When I first locked eyes on Emma, my body surged of its own volition, almost jettisoning me from my hiding spot high up in a tree. My hands wrapped around nearby limbs so tightly my knuckles went white. I forcibly stilled the straining, tense muscles in my body, choosing to watch, carefully taking in as much information as I could. The pinprick tips of the pine needles brushed against my back and arms as if soothing me. Soon, you’ll get your chance soon.
The seemingly endless deep chasm was less than a quarter mile from Smoky Badger Liquors where it had all begun with the soul eater. I’d reached the unnatural fissure before anyone else. Climbing up near the tree line, I got a vantage point of the chasm at its widest yawn of eight meters.
My breath caught over the lump that had formed in my throat. Emma wore a white dress, similar to the one the Order had put her in when I’d first taken her to the Temple of Lux, except this one had sleeves and was made of heavier material to fight off the bite of evening chill in the mountains. Her mother’s necklace hung around her neck as always. The white gemstone caught the light of a torch and winked at me with a twinkle. Her eyes were wide and I caught the glisten of her lips as she repeatedly licked them in what seemed nervous anticipation. Her hair was wet and slicked back, as if she’d just bathed. Of course, they would want to anoint her before sacrificing her, I thought with disgust. My muscles tensed again with all the rage of the feral beast I’d been twisted into by lies and manipulation. I didn’t want them touching her, blessing her with their deceit, before sending her to her death.
This is what she wanted, a voice inside me parried. You came to enact her will, whatever she may choose.
Licking the front of my teeth, I tried to rid myself of the sour taste that unexpectedly flooded my mouth.
Emma pushed her thick pink glasses up her nose. She must have retrieved them when she returned to the Temple. There was tape on one corner, holding the frames together. She was surrounded by an escort of ten Order members who were leading her toward the fissure. They held torches to light the surrounding land. The green moon added its own sickly cast making me as uneasy as when I first saw it. The ground was a blanket of browned pine needles with patches of grass that had resiliently pushed its way through in places. The layout was a stark contrast of dark robes, hoods covering the faces of each member, to Emma’s feminine frame in white, billowy material.
This is what she wants, I insisted once again to myself, but it felt wrong. Everything about this was wrong. I had to find a way to make her aware I was here. I needed her to know I was here for her, no matter what she chose to do, but it was too soon to reveal myself. It was unwise to charge in blindly. My body coiled further into the tree in preparation as her escort spread out in formation, giving her more space.
Emma’s head whipped around, looking between each Order member, now biting her wet lower lip. One hand picked at the nails on her other hand. It reminded me of when we talked after she’d pulled over the car on our journey to rest. It ended with her confessing her mounting attraction for me, and I foolishly spurned her advances, thinking I was saving her.
My brow furrowed. She looked scared and unsure. This wasn’t at all the confident woman I knew. Even when she’d made hard decisions, she found certainty in them. Like when she resolved to take the harder path by my side rather than return home. Like when she left me to do the right thing. Though I had come to realize I’d never once thought for myself, I had been in awe of her ability to know what was right. Even when she’d left me in that cave, I knew she was resigned to what she must do, though I hadn’t reached that conclusion with her. Now, she looked like cornered prey, seeking a way out.
You just want that to be true so you can run in there and save her, I assured myself. Don’t move. Don’t do whatever foolish thing you think you need to do.
That was when I saw Master Wu walk out into the clearing to stand just outside the circle of order members. His deep blue robe was encrusted in jewels for the occasion, I observed bitterly. Closing his eyes, he raised his hands as if in prayer and mumbled words just out of my hearing range. The Order members remained still as stone except for one who twisted slightly to glance at Master Wu. It was brief, but I caught sight of the order member’s round face under the hood. Travis.
I bristled in enmity, sizzling blood flooded my face causing my breath to come in short hot bursts. It was his fault. Travis was the one who had made Emma go away. The cowardly weasel insisted she needed to die to save the world, and for the first time, I wished it was him who would die tonight. I grasped more firmly at the ridged, layered bark but ceased when it audibly crunched under my grip.
