Prophecy Girl (The Five Orders Book 1)

by Holly Roberds

  Gatsby wasn’t listening. He didn’t want to kill me, but he was ready to express a lifetime of resentment and anger to me. He threw several more punches at me that I quickly dodged, though my head swam with hot prickles from his earlier blow.

  With a quick glance behind me, I saw Master Wu gripping Emma’s arm as she tried to twist back and away from the battle behind them. Claymore against Katana, the swords clanked, punctuated every once in a while with the groans from the wounded or dying. The agents of Veritas had bottle-necked on either side of the chasm. The servants of Luxis held them at bay, but soon the numbers of Veritas would overcome them.

  As I rolled to avoid Gatsby’s punch, his boot caught my gut, causing vomit to jettison up my throat. I had to still the urge to vomit from the sudden, unexpected hit. Instead, I rolled away before he could get me again.

  “Gatsby,” I rasped, bile still stinging my throat. “You have to stop. Listen to me.”

  He didn’t and he wouldn’t. Before I could speak another word, Gatsby’s hands poised in two L-shapes. They lit up as he chanted then he pointed them at me, sending two blasts of power at me. I rolled and escaped the first blast, but the second connected with my back as I ran away. I fell forward, my body momentarily paralyzed as it processed the white-hot pain that licked up the muscles from my lower back and up my right side. A gush of blood rushed down my back. My cheek connected hard to the pine-covered ground but I could barely feel the multitude of prickly pine needle ends.

  “That’s it, Chevalier,” Master Wu cried victoriously to Gatsby. “Destroy him as he would do to you.”

  My breath returned to me, and my back now screamed in pain, but my brain could process again and I had to get up. Rolling onto my side, I saw my brother come to stand over me. Even if I managed to get to my feet, I couldn’t run from another power blast with him on top of me like this.

  Gatsby’s hands were bright white, a strange red tinge at the edge of his power I’d never noticed before. Large chunks of hair had escaped his pony tail and wildly framed his face. His light gray eyes seemed almost whited out from the reflection of his light. His shoulders heaved from the adrenaline flooding his body. I knew he had always wanted to be on top, and with me out of the way for good, I was one less point of comparison to cause him strife.

  My eyes moved past him and Master Wu to Emma whose mouth was open. She looked like she was screaming, but I couldn’t hear her.

  Like a wound being sliced open, a tear opened behind Emma. It was like a portal, but this was forced, wrong, and looking at it made me sick. It was like watching some kind of surgery as it started as a sliver several feet above Emma’s head then slowly ripped down, opening like a ripping membrane, into the Stygian.

  CHAPTER FORTY

  When I couldn’t bear to look at it anymore, I focused up at Gatsby who had yet to end me with his force.

  “What are you waiting for?” Master Wu screeched. “Obey me at once. Kill him before he kills you.”

  The glow in Gatsby’s hands dimmed and I could see the conflict in his eyes now. Before I could consider the possibility my words had finally penetrated, Gatsby turned toward Master Wu.

  “You see, the problem, Master Wu,” he said with deadly calm, red lightning jumping in his hands and eyes. “Is that Calan would never destroy me given the chance. That is, unless you had ordered him to under no uncertain terms. Just as you are doing so to me now.”

  Master Wu straightened, his lips thinning until they disappeared. “Chevalier, I demand you obey me at once. If you do not obey me, you will never receive your lost soul. Do you want to put your soul at jeopardy?”

  “That’s the thing. Calan here says we are in possession of our souls and have always been so.” The lightning flashed brighter as if to intimidate Master Wu.

  It was strange to see. Even discovering the Order he believed in was a lie, Gatsby still had his powers. In lieu of realizing the Luxis were deceitful and manipulative, Gatsby seemed more powerful than ever. How could that be? I asked myself. Then again Gatsby always struggled to obey, it was probably true it was never the Order he unfailingly believed in like I had. It made me wonder, what was his belief so strongly grounded in?

