by Holly Martin
Eli nodded.
I bit my lip, sadly. ‘Though I don’t suppose they’ll be much I can do once we leave. But we won’t leave them unprotected, we’ll help them if we can.’
Lucas squeezed my hand. ‘Are you ok?’
The images of the burnt corpses flashed through my head again and I felt my stomach lurch. I rubbed my eyes, trying to rid my mind of the grotesque images. But they were there permanently now, along with so many other disturbing, horrific things I had seen over the last few months.
‘Has anyone heard from Cassidy?’ I asked, hoping that she wasn’t amongst the dead.
Lucas and Eli exchanged glances but shook their heads.
‘She lived in Aquil didn’t she?’
They both nodded and I swallowed uneasily, thinking about her daughter Freya and hoping they were both still alive.
‘Eve, the Putarians and Reapers have been killing Donum and Zeki for years,’ Isaac said.
I looked at him. ‘Is that supposed to make me feel better?’
He looked unabashed. ‘I just meant that you shouldn’t feel responsible, it’s not your fault, whether you were here or not, it would have happened anyway.’
I sighed. ‘I just feel that their proximity to the fort, to me, brought unnecessary attention on themselves.’
‘They chose to live there Eve,’ Seth said. ‘Isaac’s right, this isn’t your fault. If we had heard sooner then maybe we could have done something about it, but by the time the rumours got up here, the Putarians would have been long gone.’
I nodded. What had happened in Aquil and Galooma had not happened in the last few days. They had been deserted for a few weeks by the looks of things. But worse than that, the Oraculum knew and they had done nothing about it.
I rubbed my head. I really wanted nothing more to do with them now. In fact, I never wanted to see any of them ever again. The chances of me going to Cain for help now were very slim, verging on the impossible. He had known about the attacks as well.
‘Eve, you can rest now for a few hours but we need to leave here tonight. This place is too big to guard on our own. There are too many entrances and windows and not enough of us to cover it all. We could go back to that castle in Scotland…’ Eli trailed off thoughtfully.
We had spent the last week or so on the run, I wondered if we would ever really stop.
‘I might have a solution,’ Seth said, carefully. ‘There’s no beds or hot running water, but it’s remote and nature has already provided most of the protection we’ll need.’
Eli nodded. ‘I’m open to suggestions.’
Seth turned to me. ‘I erm… bought you an island.’
I opened my mouth to speak but no words came out. ‘What?’ I said, finally.
‘Eve, in case you’ve forgotten, it’s your birthday next week, May 14th.’
‘Is that already?’ I asked, mentally trying to work out the date.
Seth nodded. ‘I bought the island for you, for your birthday.’
My eyes bulged out of my head. ‘You’ve bought me an island?’
‘It was very cheap,’ Seth reassured. ‘The man I bought it off had acquired it years ago to build a hotel on, but the rocks round the island make it impassable for boats. It meant building the hotel would be impossible as bringing materials, tools and machinery onto the island could only be done by boat. They did make a start but the only access to the island was by helicopter, and the only flat place to land is the beach but only when the tide is out. Some of the money came from the funds the Oraculum put aside for your protection and welfare and this is part of that. But yes, the island is yours now, so erm Happy Birthday.’
I was speechless.
‘I was going to take you there on your birthday, have a romantic picnic on the beach and then tell you that it was yours, but… we need somewhere to go.’
‘Seth that’s…that’s fantastic, thank you, I don’t know what to say, thank you.’
Seth shrugged again. ‘It was partly selfish, Eve, we needed somewhere to live, somewhere remote and easy to protect, but also I wanted somewhere we could go alone, where we could be alone,’ he said meaningfully.
‘Wait, an island?’ Eli said, with some annoyance. ‘You should have told me so I could check it out. I’m not sure I like the sound of this.’
Seth sighed. ‘Eli, it’s a tiny island, hundreds of miles from the mainland, it’s uninhabited and can’t be accessed by boat. I think it’s pretty safe.’
‘We can at least take a look?’ I said, almost bursting with excitement about seeing it.
