The Oracle's Secret (The Oracle Saga Book 1)

by Amber Darke

  There’s a shallow place just near the shelf that’s perfect for lying back and soaking in the water. My aching muscles ease in the cosy embrace of the pool and I close my eyes for a moment, forgetting all my troubles in the water.

  ‘Mind if I come in too?’ Tarian says, behind me.

  I turn to smile at him and find him in the middle of undressing, pulling his tank top up and over his head, revealing a perfectly toned six-pack and... oh god... a tattoo just above his heart, a knotted pattern - a pattern that I’ve kissed, traced with my fingers.

  It’s him.

  My heart beats faster and I feel like the world is spinning around me. This can’t be real. It can’t be him. But it is, and I’ve never been gladder about anything in my whole life.

  ‘Livya?’ he asks.

  I suddenly remember that he was asking me a question. He’s looking at me quizzically, a hint of a grin on his face. What was it, what was it? Oh.

  ‘Of course you can come in,’ I manage to say. ‘Plenty of room!’

  I don’t know what to do, what to say, how to feel. Should I tell him? Should I wait? What if it turns out to be some sort of huge coincidence? Maybe he has six brothers and they all have the same tattoo?

  But no, this is right, I can feel it. As he finishes undressing and walks into the water, I’m filled with a certainty that I’ve never felt before. And I stand up and go to him, facing him, waist-deep in warm water and lit by glowing crystals.

  He smiles at me, uncertain. ‘Livya?’ he asks again.

  I’m close now, close enough to touch. And I know what I want.

  ‘Kiss me,’ I say.

  He does. It’s slow at first, his lips just brushing mine, but even that little contact sends surges of want through me. I want to grab him and pull him to the ground but I don’t want to rush the moment, I want it to last, I want to remember every second. He kisses me deeper, his hand on my neck, his thumb brushing my cheek. Every place he touches me, I tingle. I move closer to him, pressing close to feel the shape of him, and every vision of him I’ve had floods my memory. The feel of his arms around me is just the way I knew it would be, the taste of his lips is deliciously familiar, the scent of him, even in the water, is the musky, earthy scent that drives me wild. I can’t tear myself away from him, not even for a moment. I want his mouth, his hands, his arms, his shoulders, his heart beating beside mine. And I want more than that, infinitely more, I want everything, every part of him joined with every part of me, if only for one earth-shaking moment.

  And I remember a vision, several nights ago. A warm, dark space. Water, glowing light. A feeling that everything was falling into place.

  ‘Tarian,’ I manage to gasp, between kisses.

  ‘Yes?’ he asks, his voice low.

  ‘There’s something I need to tell you,’ I say.

  He looks confused, but he lets me lead him back to dry land so that we can sit together and talk. I’m fighting the urge to start kissing him again, but I need him to know. I don’t want to keep him a secret from himself. I don’t want to worry about it while I’m kissing him, I just want to be in the moment, knowing that he wants this as much as I do, understands what he’s getting into.

  ‘I’ve been having visions,’ I say, ‘visions of you. Except I didn’t know it was you until just now. I didn’t know who it was. I...’

  I’ve started all wrong.

  ‘What kind of visions?’ he asks.

  ‘Visions of us,’ I say. ‘Together. I’ve been having them for months. I never saw your face. It wasn’t until I saw your tattoo that I knew... I don’t know why I’ve seen you in visions so many times, or what it means - except that you must be important to me, to my life. And I wanted you to know, because we shouldn’t do this just because I’ve seen it. I don’t want to let my visions dictate my life for me. I want us to choose it.’

  He studies me with those fathomless eyes, glinting golden brown in the glow. ‘So, have you had a vision of this, now, this very moment?’ he asks.

  I shake my head. ‘Not this exact moment, but I’ve seen us here, in this cave.’

  ‘And what were we doing?’ he asks.

  I blush. ‘We’re both still wet from the pool,’ I say. ‘We’re both naked. I’m smiling at you.’

  And I can’t help myself, I do smile at him, and he smiles back at me and my stomach does backflips.

  ‘Then what?’ he asks.