  The clash of swords could still be heard in the background. No one had yet noticed the tear in the world. I pushed up to my feet, secure that Gatsby had moved his attention elsewhere. Yet Master Wu and Gatsby still stood between Emma and me. I hoped she knew not to run into the fray. Behind Wu’s shoulder, she paced back and forth, recognizing the dog fight she didn’t run to get in the middle of.

  Master Wu’s face hardened and I caught the side of Gatsby’s humorless smile. “So the old boy is right after all? See the one thing I do know is Calan is infuriatingly decent, so who am I to doubt his word? If your most loyal dog won’t heel, I’ve got to think you may have done something to betray his trust. Your word on the other hand….” he trailed off before releasing a blast of power at Master Wu.

  “Emma, look out,” I cried.

  With quick fortitude, Master Wu threw his hands up and with an invisible force, the blast was redirected long enough for Wu to duck out of its way. Our Masters used magic but their powers were no match to that of their wards. For our Masters to cast, it required great preparation and the combined efforts of our Masters to call powerful magic forth.

  Emma gasped and stumbled back toward the tear she had not yet seen. As if sensing something unnatural was near, Emma slowly turned toward the open wound that led to the Stygian. It glowed red and what looked like poisonous gas seeped out from the torn membrane between planes. I had to get to her.

  Undeterred, Gatsby rushed forward, throwing punches at Master Wu. Wu ducked this way and that, taking most of Gatsby’s hits. “Did you lie to us? Did you tell me I was a little monster, then beat me when I wouldn’t play your made-up game? Tell me.” He was screaming now while pouring out all the anger he possessed. Wu began to resort to using small bursts of his power to fight Gatsby off. Blood vessels immediately popped in his eyes from the magical exertion. Gatsby held his hands up in an L-shape again to power up.

  “No, Emma, no,” I cried, but as if in a trance, Emma stepped closer to the tear. I tried to get by Wu and Gatsby but another errant blast sent me face first into the ground. I scrambled back up, but then I saw it.

  A grotesque, black, stick-thin limb stepped through the perverse portal before it was joined by the rest of its twisted body. The demon had to duck to get through the tear then straightened to a dizzying height of fifteen feet.

  When the soul eaters appeared on our plane I was familiar with their accompaniment of sulfur rot and a disconcerting mist of both hot and cold. The Chevalier detected the presence of evil more acutely, the better to hunt it. The demon lord’s presence almost knocked me over. It wasn’t just hot and cold. The air froze as it burned. The smell of rotting meat and illness was overpowering.

  Its body sickly glistened, tar-like goop dripping off in places. The thought of it touching Emma made my stomach turn over. The torso was considerably thicker and seemed to pulse and contort. For a moment I imagined I’d seen a hand press against its stomach from the inside out but when I looked again the impression was gone.

  Emma’s head slowly tilted up until she met the burning eyes of what I could only surmise was the demon lord the prophecy has predicted. The coming darkness. The demon lord didn’t destroy souls, it enslaved them in the burning torment in its body, a perfect reflection of the Stygian embodied.

  “Save the Propheros,” I heard Regina cry out distantly and the clang of swords increased with fury as the agents of Veritas made their way through the bottleneck.

  Master Wu stumbled back from Gatsby but saw the agents running toward Emma. He almost missed Gatsby’s next assault which would have fried his scalp off. I tried to run by them again, but another blast shot in front of me, singeing my shirt.

  “What are you waiting for, brother?” Gatsby yelled back at me.

  With impatience I cried, “For
you to stop trying to blow me away.”

  With that Gatsby forced Wu back in a different direction clearing the path for me.

  The demon lord had caught sight of Emma and was transfixed. It was as if it were a dog that heard a whistle no one else could. Its eyes blazed in excitement and it beckoned her forward. Emma took a couple hesitant steps toward it. I felt her uncertainty. She didn’t know what to do, but faced with the darkness that had been prophesied, she knew there was no running.

  The setup smacked me in the face. This is what the prophecy meant. She was to sacrifice herself to the demon lord and it would destroy the darkness. The Luxis told her to walk to the darkness when it came for her.

  Emma took another step.

  She’s going to do it. Oh god, she’s going to do it.