Eli nodded, reluctantly.
‘Let me get dressed.’
They quickly left the room and a few minutes later I met Persia, my personal guard and the five other remaining Guardians on the roof.
In my mind, Seth showed me an image of the island. Taking Persia’s hand, I closed my eyes and pictured the beautiful beach.
I could see it in my mind, safe, real, my home, and I stepped through.
It had just been turning dark at the fort, but when I opened my eyes, I was standing in blazing sunshine. The beach was deserted as the waves rolled onto the shore. The rocks out in the bay, provided a thick natural wall from any threats coming via the sea.
Eli nodded at my Guardians and they all split up, disappearing in different directions across the sand. I saw Noah, Thomas and Ethan scaling the steep cliffs easily.
Persia drew me to one side, as Seth and Eli continued to argue about the merits of the island.
‘Eve, I’ve seen this place, I’ve seen you and Seth here, and a big white house on top of the cliffs. I saw…’ She paused. ‘Your children.’
‘I have children?’
Persia nodded and my heart leapt.
‘I saw us all playing right here on the beach, me, you, Lucas, Seth, Quinn, Eli, Izri, the children…’
My future suddenly looked bright and happy. It didn’t matter that the Oraculum and my Guardians had turned against me. When all of this was over, the people I loved would still be in my life. And Quinn and Izri, Persia had seen them too. They would come back to me.
Persia frowned. ‘Although you shouldn’t hold too much faith in my prophecies. I know The Oraculum hold their visions in great reverence, you’re proof of that, but everything can change in the blink of an eye. Even the smallest decision can change your fate, something seemingly inconsequential that you do or say now and that future will cease to exist. There are several possible futures I see for you and most of them are not good.’
I stared at her. Talk about raining on my parade.
‘Sorry,’ she said, softly.
‘I have to believe in that bright future Persia, I can’t fight for a world where only darkness remains. I can’t think of a future without Seth or my friends.’
‘I know,’ she said and I hated the doubt and fear in her voice at the uncertainty of my fate.
‘Come on, we should explore,’ I said, finding Seth’s hand in mine as he and Eli had finally stopped arguing.
We walked round the beach for a while, following it round the island, but to my immense annoyance there didn’t seem to be a way off the beach onto the island. Steep cliffs surrounded the island from the beach and there was no way up them.
The sun was beating down on us, and we hadn’t brought any water.
Suddenly Lucas leapt to the sand in front of me, having climbed down the seemingly smooth cliff face.
‘I’ve found a waterfall, the water’s fresh not salty, and Ethan says he’s found some fruit trees.’
‘I could really do with a drink,’ I said.
‘Here,’ Lucas said. My mind was suddenly filled with the waterfall that Lucas had seen. I took Persia’s hand and slid myself, her and Seth to the waterfall. I reached out for Eli and Lucas and pulled them to me too.
The waterfall was only small, tumbling clean water over the rocks into the deep pool below. I knelt by the side of the pool and cupped my hands into the water and drank deeply. It was cool and ta
sted surprisingly good. We were surrounded by trees, giving us some much needed shade, but the sun still filtered through, and in the short time we had spent on the island, my skin had already started to turn a rosy pink.
‘I might just nip back to the fort and get some suncream,’ I said. ‘I’m going to burn otherwise.’
Seth offered me his hand and I took it, sliding us both back to my bedroom.
‘I’ll get my sunglasses whilst I’m here,’ I said, going to the chest of drawers and pulling them out. I grabbed the bottle of suncream and turned back to Seth who was sitting on the bed, patiently waiting for me. I put the sunglasses down as I opened the bottle and squeezed some of the lotion on to my hand, rubbing it over my arms and legs.
Seth caught hold of my hand and pulled me onto his lap. He poured some of the lotion onto his hand and rubbed the lotion gently into my neck, sending shivers down my spine at his touch. He kissed the back of my neck, his hot mouth soft on my skin and I closed my eyes.
I stood up, reluctantly. ‘Come on, you’ll get me into trouble if we stay here too long.’
