The Reckoning (The Sentinel Series Book 4)

by Holly Martin

  I turned back to him, he eyed me speculatively.

  I stepped back towards him, resting my hand on his heart. ‘OK.’

  Seth tilted my face up to look at him. ‘OK what?’

  I nodded. ‘I promise, I’ll never leave.’

  Seth wrapped his arm round my waist and pulled me towards him. ‘What if there’s a hurricane off the coast of Spain?’

  I shook my head. ‘I can’t interfere anymore. Cain was wrong to interfere in the first place. I’ve done my bit now, the world is here because of me. I think that’s enough.’

  ‘OK, what about Persia’s Mum, she falls and injures herself really badly—’

  ‘Seth, Persia has given me so much, but you are my priority now,’ I stroked my belly. ‘And she is, I can’t risk blowing our cover, can’t risk her.’

  ‘What if—’

  I placed my fingers over his mouth. ‘Seth, I want that future with you, the one that Cain showed me, I want that more than anything, and I will do anything I can to keep that. So I promise, I will never leave, no matter what.’

  Seth smiled. ‘OK.’

  So I had pledged to him. And though the pledges to me had proved to be worthless, it was something I was not going to back out of now, even after all this time and Seth knew that.

  Though it had been the source of a big argument between us a few weeks after I had made the promise. I had been trying to use my powers and nothing was working particularly well, some of my skills gone for good. Wondering if I could still slide, I had slid to the waterfall near the middle of the island. Seth had seen me vanish and quickly slid to me, landing with a fierce look on his face.

  ‘Eve, damn it—’ he had trailed off as soon as he had realised where we were.

  ‘You thought I’d left the island didn’t you, you don’t trust me,’ I had yelled at him, pushing him away from me. It hadn’t helped that my body had been filled with over emotional baby hormones. Seth had started to argue back with me, but had stopped when he saw how upset I was. I had stormed away from him, then slid to the far side of the island, and blocked my mind to him. It was hugely satisfying to know how angry and worried he would be about me.

  I sat down under the shade of an old yew tree, its twisted trunk towering tall above me, and folded my arms across my chest.

  Then my stomach lurched, a movement, a flutter. I put my hand on my bump, not daring to believe it but there it was again. I thought I had felt it before in the cell, but now I was sure. A kick, my baby girl had kicked me.

  Quickly I lowered the protection to my mind and Seth landed next to me, trying to hide his anger in order to placate me.

  ‘Eve—’

  ‘Seth, just shut up a second and come here.’

  Seth’s eyes flickered with confusion and then worry, as he registered where my hands were, he was kneeling at my side in an instant.

  I took his hands and placed them where mine had been before and our baby girl, dutifully kicked out, and Seth broke into a huge grin, his mouth quickly on mine as the argument was forgotten.

  So I was stuck here. Stuck with my beautiful husband, my beautiful children, my brother, my friends. Stuck on this amazing island, where long hot days blended into one. Sometimes I had to pinch myself. Sometimes I wondered if I had actually died at the end of the world and this was my heaven.

  When Seth and I had come to the island, we had been alone for a few weeks. Lucas had been the first to arrive, bringing with him, Persia, Quinn, Izri and bags of clothes and food.

  With the strength of Seth and Lucas and the powers of myself, Persia and Izri, our houses went up quite quickly, and we soon had hot and cold running water too.

  Eli came but he didn’t slide to me. One day the idyllic peace of our island was shattered by the arrival of a very large, sleek black helicopter. Eli had brought an electric generator, beds, and other furniture. He went backwards and forwards over the following weeks, picking up all the things we needed. And now, Eli still made flights to the main land occasionally, to collect things we might need, but mainly we were self-sufficient.

  Our houses were spread out around the island, so we still had our privacy when we needed it though most days we all amassed on the beach under my house, the cliff face providing much needed shade from the continuous heat.

  And we had visits too, Zach, Deacon, Mason, Rhesa, and even Isaac had all visited quite regularly over the last few years.

  Liberty peeled herself off me and went and sat on Izri’s lap. Izri wrapped her arms round her tightly, kissing her forehead, her eyes firmly on the lion that was now galloping up the beach with a lion cub at his side. The lion nuzzled against Izri for a moment and then ran behind some rocks. The lion cub, gambolling at his side.

  A minute later Quinn appeared dressed in his shorts, a small boy thrown over his shoulder. The boy was giggling as Quinn carried him. He put the boy down next to Izri.