  I had to stop this. I straightened my fingers, igniting my own powers to fight the demon lord off. The magic came easy again, without having to focus with gestures or chants. I channeled my magic through the belief I held to my core now. Gatsby had kept out of the way, resorting back to a physical skirmish with Wu who now sported bloody lips and a swollen eye. Gatsby wasn’t shooting to kill anymore. He wanted Wu to suffer. As always, Gatsby lost his focus on the bigger picture, reaching for the low hanging fruit of revenge.

  I ran straight for Emma. She said she didn’t know what was right anymore. She didn’t know what to do, but I did. In a world where I had nothing left to believe in, I had absolute and total belief in her. My hands heated with liquid sun until it was almost painful, as I focused on my belief in Emma. I took two more sprints toward her, close enough that I could strike the demon lord with my powers. Maybe I could hit it until it tumbled down into the hellish crevice it had created with its coming.

  A sledgehammer slammed into my chest and I was thrown back twenty feet. My ribs crackled as I took in a gasping breath, not remembering my journey backward, it happened so fast. Looking around, I caught sight of Wu’s enraged face. The skin around his eyes had grayed and black veins pulsed visibly on his face. It cost him to send me that blow.

  Gatsby stepped in again, bearing down on Wu who had gone nearly limp from his assault on me. The demon lord held out its spindly hand and Emma lit up as if in a spotlight. She was lifted off the ground, her hands splayed out on either side. The demon began to sip on the light surrounding Emma. Where I once thought I’d seen a hand press against the demon lord’s stomach from the inside out, I now watched as the torso nearly tore itself apart, several seemingly whole humans trying to push and claw their way out from the demon lord as it feasted on Emma’s essence. Her light began to wane.

  I pushed past the mind-numbing pain in my body, forcing myself to stand. On my screaming legs, I ran harder and faster than I’d thought possible. It would not drink the last drop of Emma. She would not die for a prophecy she did not wholly believe in. I would not, could not, believe the world would be a better place without her in it. She brought light and if she were dead, I was certain the world would be plunged in darkness.

  I leapt off the ground and into the air. Grabbing Emma, I knocked her from the demon’s hold. With my arms wrapped around her, we rolled away from the demon. My ribs crackled under the impact of each roll. I couldn’t breathe or think, the pain was so sharp.

  The demon lord let loose an inhuman cry but I barely noticed. Pushing up onto an elbow, shielding Emma from the danger behind us, I poised myself over her.

  “Emma,” I said, giving her shoulders a slight shake. “Come on, wake up now.” Emma’s lips were bloodless, her body limp against my light shaking. The pendant stuck under her left collar bone. Trying to reposition it, I found it stuck to her. I pulled it off with a small sucking sound. The pendant’s star design had been burned deeply into her flesh. “Come on, Emma, you’ve got to wake up. I need you. The whole world needs you. I believe it. I believe you need to live. I believe in you above all else.” She didn’t open her eyes.

  Sending a look over my shoulder to see if the demon was coming to finish the job, I saw the house of Veritas had overtaken the last of the Luxis, and rushed toward the demon with battle cries. I caught sight of my mother and father hanging back, her hands emitting a green glow again.

  As if coming out of a trance, the demon lord took a step toward its assailants and stumbled momentarily. It seemed disoriented, and worked to keep its balance.

  Twenty agents circled around the demon lord. Half of them raised their hands, emitting various jeweled colors of magic light, while the other half gripped their swords. The demon’s head whipped around observing them surround it before throwing its head back and giving a monstrous scream. At first, I thought the cry was born of anger or fear. In the next few moments, I’d learn it was in joy.

  The agents rushed the demon. Katanas hacked away at its stick legs, splattering ichor everywhere, yet never cutting through. The other half threw their magic at it. Its torso lit up like a Christmas tree and the skin there sizzled and smoked but its flesh did not break. They were like flies buzzing around it, simply annoying the dark creature.

  The demon raised its arms and with it twenty wispy white souls ripped out the tops of agent’s heads. The bodies collapsed like sacks of bones. The demon lord plucked the souls out from the air and shoved them down its maw until its torso began convulsing again, with souls trying to push their way out of their new prison. My parents backed up several steps along with the handful of remaining agents. They were the second wave, but what could they do that the first wave hadn’t already done?

