The Prophecies (The Sentinel Series Book 2) (28 page)

Sometimes I had to concentrate hard to get back to my human form as Persia or Alexandria held a blanket round me. Sometimes I would change back just a few seconds after I’d shifted into a lion without me even thinking about it.

I felt a bit sorry for Quinn who had to watch almost the whole ceremony with his hand over his eyes, peering through a gap in his fingers, not wanting to see his little sister naked. But he was laughing by the end, as were most of the other guests. I had to laugh too, it was so ridiculous.

The poor chaplain was very flustered by the end, mopping his brow after I’d changed so many times. Luckily he was aware of the strange world we lived in; otherwise I think he would have had a heart attack when trying to marry Seth to a lion.

I was actually glad when the day was over, as Seth walked back with me to our room. We stopped at Quinn’s door and he hugged me and Seth before going back into his room with a big grin on his face.

I was so exhausted, shifting had worn me out. I got changed into my pyjamas and lay down, curled up on top of the bed as Seth got changed.

‘I think I’m legally married to a lion now,’ Seth chuckled.

‘You know, in some countries that would be ok,’ I murmured, my eyes closing against my will.

‘I’m just glad we had our own wedding first.’

‘Me too,’ I mumbled, sleep swallowing me, pulling me in.

I felt Seth lean over me, his hands either side of my head. He kissed my cheek softly, then my neck, then my collar bone. I could feel his soft hot breath on my face. I was falling deep down a well, falling further and further away from the waking world. Seth rolled me onto my back and then scooped me gently into his arms. My eyes opened in shock.

‘Hello baby,’ Seth pulled me to him, kissing my nose.

‘Lo,’ I slurred incomprehensibly, snuggling against his neck.

He held me with one arm, and pulled the duvet back with the other. He lay me down on the bed and lay next to me, pulling me tightly into his arms, and pulling the duvet back over us. I fumbled round to find his lips as the darkness took me, I kissed him softly and then I knew no more.

It took two days of me shifting before I managed to get control over it. Two days where my temperature fluctuated between hot and scalding, where I was so hot I thought my skin was burning to a crisp. Two days where I slept almost none stop. Two days where Seth didn’t leave my side, his patience unending as he woke next to a lioness more times than I could count.

But in my barely conscious haze I was aware of the angst from my Guardians. Hushed whispered conversations happened in the corner of the room. They were worried and it wasn’t about me shifting. Something had happened and I didn’t know what. I couldn’t focus on what they were saying, but I caught the word ‘Oraculum’ a lot.

And then like a storm passing and the sun coming out and glistening on the wet pavement, drying up all the puddles, the transition period had passed. The second night I felt relatively normal again. Quinn said my body had now got used to the changes and I was unlikely to shift now unbidden, though it wasn’t impossible.

I woke on the third day with a renewed sense of strength. I was surprised to see Quinn, Persia and all my Guardians sitting waiting for me.

‘Feeling better?’ Alexandria smiled weakly.

I sat up. ‘Tell me.’

‘The Oraculum have summoned you again.’

‘What for?’

‘They’re furious over something, though they won’t tell us what.’

What had I done to anger the Oraculum now? Was it the shape shifting, though that was hardly my fault?

‘Eve, they’re sending the helicopter now, you’re to go alone,’ Eli said.

I knew why they didn’t want me to bring my Guardians with me. The breaking of the Oraculum happened when my Guardians were present, but with some of the Oraculum ready to kill me and what happened last time with the shape shifter, Sophia, I wasn’t going to go back there alone.

‘No, I’m not going alone,’ I muttered. ‘I promised the Oraculum that I would always take you with me, wherever I went. They can’t change their minds when it suits them.’

‘I really don’t think it’s a good idea to anger them. They’re really mad over this.’

I clenched my teeth angrily. ‘Eli I am not going alone.’

Eli went to argue again but changed his mind. ‘How many do you want?’

‘All of you, my personal guard and Seth.’

Eli nodded. ‘Isaac?’

I hesitated, then nodded reluctantly. ‘And Noah and Jacob too.’ I added obstinately.

‘I’ll make the arrangements,’ Eli said and he left.

‘I better get changed,’ I said and the others quickly left too.

