The Revenge (The Sentinel Series Book 3)

by Holly Martin

  ‘Wait, that night, he brought you back here, he said, if we needed him we were to go to his house,’ Seth said. ‘He showed me too, that white house on the clifftops.’

  I suddenly remembered that night with crystal clarity. He had said that he would be there for me if I needed him. There was no alternative now.

  ‘Let me get dressed.’

  They all nodded and filed out. I got washed and dressed quickly but I couldn’t escape the feeling that I was about to step back into the lion’s den getting back in touch with Cain again. I just hoped he would be able to help me.

  I walked out into the corridor a while later and they were all there waiting for me. I closed my eyes and pictured the house Cain had shown me. As my Guardians shuffled closer to me, I slid us to the cliff tops surrounding the house.

  It was night when we arrived and the house stood in complete darkness. Tall grass grew up the sides and vines and cobwebs climbed over the windows and doors. It was evident that no one had been here for some time.

  My heart sank. Cain had been my only hope and now that was gone.

  We moved towards the house and my Guardians split up to check round the property but it was completely deserted. I walked round the side of the building with Seth at my side. I peered through windows but I could see nothing but my own reflection staring back at me through the layers of dust that coated the glass in a thick film.

  This was hopeless. There was no one here.

  I turned to go but suddenly a hand grabbed me and pulled me back so hard that I was ripped from Seth’s grasp.

  I turned to push my attacker off and came face to face with Cain, staring at me incredulously.

  I couldn’t help it. I was so tired, so relieved to see him, despite my fears, I found myself flinging my arms round him.

  He stood stunned for a moment, then wrapped his arms tightly round me. My Guardians were suddenly by my side.

  ‘Hey Eve,’ Cain said, he tilted my chin up to look at him. ‘You don’t look so good.’

  I released Cain. ‘I’m not.’

  He nodded. ‘Come on, we should talk. We need to slide there.’

  He took my hand and I quickly grabbed Seth’s hand too.

  A second later, we landed outside a lit up house surrounded on all sides by hills and trees. The heat surrounded us like a thick blanket.

  Cain released my hand and walked to the door. With a wave of the hand the door opened before him. We followed him in and more lights came on. We were in a lounge, very sparsely decorated, an old brown leather sofa filled most of the room, a TV and a bookcase filled with lots of old books were the only other items of furniture.

  ‘Tea?’

  I nodded, bemused by the normality.

  ‘And something to eat if you have it Cain, it’s been hours since she ate,’ Lucas said. He was right, I was starving.

  Cain disappeared into one of the other rooms and I sat down on the sofa next to Seth. My Guardians positioned themselves around the room. One large window filled the wall, overlooking the moonlit fields outside.

  A few minutes later, Cain came in carrying a tray full of mugs and a plate of sandwiches. He handed the tea to all my Guardians then pulled a stool in front of me and sat down, surveying me. His eyes cast down my arms and legs and he scowled.

  ‘You’ve been healed, recently? You were hurt badly?’

  I sighed, turning my mug round in my hands and I told him everything that had happened since I had last seen him. It was the first time I had properly spoken about my ordeal with Adam, how he had tortured me so brutally, and how he now haunted my dreams, taking control of my body, trying to kill me.

  And Cain’s face darkened.

  I finally finished and Cain stood, walking to the windows and looking out on to the hills.

  Finally he spoke. ‘I need to talk to the others about this.’

  I shook my head. ‘Cain no, I don’t trust any of them, half of them voted to kill me, there was only you, Matthias and Leon that stood for me,’ I paused. ‘And Nereus,’ I added sadly thinking of his untimely death.

  ‘The others should be told, they need to know what they have put their trust in,’ Cain turned towards me. ‘And Leon can help too,’ he pulled a face. ‘Helez is quite the expert in dreams.’

  I shook my head, I didn’t want them involved, especially not Helez after he had turned against me.

  ‘Helez feels terrible for standing against you. He told me that if I were to ever see you again he wanted to come to you and apologise.’

  ‘I don’t want to see him.’

  ‘What do you want me to do then Eve? This can’t go on.’