  “Back to hell you go Demon Lord,” Wu bellowed, approaching the demon lord. Blood dripped from his eyes. His visible flesh had gone entirely gray and the black veins now traveled down his neck, disappearing beneath his robes. Gatsby was nowhere in sight, and Wu had drawn heavily from his life force to fight us off. He was also about to get himself killed.

  I focused on the opportunity that afforded us. We had a shot to get out of here.

  I turned back to Emma. “Emma, you have to wake up, we have to go.” I leaned down to listen to her heart beat. I pressed my head against her hard, avoiding her scalded flesh, and stopped breathing so I could hear.

  There was no gentle thump against my ears.

  Emma was dead.

  CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

  I grabbed Emma’s lifeless body, pulling it against me.

  It can’t be. She can’t be dead. I believed in her above all else. She was the one who knew light and truth.

  Tears burned my eyes until I couldn’t see, then they released in a torrent as I rocked Emma’s body back and forth, her limp hands dragging against the pine needles. Anguish seemed to blow me into a million incoherent pieces. If I had been faster, quicker, smarter. If I had grabbed her the moment I saw her and ran for our lives, even if she’d protested….

  Wu screamed behind me, and I heard the same sickening rip as when the demon lord had taken the souls of Veritas.

  The darkness had come, destroyed Emma, and would continue to reign down terror. She died for nothing. The one thing I had ever truly loved was destroyed and now I didn’t care if the whole world burned.

  I clenched my eyes shut, staving off more tears.

  That wasn’t true. Emma wanted to save this world, and though Emma was gone, my love for her burned hotter than ever. I would always love her. Always. If she were still alive, she would have me save this world. It was why she left me and returned to the Luxis. She was driven by doing the right thing, just I was. I brushed the hair back from her forehead, and wished I could see her big brown eyes open one last time. Emma was my last guiding light, and I wouldn’t fail her now. I knew what had to be done. When I was finished, I wouldn’t have to mourn for Emma any longer. It was unlikely I’d survive. Emma gave her life, so if it took the last drop of my life-force to exact her will, I would do it. For her.

  Gently laying her back down, I ignored the futile war cries of the remaining Veritas agents. I briefly wondered if my parents were among them. I got to my feet. Time seemed to slow arou
nd me, as if I were moving through water.

  I turned around to face the demon lord advancing on the remaining fighters. Two of the Luxis members still lived and had joined the agents of Veritas to fight the common enemy. Though it did not speak, I understood the creature. It was about to swat the remaining insects who dared think they could defy it. When it was done, it would walk forth and destroy everything in its path, ripping the whole world asunder.

  There was nothing to stop it.

  Nothing, except me.

  “Hey,” I yelled at the demon lord.

  It swiveled around, recognizing it was being called.

  “You want a tortured soul.” I raised my arms out in offering. “I’ve got one right here for you. It’s full of power no one else here possesses. You like power? Come get it.”

  The beast took several steps toward me. Unlike the corporeal soul eater, this one didn’t make a noise as it moved, which was more disconcerting. Two of the agents of Veritas charged it from its left side. Without even looking it smacked them away. Their bodies flew away into the forest.

  The tears on my face had gone cold, but I reached into myself and touched the thing that warmed me beyond my comprehension. Emma. My love for Emma and hers for me. She was gone but I could still believe in our love. It was the truest thing I’d known.

  The skin along my palms shuddered as light infused them. I closed my eyes. I remembered Emma slipping her hand along my bicep and leaning into my ear outside of the motel massacre as she said softly, “Try again.” I had blasted the soul eater away, but this demon was so much more powerful. If it took my soul and my powers there would certainly be no stopping it, but I had to save this world. For her.

  As it approached, the souls in its torso began to squawk and writhe again. Emma was in there. Stopping myself from thinking about that, I focused on my belief in her. My body hummed, then buzzed. Light engulfed my entire being as I fed my powers with my love for Emma. I waited for my powers to stop fueling when they’d reached capacity, but it didn’t happen. My hands burned brighter, my energy peaked past anything I’d known.