Seth sighed as he stood up and took my hand.
I slid us back to the island, back to the waterfall where Eli, Lucas and Persia had been joined by Alexandria and Ethan. They were talking quietly and barely noticed my return. Despite Eli’s initial misgivings, I could see he liked it here, that he liked the remoteness and safety of the tiny island.
I released Seth’s hand and walked back to the edge of the pool. I could get used to being here too.
‘Oh, my sunglasses,’ I laughed.
Seth rolled his eyes as I slid back to my bedroom alone.
I grabbed my sunglasses from the side, but suddenly felt something hard and heavy slam into the back of my head. I found myself on the floor, my head feeling like it had been cleaved open. I felt something sharp jabbed into my neck, and a heavy cloud settled over my brain.
I pushed myself up, ready to fight and stared straight into the eyes of Adam.
Chapter 7
‘Adam?’ I reached out for my powers, but as I suspected, they were blocked, as was my link with my Guardians.
‘I’m going to kill you one day Eve, not today, I have something much more fun planned for now. But one day, I will destroy you.’
‘Adam, how can you possibly hate me so much, we’ve only met twice? Seriously, what’s wrong with you?’ I groaned, feeling round the back of my head. It was sticky with blood.
This was obviously the wrong thing to say, as he suddenly slapped me hard round the face.
Instinctively, I punched him and I felt his cheek bone shatter, satisfyingly. Adam staggered back, holding his face in pain. I moved forward to punch him again, but was met with a solid wall, he had shielded himself against me.
I sighed. ‘What do you want Adam, you’ve already taken my brother.’
‘Oh that was good, one of my most favourite moments, ‘Quinn I love you,’’ Adam laughed.
My eyes fell to the floor.
‘And you know what else, he really hates you, since he came to me, every time I talk about you he gets really angry. He was just telling me how glad he is to be rid of you. And now your Guardians have all left too,’ Adam pouted, mockingly.
I scowled at him. ‘So you have my brother and Sebastian’s little pack of lies this morning has assured that my Guardians have now left, what else do you want, a pound of flesh perhaps? Well, you can just go to hell.’
Adam stepped towards me, angrily. ‘You had everything. A house, friends, family. You went to school, went on holiday. You were the Oraculum’s precious little Sentinel. But now they don’t want you anymore. Now I want you to have what I had. I want you to have nothing.’
I swallowed. The Oraculum had created him and then cast him aside like a used and unwanted piece of rubbish. He had spent almost his entire life locked up, whereas I had a life, a home, friends, Seth. No wonder he hated me.
‘I had a prophecy Adam, that we save the world together. As much as I hate to admit it, we need each other.’
I heard footsteps running up the corridor and Adam heard it too. He grinned manically. ‘It’s show time.’
And suddenly he shifted into me. My exact copy was standing in front of me. I hadn’t realised it before but he was also wearing almost identical clothes. Well many of my clothes were the same, a plain black T-shirt and knee length denim shorts, it wasn’t hard to replicate, but my face, Adam’s face was perfect, even down to the freckles and a tiny scar on my chin where I had fallen over as a kid.
The door opened and Zach ran in.
‘Zach…’ I said. My fists clenched at having Adam so close to my friend. He could kill him in an instant and I was powerless to be able to protect him.
‘Zach,’ said Adam in my voice running to Zach’s side and burying his face into Zach’s chest. ‘Help me,’ Adam cried.
I nearly laughed. Surely I never sounded that pathetic and feeble, Zach would see right through it. To my horror though, Zach put a protective arm round Adam.
‘Zach don’t be an arse, I’m the real Eve,’ I tried vainly, though I could see Zach’s mind was already made up. The part of him that wanted to swoop in like a knight in shining armour and save me was stronger than the common sense part.
Zach eyed me warily, then turned his attention to the Eve in his arms. ‘Your Guardians can’t feel you, they can’t get back. I can’t feel your signal either.’
‘She did something to me,’ Adam wailed.
I rolled my eyes, how was Zach buying this?
