Prophecy: Child of Light (48 page)

The corners of her mouth tugged into a smile when Valentine stepped up behind her, his body close to hers, and placed a hand on her shoulder. Leaning backwards, she sighed out her breath and stared unseeingly at the dark, distant mountains. She brought her hand up and placed it over his.

“You are not scared, are you?” he said in a low voice close to her ear.

She shook her head in the negative. The impending battle didn’t frighten her, but the possibility of losing him did.

“Maybe a little nervous,” she whispered.

He drew her hair away from her neck and placed a kiss to her throat. “There is nothing to fear. When the battle begins, everything will move so swiftly that it will be over in the blink of an eye.”

She didn’t know whether to hope his words were true or fear that it would really happen that way. So much could happen in the blink of an eye, and not all of it good. Holding his hand a little tighter, she sighed when he nuzzled her neck.

Her eyes scanned the horizon.

It was almost time.

She could feel it approaching and knew there was no way of turning back now that the ball had been set in motion. In a few short moments they would leave the relative safety of the inn and head down into the valley, not knowing whether both of them would make it through this and live to see another night. There were so many lives at risk, not just Valentine’s and hers, or Mia’s and Dmitri’s, or even the werewolf army. The lives of the whole world were hanging in the balance and it was down to her to save them all. If they failed, Hell would be unleashed onto the earth. Those who were lucky would have a swift death. The rest would be tormented by the under-demons, the true spawn of the Devil. Vampire, werewolf and human alike would be tortured to death or eaten alive. No one would survive.

Valentine moved away from her and headed towards the door. He stopped just short of it and turned to face her, extending his free hand.

“It is time to go.”

She nodded and went to him, slipping her hand into his and letting him lead the way down through the inn to the world outside. She didn’t look at the people they passed. She kept her focus on the battle ahead of them and tried to quell her nerves.

They crossed the track and started down into the valley through the field. She remembered her vision. It was the same field. In the darkness, she could see the blood-red poppies that were staining the pale wheat. Letting go of Valentine’s hand, she plucked one of the blooms and raised it up. She cocked her head to one side and ran a lone fingertip over one of the soft petals. They were delicate little things, like so much of the world. Her species were supposed to abhor things like this. People made them into monsters. She supposed that some of them were, but there were others like her who were willing to risk their lives in order to save others, including the human race. She knew that Valentine would have nothing to do with humans, but she didn’t believe that he was as bad as some of the vampires of her household who saw them as a pest to be eradicated.

She sighed and let the blossom fall to the floor. She wasn’t going to let anything happen to the world. The prophecy she was at the centre of wasn’t going to end with her destroying everything. She was going to save it all, demons and humans alike, so everyone could go on living. She didn’t care what the prophecy said about her. She had chosen to save the world and that was what she was going to do.

Idly swinging her axe, she kept her gaze fixed straight ahead. It was a few miles to their destination and there was no hurry. If they got there too quickly, the werewolf army would be too far behind them. Valentine was setting an almost leisurely pace, as though he was merely out for a stroll rather than heading into battle.

She studied his profile. He looked calm as usual. His brows were relaxed and his eyes scanned the distance. He held his axe over one shoulder and the blade glinted beside his head. To the outside world, he looked totally at peace, but she knew that inside there would be doubts and fears creeping in.

The same doubts and fears that she shared.

Would they make it through this together?

The star over her chest ached and itched and she pressed her hand to it while silently telling herself that everything was going to be okay. All of them would make it through the battle.

Looking down at the amulet, she saw it was glowing brightly and silvery-purple threads of magic were weaving their way around her fingers. She watched them dancing and slipping through the gaps, twisting around each other as they met.

“Is something wrong?”

Valentine’s voice roused her and her head shot up. She shook it, trying to convince both him and herself that everything was all right when it wasn’t. She knew why the magic had come without her calling it. Her heart feared. It feared that at the end of this, she would be alone again, and she didn’t want to live in a world without Valentine.

She jumped when Valentine took hold of her hand and then watched the magic weave itself around his fingers too. It flickered blue where it touched his skin and then gradually turned to red. Her chest ached, burning with a pain so fierce that she couldn’t ignore it. It seemed to calm a little when his fingers interlocked with hers, his palm flat against the stone in her amulet. The magic wound around both of their hands, joining them and glowing red as it did so.

“What’s it doing?” she said, watching it with interest.

“I don’t know,” Valentine answered with a smile. “It tickles a little. Does it always feel this way?”

She smiled. “Not always. In fact, never. Usually it makes my skin itch and burn. This feels calm, almost tranquil, as though it’s a different kind of magic altogether.”

“It is a different colour. Maybe it is a different type of magic.”

She looked down her top and saw the star over her heart glowing the same shade of red as the magic that was intertwining their hands. It was strange that it should react to Valentine. She wondered if it had something to do with her feelings for him. She felt physically stronger, as though it was feeding off his proximity and their intimacy.

Letting go of his hand, she frowned when the magic on hers faded to purple again and looked across at Valentine’s to see the lingering threads slowly disappearing.

“Strange,” she said and brought her hand back to his, letting their fingers touch. The magic that moved between them became red again, tickling the tips of her fingers. “It seems to like you.”

He smiled and cast a glance over his shoulder in the direction of the castle.

“We should keep moving,” she said and lowered her hand, realising that now wasn’t the time for amusing themselves.

He shouldered his axe again and walked down the hill beside her.

Valentine glanced across at her, watching the frown wrinkling her brows while she stared at her hand. The magic was gone now. He knew she had no explanation as to why it had changed to red, or why it seemed to like it when their hands were joined. Maybe it had something to do with her feelings for him. He’d realised during the fight with the werewolf in Prague that her emotional reaction to his being in danger triggered the magic inside of her. It was why he’d thrown himself at the werewolf, even though he knew he was placing himself in grave danger doing so. She needed the extra push in order to find the strength to fight. He knew that when the battle came, he would have to again place himself in danger so her power would be at its strongest.

