew up into my body, wanting nothing more than to penetrate.
“Calan,” she moaned, the friction reigniting her desire all over again. Ever so slowly, I began to push into her until the head was swallowed by her tight sex.
“Calan.” She said my name sharply this time, and it felt like a cold bucket of fear had been thrown over my body. When I opened my eyes, her eyes were screwed up as if she was in pain. I’d heard that it was painful the first time for a woman, and instantly stilled, my body afraid of hurting her. Then a fraction of my senses returned to me and I saw what gave her pause.
Her face was no longer bathed in the silvery light of the moon. Instead, it was illuminated in a sickly green hue. Trying to make sense of it, I looked up and saw the slugs had not altered from their blue glow. Then I looked through the cave opening which was angled perfectly to give us view of the moon.
Emma’s words were so faint, I almost didn’t hear them. “When the night sky becomes ill…”
The moon had taken on a bizarre, unnaturally sick shade of green.
I didn’t want to believe it. It was hard to concentrate, partially immersed in her, and though I mourned it, I didn’t fight Emma when she pushed me back and out of the heaven I sought.
Before I could speak, she licked her hand and reached down grasping me in her hand, pumping me with vigor. I tried to protest, but the sensations overwhelmed me. She needn’t have lubricated her hand, because the sweet nectar of her sex had already freely flowed on my length making it slippery for each tight pump that brought me closer to my own orgasm.
“Emma,” I pleaded, wanting her to stop, desperate to be inside her, but at the same time unable to stop the building crest of my own orgasm. She wouldn’t stop, building the rhythm to an almost frantic pace.
She leaned down to my ear and whispered, “Come for me, Calan.” With that she dropped down and swallowed as much of me as she could and sucked.
Her words coupled with her mouth hit me like a shot. All the tension I’d been holding in exploded and my back lifted off the ground, arching almost to my breaking point as I came. The hot seed shot out from me so hard and fast, my vision blurred and I couldn’t breathe.
When awareness returned to me, I felt Emma dropping kisses on my neck and chest. She murmured over and over in between kisses. “I love you, I love you, I love you.”
I wrapped her in my arms tightly, my voice hoarse from the exertion. “It’s not true. It’s not true, Emma. They are liars. None of it is true.”
She nodded against my chest and said, “Shh. Everything is okay now.”
Between her soothing words and the force of my orgasm stealing my last bit of energy, my thoughts slowed. I couldn’t tell if my chest was wet from our sweat or from her tears as she buried her head against me. I was about to ask her but it was then my mind drifted away to deep, dreamless sleep.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
I reached over to pull Emma closer to my body, she was too far away. Even in sleep, I felt cold and empty without her, as if the world was terribly wrong or sick. Her presence could fix it.
My arm landed on the rapidly warming soil of the cave. Blinking my eyes that had crusted together in sleep, I tried to find Emma. Knowing the cave was relatively small, she couldn’t be far. She’d know it was too dangerous to venture outside of it without me. Pushing up from my side, I looked around. Sunlight streamed in through the cave’s entrance, and the blue tint of the slugs was barely visible now, as if they’d dissolved into the rock itself.
Perhaps she had stepped out to quickly relieve herself. I wanted to peek outside, but figured I’d give her a minute of privacy to finish. I stretched and slowly stood, shaking sleep off of my sore and bruised body. Once again, I was forced to hunch over.
That’s when I felt it. It pounded through me like a fresh raw wound. Guilt. It washed over me in continuous, near-overlapping waves.
I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.
Had I gone mad in the night, and never been with Emma at all? It felt as if my heart and mind were being dragged along by some greater force.
Coming to my senses, I realized the strong feelings pounding through me were not my own. They were Emma’s.
My heart stopped in my chest, constricting with sheer panic.
She wouldn’t have. There was no possibility she would do such a thing.
I hurried outside into the throb of morning heat, looking around our cave for signs of her. There was none. Irrationally I searched up past the trees for the cause of this madness, but the green-moon had disappeared from the day-lit sky.
“Emma,” I called out though it was unwise to attract the attention of the jungle. The creatures, dark and dangerous secrets created by the Luxis, would be ready to swallow me up in an instant. Yet I couldn’t keep silent. “Emma, come back. It’s okay. You don’t have to go. We’ll figure this out together.” My feet smashed through the foliage as I searched a wider and wider radius hoping against hope I was wrong.
