by Holly Martin
‘Leon is here, downstairs, he wants to talk to you,’ Eli said.
‘Oh,’ I bit my lip.
Leon had been loyal to me, one of the few Oraculum members that had stood for me. But since then the Oraculum’s Guardians had tried to kill me and I didn’t know how much Leon had been a part of that. I didn’t know what had gone on between the Oraculum after I had left. Had they split now, those for me and those against? Or had they reached some mutual understanding, that I must be stopped no matter what. It would be good to know what was going on in the Oraculum camp, but how much was Leon going to tell me? Or was this all part of a ruse, to get me to meet him so he could kill me?
‘Is he alone?’
‘Yes. He turned up this morning, asking to speak to you. He says he wants to pledge to you,’ explained Seth.
‘Oh.’
That was what I wanted when I last went to the Oraculum, for them to pledge to me, or rather what Matthias had told me to ask for. It was this, I felt, that had caused the Oraculum to break and that had caused Samuel and Nereus to die. Though, as Quinn had said, many of the Oraculum had had it in for me for years, ever since Leon had the prophecy that Nereus killed Samuel to protect me.
‘Can he not pledge to me first, before I come?’ Thousands of Guardians had pledged to me and I had never even met them.
Eli nodded. ‘Yes. It needs a Donum to seal the pledge. Persia could seal the pledge before you go in…’
He trailed off as I shook my head. ‘I’m not about to feed her to the lions, this could all be a trap, to lure me out of hiding so they can kill me.’
‘If that’s their plan, they are hardly going to spoil it by killing Persia before you even enter the room,’ Lucas said, practically. ‘It would kind of give the game away.’
I stared at him, incredulous. Persia was his girlfriend.
‘I would be with her, Eve, and as many Guardians as you want.’
I shook my head. ‘No, if we are going to do this, then we all go in together, I’m not risking my friends unnecessarily.’
‘Is anyone going to ask me about this?’ asked Persia as she stepped forward.
‘No, because it’s not going to happen, I’m not risking your life like that.’
‘It’s a good idea Eve, if he wants to pledge to you, it makes sense to send me in there first to seal the pledge. That way when you come in, we know that he can’t hurt you.’
I sighed.
‘I don’t actually think the pledge is really worth anything anymore.’ I shuffled awkwardly at what I was about to say. ‘Izri pledged to protect me, to support me and look at how that turned out,’ I hurried on, as Persia blushed with embarrassment at her sister’s disloyalty. ‘And Mason, he was pledged to the Oraculum, he was ordered to kill me and he ran away from me to protect me from himself, if the pledge actually meant something he would have had to kill me, he wouldn’t have had any choice. If Leon is really clever, they’ll be a way round the pledge, I’m sure.’
‘Then we don’t see him,’ Quinn said. ‘It’s too risky.’
‘Quinn’s right, whatever he wants to say, he can say to us and we can pass the message on to you.’ Seth said.
I pursed my lips, thoughtfully. I turned away from the group. I had vowed to myself, after what had happened the last time I stood before the Oraculum, that I never wanted to see the Oraculum ever again. But Leon had stood for me and he had taken a big risk turning up at the fort alone. I had a feeling I was going to regret this decision.
I turned back to the group. ‘I think we should see him, we take all my Guardians with me, all of them and at the first sign of trouble I’ll slide us out of there, but I think I should hear what he wants to say.’
Seth sighed heavily.
‘Seth, I know it’s risky, but Leon was one of the few Oraculum members that stood for me, and …after last night’s dream I think I should meet him.’
‘What dream?’ asked Eli.
‘I think it was just that Eli, just a dream, so I haven’t bothered to mention it, but I dreamt that I save the world with Adam’s help, that we work together to save it.’
Eli’s eyes widened. ‘That would be an interesting team,’ he growled, knowing how much Adam hated me.
‘Exactly, that’s why I think it was a dream, but that’s something else I can ask Leon.’
Eli nodded reluctantly. ‘I’ll get the Guardians to take him to the throne room, it’s a huge space big enough to fit all your Guardians.’
