Prophecy Girl (The Five Orders Book 1)

by Holly Roberds

  “Teddy,” A disheveled blonde woman emerged from Teddy’s room in a skimpy camisole and shorts. With slurred shouts she charged out of the room, barefoot and smeared makeup, intent to join in the violence against me.

  “Calan.” Emma’s quiet warning sailed through the air, caressing my ears. She was watching the cloud and it began to metamorphose as it had the day before.

  Dawn had come, and with it, death.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  Two gruesome legs connected with the ground, shaking the earth with their arrival. The soul eater solidified up over that blurry face again. Like lightning it struck, moving as fast as I knew it to when it was in fog form. With an unnatural crack of thunder, it streaked over to the barely-covered woman crying out for Teddy. She stumbled on the gravel, as the soul eater blocked her path to me.

  The soul eater bore down on her, its mouth yawning far past what any human mouth was capable of. A sickening crackle emanated from the woman’s spine as her body suddenly bent at the hips, backward at a ninety-degree angle in the wrong direction. Time slowed in a horrific slow-motion sequence as the sight of her broken body ingrained itself in my mind to fuel nightmares for all eternity. The soul eater’s jaw extended to its full length, well over a foot long, then it began to feast.

  Most people gaped, some screamed, as the bright energy of her soul funneled out of her nose, mouth, and eyes into the soul eater’s gaping maw. The feeding sounded like a wind tunnel sucking into itself as the malevolent spirit ripped the soul from her body.

  Goose pimples stiffened painfully all over my body as if in response to someone scratching long, thick dirty fingernails down a blackboard. The sulfur thickened in the air until the soul eater’s putrid stench became visible, pumping a toxic mustard yellow mist into the air. I’d seen a low-level demon rip the limbs from its victims, and still I could better stomach the sight than this. Watching the demonic spirit feed, I felt hundreds of imaginary maggots crawling all over my skull, and it became hard to breathe as every instinct screamed at me to run. But I had long learned to suppress my fear response.

  While everyone stood watching in terror, I grabbed my broadsword and ran straight at it. If I didn’t destroy the soul eater now, more people would die. No, more than die. It was worse than death. Its victims would never know the after-life or their next incarnation. They would be lost for all eternity.

  Just as I came up behind it, lunging with a thrust of my broad sword, the soul eater whipped around and smacked me away with a massive arm. It released its hold on the woman. Her body collapsed to the ground, the vessel now empty, flesh already rotting.

  I scrambled to my feet. Fortunately, I still grasped the sword in my hand. The soul eater now feasted on an aged woman standing outside her room in a thick terry-cloth robe. Bags hung under her eyes and everything about her body drooped to match those bags; her stomach, the extra skin on her arms and thighs. The bagginess hung the wrong way now as the soul eater bent her backward with a succession of snaps. Soon her skin peeled and rotted away as the monster sucked her soul away. The soul eater didn’t notice me until I plunged the sword through its back, the blade slicing out through the front of it. It cried out in pain and the second woman’s body dropped.

  I pulled the sword out from its grayed flesh with great effort and began to hack away at its body. A long arm dropped to the ground and I cut away a leg. Except with every hack, the limbs grew back with expediency because it had fed. No blood or ichor spurted from its wounds. It was solid through and through. It was like stabbing through a tree softened with rot.

  My sword pierced through its head. Taking a couple steps back, I panted. That would surely be the end of it. It let out a groan of pain but then its strange blurry face brought a mouth into enough focus so that I could see it smile as my sword still stuck from its head like a horn. It summoned dark energy with a hot sizzle. Before I could move, it threw the weight of its dark powers at me. It smashed into my body, sending me flying through the air over rows of cars until I crashed into the windshield of one. The dark energy lingered to caress me like a night terror causing sweat to break out on my flesh and fear to grip my heart. I had to focus to steady my breath and come back to the present before fear and despair swallowed my senses.

  The windshield glass cut through the armor of my coat and pants, piercing me. Wiggling with a groan, I discovered my body was stuck in the windshield. All I could do was helplessly watch the carnage.