I quickly got changed as did Seth. When I went to the door they were all there waiting for me.

We walked down the stairs. The fort was silent, which disturbed me. What if this was it? What if the breaking of the Oraculum happened today? Samuel and Nereus could die today. But what else did the breaking mean to me? What did it mean to the world? As soon as we stepped outside I could hear the helicopter waiting for us, its rotor blades whirring, seemingly louder than it should be.

My step faltered as I drew close, remembering the last time I had been on the helicopter, when I had been kidnapped by Sophia and James. James apparently had not been seen since but that wouldn’t stop a Putarian, shape shifter or bounty hunter pilot from infiltrating the ranks. If it had happened before then it could happen again. And if it was a Putarian they would be quite happy to crash the helicopter into the side of the mountain, killing themselves in the process, as long as I was dead.

I realised I had stopped short of the helicopter, my legs refusing to carry me any further.

I saw Lucas and Eli communicate with each other silently and Eli nodded.

‘I can fly us there if you want Eve?’ he said gently.

I’d forgotten that Eli could fly. I’d seen him fly that little plane on our way to the fort. Flying lessons were all part of the Guardian training, it would seem.

I nodded. I didn’t like that I had been reduced to this, but there had been so many attempts on my life, it paid to be cautious.

Eli moved forward to talk to the pilot and with much confusion the pilot got out and Eli got in.

Suddenly feeling safer, I boarded and sat down with my personal guard around me. I smiled slightly when Persia and Quinn stubbornly got on as well.

We took off, the helicopter slicing quickly through the clouds. We seemed to arrive much quicker than I hoped and softly touched down just outside the portcullis. There was no member of the Oraculum to greet me this time, just a green eyed Guardian who said nothing. He turned and walked back towards the castle, expecting us to follow.

I didn’t like the silence so I turned to Eli as I walked. ‘How come you can fly a helicopter, is that part of the Guardian training?’

Eli smiled. ‘No, I trained to be a helicopter pilot. I thought ferrying the Oraculum around, the Guardians, you, was quite an honourable thing to do. Taking you to safety, well that would be a proud moment, especially since I had failed at being your friend.’

I gasped. ‘Did you see it as a failure that you weren’t my friend at school?’

‘That was the only reason we were there, to be your friends, but you didn’t connect with us.’ He shrugged simply.

I took Eli’s hand. ‘You’re my friend now.’

Eli smiled. ‘Anyway,’ he pressed on, clearly embarrassed by this. ‘I was training to be a helicopter pilot, you know evasive manoeuvres and the like, but we all have combat training as well. It seems I was quite adept at that side of things. The Oraculum were apparently impressed by my, erm, brutality, my swiftness to kill. They asked me to lead your personal guard. Of course I said yes, it was a great honour.’

I smiled.

We had reached the main entrance by this point and the Guardian pushed the doors open with a great echoing clang. We walked down the black marble corridor. I felt a sick, uneasy feeling in my stomach. Nothing good was going to come from this meeting. But I wasn’t going to be scared of them anymore. I had enough people against me with the Putarians, Reapers and bounty hunters, I didn’t need those that had created me to turn against me too. This had to end, one way or another. I just felt very uncomfortable about which way it might end.

The Guardian pushed open the gold inlaid doors at the end. We walked into the great chamber, my Guardians so close around me that I could barely move forward. The Oraculum all sat on their plinths, sitting in stern judgement.

I stopped before them and Samuel stood, angrily. ‘We told you to come alone, something you clearly chose to ignore. Such arrogance,’ he said, looking round at the other council members, waiting for a reaction he never got. ‘No matter, the end result will be the same, unless you pledge to us, of course. If you pledge to the Oraculum you will be allowed to go.’

I didn’t need the collective growled ‘no’ in my head from my personal guard to know it was not a good idea, but I was surprised to hear a ‘no’ from Cain and Matthias in my head too.

‘Can you explain what I have done wrong,’ I said. I had to play for time, maybe I could talk them into calming down. Surely what I had done was not that bad.

Jonah cleared his throat. ‘Two days after you promised you would take more care with your life, you went to Mexico without a single member of your personal guard.’

Oh crap.

Eli looked at me to see if this was true and the disappointment in his eyes was evident when he saw my guilty face.