The guilt pulsating through me like blood in my veins began to lessen. She was moving further and further away from me. I had to find her, now.
When I found her footsteps, my body completely numbed. It was as I had feared. They led back in the direction of the Temple of Lux. I ran back to grab my sword and threw on my pants, leaving my tattered shirt behind.
I ran through the woods until my lungs burned with white fire. They threatened to give up all together, if my leg muscles didn’t do so first.
I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.
It
was fainter than before. I was losing her. Panic constricted around my chest and throat. I refused to lose her.
There wasn’t a plan other than to bust in there and pull her out. Wrap my hands around those delicate shoulders of hers and shake her until sense returned. Who cares if the night sky became ill? It could mean anything, it could mean nothing.
You don’t believe that, a voice inside me countered. It was just as they predicted. The time of darkness has been named.
“No,” I ground the word out between my teeth, trying to audibly drown out my thoughts. The Luxis were wrong. Emma didn’t need to die.
By the time I raced up to the Temple, I knew I should have a plan. Barging in there was just going to get me thrown into the room of corrections or worse, disposed of. Yet, I could not stop my feet from slapping loudly up the stone stairs up a side entrance. I didn’t bother to approach with stealth, they’d know I was coming for her.
“Emma,” I cried out once inside the cool stone walls of the Temple.
She was here. I could feel it. The guilt weighed me down so heavily, it became difficult to move. My need kept me pushing through the inertia.
Then the weight disappeared so suddenly I almost tripped over myself from the sudden shift within my heart and body. Catching myself, I searched inward for any trace of the guilt that plagued Emma. I was alone, plagued only by my own panic and urgency.
Gooseflesh painfully pulled at the skin across my whole body. “Emma, I’m here. I’m coming for you.” My voice bounced off the walls, reverberating back to me as I ran through each room, each one as empty as the last. The interpretation of the sacred text had been removed, and no one had been left behind for me to question. They knew if they’d left anyone I would have extracted information out of them using any means necessary.
Coming to stand in the middle of the large hall where I’d last seen my Masters, it finally sank in that she was gone. They were all gone. They’d stepped through a portal and disappeared. A dry wheezing laugh escaped me, as my fisted hands fell open. Blood rushed back to my fingers with a painful wash of invisible pins and needles. It was nothing compared to the roar of an ocean of fear and pain that slammed into me with a finality ending so silently I thought I’d been deafened. They took Emma with them, and I would never find them as long as they didn’t want to be found. I knew it with absolute certainty. After all, they had taught me that particularly trick.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
The last rays of daylight warmed my face, but inside I was cold as stone. The fresh scent of pine stung my nose with over exuberance, as birds chirped in the towering trees a half mile out from here. It was as if they knew to keep their distance from me. From the fourth floor of the unfinished building in Smoky Badger, I had a perfect view above the Colorado forest of the sunset. The sky was lit with deep golds and soft oranges, but I wished the sky had been painted red. It would have been more fitting than this picturesque serenity.
I’d finally learned in town that they had lost funding for the construction, which is why this place remained an abandoned skeleton, half built. The wine bottles had remained untouched in the corner where I’d left them. A thin layer of golden-yellow, chalky pollen now covered them, evidence spring was nearing. Things were still, fixed here as though nothing had moved in my absence, but I had gone further than I’d ever dreamed. The last time I was here, I was a man who knew his mission. No, not a man. A force played by someone else’s hand. I had voyaged for what felt like a lifetime only to return to stand at this precipice.
It had been two months since Emma left to do what she’d thought was the right thing. She thought the order of Luxis was going to help her save the world and surrendered herself to them. Whether it was Gatsby or another Chevalier they called upon who created a portal to move the entire order, I never had a chance of catching up.
My hand barely touched the exposed metal beam holding up the roof, while the front half of my feet hung over the edge. I sucked in more of the fresh, pine air, hoping it would ground me. I was free. I was my own man, my soul to wield as I saw fit. Yet, with all that freedom I felt like little more than a flailing babe, screaming to the heavens for help while my insides had frozen into a paralysis I could not name.
No, that wasn’t true. My paralysis was fear. Fear of decision, of choice, of having to lead myself. It left me incapacitated.
