Page 9 of The Prophecy
Chapter Four
“Why?” Raven whispered.
He didn’t reply immediately. Instead, he pushed himself from the wall and paced the confines of the cell like a caged animal. Finally, he came to a halt in front of her, hands jammed in the pockets of his jeans, and answered her question with one of his own. “What do you know of the prophecy, Raven?”
“Everything.” He raised an eyebrow, and she shrugged. “My father told me that my mother’s sister brought me to the Council when I was a baby. She told them that a prophecy had been made at the time of my birth. A prophecy foretelling the future. They said that if either the Council, or the fire-demons, were to sacrifice me on my twenty-first birthday, then that side would win a great victory over their enemies.”
“Do you know the actual words?”
“Yes, my father taught me.” She closed her eyes and began to recite. “‘That whosoever shall sacrifice the virgin...’” She paused. Opened her eyes and stared at him. “Oh.”
She’d never really thought about the significance of that word before, except to be thankful that she would at least be saved the horror of rape at Sorien’s hands. Now it suddenly occurred to her where Kael was going with this.
He took a step closer. “Raven, you don’t have to die. There is another way.”
She was scrambling to get her head around the implications.
Why had she never thought about this before?
Because there was no point. There was hardly a whole load of willing and eager men at her disposal. None, actually.
He stroked one finger down her cheek, and her skin tingled where he touched. She swallowed, forcing herself not to flinch. “What way is that?” she asked. She was pretty sure she knew the answer but wanted to beabsolutelysure before she made a complete fool of herself.
A faint flicker of amusement flashed across his features, but he answered the question. “Once you have lain with a man, the prophecy cannot come to pass.”
Lain? That was an…old-fashioned way to put it.
“Once I’ve fucked a man, you mean?”
He raised an eyebrow. “Yes.”
Well, there it was. She really couldn’t think of a single thing to say. She wanted to object. Or did she? She forced her eyes to linger on the long length of him and felt a queer twist in her insides. She couldn’t deny that he held a strange, unexpected attraction for her, something she had never expected to feel.
She remembered her first vision of Kael. Apparently, her mother had the sight, and her father had warned her that it might pass to her, and she’d known she was seeing her future. She’d been fourteen at the time and only hours from being taken by the fire-demons. Less than a year later, the blood-thirst had come upon her and she had been locked in the darkness. After that, Kael had come to her often in dreams and visions, reminding her of the sun and the summer skies she would never see again.
She’d been drawn to him from the first, but as she had grown, matured, those feeling had changed until she’d come to want him as a woman.
Yeah, it was official; she was repressed, but she’d needed something to keep her going in the darkness.
Now, she could still feel the pull of erotic heat from the feeding. But she also couldn’t forget that he was from the Council. She had no reason to trust anyone from the Council. And every reason not to.
“You have to understand,” Kael said when she remained silent. “There are still those among us who believe we are fools not to take advantage of the prophecy, not to make the sacrifice ourselves. This is the only way to guarantee your safety once you’re out of here. If you want to live, you cannot leave this castle a virgin.”
A shiver ran through her at his words. That so many wanted her dead.
Maybe she should let them have her—offer herself up as a virgin sacrifice. That way, the Council would gain the great victory prophesied at her birth, and she would at least do a little bit of good in the world. How many people got that option?
And the Council were supposed to be the good guys, after all. Out of the two—the Council and the fire-demons—she hated the former just a little bit less. She wanted Sorien defeated so badly it was like a pain at the very core of her being. But she also wanted to see him die. She wouldn’t be around to do that if she was sacrificed.
So it looked like Kael was right. She knew it, but while she was ready to acknowledge that she felt the pull of desire, she wasn’t sure she was ready to allow anybody that intimacy. When she closed her eyes, she could see again the fates of the humans brought here so she could feed. Raped, tortured, and abused by Sorien and his men, their bodies torn apart for their pleasure. Kael must have seen the revulsion reflected in her face, because his voice was harsh when he spoke again.
“Would you rather the prophecy came to pass, that Sorien gains supremacy over the human race for a thousand years?”
The words broke into her thoughts. She stared up at him, not attempting to hide her disdain. What did he know? A warrior? He had probably never faced defeat, despair. This was just one more thing over which she had no control. And he was so arrogant; he no doubt presumed that she would jump at the opportunity toliewith him. Asshole.
No, she did not want Sorien to win. But if she was dead, then that wasn’t going to happen. But would she really prefer to die than to have sex with Kael?
She forced herself to really think about escaping from this place, being reunited with her father, and a tremor of apprehension ran through her. She’d sunk too far to ever belong in the world of light. She’d been weak, given in to the hunger.