I still didn’t see anyone holding any kind of sacrificial blade to take her life and Emma didn’t hold anything to take her own life with. I wondered if that came later.
Emma’s eyes searched the darkness outside the circle of light, as if looking for something. Her hands continued their agitated dance. I was desperate to be with her, to soothe her. Desire to know what she was thinking flooded me. If only I knew….
Of course. I was a thick imbecile. I closed my eyes and searched inward. My anxiety to find her -- the anxiety wasn’t just my own. I felt Emma around me, in me, intensifying my emotions with her trepidation. Emma’s eyes were probing the darkened forest, searching for someone. She was looking for me.
That was all I needed. Quickly and quietly I slunk down the tree, focusing on the bark scraping against my legs and palms, steadying my breath the whole way down to keep from bounding down and toward her. The moment my boots hit the ground, a blade met the vulnerable flesh of my neck before I could even straighten. I froze, waiting to see if the knife would continue its journey into my jugular. The muscular arm that wrapped around my neck stayed firm but still.
“So glad you could join us, brother,” Gatsby hissed into my ear from behind me.
#
Gatsby led me out into the clearing, my hands carefully raised in surrender. He had repositioned the blade behind me, keeping it expertly pressed between my third and fourth rib, ready to strike at my liver if I made any rash moves. Though I could not see his face, I could sense his smugness over getting the drop on me.
“Look who decided to bless us with his presence,” Gatsby called out to Master Wu. Emma whipped around. When she saw me, her face was a mixture of relief, surprise, and sadness, no one single emotion winning out. I couldn’t help but notice Travis’s hood rise to catch sight of me, but I didn’t spare him a glance. He had chosen his path.
Master Wu’s robes swept forward as he drew near. He appeared to glide rather than walk. Ferocity gripped his features in a twisted expression of pleasure. “If you’ve come to stop us, I’m afraid that won’t be possible. We anticipated your attendance.”
Gatsby nudged me with the knife again, causing me to lean away from the pressure so it wouldn’t puncture through.
“And what are you doing here, Master Wu?” I asked smoothly. I spoke to Master Wu but kept my eyes on Emma who seemed to be silently pleading with me. Even searching the lines of our connection, I knew she wasn’t even sure what to hope for. There was so much conflict in her, I couldn’t determine what it was she wanted me to do. Part of her wanted me to send me away, another part desperately wanted me to stay, and it all covered up a deeper conflict that raged inside her.
I finally turned to Wu. “I was under the impression the Propheros was here to make the sacrifice of her own free will.” I glanced at the circle of Luxis members. “And even if not, you sent enough of an escort to make sure she wouldn’t change her mind.”
“Indeed,” Master Wu smiled. His pointed teeth, gave him the appearance of a malignant hyena when he grinned. I had the thought in the past, but immediately squashed any irreverent thought I had toward one of my Masters. Now, I let the unflattering comparison soak my impression of someone I had once respected and obeyed without question. Malice flashed behind his dark eyes. “Though this may be dangerous ground to stand on when the time comes, I assured the oth
ers I needed to see this through to the end.”
So there was no chance of him leaving. The bigger part of me wondered if he weren’t here to see me to my end. My disobedience had beyond incensed him.
“Are you to take her life personally,” I asked, “or were you going to hand her the blade to do it herself once you see the darkness coming?”
Master Wu’s eyes narrowed in smug triumph, knowing something I did not. He kept his lips sealed.
Emma said in a thin, reedy voice, “It’s not that kind of sacrifice.” She cleared her throat to make her voice stronger, “The sacrifice is—”
“Silence,” Master Wu’s words snapped in the air like a mighty whip.
Emma’s lips immediately thinned away and a shudder of fear rippled up my spine. It wasn’t my fear, it was hers. He had done something to make her afraid of him. Fury rippled through me.