  ‘Then,’ I say, ‘we stand, and I pull you closer.’

  He stands up, offers me his hand and helps me up. I put my hands on his waist and draw him towards me, and for a moment everything feels unreal, the vision like a layer of mist over the real experience.

  ‘This all sounds pretty good to me,’ Tarian murmurs. ‘What next?’

  I’m running my hands over his chest, full of wonder. It’s all coming true. My fingers trace his tattoo. The lines are dark, thick. I want to ask him what it means, but that can wait.

  ‘Next,’ I say, ‘whatever we want. Whatever we choose.’

  ‘I choose you,’ he says. ‘I choose everything about you. I choose us, here, right now.’

  Warmth floods me and I kiss him, folding my arms around him as he folds his around me. His skin is wet against mine, just like it was in the vision, and I shiver with anticipation. He lays me down on the stone floor and brings me close, his fingers stroking down my side, tracing down, then his hands caressing everywhere he can reach, moving from shoulders to thighs to breasts to hands to hair, no order, no method, just touching and leaving sparks in the wake of his hands, his hands that make me lean closer, gasping, wanting more. He kisses me, and for a moment I think, this is the kiss from my vision, and then there’s nothing else, nothing but the kiss, cocooning me, blocking out the world, making a whole new world of it’s own that’s just us, forever and ever. I can’t imagine needing anything else for the rest of my life.

  He pulls away and I sigh, bereft. He kisses my neck and I tense with desire at the touch of his lips, writhing with it as his kisses move downward past my collarbone. The pressure of his hands is firm on my hips, keeping me close. I clutch at him, anywhere I can reach, every place that’s firm and soft at once. And then I’m crying out without words as he takes my nipple in his mouth, teasing it with his tongue. It’s already so much, so good, that I’m not sure I can bear more, but I want him so much, want to feel him inside me, and he knows, he knows even though he never had a vision of me like I did of him, and he strokes between my legs, discovers the wetness there, and I’m so ready, so ready I could explode at every touch of his skin on mine, even the way our knees touch is like fire and magic.

  ‘I want you,’ I say. ‘Oh god, I want you...’

  I take a moment to perform a contraceptive incantation, shaking with the effort of keeping myself away from him for just the few seconds it takes, and then we’re colliding and he’s inside me and he’s filling me up and I’m surrounding him, a moment of perfect balance, and we move together like one being, slower at first, savouring it, fingers still roaming, hands still cupping, and then we move faster, urgent, no more soft touches, only holding each other tight to get closer as we rock, mouths enmeshed, bodies pressing together. My eyes squeeze shut now and I’m all touch and smell and sound and taste, his mouth, his scent, his body solid and slick and real against mine, his grunts escaping along with my gasps. And then even that is gone and there’s only one thing, one unbearable, exquisite feeling that builds and builds and builds and then bursts like a flower and sends me soaring, reeling, spinning. His ecstatic cries mingle with my own, echoing against the cave walls as we both come at the same moment. Stars fill my vision and for one moment I believe completely that we have left the Earth together.

  Chapter Seventeen

  I only have seconds to recover before the vision hits. I should have seen this coming. Yeah, I know. But there’s one thing that’s always guaranteed to enhance my powers, and that’s orgasms. Really good orgasms. And this one was on another level. I don’t know if t
his is normal for Oracles, or if it’s just me. The only person I’ve ever told is Cherry.

  The vision is one of the clearest I’ve ever had. I’m in a chamber, stone walls, lit by glowing crystals like this one but clearly in use as a room. There’s no pool, just a clean stone floor, and a mosaic path leading down the chamber towards a pedestal. I’m with Tarian, we’re running down the path towards it. On the pedestal is the Lightstone. We’re running and it’s getting closer, closer...

  That’s it. I snap out of it to find Tarian looking down at me, concerned. I’m still trembling from his touch.

  ‘Are you all right?’ he asks. ‘I wasn’t sure if I’d done something...’

  ‘No, no,’ I shake my head, smile at him. ‘It was just a vision. Actually... it’s kind of a good thing. My power is enhanced by... um... intense pleasure.’