  By now the bystanders had broken into a panic. They rushed to grab their things, ran to their cars, some of them peeling out of the lot, gravel spraying out behind their tires, but the soul eater still had plenty at its disposal. It streaked from person to person, sucking them dry. It snatched the bald smoker, contorted him and drained him, tossing the body next to the woman who had been inside his room. It darted into rooms, draining whoever was inside. It was growing too powerful.

  I continued to wiggle, trying to leverage myself out of the glass. My vision blurred as tears filled my eyes. I was helpless while so many souls were destroyed. How could I have failed so many? This was all my fault.

  The silver van drove by and I met the watery eyes of the young boy as his parents sped away. His sister was missing from the seat beside him. I wondered if her body now lay rotting somewhere around here.

  “Calan,” someone softly said my name. Emma was at the side of the car. She had stayed out of harm’s way, for which I was grateful.

  “Where’s Travis?” I asked in a panic. As soon as the soul eater had become strong enough, it would go after the Propheros and I’d have no way of stopping it.

  “He’s safe, for now,” she said, keeping a calm, low voice. The screams of agony echoed throughout the u-shape of the motel block. Over her shoulder, I watched the owner perish under the soul eater’s hunger.

  I grabbed Emma’s arms and together we pulled me out from the windshield with another loud crunch of glass. The shards rained down, tinkling as they hit the paved parking lot. Instead of rushing back into the fray, I paused. Yet again, I was failing to protect. We should drive away and pray it wouldn’t catch up.

  “It’s too strong.” My words struggled to get past the lump in my throat. “Too fast, and too powerful now. Nothing can stop it. We must run.” My heart broke into pieces at the prospect of retreat. I had never run before, especially when so many could be harmed, but I had to protect the Propheros. These people were lost and there was nothing I could do.

  As I watched the scene in abject horror, paralyzed by fear, Emma’s hand curled around my bicep and she lifted up onto her toes to whisper into my ear. My eyes shut of their own accord and I leaned into her.

  “Calan, you can do this. Use your magic again.” Emma then laid a sweet kiss on my cheek that warmed my face. The warmth traveled down to warm my body with a comfort I was unaccustomed to. “I believe in you.”

  Power erupted inside me like a geyser, so unexpectedly that I lost my breath. What felt like liquid sun raced through my veins, renewing my energy. Could her very words be magic? I didn’t know what it was, but the effect was power unlike any I’d known.

  Time slowed once more. Striding forward, I walked over the bodies until I was ten feet away from the feeding soul eater. I dropped to a knee and held my hands in a triangle. The pads of my fingers met each other in familiar greeting and my palms sang with comforting heat. The soul eater turned, its heavy step vibrating the ground. The words my Masters taught me fell from my mouth like a rushing waterfall.

  The soul eater let out a sound resembling a laugh except it was grated like a manhole cover scraping against asphalt as it was removed.

  Sure of myself, I built the power between my hands until I felt I held the sun itself. The pressure was so intense I thought my very heart would burst from joy. Despite my eyes focusing on the soul eater, all I saw in my mind’s eye was Emma.

  A cheer whooped out behind me. “Get him, Calan.”

  My mouth quirked in a smile and I remembered the words Emm
a had whispered to me, her breath caressing my ear. The soul eater advanced on me but it had barely crossed half the distance to me before I felt the crest of the wave and let it land. My magic thundered from my hands in a blast of blinding light like nothing I’d ever unleashed before. My body shivered violently with the waves the rushed off me, but it was rooted in pleasure. Pleasure like pizza. Pleasure like kissing Emma.

  The soul eater screamed, the light surrounding its form, enveloping it. Then with a last cresting wave, my light grandly exploded once more and the soul eater did so along with it.

  I blinked to keep the tiny, gray dust particles of what remained of the soul eater from getting in my eyes.

  “Whoo, suck on that soul eater.”

  I turned around to see Emma dancing in victory bringing a smile to my lips, but it soon faltered as I took in all the decaying bodies surrounding me.