  ‘Mummy, Daddy said we can go diving for scallops later, can we?’ Aled, the little boy said, snuggling up to Izri.

  Izri smiled. ‘Of course you can.’

  Quinn kissed me on the forehead. ‘Morning sleepy head,’ he said to me, laughing as he sat down next to Izri, kissing her, as he wrapped his arm round her. ‘Or should I say afternoon.’

  ‘What can I say, this little one is wearing me out,’ I said, as I stroked my belly affectionately.

  ‘He’s not exactly little,’ Quinn said.

  Izri nudged him affectionately.

  ‘Quinn’s right, I am huge,’ I sighed. ‘The hazards of having part Guardian babies, they’re always so big and strong. Especially the boys.’

  That was how I knew I was having a boy this time round, the baby inside me was so big and strong.

  ‘Mama, was I that big when you had me?’ Liberty asked.

  ‘Yes, you came out as big as a two year old, you were massive.’ I smiled, weakly at the memory. In truth Liberty’s birth had been bad and giving birth to our first daughter Star was awful too but giving birth to Henry had been horrific. He was so strong that he nearly killed me, though I had managed to heal myself.

  ‘I reckon he will come today,’ Quinn said. ‘It’s so late now, you’re bound to pop soon.’

  ‘I hope so, Quinn, I’m so overdue now, and still getting fatter by the day.’

  Seth stroked my belly. ‘Baby,’ he crooned to my stomach. ‘It’s time to come out now.’

  Persia walked up the beach towards us, Henry riding on her back. Star was by their side. When they got close, Henry leapt down and ran towards us. Henry was so tall, even though he was two years younger than Star, he was already the same height as her.

  ‘How you feeling, Henry,’ I asked, pulling my son onto my lap, and feeling his forehead. He was hot.

  ‘I’m OK,’ Henry said, bravely. ‘Uncle Quinn says it will happen any time now.’

  I looked at Quinn, warily, and Quinn pulled a face, and nodded. ‘Are you scared?’ I asked Henry. I was scared for him, shape shifting for the first time was horribly painful.

  Henry shrugged. ‘A little, but excited too.’

  ‘It’s so cool Henry, it hurts a bit, but once you’ve done it for the first time you can have so much fun,’ Aled said, excitedly, speaking as a professional even though he had only shifted for the first time himself a few months ago.

  ‘It’s not fair,’ Star pouted. ‘Why can’t I change?’

  ‘Because you’re beautiful just as you are,’ Seth said.

  I leaned round to look at Persia, who was sitting the other side of Seth. ‘Where’s Lucas?’

  Persia smiled. ‘He’ll be down soon.’

  Persia and Lucas had never had children of their own. After I had given birth to Star, Lucas swore he never wanted to put Persia through that. And Persia seemed happy with that too. Persia said that the great thing about having a nephew and god children was that she got to play with them every day but when she got tired or bored of them she could give them back. Though, in truth, the chances of Lucas and Persia co
nceiving a child was almost impossible. The Deus and Donum DNA didn’t mix. The only reason me and Seth could conceive was because of my shape shifting gene, the glue that helped to bind our DNA together.

  Eli would probably be down shortly too. He didn’t come every day like Lucas. But most days he came and sat with us. The children loved him, especially as he taught them cool things like how to throw a knife and how to hunt the animals on the island. I pretended not to know.

  He had found it the hardest, adjusting to life on the island. After he arrived on the island, I had found him on guard several times outside my house. He had said he had guarded me for so long that it was going to take some getting used to that he didn’t need to anymore. But I found his presence a comforting one too. Though I persuaded him that an active vigil wasn’t necessary, I liked having him here on the island. Slowly, over the years, he had become less serious and with the help of the children, he had much more of a sense of humour now too.

  My powers had almost gone completely, though. I could slide with some effort, though I had never slid off the island. Telekinesis was easy, though it was a bit of an effort with bigger things, and I could still create fire in my hands. Everything else seemed to have gone for good. I could still shift and heal but they had always been separate from my powers. But Seth’s bond with me had grown over the years, he could feel me so strongly now we barely had to communicate, verbally or telepathically. He even knew I was pregnant with my fourth child before I did.

  I leant against Seth, as he wrapped his arm round me.

  ‘See having me inside your head does have its uses,’ he said.

  I kissed his neck. ‘I like having you in my head.’

  Seth smiled.

  ‘I’m going for a swim,’ I said. Henry scrambled off me and ran off with Aled down the beach.

  Seth helped me to my feet. ‘I’ll come with you.’