  He grins, pleased. ‘Well, I’m glad to hear it. It was intensely pleasurable for me, too.’ He winks and it makes me glow with happiness.

  We lie together for a few minutes, but the vision has reminded me of why we came here, and I can’t shake off the worry about my blood oath. I need to start looking for the Lightstone again. I stand up.

  ‘Hey, what’s the hurry?’ Tarian asks.

  ‘We still need to find the Lightstone,’ I say. ‘We’ll be trapped here if we don’t.’

  I don’t say anything about the blood oath. For some reason I don’t want him to know about it. The blood oath feels wrong and unclean, somehow, and what I’m beginning to have with Tarian is so good and right, I don’t want to taint it. And I don’t want him to feel sorry for me, or think that he has to do something about it. It’s my blood oath, my problem.

  ‘You’re right,’ he says. ‘I’ll see if I can find another way out of here, one that won’t get us spotted if Elise has left someone to watch for us at the bottom of the falls.’

  He moves to sit cross-legged, his hands on his knees like he’s meditating, and I can’t help watching for a moment. Every movement of his body mesmerises me. I could get lost just looking at his forearms, I could spend an eternity following the shape of his stomach muscles. But I don’t want to distract him so while he’s working I slide back into the water and finish washing, getting the last of the mud and grit out of my hair.

  It’s so good to be clean. This feels even better than my bathtub with the jets. It feels better than almost anything except what happened with Tarian a few minutes ago. I can’t keep from smiling, in spite of my worries. I let the water flow around me and savour this last bit of relaxation before we have to act again.

  I think about my vision. It’s good to know what the room will look like when we find the Lightstone - the cavern walls and the glowing stones suggest it might even be somewhere close, in a cave connected somehow with this one. But why are we running? The vision had a sense of urgency that I can’t figure out, but it probably doesn’t mean good things.

  Tarian comes out of his meditation. ‘I think I know where we need to go,’ he says. ‘But we’re going to have to get wet again. It’s another cave, further down this network. It can only be reached by swimming.’

  ‘How far?’ I ask.

  ‘That’s all I know,’ he says. ‘Hopefully not too far for us to make it.’

  I swallow. The swim here was bad enough, but then I had no choice. The thought of willingly putting myself through that again makes me shudder - but then, it’s not exactly willing. I didn’t ask to be here and I didn’t ask for the blood oath. But I have to do whatever I can.

  ‘All right,’ I say. ‘I’m ready whenever you are.’

  We bundle up our damp, still-muddy clothes so that we can tie them to ourselves while we swim.

  ‘I’ll be right here, Livya,’ says Tarian.

  I nod weakly. We walk into the water hand in hand. It’s ankle deep, then waist deep, then it reaches my shoulders and I take a few breaths to get as much oxygen as I can, and then we’re under the water, swimming, and all I can do is follow Tarian and trust that he knows where he’s going.

  It’s not as scary this time. I know that we’re aiming for a particular place, not just fleeing a worse fate. But the water around us is dark - I can see crystals glowing in the distance, but too dimly to make anything else out - and all I can hear is rushing in my ears. It gets colder as we move away from our pool and into what seems to be a long, low tunnel. I can see the rock ceiling above us, too close. It feels like it’s pressing down on us, like it could fall any time and leave us crushed here, where nobody would ever find us. Tarian squeezes my hand like he knows what I’m thinking.

  My chest is starting to hurt. I was never much of a swimmer and I can’t hold my breath for that long. Tarian seems more comfortable, moving in strong, even strokes. I wonder how fast he could be if I wasn’t here. But then, if I hadn’t made him jump with me, we might still be in Elise’s custody, or worse.

  We swim until I think my lungs are about to burst, and then we come up in another cave like the one before, lit by the same crystals, except smaller and with no shelf of dry rock, just a pool and an air pocket that’s enough to let me breathe again.

  ‘Is this it?’ I ask Tarian.

  He shakes his head. ‘Not yet. This is a pit stop. I’m afraid there might be more. I can’t tell how much further there is to go. But I know we can get there safely.’