Is this how everyone felt? All these years, I had passed by civilians who seemed to face each new day with assured calm as they poured onto the streets, walked to work, to restaurants, to meet with their friends and family. Those people I’d seen serenely sip coffee outside a café, those who danced on the sidewalks singing with abandon in the middle night with their friends after imbibing. I had once looked forward to knowing my place amongst them, but now I knew the truth of the perfected blank mask everyone affixed as soon as they woke up. It covered up the truth I had come to know. It covered absolute and utter terror.
In possessing my soul, I was free to choose, but there was no way of knowing whether I was doing the right thing. At times I suspected I knew the truth, but was never certain. I only knew one person who was fearless looking into that frozen tundra of fear every day.
After overcoming my initial denial that Emma was really gone, followed by the complete lack of ability to do anything about it, I considered maybe she was right. Maybe she was meant for sacrifice all along, to save the world. I roamed the empty halls of the Temple of Lux, haunting it for weeks. I would stalk about the reading room, staring at the books willing them to give me the answers until the smell of their aging pages offended me back out again. Several times, an unbidden rage swelled in me until I could no longer contain myself. I would grab books off the shelf, hurl them across the room, rip them in half, try to destroy the tools that were useless to me. There was nothing left there for me.
The trials had nearly killed me as a child, but walking through the jungle a second time, I was a changed man. I still didn’t have my powers, but I had an iron-will to find Emma no matter the cost. Gods help the creatures I slaughtered who got in my way. When I finally arrived at a village equipped with a modicum of modern technology, I discovered I was in a country called Tajikistan. I’d never been instructed on its geography, only told it was the home to which I should always return by way of portal unless otherwise instructed.
Between guidance from the locals and the currency I took from the unguarded Temple, I was able to move around from city to city, watching and waiting. I eventually made my way into Beijing where information was abundant. Though I could not read, I’d already been trained to speak in thirty-seven languages so I could properly observe wherever my mission took me. There was never a moment I was far from a radio, or television. I even learned to use the computers in the local cyber cafés with the help of some children who had taken a liking to me, despite the warnings of their parents who seemed to detect the rage behind my eyes.
The green moon had thrown scientists into a tailspin. While most described the event as a beautiful mystery they were eager to study, for many it quickly became a phenomenon, fading into the background of their day-to-day lives. However, a small percent of people around the world recognized it for what it was. A portent evil was coming. They carried posters proclaiming, ‘The end is near.’
Then I got my sign. An earthquake of unprecedented magnitude made national news. It shook the small town of Smoky Badger until the earth’s crust ripped into a gigantic crack, and everyone had to be evacuated.
Where the earth breaks, the dark lord shall journey in a fortnight’s time to set his deathly foot upon the dirt of the earth.
It made sense. We had to go back to the beginning. The soul eater broke ground when he stepped onto our plane and his dark lord was going to follow the path.
I had found my way to an airport and crossed my first ocean, which gave me ample time to think. Who was I to stop Emma? It was her life to choose what to do with it, just as my life was my own now. Could I stop her from doing w
hat she believed in? It forced me to ask the question, what did I believe in now? Did I believe the Luxis? Did I believe any of the Orders? Did I believe the end was coming? Did I believe in myself to fight it, if it came to that? I could never meet the endless litany of questions with any semblance of an answer, and thus I flailed. Flailed for guidance, direction, from someone, anyone who wasn’t me.
My thoughts easily fell to Emma, always procuring deep stabs of loss. Her expressive eyes, the delicate slide of her fingers against my knuckles before she took my hand in hers, the concentration of her scent I’d found where her shoulders and neck met. Yet she was so much more. The way she walked into a room demanding attention and respect, no matter who thought they knew better. Where I was once blinded, she uncovered the lies around me one by one.
After all you have done, after all you have been through. I just want you to have a life you can believe in again.
Standing there on the fourth floor, watching the sun finally disappear, the last rays shooting up into the sky illuminating thin trails of clouds into purple rocket trails, it finally came to me. It came as effortless as a breath. Looking down, I was hardly surprised to see my palms were glowing. Humming with power, I felt it vibrate from my toes to my chest. It was different than before. The energy felt purer, almost clean in comparison to the magic I had wielded in the past.
I didn’t know what I was going to do, but I knew I was capable of doing whatever was needed now.
Closing my eyes, I reached out with my senses into the forest. Like water lapping at a beach, it sought for any disturbance as it flowed out. I opened my eyes. They were almost here. All of them.
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
Prophecy Girl (The Five Orders Book 1) Page 19