I swallowed a sudden lump in my throat. ‘The what?’
‘The throne room, a room for you to meet your visitors.’
‘Please tell me it hasn’t got a throne in it?’
Eli had the good grace to blush. ‘Yes it has.’
I rolled my eyes, angrily. ‘Well take the throne out, there’s no way I’m sitting on a throne when I meet him, just put some regular chairs in there.’
Eli nodded.
‘I better get dressed too.’
They all left the room and I quickly washed and dressed then stepped out into the corridor. My Guardians walked down the corridor with me and we headed down the stairs and towards the back of the fort.
Zach was waiting for me outside some ornately carved wooden doors. I hadn’t seen him since that night I had fallen in the pool and banged my head, since the night he had saved my life. I ran forwards to hug him. He caught me in his arms, holding me tight.
‘Hey kid, how you doing?’ Zach grinned.
Impossibly, he seemed bigger somehow, stronger.
‘I’m good, I’ve missed you, missed our little fights, and it seems I owe you my life,’ I laughed.
‘All in a day’s work Eve.’
I pulled away and Deacon was at his side, also grinning at me. ‘Hey Eve, good to see you.’
I smiled. Being with the Guardlings, the young Guardians, especially Zach and Deacon, always made me feel better.
‘Zach have you seen Leon?’
Zach nodded, suddenly growing serious. ‘He says he won’t hurt you, that he just wants to talk.’
I nodded. ‘And do you believe him to be sincere?’
Zach nodded without hesitation. ‘I wish I could say no, but actually yes I do.’
He waited for me to give the go ahead to open the door.
‘Zach you did take the throne out didn’t you?’
He grinned and then nodded. ‘Yes, great heavy gold thing, took three of us to lift it.’
I smiled.
I turned round, looking for Eli and Seth, but they were already at my side.
‘Ready?’ said Eli quietly.
I nodded and Zach stepped forward and opened the door. Immediately my Guardians filed past me into the room, a steady stream of super strength beings, ready to die for me.
After a moment, I followed them in. I didn’t need to look down to know the hot hand in mine was Seth’s.
Leon was standing awkwardly in the middle of the room surrounded by a whole hall of Guardians. When he saw me, amidst the throng, he smiled weakly at me, then moved towards me.
Immediately my personal guard moved in tighter around me, but I was surprised to hear Persia in my head.
‘Don’t let him touch you.’
I stopped, confused. ‘Why?’
‘I think he might be able to access the bond I’ve created if he touches you. I don’t know for sure but it’s not worth the risk.’
I nodded slightly, but he wasn’t getting anywhere near me anyway, with the impenetrable wall my personal guard had created around me.
Leon stopped, and realising he wasn’t going to get any closer to me, he stepped back.
‘I understand your concerns Eve, what the Oraculum have done to you is completely unacceptable, so I appreciate you meeting with me today. You should know, I have no wish to harm you.’
‘I only agreed to see you because you showed you were loyal the first time we met. I just hope that loyalty still stands.’
‘It does.’ He looked around at all my G
uardians. ‘I was kind of hoping to speak to you alone.’
‘I bet you were,’ Quinn growled.
‘I’m not going to hurt her Quinn, it’s just that I imagine what I have to say will not please the Guardians.’
‘I don’t have any secrets from them Leon. Whatever you want to say, you can say in front of them.’
‘Very well,’ Leon said. ‘Firstly the Oraculum want to apologise for the way they have acted over the last few days.’
My eyebrows shot up in surprise, as did Eli’s and Seth’s.
‘They have promised they will not hurt you now.’
My eyes narrowed, as I waited for the ‘but’.
Leon pressed on. ‘But the Oraculum have removed the responsibility of Sentinel from you and passed it to Adam instead.’
The announcement hung heavy in the air, so heavy it was almost tangible.