  Gods. How could I have failed so many?

  Emma ran out into the street and began jumping up and down in a strange dance. A car pulled into the lot, distracting me from my grief. It was Emma’s jeep. I hadn’t even noticed its absence. As it neared, I saw Travis was at the wheel. He gave me a salute with a shaky hand, his mouth set in a tight line.

  Emma bounded up to me. “We got the girl in the back.” Her eyes took in the sight of the bodies and her face sobered. Eight were visible, but who knew how many were putrefying in their rooms? “Should we go?” she asked, forcing her eyes back on me.

  Swallowing hard, I nodded. “Thank you.”

  She smiled again, though it wasn’t as bright as before. “You were the one who did it. After all, you are Chevalier.”

  My heart sank. I was. She had given me the gift of power I’d never known, but it changed nothing.

  I followed Emma to the passenger side of the car, where she quickly hopped into the back. I caught a glimpse of the little girl, white-faced, and clutching her stuffed bunny like a life line. I felt some solace from the opportunity to return the girl to her family. It wouldn’t be hard to track them if we left now.

  My fingers closed around the door handle at the same time something stung me on the side of my neck. I looked in at Travis’s face through the window, my mouth opened but no words came out. He met my look with a confused expression, then his eyes fell over my shoulder and I watched recognition dawn on his features.

  “Go,” I said. It was barely audible, but Travis saw my lips move around the word.

  From the back of the car, I heard Emma’s muffled voice. “Calan?”

  The car handle ripped out of my hand as Travis slammed his foot on the gas and the jeep jumped forward and away from my already falling body.

  Darkness swallowed me into oblivion.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  A click then the relentless light from a bare bulb hanging from the ceiling brought me back to consciousness. Even after I managed to open my eyes, I had to blink them to try and bring the swinging light into focus. Fog enveloped my brain and my mouth felt like I’d been sucking on cotton for a day. My limbs were stiff and cramped where I sat. Cold had crept into my naked torso, and rope bit into my wrists.

  Where am I? Where is Emma? Did they get away?

  Instead of allowing panic to engulf my senses, I focused on taking note of every little detail around me. After some shifting, I discovered I couldn’t move my legs either. The strong smell of mildew and concrete reminded me of the liquor store, except it lacked the scent of yeast.

  Emma. Where are you?

  I wanted to call out for her, but I kept my mouth sealed as I tried to orient myself. The light switch cord clanged against the bulb softly and I detected the sound of dripping nearby.

  When I could finally see clearly, I realized I wasn’t alone. Two people dressed in black had been waiting for me to return to my senses. One stood, arms crossed, in a relaxed waiting stance. The other figure was perched on a cabinet counter in a sizable, yet empty, basement. The wood stairs behind the standing man ascended to what I assumed to be a suburban household. The agents of Veritas had caught up to me once again.

  “How are you feeling?” Regina asked from her spot on the counter. I might have believed the concern in her voice if they hadn’t tied me up.

  I leveled my gaze at her. “Like I’ve been drugged.” I vaguely recalled the sting of the needle in my neck.

  “I apologize for our methods,” Phillip said, his hands folded behind his back, “But it was doubtful you would have voluntarily granted us a second interview.”

  I narrowed my eyes at him. He was right.

  I consciously relaxed my shoulders. “Well now that you have me as a captive audience,” I said the words with pointed disdain, “what is it you want to tell me?”

  Phillip said, “You must know the balance has been interrupted.”

  “The soul eater,” Regina said, disbelief and fear colored her voice. “It became flesh.”

  “So you saw the whole show?” I asked drily. I couldn’t expect help from anyone when it had attacked, especially not someone from a different Order, yet the stinking seed of bitterness shivered in my heart when I thought of the lives that could have been saved if these agents of Veritas had intervened. “From a safe distance, naturally.” I subtly worked my wrists behind the chair, trying to find any give in the ropes. I spotted my brown armored coat lying across the stair railing.

