by Holly Martin
‘Yeah Mum hated the rain as well,’ Quinn said, from behind me.
I sat up and looked back at him. ‘What was she like?’
He came and sat on the bed, next to me. ‘You look a lot like her actually, you have the same eyes. It was the only part of her that shifted.’
‘What?’ I asked in confusion.
‘My Dad called them shifty eyes. Yours are the same.’
‘I don’t follow.’
He looked at me bemused. ‘Your eyes change colour Eve.’
I laughed. ‘They do not.’
He grinned. ‘They do, it’s so subtle I doubt anyone would ever notice, doubt you would even notice, as you wouldn’t think to look for it.’
I shook my head, with a smile.
‘Ok then, what colour are your eyes?’
‘I don’t know, I can never decide, some days I think they’re grey, sometimes blue sometimes hazel or green, depends what I’m wearing, it brings out the colour of my eyes.’
He laughed. ‘It’s not your clothes that defines your eye colour, it’s your moods.’
‘You’re serious aren’t you?’
‘Yes, when you’re happy they’re blue, when you’re angry they’re green when you’re sad they’re grey,’ he looked at me, looked deep into my eyes and pulled a face. ‘They’re grey today, very grey.’
I pulled a face too, the only reason they were grey was because of Seth. I missed him. I ached for him. ‘So I have shifty eyes too,’ I smiled, I liked that. ‘Do you think I’ll be able to shift, when my powers get stronger?’
‘I doubt it, like I said it’s normally only the males that get the ability to shift. Female shape shifters very rarely happen, and in those cases they aren’t born with the ability like the boys are, they develop that ability in puberty when certain hormones get switched on. I’d say since it hasn’t happened to you yet, it’s very, very unlikely it’s going to happen now.’
‘Ok, we already know I’m a bit of a freak of nature, quite literally. So say I have the ability to shift, I just don’t know how to do it, how do I do it, how would I shift?’
‘I don’t really know how to explain it, I just think about being a panther or a dog and it just happens. It’s like me teaching you how to breathe, your body just does it without you having to think about it, it’s the same with shifting.’
‘Ok, so I should just think about being a fish or something and see if it works.’
He laughed. ‘Well yes we could give it a go, but I wouldn’t think about being a fish, since you would die unless I could get you in the bath pretty quick.’
‘Right ok, so a dog or something like that, an air breathing mammal.’ I closed my eyes.
‘Wait, when you shift you lose your clothes, you either burst out of them if you change to something bigger, or they fall off you if you change into something smaller. As a potentially new shape shifter, it may be hard for you to maintain your form for any length of time. It means that one second you might be sitting here as a cat and the next you’d be a human again, erm naked. I’m really not keen to see my little sister naked. I’ll close my eyes, give me a nudge if you manage it.’ He fastened his hand over his eyes.
I smiled then closed my eyes, visualizing being a cat, a sleek black and white cat, with sharp claws. I imagined myself getting smaller, growing fur, a tail and whiskers. I opened my eyes eagerly, and looked at my hands. They were still hands. I closed my eyes again and pictured claws sprouting from my fingers like something out of Thriller or Teen Wolf, my teeth growing like sharp fangs, fur sprouting from my back. I opened my eyes again and looked across at the mirror at the foot of the bed. I was still human. Quinn was still sitting next to me, his hand firmly held over his eyes. I nudged him.
‘You shifted?’ he asked incredulously, peering through a gap in his fingers, and then realising that nothing had changed he removed his hand fully from his eyes.
I pulled a face. ‘No, sadly not, unless I have suddenly sprouted a tail and whiskers.’ I looked at the back of my hand, to see if there might be a few hairs there to show I had somehow shifted a bit.
He shook his head. ‘Sorry Eve, you’re still the same old you.’
‘When you shift for the first time, did you ever only half shift? Did you ever shift back and still have a curly tail or donkey ears?’
‘You mean like in Pinocchio, no that’s never happened. I don’t know if that’s even possible. I’ve heard stories about it happening to others, and them not being able to do anything about it, but I think they were just scary stories, urban legends in the shape shifting world. I think you’re either a donkey or you’re a human, there’s no half and half.’