  I sighed. ‘I don’t know, I’m just so tired Cain, I haven’t slept properly for weeks, I’m too scared to go to sleep now, in case of what I do, of what Adam makes me do. I can’t think straight anymore.’

  Cain came to sit opposite me again. ‘I can definitely help with that, I can guard you in your dreams. Plus once he sees I’m involved, he might back off. I need to find your signal again, whatever Persia did to you all those weeks ago meant I couldn’t find you, not even in your dreams. Are you sure you want to give me access again?’

  I nodded, weakly. I had no choice but to trust him.

  Cain reached forward and touched my temple. A brief wave of dizziness swept through me and then was gone.

  He sat back and nodded.

  ‘You can stay here tonight, maybe after a good night’s sleep we can talk more tomorrow.’

  I nodded.

  Cain stood. ‘I’ll show you to your room.’ He looked round at the Guardians. ‘There are plenty of rooms, you can all sleep if you want. Nothing will harm her here.’

  ‘I’ll stay up,’ Eli muttered.

  ‘As will I,’ Lucas said.

  ‘As you wish,’ Cain said.

  He walked out the lounge and we all followed him. Lights came on in the house as we moved through as if they were attached to some sort of movement sensor, but I knew Cain was putting them on telepathically.

  Cain showed me to a room with only a double bed in the middle. Large windows looked out onto the hills. My Guardians stood out in the hall, though Seth followed me in.

  ‘Thanks for helping me, I didn’t know if you would.’

  ‘I’ve always supported you Eve, always will. Now, what I’ll do tonight is only a temporary measure. I will shield you as you sleep which should prevent him from taking your body, though I will be here, just in case he does take control. I will also control your dreams, which should stop him from entering them, though the shield should do that too. Tomorrow we will need to come up with a permanent solution.’

  I nodded and I lay down, snuggling into the safe arms of my husband and immediately I fell asleep.

  It only seemed like a few seconds later that Seth was shaking me gently awake.

  I sat up blearily. It was still dark outside, but the room was filled with my Guardians, Cain was nowhere to be seen.

  ‘What’s going on, how long was I asleep?’

  ‘Just a few minutes, Helez is here.’

  ‘Helez?’ I scrabbled off the bed feeling suddenly sick with worry.

  ‘He just turned up, he must have seen you come to Cain for help. Cain’s downstairs talking to him now,’ Eli explained.

  ‘I don’t want to see him, he voted to kill me.’

  ‘You don’t have to see him Eve, and he won’t get anywhere near you, we won’t let him.’

  What was he doing here? And how had he found me? Now that Cain had access to my mind, did that mean the other members of the Oraculum could find me too? I didn’t like it.

  ‘Let’s go,’ I said. ‘Let’s go home, we shouldn’t have come here, we can sort this out without their help.’

  ‘Eve, we’re not exactly doing a good job of that are we, you’re exhausted, we all are, and we’ve already lost one Guardian because we’re not handling it very well. Let’s not lose any others,’ Eli said.

  I nodded, reluctantly, feeling horribly gu
ilty.

  ‘Besides, Cain said that Helez was quite the expert in dreams, he might be able to help,’ Lucas said.

  If he wanted to help, he would have to do so at a distance, I wasn’t going to go near him.

  The room was silent for a moment then I heard footsteps coming back up the stairs. I stiffened and almost simultaneously so did my Guardians.

  It was Cain.

  ‘Eve… Helez is here. I’ve talked to him and I believe him to be sincere. He says he wants to help, that he won’t hurt you and I believe him.’

  I shook my head angrily.

  ‘Eve he wants to pledge to you.’

  I paused. This was quite significant. Even Cain hadn’t pledged to me yet. Helez would be the first member of the Oraculum to do it. Though quite how secure the pledge was, remained unclear as Mason had broken it to leave me, as had many of Adam’s Guardians when they revolted against him.

  I looked at Cain. ‘You trust him?’

  He nodded.

  ‘Well I trust you Cain so… I guess I’ll have to trust him as well.’

  ‘He’s not able to use his powers here Eve, he slid to miles away then walked here. Only I can use my powers here, and now you too. I will seal his pledge.’

  I nodded reluctantly, wiping the sweat off my head. The heat hung in the air like treacle.

