by Holly Martin
‘NO!’ I screamed.
As the helicopter swerved away again the last glimpse I saw of Eli was the plane trying to shake him off and Eli punching a hole through the roof of the cockpit.
I looked back at my Guardians in horror, all of their faces set grimly.
‘We have to go back for him.’
Mason shook his head.
‘Turn the helicopter round,’ I yelled to our pilot.
The helicopter flew on and I felt my hands ball into fists. But then there were two more planes emerging from the darkness and Seth and Lucas were on their feet, both of them heading towards the door. Rage filled me and I found myself ripping off my harness and was on my feet too. Alexandria tried to hold me back but I shrugged her off. One of the planes released a small missile, but somehow the helicopter, thanks to the skilful flying of our pilot, managed to shake it off.
‘Missiles! Are you freaking kidding me?’ I screamed.
As one of the planes dipped in closer, Seth curled ready to pounce but I was faster. Instinctively a beam of white hot fire shot from my hand, tearing through the nearest plane. It erupted into a fireball of hot melted metal that cartwheeled into the ocean. A wave of sickness rode through me, the drugs still in my system trying to suppress my powers, but I ignored it. I redirected my anger and my fire to the second plane, tearing through that as well, but as the plane turned into another fireball, the fireball cartwheeled towards the side of the helicopter, completely taking out the tail.
The helicopter, without its tail blade to counteract the power of the rotor blades above us, started spinning out of control. It was so fast that the sky and sea sped past in a blur of sickening darkness. I lost my balance and fell hard onto the floor. Seth was on top of me a second later, his arms around me in an unbreakable protective cage. I looked up into his eyes, filled with so much fear. As the whirring of the engine got louder, we gambolled forward and as the sickening sound of metal crumpling around us filled my ears, everything went black.
22. The welcome home
When I came round, it took a few seconds to ascertain where I was, what was happening. I was cold, that much I was sure of, freezing cold. An orange glow flickered in the corner of my blurred view. I tried to move but something hard was wrapped around me, constricting my chest and my arms. It was windy, the force of a gale tearing through my hair, across my face. I willed my eyesight to focus, but it was all a blur. I couldn’t move, I couldn’t see and I had no idea whether Seth or the rest of my Guardians were even alive. I felt panic rising through me, at the thought of losing Seth, of not knowing what had happened, what was still happening.
‘Eve, you’re ok, stay calm, you’re ok,’ said Seth’s glorious voice in my head. And the panic subsided almost immediately. If Seth was still alive, then I could just about cope with anything else.
The wind roared round me, filling my ears.
‘Seth I can’t move, something’s on me.’
The constraints around my chest loosened the tiniest of fractions. ‘That’s me, silly.’
I lifted my head and in the moonlight could just about make out Seth’s arms round me, the inky black water over my legs, and I let my head fall back onto Seth’s chest.
‘Is everyone else ok?’
The silence from Seth was almost deafening, finally he broke it. ‘Mason doesn’t look too good and Andrew, the pilot, is dead.’
I closed my eyes again, trying to clear the immense dizziness in my head, trying to block out that someone else had died for me today. I could feel my body going limp, like I was drifting off into the blackness of unconsciousness again.
‘Evie, can you stay with me please.’
I didn’t reply. The blackness beckoned, and I knew there I wouldn’t have to think about any of this, that I could stay there for a while in blissful ignorance. The tendrils of the blackness surrounded me, slowly swallowing me and I let it.
‘Eve, Mason is dying, you need to heal him.’
My eyes snapped open, and I forced them to focus. It was only then as I looked up at the sky above me that I realised what was the cause of the gale force winds. One of the harrier jets was hovering above us, the down thrust of the engines, releasing its torrent on us. Furiously, I felt my power surge through me again.
‘NO EVE, it’s Eli, it’s ok.’
I released my power.
Eli was obviously not keen to leave me unguarded in case of another airborne attack.
I looked around me, as much as I could with Seth holding me tight. The remains of the helicopter was on fire and debris scattered the sea around us. I spotted Mason floating in Lucas’s arms not far away from us, he had a huge gash to his head. Caleb and Alexandria were treading water not far behind them.