‘Is that where the legends of centaurs came from, some poor shape shifter that only half changed back, and was stuck for the rest of his life half and half.’
Quinn laughed. ‘Like I said I don’t think it’s possible, but then again… when I shift into an eagle I can fly like an eagle, when I shift into a fish I can swim under water for hours, or days, breathing the oxygen in the water, through my gills, it’s not just that I look like a fish, I am one. Sometimes, I can tap into those abilities without shifting. I can find the strength of an elephant when I’m human, or the swiftness of a cheetah. If I fell from a high place I could tap into the aero dynamics of an eagle and…’
‘Fly?’
‘No, not at all, well I can when I’m an eagle obviously but I can use those abilities to, I suppose you could call it, fall with grace,’ he shrugged. ‘So I suppose there is some truth in the half and half stories.’
I grinned at him, mischievously.
He smiled back, curiously. ‘What?’
‘Quinn you’re a freak just like me.’
He laughed loudly.
A beam of sunlight suddenly lit up the room but was gone again a second later, but in that split second the sun had reflected off a gold necklace that Quinn was wearing.
I leaned in closer to look at it. Quinn held it out for me so I could see. It was a lion’s head, its mouth open in what looked like a roar, its eyes were made from what appeared to be amber.
‘It’s beautiful,’ I said, quietly. ‘But I’ve never seen you wear it before.’
‘I was a dog before, but actually you’re wrong, I did wear it as a dog, it used to be tucked inside my dog tag, I adapted the collar especially so I could still wear it. Mum gave this to me, before she died.’
I swallowed, sadly.
‘I won’t bore you with the significance of it,’ Quinn looked away, awkwardly and I sensed the significance of it was very personal to him. ‘But it’s all I have left of her, so I wear it so I can still feel close to her.’
I smiled, but then felt the smile fall off my face. ‘I don’t suppose she left me anything.’
Quinn pulled a face. ‘She did…but it didn’t survive the fire,’ he got up and went to his drawers; he took out a small box and passed it to me as he sat by my side.
I opened it and looked at the molten ball of gold inside, it had eyes, now at a slight angle like a Picasso painting, but other than that, there was no discernable features to it.
‘What was it?’
‘Quinn shrugged. ‘I’m afraid I never looked, it was yours, it was gift wrapped and it felt wrong to open it. I only did so after the fire to see if it had survived.’
I touched its rough surface, stroked my fingers across the eyes, and smiled. At least I had something from my Mum, at some point, seventeen years ago, she too had held this and thought of me. I put it on, then held it up so its eyes caught the light. In spite of the Oraculum trying to sever all connections between me and her, I still had this, and my shifty eyes, whatever happened, they couldn’t take that away from me.
*
‘How about a game of hide and seek,’ I suggested to the Guardians. Five confused faces looked back at me and Quinn suppressed a snort of laughter.
We were in a disused barn today in some abandoned farm. After what had happened with the Shape Shi
fter the day before and when I accidentally bumped into the Putarians before that, Eli was keen that I really did master pulling them to me when I needed them. He wanted me to only depend on fighting and my powers as a last resort. But as Izri pointed out as she had whizzed by on the way to the party a few minutes before, that having them just in front of me made it a lot easier to pull them than if they were somewhere else.
I smirked then elaborated. ‘You guys spread out round the farm, where I can’t see you and I’ll try to find your minds and pull you to me.’
My Guardians nodded and they all flittered out the door, apart from Eli.
‘Not in the mood for games Eli?’ I asked, sitting down, momentarily next to him on a bale of hay.
‘Someone needs to stay here to watch you,’ he explained.
‘I’ve got Quinn, I’ve seen him when he’s angry and it wasn’t pretty. And I’ve got my own talents to look after me.’
Eli didn’t move.
‘Never mind,’ I sighed. I stood up and closing my eyes I reached for Mason. I pictured him standing in front of me and visualized the beam of light connecting us.
‘Hey Mason, you ready?’