  He offered his hand out to me and as I took it, I felt safe. I could trust Cain, I knew I could.

  We went downstairs, my Guardians following me. Helez was waiting in the lounge, he smiled broadly when he saw me

  ‘Eve, you look well,’ he grinned.

  ‘She’s exhausted, Helez,’ Cain said.

  ‘Yes quite, well I’m sure I can help with that,’ Helez said. ‘If you sit down here I’ll…’

  ‘Before we do anything you will pledge to her, as you said,’ Cain said.

  Helez nodded. ‘Of course,’ he hesitated for a moment, then knelt before me, he offered his hand out to me.

  I looked at Cain and he nodded at me encouragingly.

  I looked back at Eli and Seth and though I could see they were unhappy about it too, they nodded. We really had no choice but to trust them.

  I nodded and walked forward to take Helez’s hand. Immediately a strange fizzy feeling came over me, and I knew that Cain was sealing the pledge between us.

  ‘I pledge that I will stand by you, to help you in any way that I can.’

  The pledge was short and there was so much I would have liked him to say, most importantly that he wouldn’t try to hurt me, but I guess his pledge to help me was enough.

  The fizzing feeling passed, and Helez stood up.

  ‘I will pledge to you as well,’ Cain said.

  ‘That isn’t necessary Cain, I trust you,’ I said pointedly. I saw something flash across Helez’s face, though when I looked at him, he was smiling and I thought maybe I had imagined it.

  ‘What now, can you help me?’ I asked Helez.

  ‘Maybe you should get some sleep first, it’s very late, we can talk about this in the morning,’ Cain said.

  I nodded. ‘I’ll have a shower first, it’s so warm here.’

  Cain nodded. ‘We’ll be up shortly.’

  I looked at Seth, holding my hand out for him.

  ‘I’ll be up in a minute, I just want to talk to Helez and Cain.’

  I let my hand fall back to my side and walked up the stairs alone. I sat down on the bed, letting my head fall in my hands. Helez being here was not good, any associations with the Oraculum was never going to be a good thing.

  My eyes stung with tiredness, I pressed my hands over my eyes, staring into the darkness I had created in my palm. I felt my body go limp and almost immediately I felt Adam take me.

  He stood up in my body and walked cautiously towards the door. He slowly and carefully walked down the stairs and peered into the lounge. As his eyes, my eyes fell on Helez I felt a furious hatred inside. He took a step forward, but then changed his mind and ducked back into the darkness of the corridor again. He backed away from the lounge and went out a side door. The air outside was only slightly cooler than the air inside, as he walked my body past the lounge window and out into the fields surrounding the cottage.

  I tried to fight against him, but I wasn’t properly awake, and I was unable to take control or even slow him down. Why wasn’t anyone keeping an eye on me? This was the very thing we had tried to avoid with the constant vigilance over the last few days. But then I was supposed to be in the shower, not asleep.

  Adam stopped and looked over the hills. He didn’t strike me as the contemplative type. A long shadow walked closer to me, thank goodness, a Guardian here to check I was ok.

  Adam turned, giving me a chance to see who it was. I was surprised to see Helez standing before me, but even more surprised to feel the furious hatred from Adam, a venom, a vengeance so strong and fierce.

  But then I noticed something else, the glint of something metallic in Helez’s hand. A knife, a long curved one, a small scythe by the looks of it. How apt. The Grim Reaper had come to kill me just minutes after he had pledged to help me. The pledge really was worthless.

  Chapter 21

  ‘This isn’t easy for me Eve, betraying Cain, he’ll be furious. But this madness has to be stopped. We created you, now we have to do something to stop you. I won’t stand by and let you destroy the world. You’ve gone mad, I see that now. We made you too powerful, too many different parts to you, the Zekis, the Donum, shape shifters, the Guardians, the Oraculum, it’s sent you insane. Killing you is the only way to help you, so in that way I’m not breaking the pledge, this is for the best.’

  ‘You make me sick,’ Adam spat. ‘You and the rest of the Oraculum, you created us, and then you turn against us. It was you that decided to lock me up, to keep me in that cell for all those years, the other Oraculum members fought against it but you changed their minds, changed them against me. I know if you had had your way you would have killed me years ago. And now you turn against Eve too.’