‘Seth, let me go, I need to help Mason.’
‘Can you swim?’
‘Of course I can swim.’
‘No I didn’t mean normally, I meant are you fit enough to swim.’
‘Yes I’m fine,’ I struggled against him.
Seth released his hold on me, and whether it was the drugs, the dizziness from being knocked out or the intense cold that had settled around my limbs, but my arms and legs refused to work the way I wanted them to and I sank beneath the waves. I heard Seth sigh with exasperation in my head as he pulled me back to the surface.
‘Ok maybe I need a little help,’ I admitted, as I choked up the water I had swallowed. Seth towed me over to Mason and I put my hand on his head, expecting to feel the worst, expecting to find a whole host of internal injuries, but the only thing I could find was a bit of dizziness and the gash on his head.
Mason opened one eye, to look at me, suppressing a smile. ‘Ok, dying might be a bit of an overstatement.’
I scowled at Seth, who had obviously only said that to get me to stay awake. I imagined my golden ball of light flowing onto the area where the gash was, my hand shook with the cold or the effort, but the wound healed up, quickly and I let my powers wink out, feeling sick again. I let Seth take me in his arms again and I lay face down on his chest.
‘I hate you sometimes,’ I muttered.
‘No you don’t, you love me, really,’
‘Yeah I do,’ I sighed.
‘What hate me?’
‘No, love you, that’s the problem. What are you doing here anyway? Are all my orders completely worthless, you can pick and choose when to obey them? So you had to come to the house and fight, so you had to come and rescue me from the car, but when I was in the helicopter, I was supposedly safe, you should have left me then.’
‘Well it was a good job I didn’t wasn’t it,’ he replied, angrily.
‘Arghh you drive me mad.’
‘Look let’s just not talk for a while,’ he seethed.
‘Fine,’ I said.
‘Fine.
And we floated for a while in angry silence. I was surprised by how much body heat Seth was giving off, so much so that I hardly felt cold at all. Except my fingers, they were numb. I surreptitiously tried to rub one set of fingers with my thumb, in an attempt to bring them back to life.
‘What are you doing?’ Seth asked.
‘My fingers are cold.’
Seth sighed in my head and took my hand and tenderly blew on each finger, his hot breath and soft lips on my fingers making my heart gallop. I looked up at him, his eyes still filled with anger, as he put each finger to his mouth and breathed on it. My heart pounded furiously and he stopped, evidently having heard it. He looked at me with concern and I quickly looked away, blushing.
‘Eve?’
‘I thought we weren’t talking,’ I snapped.
‘Fine.’ he snapped back.
Except it wasn’t fine was it? I loved him and I was angry at him for doing exactly what I was trying to do for him, protect him at all costs.
We didn’t have to wait long before another helicopter came to winch us out. Seth wrapped me in a blanket and sat next to me again, but didn’t take my hand this time. The journey was long, too lo
ng. My anger turned back to grief again, grief over so many lives lost, because of me. What was it the animals called me, the Angelus Vita, the angel of life. I wasn’t the saver of lives, I was the destroyer of them. We flew over mountains and forests, with the hijacked harrier as our escort, we flew until the first glimpses of sunlight broke the horizon. Then we came into land, in the grounds of an impressive, towering castle, silhouetted against the scarlet light of the early morning sky.
Lucas fell in at my side as we walked up to the castle, my other Guardians walking in tight formation around me. I lost sight of Seth as we walked, probably keeping his distance.
Two soldiers guarding the doors stood aghast as we approached, I suppose we did look like a bedraggled bunch. Eli or one of the other Guardians must have said something to them, silently, as they suddenly leapt into action and opened the doors for us. But what happened next made me go cold, as we walked past they bowed their heads at me. I looked at them over my shoulder as we walked, they were still bowed.
I felt Lucas’s hand in mine and I turned back to face him. ‘Don’t get freaked Eve ok, stay calm, we’ll be in your room in a minute.’
‘What?’
But as we rounded the next corner it soon became apparent what he was talking about, the corridor was lined with people, all trying to get a glimpse of us. Excited and shocked whispers of ‘The Sentinel’ and ‘She’s here’ followed us up the corridor. And as we passed they all bowed or curtsied, every single one of them. I started jogging to speed our process down the corridor, my breath coming in short ragged breaths.