“I am not here to make trouble,” I announced. I gripped a fist to keep my powers at bay. The light tingled inside my right palm. I hadn’t needed to form a sacred sigil with my hands, nor chant words to focus my energy. It came easily now. A need to defend myself against Master Wu threatened my logical thinking and calm demeanor. I had to focus on my objective. “I am here to protect the Propheros.”
“You have betrayed your Order and the Light,” Master Wu’s nasal voice boomed as if he were making a proclamation. “You shall be used as an observance of darkness and sent back to the Stygian, where you belong.” His smile was full of promise of unimaginable pain to come.
Gatsby dug in me with the needle point knife again, this time piercing through my shirt and flesh. The warmth of blood trickling down my back got my attention. The cut from the tip of his knife stung, but I didn’t give him the pleasure of even a grimace.
“You were relieved of your duties, brother,” Gatsby said. “Without your powers or your dignity, you can’t possibly be of any use. I am the one chosen to protect the Propheros.”
For a moment, a deep sadness welled inside of me. Gatsby’s voice was harsh and full of spite. I knew he took umbrage with me, but in that moment I realized how much.
“I knew you resented me brother,” I said softly. “I don’t think I realized how much until now.”
He snorted.
I said in a flat tone, devoid of emotion, “Ironically, you were the one who had the most sense of us all.”
That gave him pause. I could feel it, though he was behind me and I was unable to see his face.
“You want to ask me, don’t you? It’s on the tip of your tongue. It’s what made you better than the rest of us, and the reason why you were punished the most. Your innate curiosity.”
“Gatsby,” Master Wu’s voice cracked like a whip. “You will hold the rogue Chevalier until the prophecy has been fulfilled. Do you understand?”
There it was again. That slight hesitance that urged Gatsby to ask more, but instead he led me back and away to the outskirts of the ring of order members.
Emma watched me with wide eyes as her hands came up to rub either arm against the early night chill that had set in. The wet hair couldn’t be helping her body temperature.
I’m glad you’re here.
I heard the words inside my own head but they were Emma’s. Though I wasn’t sure how she had done it, I focused on solidifying the words in my own head and tried to send a message back to her.
To the end, my love.
Emma’s mouth quirked on one side, the barest hint of a smile disappearing before it barely began. I didn’t know if she heard me, but I sent one more message to her.
Are you sure?
My heart pounded in my chest so hard, I could barely hear over its thunderous beat in my ears. Part of me, sure I would throw myself back onto Gatsby’s knife myself if her answer was yes. If I had to watch her take her own life, I surely wouldn’t survive. But I would never do that. I had to protect her life and would in whatever way she chose, even if it killed me to do so.
For a long time, I watched Emma rub her arms and stare at the ground. She did so for so long I doubted she had received my psychic messages at all.
Then she reached up with both hands to slip off her glasses, shakily closed the frames, then looked up at me. Her smooth white throat convulsed under a hard swallow. Travis’s head rose several inches, and I noticed he was watching her too as if sensing a shift.
Her answer came through crystal clear as her eyes met mine.
No.
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
“Gatsby,” I said, under my breath, well out of earshot of Master Wu, who’d begun loudly chanting in fervent prayer. “Did they tell you why I was no longer fit to be Chevalier?”
“Attempting to take the virginity of the Propheros seemed like a pretty good reason,” he said in a bored tone. If he didn’t have the knife stuck in my back, I was sure he’d be cleaning underneath his fingernails with its razor tip.
“Do you really think I’d take something so sacred for myself? Do you think I would just turn on the Light like that?”
Gatsby didn’t respond. There was something about his pause that I didn’t understand but felt I should have.
“Temptation is real brother, yet the Chevalier must be cleansed of it.” His words were tight, and I could tell he was hiding something, but I didn’t have time to probe for what.
“Yes well, when have you known me to succumb to temptation, brother? Ever?”
He didn’t respond.
“Admittedly, Emma is unique and I have had to fight baser instincts I’d never known before, but do you know why I finally turned against the Luxis, brother? It wasn’t because temptation had overcome me.”