‘The Oraculum hope that in time you will be able to go back to your old life, that you will not find the transition too hard. They know you are married now, and perhaps you will get a house with Seth and raise a family. They know that going to university was important to you and they hope you will follow this path. The Oraculum believe that as you are no longer The Sentinel, you will not need your Guardians anymore and they can be put to better use elsewhere.’
I stared at him, trying to take it all in.
My Guardians started to whisper quietly between themselves, only my personal guard seemed unaffected by this news.
‘Leon, you keep referring to the Oraculum as a third party, you don’t say we believe, you say they believe, where do you stand on this?’
Leon stepped forward again, and my Guardians shuffled tighter around me in response.
‘Eve, I might be the only one who believes this, but I know you are the one who will save the world. The prophecies have not changed, in my heart you will always be the Sentinel.’
I swallowed. ‘The only one that believes it?’
‘After you left Nathaniel killed Nereus and then the Oraculum was all in disarray. Cain never came back after he pulled you out, and I’ve not seen him since. Matthias left shortly after, saying he no longer wanted to be a part of this, if we were all to turn our backs on you like this. I stayed,’ Leon explained.
I stiffened.
‘I thought, maybe once they had calmed down, I could talk them round. We all have different prophecies about different events, but we all had the prophecy of you saving the world, it was the only prophecy we all shared. And we all worked so hard for it, it didn’t make sense that they would suddenly turn against you. I thought they would see sense and change their minds, but they haven’t. Yesterday the decision was taken to remove you as The Sentinel and have Adam, as the new Sentinel instead. It was thought that as this was not something you wanted that it would be best if you no longer had these responsibilities. I argued against it, but was out numbered. Jonah, Nathaniel, Sebastian and Helez have all voted for this. That is when I left. So yes, I do not consider myself a part of the Oraculum anymore and as Cain and Matthias have also not returned I presume they are not either.’
This was impossible to take in. Leon was right, I didn’t want any of this, the people dying for me, the death threats, my life and the lives of those that were pledged to me frozen in time until the end of the world came. But I had accepted my destiny, wearily admittedly, but I had accepted it. And just because The Oraculum didn’t want me anymore, didn’t mean it wasn’t me that was going to save the world. I shook my head in confusion.
‘I’m sorry Eve,’ Leon said, his silvery eyes suddenly kind. ‘It was never supposed to be this way.’
‘I suppose I need to leave the fort, so Adam can have it,’ I asked, my mind dealing with the insignificant issues of this announcement, because it couldn’t cope with the bigger stuff right now.
Leon shook his head. ‘No the fort is yours if you still want it, Adam is having his own castle built.’
I nodded, numbly.
‘And at least you are safe now, the Oraculum have promised that they will not try to harm you, and I believe them.’
The silence hung in the air, a silence so thick it was like a smoke, filling our lungs, our brains, our veins.
‘I didn’t want to tell you in front of your Guardians. If I could I would have told you in your dreams or in astral projection, but after Persia put that bond on you, I’m unable to find you. So I’m sorry if this causes any problems for you.’
I looked down at my birthmark, the angel wings that had got me into this mess in the first place.
I knew the Oraculum had turned their back on me, trying to kill me was about as far down the path of being disowned that I could get. But now to be removed of the responsibility altogether, it hurt. Not for me, but for my Guardians, it belittled them, it meant that my Guardians that had died for me, Caleb, my dad, David, all the others, it was all for nothing, they had given their lives for nothing.
I felt numb.
Leon took a deep breath as if preparing himself to say something else, something clearly not good. But what could be worse than discrediting me in front of all my Guardians?
‘Adam wishes to speak with you. He, Sebastian and his Guardians will be arriving shortly, with your blessing of course. If you don’t want to speak to him then I can relay the message.’
I stared at him in shock.
‘What does he want?’
‘Just to talk.’
I whirled round to look at Eli, Seth and the rest of my personal guard.
Surely he hadn’t come to kill me, not now he was officially The Sentinel, he had everything he ever wanted.
‘Eve, many of his Guardians are those that lived here in the fort with you, those that were pledged to the Oraculum,’ Leon said.