‘Lucas?’ I stammered, as I picked up speed. What the hell was this? Was it someone’s idea of a sick joke.
‘I know Eve, I’m sorry,’ he held my hand tighter. We came to a great flight of stairs and ran up them, but more people were coming down them, and we had to slow down in order to wind our way through the throng of bowing, excited people.
Hot tears sprang to my eyes and Lucas put his arm around me, hugging me tightly as we fought our way to the top of the stairs. We reached another corridor but this one was empty of people, probably due to the two Guardians stationed either side of the entrance to the corridor. As we ran down it with my personal guard matching my now desperate pace, the Guardians at the entrance to the corridor, moved to block the progress of anyone else following us. We reached the room at the end of the corridor and we went in, Caleb closed the door behind us. My Guardians stood watching me, warily, looking at me, waiting for me to break down in tears of panic. I didn’t disappoint.
‘What the hell was that?’ I yelled. They held me in such reverence. I was going to save them, they were all so sure of it. Five people had died for me today and all these people were all ready to throw themselves to the ground and worship me for it. It was sickening. They were wrong; I wasn’t going to save the world. It was ridiculous. A great wave of sickness and tiredness surged through me, my body still trying to fight off the effects of the drugs, and I had to run to the bathroom to empty my stomach.
After, I lay on the floor, pressing my forehead against the cool tiles. The panic of such responsibility, such adulation was slowly ebbing away. I knew Lucas was with me in the bathroom, even though he hadn’t made a sound. I knew he was sitting on the floor behind me. I knew he was torn between picking me up and taking me to my bed or leaving me to collect my thoughts, to calm down on my own. I knew my other Guardians had gone, to let me have some space, that Alexandria and Eli were outside my room. I knew that Mason had been dispatched to get me a Zeki. I knew Lucas was furious over what had just happened with my adoring fan club, I knew he was thinking that the Fort was really not the best place for me. I knew all of this without Lucas even opening his mouth, because it was what Lucas was thinking, so I was thinking it as well.
‘I can feel you,’ I whispered, into the tiles.
And I knew he was suddenly grinning. ‘Surreal isn’t it?’
‘It’s not so bad. Your thoughts give me something else to focus on, rather than focussing on my own.’ I rolled onto my back, and looked at him with one eye.
‘You look like death.’ He grinned at me.
‘Thanks, I think I feel worse than I look.’
Lucas rolled forward so he was kneeling at my side, then he pulled me gently into a sitting position, where he scooped me up, barely jostling me, and took me to my bed.
*
Lucas shook me gently awake a while later, I hadn’t properly fallen asleep, but I had dozed. I rolled over and looked at him as he sat next to me on the bed. I felt groggy.
‘How you feeling?’
‘Tired, a bit sick still, but I’ll be ok.’ I answered in his head, though I was unsure why we needed the secrecy.
‘The Zeki, Cassidy isn’t here so…’
‘Eve…’ Eli coughed to draw my attention. I sat up and looked across to the doorway. Eli was looking decidedly uncomfortable, but a slight movement near his waist caught my eye. Clutching Eli’s hand tightly and peering round his leg with wide eyes was a girl of about seven years old, her hair plaited in pigtails, she was dressed in pink pyjamas with a teddy bear on the front. Eli didn’t seem to know what to do with this small girl, and he certainly wasn’t comfortable holding her hand.
‘Eve, unfortunately there are no Zekis in the Fort at the moment…’ Eli started.
‘I’m a Zeki,’ the girl interrupted, scowling up at Eli.
Eli shifted awkwardly looking down at the suddenly sullen face of the girl. ‘Yes I meant…’
Lucas crossed the room and knelt down to her height. ‘He meant that your Mum isn’t here, who would normally do the healing, but that he’s sure you will still do a fantastic job.’
‘That’s not what he meant at all,’ the girl folded her arms across her chest. ‘He’s just desperate so he has to make do with me.’
‘It’s Freya isn’t it?’ asked Lucas, showing a tenderness I didn’t know he had.
