The Prophecies (The Sentinel Series Book 2) (12 page)

‘Oh Seth.’

‘What about you, how did you escape?’

‘I couldn’t let them hurt you.’ God I was a horrible person. I had it in me to stop Clementine from dying but I only tapped into that ability when the other half of my heart was threatened. I closed my eyes as the guilt rode through me again.

Seth kissed my forehead hard.

‘Evie I want us to get married.’

I opened my eyes and stared unblinking at the tiny cracks in the wall next to the bed. I looked up at him, at his gentle brown eyes watching me carefully. I loved this man so much, I loved him with every cell, every heartbeat, and every breath. But he did pick his moments.

‘Is this your idea of a proposal, because it’s a bit lame?’

He smiled. ‘I’ll do it properly, I promise. But we’re going to get married. If either of us are to die, we’ll die as husband and wife. I’m not taking no for an answer.’

I leaned into his neck. ‘Ok.’

I felt his heart leap against my hand. ‘Ok? As in yes?’

I smiled against him, the first smile I’d had since coming back.

Seth’s arms tightened around me. ‘I love you baby.’

‘I know and I love you so much, but I’m still really angry at the moment, mainly at the Putarians and the Reapers. It’s going to take a while to get over it all, to put the whole thing behind me and move on.’

‘Well I’m not going anywhere my love, I’m going to spend every day of my life trying to show you how much I love you, how much you mean to me. I’ll stay here with you forever if necessary.’

‘You don’t have much choice Seth, I’m not letting you go again,’ I muttered quietly and I felt him smile. I looked over at Caleb again and I saw him smile too as he looked out the window.

Over the days, amongst my Guardians visits, Isaac started turning up more frequently, which I was less than happy about. Every time he walked in, he looked at me, lying silently in my bed, clinging to Seth, and shook his head or rolled his eyes.

‘I can’t really understand the fuss she’s making, he was only a Guardian,’ Isaac shrugged one night.

‘I think it’s a bit more than Caleb’s death that she’s dealing with right now,’ sniffed Alexandria. From the look on her face, I didn’t think she liked him either.

‘How long are we going to let her lie here like this?’

Let me?

‘Let her?’ said Quinn, derisively.

‘As long as she needs,’ Lucas muttered, through clenched teeth. Clearly not a fan, himself.

‘But she just lies there, not saying anything, not doing anything. It’s been almost a week now…’

A week, really?

‘…She’s the Sentinel, she’s supposed to be strong. This is just….’ he gestured disdainfully towards me. ‘…feeble and pathetic.’

Quinn growled. Lucas stood up and Seth made to get up too, though I clung onto him tighter.

‘Do you think she can’t hear you?’ Seth hissed angrily. ‘She’s grieving, not deaf or stupid.’

‘Isaac, I think you should leave, it’s a bit crowded in here,’ Lucas growled.

‘But I have as much right to be here as you do,’ he protested, scornfully. He looked round at the angry faces around the room, and with another sigh of contempt, he walked out.

‘What an arse,’ I muttered.

Lucas smiled at hearing my voice for the first time and came and sat on the edge of the bed, next to Caleb. ‘How are you feeling?’ he asked, gently.

‘Much the same,’ and then in his head, partly because it was easier to talk like that, and partly because I didn’t want anyone else to hear. ‘
I see Clementine murdered every time I close my eyes, I see Caleb’s headless corpse too, and I feel so angry on the inside, so angry that it burns through every breath, but on the outside I just feel numb and so very tired.’

Lucas looked pained at my explanation. ‘
There’s something else bothering you as well, I can’t place it, something that you’re scared or worried about?’

I sighed, and Seth stroked my head, soothingly. ‘
Lucas….’
I trailed off, awkwardly.

Lucas took my hand, encouragingly.

‘
Ok, you know I have things in my head that I don’t want shared with my other Guardians?’

Lucas nodded.

‘
This is one of them.’

‘You have my word Eve, it won’t go past us.’

I sighed again. ‘
I see Caleb.’

Lucas frowned, slightly. ‘
In your dreams, in your mind?’