He flexed his fingers around the axe handle and frowned while he thought about what lay ahead of them. This wasn’t going to be an easy fight, especially for Prophecy. Not only was she inexperienced, she had a propensity to want to protect him. He couldn’t have her preoccupied with his safety during the initial battle. She had to remain focused on fighting their enemy.

The back of her hand brushed against his.

He looked down at it and swallowed hard. Everything between them had changed so rapidly since Dmitri’s bastion. His admission to himself about his feelings had led to letting her get close to him. He’d spent the past few days sleeping with her in his arms and now it felt as though it had always been that way. The manner in which he’d treated her when they’d first met seemed nothing more than a distant memory.

Moving his hand nearer to hers, he grazed her fingers with his and smiled when she looked at him.

When he’d awoken today, he’d found her watching him. The sun had already set, and Mia and Dmitri had gone to the car to see about being taken down into the valley to the army, leaving them alone together. He’d kept his eyes closed enough that she hadn’t known he was awake and had watched her. She had idly sipped the blood he’d got for her and had run her eyes over his exposed chest for so long that he wondered if she was trying to put it to memory or whether she had even realised she’d been staring at him.

He was tempted to mention it now just to see how awkward she would look, but decided against it. Bringing his focus back to their surroundings, he listened for signs of someone following them. They were walking along the tree line now, hidden by the long shadows of the pines and heading down into the valley where the castle was.

He could see it now. It looked strange, as though it was something growing out of the dense forest. The tall towers that surrounded it gave it a fairytale look but he knew what horrors waited inside. The Tenebrae bloodline weren’t known for their leniency towards humans. It was no wonder the local villagers had shown them so much respect when they had arrived. They had all grown up in the proximity of the Tenebrae. Only the Devil knew how many men, women and children had been killed over the years or disappeared only to return as demons. He saw humans as nothing but food just as much as the next vampire, but he would never stoop to the level of keeping them half-alive as blood slaves, or torturing them for amusement.

Something told him that Prophecy didn’t know what darkness really lurked inside the castle and the vampires she was about to fight. If she did, she wouldn’t appear as calm as she did now. He knew that she had more feeling towards the human race than most vampires, and that in part she was going to war in order to protect them. It wasn’t just the future of demonkind that was driving her; it was the safety of everything on the planet.

Maybe her feelings for humans were also down to the part of her that was human.

Maybe it was purely to do with her mother.

He still couldn’t quite comprehend the things he’d been told. He didn’t see any difference in Prophecy, not like she saw in herself. To him, she was the same girl she had been from the moment he’d met her, only stronger for finally knowing about herself and finally having her memories intact.

The slope of the valley began to even out. He didn’t know how long they had been walking for, but he could see they were almost halfway there. The valley was split at this point. To their right a hill rose up, the trees that covered it making it look black in the night. Walking towards an outcrop, he held his hand up and intimated for Prophecy to listen.

“What is it?” she whispered.

In the distance up the other valley, he could hear a noise like thunder.

“Wait here,” he said and leapt up to the top of the rocky outcrop. Scouring the distance, he searched out the source of the noise. There seemed to be nothing but darkness in front of him. Behind him lay the castle, to his right was the valley they had come down.

“Anything?”

He shook his head in the negative.

Slipping into vampire guise, he narrowed his eyes and sharpened his senses. He stared hard into the distance. It looked as though the earth was moving. Werewolves.

“It is Dmitri’s army,” he said, looking down at her.

“How many are there?”

He jumped down. Slipping out of vampire guise, he ran his fingers through his hair. “A thousand at least. They are moving fast. They shall not take long to get here. Dmitri will not run them, he will want them fresh for the fight.”

She nodded. He looked around them. The mountains began to rise up just south from where they were. Scanning the rocky face, he noticed that there was a small plateau around twenty metres up that would provide a good vantage point over the castle. Leading Prophecy towards the mountains, he kept his focus on the plateau. They needed to get a look at the castle and see what the lay of the land was. He didn’t want to go in blind, especially when he had Prophecy with him.

He knew that she wanted to ask where they were going. He could almost sense her struggle to keep the words at bay.

He pointed up at the plateau. “It will be the best place for us to get a look at the castle. We need to check the number of guards outside and look for a possible entrance we can use. Dmitri’s men will barge in, that is their style, but I intend to slip in. The further we can make it into the castle undetected, the better.”

“Makes sense,” Prophecy said.

Following Valentine, she trekked up the side of the mountain, coming to stop on a plateau high above the castle. She peered over the edge and down at it. There were men milling around outside it, their highly polished armour reflecting the warm light of the torches that burned on either side of the large arched wooden door.

There didn’t seem to be much chance of getting past them unnoticed.

Looking down at Valentine, she saw he was scanning the castle. His brows were knit and his eyes were narrowed. He crouched low near the edge of the plateau but she remained standing. She was wearing all black. There was no way the men near the castle would be able to see her, not with the firelight obscuring their vision.

“There,” he said, pointing to something.

Narrowing her eyes, she leaned her head to one side and tried to follow the line of his finger to see what he was trying to show her. She frowned when she caught sight of the small door. It was near to the forest and around the side where no vampires seemed to go. They were all guarding the front.

She started when she looked back at them and someone came out of the castle. The armour they wore was familiar. She had seen the same Norse-like helmet in her vision. She wondered if this was the same man she was destined to meet inside the castle. Her eyes followed him as he moved about the others, speaking to each and then disappearing back inside. They all seemed more regimented for a moment, each keeping to their post, and then gradually began to mill around again. Was the man of high standing? Was he their commander?