  I smiled. When we had first moved to the island, it was hard for Seth too, to make the transition from protecting me all the time, but then he had an excuse to be with me every second of the day, he was my husband, it was a bit trickier for Eli to justify hanging around. Gradually as the years passed, he had become much more relaxed about letting me go off on my own. I swam out to the rocks every day on my own and Seth didn’t normally feel the need to come with me, but over the last few weeks, in my heavily pregnant state, he had barely left my side.

  I walked, heavily to the water’s edge and waded out until it was deep enough to swim and then I submerged myself in the clear, warm water.

  Seth swam slowly at my side, trying to match my laborious pace.

  As we reached the rocks Seth swam on ahead, reaching the rocks before me, he climbed out and waited for me.

  Suddenly a wave of pain rode through me, and I doubled up with the crippling agony, the water closing in over my head. I thrashed around in the water, as another wave of pain washed over me, I fought my way back to the surface as strong arms pulled me up, fastening themselves round my waist. Seth looked at me with concern as he held me in the water, then as he felt my stomach move between us, a smile spread across his face.

  ‘It’s time,’ he grinned, as he pulled me onto his chest.

  I nodded, as I lay in his arms, closing my eyes against the pain, as Seth swam us back to shore.

  Pain ripped through me. The good thing about giving birth to part Guardian babies was the speed at which they came out, the bad thing was the ferocity of which they arrived.

  As we reached the beach, Seth scooped me up and started running back to the house, shouting across to Quinn, Persia and the others. But I barely heard it, my heart was pounding in my ears, pain filling my whole body.

  The next few minutes passed in a blur of agonizing pain, of screaming, and shouts. Seth was talking to me, but I couldn’t hear it. I was dizzy and unconsciousness was taking me. As Seth held up a baby that was as big as two year old, I visualized my healing energy passing through my body, and the pain dulled and then I passed out.

  When I woke, the first thing I was aware of was a heartbeat, thumping loudly against my ear. But there were two other heartbeats nearby, though it took me a few seconds to realise that one of them was mine.

  I forced my eyes open and stared straight into the large, unblinking greeny grey eyes of my beautiful son. He was stunning, his tiny little nose, his long dark eyelashes. He was wrapped in a blanket and his little body was rising up and down in a steady rhythm. He was lying on Seth’s chest, rising with his every breath. His large hand was cupped protectively round our son’s back and his other hand was tight around my shoulders. I smiled.

  I reached out and stroked my son’s cheek, it was silky to the touch.

  Almost as if he had been waiting for me to wake, as I touched him, his eyes closed and he fell asleep.

  I looked up at Seth, he was grinning hugely at me.

  ‘How did I do?’ I asked, weakly.

  ‘Look at him, Eve, he’s perfect, just like his Mum.’

  I reached up to stroke Seth’s cheek. ‘I don’t think I can take all the credit.’

  Seth smiled as he kissed me, and I linked fingers with him round our son’s back.

  ‘What shall we call him?’ Seth said.

  ‘How do you feel about Cain?’

  He smiled. ‘Cain it is.’

  So my life wasn’t perfect. My oldest son was soon going to go through the horrible pain of shifting for the first time. Being on the island meant things like bacon sandwiches and ice cream were a thing of the past. I missed snow. Our island haven, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean was subject to tropical storms in the summer months and last year one nearly wiped out Lucas and Persia’s home. So life wasn’t perfect, but it was pretty damn close. But that was OK because I never wanted a perfect life, I wanted a normal one. And though sharing my island home with shape shifters, Donum and Guardians was never going to be normal, it was good enough for me.

  The End

  Thank you so much for reading The Sentinel Series, I had so much fun creating this story and I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

  One of the best parts of writing comes from seeing the reaction from readers. Did it make you smile or cry or shout at the book? Did you fall in love with Eve, Seth, Quinn, Lucas and Eli? If you enjoyed the story, I would absolutely love it if you could leave a short review on Amazon. Getting feedback from readers is amazing and it also helps to persuade other readers to pick up one of my books for the first time.

  Thank you for reading

  Love Holly x

  The Reckoning

  This edition published 2016

  Text copyright © Holly Martin 2016

  Illustration copyright © Scarlett Rugers 2016

  Formatting by Polgarus Studio

  All rights reserved

  No part of this ebook may be reproduced in any form other than in which it was purchased without prior written permission from the author.

  https://hollymartinwriter.wordpress.com/

  hollymartin.writer@gmail.com

  @hollymartin00

  http://www.scarlettrugers.com/