Seth squeezed my hand then stepped forward. ‘That was my fault; I take full responsibility for that.’

‘Seth, no, I wanted to go alone. It wasn’t his fault, it was mine.’

‘It doesn’t matter who suggested it or who agreed to it…’ Jonah’s eyes deliberately fell on Lucas. ‘The fact is you went.’

Cain knew about my wedding, he had deliberately shown me a prophecy of me getting married on the beach in Mexico. He practically pushed me down the aisle. Leon had handed me the rings. They wanted me to get married. But they were both looking down at me as angry as the others. Maybe going alone had not been part of the arrangement, but Cain had certainly seen the lack of Guardians in the prophecy. Had they encouraged me deliberately to anger the Oraculum?

‘Tell them to pledge to you,’
Matthias said in my head. I stared at him as his eyes burned into mine. Was he insane? I flicked my eyes to Cain and he gave the tiniest of nods.

‘This has gone on for long enough. You are foolhardy, reckless, and arrogant. You will pledge to us today,’ Nathaniel said.

I shook my head. ‘No I won’t.’

Samuel stood, cold anger and hatred filling his eyes. ‘You will pledge or you will die.’

I stepped back in shock. I had known that some of them had wanted me dead; I never expected them to come right out and admit it.

Cain stood, furiously. ‘You do not have the authority to issue that order. We must all agree to something like that and I, for one, will never agree to her murder.’

Nereus stood too. ‘You will have to go through me first.’

‘We do not all need to agree to pass that edict, we have always gone with the majority vote,’ Nathaniel said, calmly, as if they were discussing which was their favourite topping of pizza, rather than whether to kill me or not.

‘Tell them to pledge to you,’
growled Matthias.

Isaac stepped forward. ‘This is ridiculous. You created her, gave her all this power to ensure she fulfilled her destiny, so she could save the world and now you’re trying to kill her. If she dies then the end of the world will come and there will be no one here to stop it.’

I’d had enough. ‘Thanks Isaac, but no one needs to die today,’ I looked at the Oraculum. ‘I don’t want to fight against you anymore. We both have a common goal, that the world must be saved.’ I took a deep breath, preparing myself for what I was about to say next. ‘For us to move forward, I need to know that I have your support. Those that are with me, those that believe that I am going to save the world will pledge to me today.’

‘How dare you! I will die before I will ever pledge to you,’ Samuel roared and I saw Nereus shift awkwardly. Had the time come when Nereus killed Samuel, was the Oraculum about to break?

‘I suggest we vote,’ Matthias said, carefully. ‘Nathaniel is right, the majority rules. We will vote first for those who believe Eve should die today, for those who believe that we have made a mistake in creating her, a mistake which now needs to be rectified. Those that do not vote for her death are choosing to pledge to Eve. Gentlemen, please stand if….’

‘I don’t want to interrupt this wonderful democracy you have going here,’ Quinn said, sarcastically. ‘But the vote is a waste of time. Regardless of the outcome, she is not going to die today, today or any other day.’

My Guardians shuffled closer to me.

‘There is no way we will let her be harmed, we will all have to die before you will get anywhere near her,’ said Eli, defiantly.

‘Do you know how many Guardians we have here in the castle? There are a hundred and seventy eight here ready to die for us, the battle would be over very quickly,’ Nathaniel said.

‘There are two hundred and eleven at Fort Naga that are pledged to her, that’s not including the forty six young Guardians. They could all be here in a matter of seconds.’

‘So when you pull your Guardians, you can separate those that are loyal to you, and those that are loyal to us. I understood that pulling your Guardians meant pulling all of them,’ Jonah said, his voice had a note of challenge.

I had never tried pulling all the Guardians before, let alone separating those that were loyal to me and those that weren’t. Jonah was right and he knew it.

‘It doesn’t matter, there are more Guardians that are pledged to her than are not, we will be the victors here today,’ said Eli.

‘I’d like to see her try to pull them,’ Samuel sneered. ‘We have her powers blocked.

I reached for my powers, were they still accessible? As soon as I reached for them I felt my powers course through my veins. I gave a small smile, they were thinking that the fight would only be between my Guardians and theirs, they hadn’t counted for my powers being a factor as well.