  In that moment, I felt we were united against the Oraculum, they had treated us both so badly, theirs to do with what they will.

  ‘Eve,’ Helez sighed, stepping closer to me. ‘Pretending to be Adam is not going to save you, I’d kill him too if he were here, he’s a sick, twisted individual. We shouldn’t have meddled, you need to be destroyed, both of you, for the greater good.’

  It happened so fast. Helez lunged for me. He thrust his knife towards my stomach. I instinctively reacted, me not Adam, as I punched Helez hard in the face. Adam laughed. I could feel Adam striving to take control of my powers but despite my predicament, I wouldn’t let him have that.

  Helez lunged for me again and Adam kneed him in the stomach. Helez staggered back and Adam, taking advantage of the distraction, snatched the knife from his hand and plunged it into Helez’s heart.

  I screamed, not just on the inside, silently, but my body screamed too at what I had done, at what Adam had made me do. I fought for control, fought against Adam and with a huge sense of satisfaction and a feeling of revenge finally dealt with, Adam left.

  I fell to my knees at Helez’s side, holding my hands to his chest to stem the bleeding.

  ‘I’m so sorry Helez,’ I gabbled. ‘It wasn’t me, that wasn’t me.’

  Another shadow fell over me and I looked up into the furious eyes of Cain.

  Tears filled my eyes. ‘Cain, I swear, this wasn’t me. It was Adam, I would never have done this to Helez I swear…’

  Cain was livid as he stepped towards me and I shuffled back away from him, scrabbling to my feet. He looked down at Helez breathing his last. ‘You betrayed me,’ his eyes flicked to me again. ‘I invited you into my house and you betrayed me,’ he said with so much disdain. He looked back at Helez again.

  ‘Cain, it wasn’t me, I promise, this was Adam…’ I trailed off under his angry, vengeful eyes, then he looked back to Helez again.

  ‘You deserve to die tonight, Samuel was right all along.�
�

  I was stung by this. The prophecy that Samuel had that I would turn mad and destroy the world, Cain had never believed that.

  Cain pulled the knife out of Helez’s chest and Helez struggled to breathe, to speak, but then he closed his eyes and breathed no more. Cain looked down at him for a moment, then advanced on me.

  I staggered away, my legs wobbly, not performing as I wanted them too, with the shock of what had just happened.

  I turned away, filled with panic. Fear. Guilt. Suddenly I realised I had stumbled to a barbed wire fence. I turned back but as I moved, my legs seemed to give way under me. Cain’s arms were around me, strong and unrelenting.

  I struggled against him. ‘I didn’t kill him.’

  I felt a sharp, agonizing pain in my stomach and I gasped.

  He scooped me up into his arms and with a soft swishing I realised he had slid. He was going to kill me away from my Guardians so they wouldn’t be able to stop him. I struggled against him, but it was feeble, I could barely move. What had he done to me?

  ‘I didn’t kill him,’ I muttered, finding it difficult to talk.

  ‘What happened?’ Seth. My glorious saviour.

  I opened my eyes and Cain turned and gently passed me into Seth’s arms. ‘Don’t panic Seth, not all of that blood is hers, I think it’s just a flesh wound. But we’ll get her healed in a second so she’ll be ok.’

  Seth looked down at me, his eyes anxious. ‘Evie you ok?’

  And the panic disappeared, like flicking a switch, it just went. I reached up to hold his face. None of this made sense.

  I realised we were back in Cain’s lounge, all my Guardians were there and they gathered around me in concern.

  ‘What happened?’ Eli asked.

  ‘Helez tried to kill her. I see it now, he had been planning it all along. He had a prophecy that she was going to kill him, that’s why he voted against her all those weeks ago, and it’s been eating away at him ever since. I thought… I thought that he’d come because he had chosen the right path, because he wanted to help her, but he had come to kill her all along. I’m sorry, I should never have trusted him. Adam had taken her again, I could see it in her eyes and from what she said. I’m stunned that Adam didn’t just let her die but Adam hated Helez probably more than he hates Eve. Adam killed Helez but not before Helez managed to get a good stab in. I don’t think Eve even noticed, she was too busy trying to heal Helez.’