‘Yes.’
So I pulled him to me, this time keeping my eyes open to watch him pop out of the air. I found Caleb and pulled him to me too. When I reached out for Lucas, it took a bit longer to connect the beam than I expected.
‘You found me,’ laughed Lucas.
‘Why what are you doing, it was a bit harder than normal actually.’
‘I’m running, flat out. I thought I’d try to challenge you, can you pull me when I’m running?’
‘Let’s see.’ I grinned as I pulled the beam, but even though I only pulled it gently, Lucas still floored me as he ran straight into me. He quickly scrabbled off me.
‘Oh sorry Eve, I was still running across the fields, you ok?’
I sat up, gingerly rubbing the back of my head. He helped me up. I caught Eli scowling at him over his shoulder.
‘Let it go Eli, he didn’t mean to.’ I couldn’t be mad at his enthusiasm.
I closed my eyes and reached for Alexandria and immediately felt a hot searing pain through my left shoulder. I staggered back from the pain, my eyes snapping open to see what had caused it. My Guardians looked at me warily, but there was nothing apparent that would hurt me so much. My shoulder throbbed again and I felt dizzy with the excruciating agony that tore through me. Lucas was at my side faster than was possible, trying to ascertain what was wrong as I gripped my shoulder.
‘Eve?’ Quinn crossed the barn quickly. I couldn’t speak the pain was unbearable. But then I realised I was still attached to Alexandria, realised with crystal clarity that the pain I was feeling wasn’t mine but hers. I closed my eyes, pictured her in my head as I had done with Seth the other day, and saw her lying in a pile of broken wood, her jacket stained with her own blood. I stepped through.
17. The arrogance of The Sentinel
As soon as I was there I severed the connection between us. The pain instantly stopped. She had fallen through the floor of another barn some ten or fifteen feet above us into what appeared to be a cellar. But the fall itself hadn’t done the damage; it was the sharp metal fence pole that she had impaled herself on. It had quite simply torn right through her shoulder and was sticking up in the air, shiny with her blood. I knelt by her side, her breathing was shallow and erratic. I grabbed her hand, frantically wondering what I could possibly do to help her. Tears smarted my eyes as I watched her vainly struggle to speak.
‘Eve……I…,’ she breathed heavily.
‘Don’t try to talk Alexandria.’ I closed my eyes and pulled Eli to me as soon as I found him. Lucas arrived with him, evidently not waiting to be pulled, he pulled himself to me. They both appeared coiled ready to attack, but despite the fact that they both saw Alexandria straight away, they both still swept the rest of the cellar with their vigilant eyes. Only when they were both happy that we weren’t under the threat of an attack did they join me at her side.
Mason and Caleb quickly arrived as Eli pressed around the wound to try to stem the blood. Alexandria groaned, her eyes rolling back in her head.
They worked efficiently and silently, obviously communicating in their heads. Mason grabbed her legs, Caleb her waist and Eli her shoulders, whilst Lucas held the pole steady from underneath her. In one swift movement they slid her body off the pole, her screams echoed through the cellar, piercing my ears and then they laid her gently on the floor.
‘Caleb, get a Zeki here quick,’ Eli instructed.
‘There’s not enough time Eli, she’s dying,’ Lucas held his hands tight over the wound, blood seeped through his fingers.
I crawled to her side, tears filling my eyes so I couldn’t see. This was it, this was what Persia had foreseen. With what had happened with the Shape Shifter the night before I had almost forgotten her untimely demise.
‘Let me try.’ My voice shook as did my hands, as I held them over her wound.
‘Eve…’ Eli squeezed my shoulder. ‘I think it’s too late. I can feel her, she’s lost too much blood. Her injuries are too severe, she’s slipping away.’
I shook his hand off me and closed my eyes. I had no idea what I was doing, but I had to do something. I closed my eyes and imagined my power as a golden ball of light, flowing into her, but I couldn’t concentrate, the fear of losing her kept making my power wink out. I felt sick, I was strong enough to do this, I knew that, but my lack of knowledge and experience meant that Alexandria was going to die.