I smiled, wryly. ‘
Sitting at the end of my bed at the moment, he hasn’t left me since I’ve come back.’

Lucas looked down towards the bottom of the bed and Caleb grinned at him. He turned back to me. ‘
That’s not that uncommon in these kinds of situations, stress induced hallucinations, your subconscious is trying to give you a message…’

‘Could it be a ghost?’

Lucas shrugged. ‘
It’s possible, depends on what you believe. But either way he or it is trying to tell you something. Have you talked to him?’

I shook my head. ‘
I’m scared of what he will say,’

Caleb frowned at this, as if it saddened him.

‘
When you’re ready, you should talk to him, it might help.’

I nodded and Lucas made to get up.

‘Lucas?’

He turned back.

‘
Has it really been a week?’

‘Five days.’

I didn’t know if it seemed longer than that, as sometimes the days dragged by, or shorter, the memories still so vivid in my head.

‘Were all the children ok, and Izri?’

‘The children are all fine, they’ve all been returned home.’

I swallowed. Then I realised he had deliberately side stepped my question about Izri.

Lucas sighed as he heard my thoughts. ‘
Izri is taking Caleb and Clementine’s death very badly, Eli thinks she may have to leave the fort soon.’

I thought about what he meant by this. Why would they kick her out the fort for grieving over their deaths? Then I realised and a sick jolt rode through me. ‘
She blames me for their death?’

Lucas nodded, sadly. ‘
Eli has had her removed from this corridor, with strict instructions not to let her come down here.’

My heart raced and Seth held me tighter. ‘
She wants to kill me?’

‘No, I don’t think so, but Eli isn’t taking any chances. Actually Persia thought it was a good idea if Izri kept her distance from you as well.’

Wow, my life was just one happy adventure at the moment, even my friends hated me. I closed my eyes, feeling suddenly so exhausted.

‘Eve?’

I forced my eyes back open.

‘
Zach’s been asking after you.’
I could see Lucas was trying to change the subject onto more positive things. ‘
He told me to tell you, that if you don’t get out of bed soon and stop lazing about he’d come up here and break your other foot.’

I grinned, broadly, I couldn’t help it.

Lucas smiled. ‘
Yes he seemed to think it was funny as well, though I didn’t really get the joke.’

‘When you see him, tell him I’ll break his nose for that comment.’

‘
You could go and tell him yourself, when you’re ready, of course.’

I closed my eyes, sleepily, at the thought of ever being ready. ‘
Maybe tomorrow,’
I mumbled, as sleep took me.

I lay on my beach staring at the leaves of the palm trees blowing gently in the sea breeze but I knew immediately I wasn’t alone and I also knew who was with me.

‘Cain, I really don’t need a lecture from you right now.’ Especially as the last time I had seen him, his little friends had been plotting to kill me.

I felt him sit next to me and I sat up.

‘No lecture I promise. I came to see if you were ok?’

The concerned look in his eyes nearly made me start crying all over again. I hated my emotions sometimes. Despite my strength, something like grief and guilt was enough to make me as weak as a kitten.

‘Ok firstly, you need to forgive yourself over what happened to Caleb. I know you hate that your Guardians would die for you, but that’s what they’re there for, and they know that. None of them was forced into being your Guardian; they all entered into it willingly and with their eyes wide open. Maybe talking to him will help.’

Of course he would know about my hallucinations, he was more inside my head than Lucas was.

‘And Izri will come round, she knows that none of this is your fault. She’s just angry at the Reapers and the Putarians, and she’s taking it out on you.’

I smiled wryly. ‘You paint a very positive picture, so everything will work out ok?’

‘Well nothing is going to be solved by lying around in bed, feeling sorry for yourself,’ Cain nudged me.

He was right about that.

‘Yeah I’m right about lots of things,’ he grinned but then his smile faltered. ‘We need to stop you sliding in your dreams, that’s very dangerous. Do you know how you are doing it?’

I shrugged. ‘I don’t know, I don’t seem to have a lot of control over it.’

‘You can put yourself in a deep sleep can’t you?’

I nodded.