‘I still have my powers,’ Adam said, a smug smile playing on his lips. He held out his hand, my hand and a small flame appeared in it, then Adam let it wink out.
If Zach needed any more proof, he’d just been given it. He turned to me, angrily, moving Adam behind him, as he advanced on me.
Crap.
I turned and ran for the door, and down the corridor as fast as I could. But Zach was faster and within seconds I was thrown to the floor. Zach flipped me on my back and as he fastened his hands round my throat I punched him hard in the nose.
I took advantage of the diversion and knocked him to the floor. I rolled on top of him, pinning his arms by his side with my legs, then grabbed his knife and held it to his throat.
He struggled against me. ‘If you kill me…’
‘I’m not going to kill you Zach…’
He fought hard to free his arms from his side, but I pressed the knife harder to his neck and he froze. Little beads of blood broke out along the blade and I frowned at what I was doing.
‘I’m not going to kill you,’ I repeated. ‘But I have no qualms about hurting you, something you should know from our little fights. Still I’m sure we can find a Zeki to fix your nose tonight, or any other damage I do to you, if you don’t listen.’
He glared at me. ‘You better kill me, because if you don’t I’m sure as hell going to kill you.’
‘Zach do you really want to kill me, really? What if you’re wrong? What if I’m the real Eve and that pathetic impersonation in there is the impostor. If you kill me, then you will never be able to forgive yourself.’
I heard shouts from the far side of the corridor. It sounded like Deacon. If I somehow incapacitated Zach without killing him I couldn’t get past all the other Guardlings too. I needed Zach to help me.
‘How about you let me go, play it safe, and let me go.’
Zach scowled at me. ‘If you were the real Eve, you’d know I can’t do that.’
‘If I wasn’t the real Eve, don’t you think I would have killed you by now?’
‘By not killing me, it casts doubt in my mind, that’s what you’re banking on, your compassion confusing me.’
I rolled my eyes. Deacon was running up the corridor towards me.
‘Are you one hundred percent sure you have made the right choice, Zach, because if you’re wrong, if you kill me and you’re wrong your brother will literally tear you apart. Are you willing to bet your life on your
decision?’
Deacon was at Zach’s side, confused as to why I was pinning his friend down with a knife to his throat. He obviously didn’t know I was a potential shape shifter. ‘Zach? Eve?’
Zach didn’t take his eyes off me.
‘Let me go,’ I whispered as more Guardlings came running. ‘If there is the tiniest seed of doubt in your mind, then let me go.’
Zach hesitated.
‘I promise I’ll run as fast as I can from here, and won’t come back, she’s safe now.’
‘If I say no, will you kill me?’
‘No Zach, you’re my friend, and when this is over and you realise what an idiot you’ve been, I’m looking forward to kicking your arse as retribution.’
I heard my bedroom door open and Adam must have come out as Deacon and the other Guardlings hissed, Deacon falling into the cat stance by my side.
‘What are you doing? Kill her?’ screamed Adam.
‘Zach?’ Deacon asked, through angry clenched teeth.
‘Let me up,’ Zach said, quietly.
I swallowed, nervously. Could I get out of here, with Zach as my hostage, would they care enough for their friend to let me walk out of here, or would they kill him to get to me? I slowly stood up, and backed up against the wall, still holding the knife. There were so many Guardlings in the corridor with us. There was not a trace of the innocence and humour I associated with them, they were all trained killers now. There was no way I was getting out of here unless Zach let me go.
‘KILL HER,’ Adam roared.
‘Let her go,’ Zach mumbled.
‘What?’ Deacon hissed, looking at me with hatred.
‘Let her go,’ Zach said, louder this time, but clearly not happy with the decision.
I held out the knife for him. ‘Thanks, you won’t regret it.’
Zach took the knife and put it back on his belt.
‘When did you start wearing a knife anyway?’ I said, inching down the corridor.
‘Since I started fighting for her life.’
I hesitated. He was still a child and he had grown up so fast. He had to. I had forced him to. I wanted to hug him, to tell him thanks for everything he had done for me, but I needed to be out of here before he changed his mind.