Again, that static hum around his silence. He wanted to ask. His curiosity wriggled and prodded him to ask. I couldn’t speak it until I knew he was ready. I had to rely on his knowledge of my previous devoutness. How could he forget when it disgusted him so all these years?
“I think you knew,” I added in a low voice. “On some level, I think part of you had always known the truth, which is why you had to suffer the most.” I closed my own eyes against the pain of my blindness.
The pressure of his blade lessened ever so slightly off my ribs. “What truth?”
Though I inwardly crowed in victory over that chink in his armor causing him to ask, my jaw tightened and my chest constricted as I explained.
“We were never soulless. They told us that so we would bend to their will. Our only objective was to exhibit absolute obedience, and they worked out a brilliant plot to demand just that. Convince us to work toward a redemption we never needed in the first place.”
Gatsby gave a slight snort, and I couldn’t tell if he was amazed at how well the Order’s ploy worked or if it was because he could never truly conform to the obedience they demanded. I counted on it being the latter. That way he would come to the truth sooner.
“We’ve been lied to and used.” Though I was speaking to Gatsby, I kept my eyes trained on Emma who rocked back and forth between each foot. Her glasses hung off the neck of her dress now. She held each arm, and though she wasn’t pacing, she was clearly agitated. Though no one could blame her, waiting for her death. I wasn’t sure if Master Wu could sense the change of Emma’s mind. Even if he hadn’t been present, the number of order members would easily prevent her escape if she decided to leave before the darkness came.
“Which is why we must act now.” I kept my voice low enough that I couldn’t be overheard.
The forest stilled of every bug chirp and twittering bird. It happened so abruptly, even Master Wu’s words died off his lips. Perhaps I was too late. Perhaps the darkness had come and I couldn’t save Emma. Energy pulsed through me, begging to be released but I held my ground. If I was going to fight, I needed to know I could win. Between Gatsby and Master Wu, I wouldn’t get two moves into a spell without them both stopping me. Maybe my new-found power was strong enough I wouldn’t have to use a spell though.
As I debated whether to try to use the brute force o
f my magic, figures emerged a quarter mile out past the fissure. Green light illuminated two familiar faces. Phillip and Regina stepped from the woods and into the clearing. Both wielded katanas. The long thin blades caught the light of the green moon, causing the weapons to glint with menace.
The Luxis pulled blades from their robes as if sharing the same breath, all except for Travis who fumbled to pull his out. In contrast to the Veritas, our order members carried claymore swords, the original medieval articles made in Scotland. The handle scooped downward over the blade.
Master Wu seemed irritated, but not alarmed. He knew the two agents would be easily overtaken and he wouldn’t even have to bother to lift a finger.
Fifty more agents stepped out from the trees to join my biological parents. Master Wu’s irritation now pulled his lips down into a disgusted sneer.
The house of Veritas erupted in a battle cry and charged across the clearing toward the chasm separating them from their enemies.
The agents had to round to either side of the chasm where it was narrowed in places enough to jump the crack. The Luxis order members fanned out in both directions. It wasn’t long before the clang of blades reverberated in the night. Emma instinctively took several steps back, away from the melee. Blood spattered the ground near her from an agent of Veritas who was dead before hitting the ground, Emma turned to face me, ready to run into my arms.
Master Wu stepped in between us. I couldn’t wait any longer. I launched forward, but Gatsby grabbed my arm and used my momentum against me to throw me to the ground so I landed on my back facing up toward him.
“Please Gatsby, we need to protect her,” I pleaded, propping myself up on my elbows.
Tucking away his needle point knife, Gatsby grinned down at me. “I am,” he said before throwing a hard punch to the side of my face.
I kicked at his stomach with both feet, but Gatsby was quick to draw back. My face stung, already swelling from the blow. Jerking my lower half, I jack-knifed into a standing position. “Gatsby, didn’t you hear me? You can’t defend the people who have lied to us our whole lives.”
Prophecy Girl (The Five Orders Book 1) Page 20