The Prophecy Read Free Page B

“Not really. Werewolves start out as human, they’re infected by the bite of another wolf. We are one of the immortal races and are born into our powers.”
    “But you can change?”
    “Into any living organism.”
    “Before you came I heard the sound of wings.”
    “I entered the cell as a moth.”
    Raven stared at him, trying to imagine something so huge turning into something so small. It seemed impossible and she smiled. The smile felt strange, like some long-forgotten skill. She raised her hand and pushed her hair behind her ear. The chains clanked, and she remembered she was still a prisoner. She didn’t really know this man, what he wanted from her. He said he was here to release her but she was still in chains. She looked at him.
    “Can you release me?”
    “Yes.”
    She saw something flicker behind his eyes and desolation swamped her. She had lived through enough of Sorien’s games to learn that to hope was to despair. Whatever this man spoke of freeing her, aiding her, she knew there was a price she would have to pay, and suddenly she was angry. It felt good.
    “Will you release me?” she asked.
    “Not just yet.”

Chapter Three
    “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 sisters brought me to The Council when I was a baby. They 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 spill the blood of 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 he was going with this.
    He took a step closer. “Raven, you don’t have to die. There is another way.” He reached out and stroked one finger down her cheek.
    Her skin tingled where he touched, and she swallowed, forcing herself not to flinch. “What way is that?” she asked. She thought she knew the answer but wanted to be absolutely sure 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.”
    She couldn’t think of a single thing to say to that. 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. Her father had told that her mother had the sight, 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 she would never see again.
    She had felt drawn to him from the first, but as she had grown, matured, those feeling had changed until she had come to want him as a woman. She could now 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