Wow, that hadn’t taken them long to change sides.
‘I don’t think we should meet him,’ Alexandria said, in my head. ‘Nothing good can come from talking to him. He hates you. He may only be coming here to gloat but we can’t forget he has powers too. I think we should leave here for a few days, go somewhere he can’t find us.’
‘That’s not going to stop him. Leon said that he couldn’t enter my dreams or slide to me because of the bond that Persia put on me, preventing anyone not part of the bond from finding me. But Adam can still find me. The dream where he killed Lucas, that was after Persia put the bond on me. He can find me because he’s my brother, in the same way that Seth and Zach can communicate with each other. Wherever I go, he’ll find me, if he wants to. At least if we meet with him now, all my Guardians are here.’
I could tell my personal guard didn’t like it.
‘I have a feeling I’m going to need Adam before the end, I feel that at some point we will need to put our differences to one side. Maybe I can help to pave the way towards that. After all I haven’t actually done anything to him, his bitterness towards me comes from what the Oraculum did when we were younger.’ I forced a grin onto my face. ‘Maybe if I am my normal charming self, he might start to like me.’ I knew, even as I said it this was never going to happen. By the looks on my Guardians faces, they knew it too. I sighed. ‘Let’s just see what he wants, and try to do so with as little violence as possible. I’ll shield myself and all of my Guardians and … we’ll see.’
They all nodded solemnly.
I looked at Quinn. ‘You finally get to meet your brother.’
Quinn reached out and took my hand. ‘I might not be as strong as the Guardians, but I will do whatever I can to protect you, I won’t let him hurt you,’ he whispered.
I hugged him tightly before turning back to Leon and nodded.
I shielded everyone in the room with me.
‘I will leave you now,’ Leon said. ‘Adam will be here in a few minutes.’
I nodded, vaguely.
Leon started moving towards the door.
‘Wait Leon,’ I turned to face him. ‘In the prophecies, you see me right? Saving the world?’
Leon nodded. ‘Yes?�
�
‘Do you see anyone else, anyone helping me?’
Leon shook his head. ‘No, just you Eve, singlehandedly fighting to save the world.’
I bit my lip as I thought, so it was just a dream.
‘Where will you go Leon?’
Leon smiled. ‘I’ll see you soon Eve, when you go to Cain for help, I’ll be there.’
I frowned, that wasn’t very likely. ‘What do I go to Cain for?’
‘I don’t know, I see a prophecy of Cain coming to me in Paris, he says you need our help. A few weeks from now I think. But I don’t know what it’s about.’
I nodded slightly and Leon left.
My Guardians started talking quietly between themselves, but some of them were clearly angry, though I couldn’t tell what about.
Suddenly the room was filled with hundreds of Guardians dressed in a smart black soldier uniform, their faces partly hidden behind shiny peaked caps.
I whirled round to see if I could see Adam, not wanting to turn my back on him. I suddenly saw him. He was standing up on the small stage where the throne clearly used to be. Surrounding him were more Guardians dressed in a smart green uniform almost identical to the black uniform the others wore. Sebastian of the Oraculum also stood with him.
Chapter 4
I climbed the steps and stood to face Adam. He said nothing, though his face said a thousand words, and all of them were hate filled.
I would speak then. Maybe there was something I could say to ease the tension between us.
‘Congratulations on being made the Sentinel,’ I said, as calmly as I could. ‘I know it’s something you wanted so you must be happy.’
Adam was silent.
Wishing more than anything that I didn’t need him, that the prophecies I had seen weren’t true, I shuffled forward a bit to address him. ‘Adam…’
‘The Sentinel expects you to bow to him, when you address him,’ Sebastian said, coldly.
Anger flared up in me, and I could feel the fury in my Guardians too.
But the world depended on us working together.
I bowed my head slightly, then straightened. ‘Adam I still believe that I will save the world. And some of the Oraculum believe this too.’
‘They are no longer part of the Oraculum,’ Sebastian said. ‘We do not count their opinions as ours anymore.’