The girl nodded, holding Eli’s hand again.
‘Freya, Eli here is very protective of Eve, he doesn’t let just anyone near her, the fact that you are here now shows he obviously has great admiration for your skills.’
Freya smiled, slowly.
‘Now would you like to meet The Sentinel?’ Lucas asked.
Freya nodded, unable to hide her excitement, she dropped Eli’s hand like a hot potato, much to Eli’s relief, and took Lucas’s hand instead as he led her over to the bed.
‘Hello Freya,’ I said, holding out my hand. ‘I’m Eve.’
Freya took it and shook it hard.
‘So you’re a Zeki?’
Freya nodded, suddenly losing the ability to speak.
‘That’s so cool, maybe you and your Mum can teach me a few things. I can heal too, but I bet I’m nowhere near as good as you.’
Freya grew visibly with this, then she became business like. ‘Well what seems to be the problem?’
I stifled a smile. ‘Well I have these drugs in my body, they were used to make me paralysed. I managed to fight them off, but they’re still having an effect on me, making me tired and sick.’
Freya nodded efficiently, and put her hand to my head. Instantly I felt the warm fizzing flow through me, purging my body of the effects of the drugs. And then it stopped.
Freya looked thoughtful ‘I…haven’t had to do that before, I think I did it. How do you feel?’
‘Fantastic,’ I lied. Truth be told, I was still exhausted but the sickness had certainly gone.
Freya scowled a little. ‘Well…you should rest for a few days, don’t try to use your powers, any other side effects should have passed by then. And…my Mum will be back the day after tomorrow, so…’
‘Freya you did a brilliant job, thank you.’
Freya grinned and turned to Eli triumphantly.
Eli looked at me and knew instantly I still felt tired. He turned his attention back to Freya. ‘Thank you, you’ve been a great help.’
Freya beamed and skipped out.
I sm
iled as the door closed behind her. ‘Eli you can be quite sweet sometimes.’
‘Lucas told me what to say.’
I rolled my eyes as I lay back down. ‘Her Mum, Cassidy, is she normally the only Zeki here?’
‘Yes.’
‘We might need to get one or two more, just for when Cassidy’s not here.’
‘I’ll look into it.’
*
I woke the next morning, still feeling tired. Freya had said that it would probably take a day or two for the drugs to wear off completely, that I should rest. And I would, just as soon as I spoke to Seth. The stubborn mule hadn’t come anywhere near me last night once we had arrived at the fort, he’d snuck off as soon as the helicopter had landed, and I hadn’t seen him since. The journey had been too long, it gave him too long to think. I would have spoken to him, but amongst my grief of losing the Guardians that had died for me, I’d been lost in my own thoughts. All I kept thinking was how I could have prevented it.
Looking back now at all the secrecy and deception, it probably would have been better if they had told me who I was sooner. It would have made it easier to face my future, it would have made me stronger, more prepared. Maybe then there wouldn’t be so many deaths on my hands.
Take the night of that horrific coach crash, for example, the day I should have died, the day fifty five other people also should have died. That was the day that I’d been inadvertently handed the keys to the strange world I now live in, not just the keys but VIP membership. If I’d known then what I know now, then none of it would have happened, it would never have got that far and our coach driver would never have died. But, as it turned out, he was only the first of many that would die for me, or because of me. As long as I was alive, that was all that mattered, that’s what they said. I hated that.
But as I lay in bed, lying awake well into the night, I knew of one thing that would make me stronger, one thing that I needed in my life more than anything, Seth. It was selfish, I knew that. I was going to die and I was going to ask him to stand by my side, whilst I did it. And worse than that, much worse than that, I wasn’t going to tell him about my ultimate demise. He would never agree to stay with me, if he knew I was going to die. But of all the things I had given up over the last few days; my education, my dreams of being a doctor, my freedom, the young, carefree life any other seventeen year old was enjoying right now. Seth was the one thing I couldn’t give up on, one thing I couldn’t live without. Sending him away had been a pointless exercise. It hadn’t achieved anything. In fact he was more vulnerable to death away from me, than he was when I was with him. I could at least protect him when he was with me.