‘You need to make sure that every time you go to sleep it is a deep one, you are less likely to be influenced by external elements if you are here. You know this place is a dream, you just have to make sure you don’t act on anything you see, hear or think about whilst you are here. Shield yourself as soon as you get here, that will reduce the amount of noise or anything else from being received by your brain.’

‘I can use my powers here?’

He smiled and waved a lazy hand over the sea, turning it instantly to ice. ‘In your dreams anything is possible.’

I let a flame erupt in my hand and smiled before I let it wink out.

‘You will be summoned to the Oraculum to account for your actions.’

‘What?’ Where did that come from? ‘But it wasn’t deliberate.’

‘I know that. But the others are furious that you would go to rescue your friends with no Guardians. Some believe that you are becoming too arrogant and reckless with your powers.’

‘I didn’t even know they had been taken. And if I did I certainly wouldn’t have gone there without my Guardians, I’m not stupid. And maybe I shouldn’t go anywhere near the Oraculum, given that at least two of them want me dead.’

‘You will not be harmed. They might shout, intimidate and threaten but you will not be hurt in any way. There are those on the Oraculum who will die for you, who are fiercely loyal to you till the end. Despite what happens when you go, or in the coming weeks you should know I am loyal to you too. But you need to tread carefully, don’t go in there stamping on toes, as there are those who will ultimately seek to destroy you and they don’t need any more ammunition ahead of time.’

‘What makes you think I’ll be stomping on toes?’

Cain smiled wryly. ‘There’s a lot of anger in you about them.’

I sighed. ‘I do feel let down by them; they created me and then just left me to fend for myself. If I’d known about my powers from a child, I’d be stronger now. So much that has happened over the last few months that wouldn’t have if I had been stronger and more knowledgeable in my powers. I feel like they think they own me, that I’m their property to do with what they will, but they gave me all this compassion, this independence and are now regretting it. I think if they could redo my life again they would make me differently and they’d probably keep me locked in a cage like an animal and just trot me out when the end of the world came around.’

‘Your compassion is important Eve, and so is your knowledge of the world. Your ability to love your friends, family, the innocent, Seth so strongly, that love is also what will make you fight so fiercely for the world in the end. It was believed that if you had known about your destiny from birth, you would have grown up to be arrogant, not compassionate. But yes I understand your frustration about your lack of knowledge regarding your powers. But you’re growing stronger every day, you’re stronger now than anyone could have envisaged, and you’re still in your infancy, still learning. And yes they do see you as their property, they created you, gave you life, gave you your powers, gave you a home, a family, friends, protected you. So they will be expecting that you will do exactly as they say.’

‘They also gave me free will as well, the ability to think for myself,’ I said, bitterly.

Cain shook his head, with frustration. ‘If you plant an apple tree in your garden, a dwarf one with the expectation that it will grow to about six foot high and produce a few apples every summer ready for harvest in the September. Then the apple tree grows bigger than you expect, because it has free will, then you have two choices. You can let it grow as big and as wild as it desires, and when you get more apples in the harvest than you would have done if it had been smaller then you could pat yourself on the back and congratulate yourself on a fine crop. Or if the size of the apple tree is now taking over your garden, putting some of the other plants in the shade, you can cut the branches back, and make it smaller, force it to be the tree you wanted in the first place. Especially if you only really wanted a harvest of ten or twenty apples for your own personal use, and any more than that would be a waste.’

‘I’d let it grow big,’ I said obstinately. ‘I’d let it grow as big as it wanted and enjoy all the apples in the autumn. I’d make apple pies and apple crumbles, I’d give the spare apples to my friends and family.’

Cain smirked. ‘I bet you would, but what if the apple tree turns out not to be apple tree at all? It’s a towering oak, that grows so quickly and so big it completely consumes your garden, it blocks out all the sun from all the windows, its roots grow under your house and through the floor boards. It’s so big and strong now that cutting it back wouldn’t achieve anything. So would you move house to get away from it, or would you reluctantly cut it down and burn the roots so it could never grow back. Honestly Eve, what would you do?’

I sighed. ‘I’d cut it down.’

‘Exactly, at the moment it’s a choice between cutting back the apple tree or letting it grow, they do not need to know that they have an oak tree on their hands.’