  Regina’s expression became distressed. “You can’t think that would have helped anything. We were not trained to engage with such entities.”

  “But you are trained,” I accused, trying to confirm what I suspected.

  “Well, yes,” Phillip said this time. “It takes a great number of us and many sacred artifacts, but we have managed to send dark beings back to the Stygian before. When we detected the Soul Eater nearing you, we planned to intervene but once it became solid, we thought it best to hold back.”

  “So you just watched innocent people die.” My teeth ground against the words. I’d never known hate before, but it was the only word I could think of to describe the bag of hot snakes roiling around my chest, making it difficult to breathe.

  Phillip’s forehead and eyes wrinkled in distress. “You don’t understand. We are not even qualified to banish a normal soul eater. We would have been completely out of our realm attempting to aid you. We couldn’t possibly be of help to you once it became flesh.”

  Seeing the look on my face, Regina straightened her shoulders and said to Phillip. “He isn’t going to be reasonable, dear. They made him Chevalier. They don’t think past what they are told.” The word “Chevalier” dripped with derision and the tension in my chest intensified until I thought I would explode.

  I wanted to correct her. The Luxis didn’t make me into anything. I was what I was. But these people were beyond reason.

  Phillip held up a hand and continued to study me. “We are as sorry for the casualties as you are, but you also must know we could not risk our lives for them. It is more important we report the imbalance to our Order.”

  “Then why do you need me?” I asked, my voice gravelly with repressed hate. “Go tell your people of the imbalance and leave me be.”

  He continued to stare at me in an unerring fashion. After a long moment, he responded. “Because we suspect you are either the cause of the imbalance or know what is.”

  My eyes fell away from his and I shrugged. “Why should I know anything? I merely tried to save those civilians.”

  Regina spoke this time. “Because first it was the Crib coming to this plane and now a Soul Eater has been made flesh. And they both appeared at your location. What have you gotten yourself into, dear son?” Her words were cold, but her eyes betrayed a warmth toward me that let me know they truly believed this preposterous lie of me being their kin.

  “I’m not your son,” I spat. My wrists continued to move, feeling out any give. My fingers toyed with the edges of rope.

  “What has the Order of Luxis gotten you into?” Phillip asked, though it sounded more like he was
asking himself.

  “The only thing the Luxis has granted me is illumination. Illumination of everything, which is where I ground my power. Which is how I saved at least some of those civilians you deemed expendable. And it is also why I see past your lies meant to manipulate me. You have no power over me.”

  “Who are those people you were with?” Phillip took a step closer. “They do not seem to be aligned with any Order. Why travel with them?”

  He was coming too close to the truth and I felt like a bucking horse trying to shy away from it. “People who I have been able to garner a ride from.”

  Regina clucked her tongue. “My dear son, the Order of Luxis may have taught you many a thing, but not how to lie.”

  It was a partial truth, but even I heard the weak delivery I made of it.

  She cocked her head to the side. “Are they the cause of the imbalance? If the darkness is crossing over, it must mean one of them is…” her mouth slackened as her eyes widened with realization.

  No. NO. I cried internally, willing her to bypass the realization she had stumbled upon.

  “Phillip,” she jumped off the counter to stand next to her husband, coming at least a foot shy of him. Her voice hurried. “The Prophecy. The darkness shall cross the threshold to harken the Propheros is near. And with it, the dawning of a new age,” she quoted a text I had heard my Masters speak of. She turned to me next, anxiety written over her features. “You must tell us where the Propheros is.”

  My lips tightened in an obvious rebellion of silence.

  “You don’t understand,” she pleaded, coming closer. “The Order of Luxis is not what you think. If you deliver the Propheros to them, evil will befall us all from their terrible deeds.”

  I stuck my chin up. “The Order of Luxis’s sole purpose is to protect the Light.”

  Phillip crossed his arms. “Which they do so by wielding deceit and subterfuge. As Chevalier, you could not possibly know what they are capable of. They are more interested in helping themselves, than they are concerned with the fate of this world.”