If the Oraculum had told me about my powers before, if I had been trained from birth how to use them, this wouldn’t be happening right now. They had created me with all this great power and they had left me completely unprepared to handle it. The precious secret, to be preserved at all costs, had already lost the life of the coach driver in that fateful crash and the lives of my family. If I had been strong enough I could have stopped these events from ever happening. Now I was going to lose Alexandria as well.
‘Sorry Eve,’ she muttered, closing her eyes.
Fury burst from me, tearing through my veins and burning my blood. My hands glowed with a sudden golden light. I didn’t just imagine some of my power flowing through me into her, I imagined it all. I pulled everything I had to give and poured it into her. Her body arched, gritting her teeth with the pain I was causing her, her body convulsed, shaking under me.
‘Hold her steady,’ I growled, through gritted teeth. Four pairs of hands were instantly on her, preventing her from thrashing about. I moved one hand over her heart, and split my power between keeping her heart beating and repairing the wound at the same time. But she was giving up, she was letting go, I needed her to fight for her life too.
‘Alexandria, you swore to obey me, I order you to fight, I order you not to let go.’
‘I can’t Eve,’ she moaned in my head.
‘You will, you will not disobey me, I am the Sentinel,’ I growled, arrogantly. ‘The pledge is worth nothing if you can’t follow a simple order.’
I could still feel her slipping away, it was like holding water in my hands, I couldn’t stop it from trickling away.
Lucas shook his head with despair. ‘It’s too late Eve.’
I ignored him. ‘Damn it Alexandria, try, I need you, you’re failing me, you’re letting me down, please.’
I felt a surge of anger from her, which made her heart beat faster. I returned my full attention to the wound, I watched as it closed under my fingers, the skin quite simply fusing itself back together, until there was not even a scar there. But still I didn’t stop, I imagined my power as the ocean, and I directed a tidal wave of it through her. In my mind I could see my power tearing through her veins, doing the job her blood should be doing, if she had enough to do it. Her heart beat faster and she opened her eyes, looking at me with determination. We both knew it was not a battle we were going to lose, not today at least. She sat up weakly and I relented my torrent on
her a bit, shifting my attention to her head, to see how she felt. She was tired, but her heart was beating normally now and her will to live was strong. I let my powers wink out and I crumpled to the floor, feeling like I had run a hundred miles.
Mason and Caleb were at my side.
‘No please, I’m fine.’ I forced myself up; I couldn’t bear to have their attention on me when Alexandria had just nearly died.
‘We should get her home,’ said Mason. But to my absolute annoyance, I realised he was talking about me.
I stood fiercely, my legs feeling like they were going to crumble under me. ‘I agree we should get Alexandria home,’ I said, pointedly. ‘I’ll slide home and I’ll pull you all to me. It’s the quickest way.’ That and when I was in the privacy of my own room, I could curl up and pass out from exhaustion without the oppressive gaze of my Guardians. ‘Caleb will you call Jasmine, or another Zeki and get her to meet us there, Alexandria should be checked over by someone who knows what they are doing. Mason can you go and tell Quinn what’s happened, I’m sure he’s worried sick by now.’
‘Eve I don’t think you should be sliding after what you’ve just done,’ Mason started, looking at me with concern.
Did the Guardians really not care for each other at all? I closed my eyes in annoyance and slid home. I walked into one of the bedrooms, the big blue room at the front of the house and reached out for Alexandria, pulling her as gently as I could to me. She landed in front of me, still looking weak and I pushed her down on the bed. I focussed my attention on Eli, then Lucas pulling them to me, followed by Caleb and Mason. They all looked at me with concern as I wobbled a bit on my feet.
‘I’m going to my room,’ I muttered angrily, but as I turned to go, I saw something which restored my faith in the Guardians, or at least in Eli. He took Alexandria’s hand and the look that he gave her was one I was so familiar with, it was one that Seth had given me many times. I stumbled into my room and closing the door behind me I sagged onto my bed with exhaustion. I lay down feeling shaky and closed my eyes, letting sleep take me.