  A part of me wonders why I trust him so completely when we’ve only known each other a few days. But I can’t help it - trusting Tarian seems as natural and as sensible as breathing. But it’s still a disappointment to have to go back under the water again.

  We swim. My bundle of clothes, sodden now, is weighing me down, but I don’t want to be without it later. Ahead of me Tarian is swimming determinedly, his free arm curving powerfully through the water. This time I’m light-headed with oxygen deprivation by the time we pop up in an air pocket, this one barely even big enough to be called a cave, more like a scoop out of the rock wall of the tunnel we’re in. At least it’ll be harder for Elise and the other Northerners to find us here.

  Three more cycles of swim, run out of air, start to panic a bit, come up for air, breathe, swim, and I can’t decide whether I’m starting to get used to this or trapped in a nightmare.

  ‘Are we almost there?’ I ask Tarian.

  ‘I think so,’ he says. ‘Hang in there. You’re doing so well.’

  He kisses me, up against the wall of a tiny sparkling cavern, and for a moment my troubles melt away in his embrace. But it can’t last. We move on.

  We’re swimming again, and I’m just beginning to feel the lack of air when I feel a vision taking hold of me. I stiffen in panic - if I lose control here, now, will Tarian be able to get me to safety? Will he be able to save himself, with the weight of me dragging him down? These thoughts rush through my head even as I feel the vision taking over, but I push back at it, driving it away from me, needing it to leave me alone just long enough to deal with this.

  No! I scream silently. Now is not a good time!

  I picture myself pushing the vision away, holding it back.

  The vision recedes, leaving me dizzy and confused but still swimming. I shake my head.

  When we come up for air again I’m gasping, not just for oxygen but with shock. I’ve never done anything like that before. My visions have always taken me over, I’ve never been able to stop them.

  It hits me, now that my guard’s down - an exquisitely detailed image of the wall of another cave, studded with the same glowing crystals, but so close up that I can’t make out anything else to help me figure out where I am or what’s going on.

  It only lasts a few intense seconds and then I’m back to myself, with Tarian holding me to keep me from slipping under the water.

  ‘Vision?’ he asks.

  I nod.

  ‘You look surprised,’ he says. ‘Something bad?’

  ‘No,’ I shake my head. ‘The vision wasn’t anything important. While I was swimming, it started, but I was able to push it away and keep go
ing until we got here.’

  He looks at me curiously. ‘Can you normally do that?’

  ‘No! This is new! I didn’t even know it was possible!’

  He whistles. ‘Impressive. Have you ever really tried to control your powers? Maybe there are more things you can do.’

  I shrug. ‘Everyone - the Prince, my handlers - always said that I couldn’t control my visions, that I had to just let them show me what I needed to see. The Prince... he says I’m a vessel for knowledge of the future, and my only role is to convey that knowledge so that it can be used.’

  ‘I think he’s wrong,’ says Tarian. ‘I think you’re a lot more than that.’

  It’s too much to think about right now. I blush and look away.

  ‘Let’s focus on getting where we’re going,’ I say.

  We swim again, and this time it’s the last time, one final stretch of tunnel before the water level falls naturally around us, leaving me swimming on the surface, then walking with the water around my hips. We’re in a cave again, like the others but with one crucial difference.

  In this cave there’s a door.

  Chapter Eighteen

  ‘Huh,’ I say. ‘Interesting.’

  We scramble out of the water, as warm now as it was in our first cave, and drop our sopping bundles of clothes on the ground. I let myself watch for a moment as water cascades off Tarian, falling down his back in glimmering rivulets, down his legs... he squeezes water from his hair and it all begins again, tiny waterfalls on his shoulders, down his chest...

  Get a grip, I tell myself. You’re here for a reason.

  ‘So, what do we do?’ I ask. ‘Just... go through? Knock?’

  ‘Worth a try,’ he says.

  He knocks a few times, loudly. Nothing happens for a minute, but then the door creaks slowly open. I suddenly remember that maybe we should have tried to put clothes on in case there was somebody there, but the room we enter is uninhabited.