The Prophecies (The Sentinel Series Book 2) (18 page)

‘Hey,’ he said.

‘Hey,’ I said, searching his face. I wanted to ask more about the prophecies, especially the one that had caused Helez and Nereus so much alarm. But my heart wanted the most pressing question answered first. ‘
So tell me, the prophecy of my wedding, was that really a prophecy, or just you showing me what I wanted to see, or what you wanted me to see?’

Cain cocked his head on one side, looking at me in confusion. ‘
I’ve never lied to you Eve, I showed you the prophecy that I had seen of you two getting married.’

‘But it was all part of the big plan wasn’t it, that it would be my love for Seth that would make me fight for the world.’

Cain frowned
. ‘Yes I believe that your happiness, your love for Seth, your friends and family will be what makes you fight for the world in the end. So I’ve made sure that your life is a happy one, is that such a bad thing? I’ve given you happiness, and you’re angry at me for that?’

‘You gave me Seth?’
I said, quietly, feeling a sense of dread creeping over me.

‘Yes, he was created to love you, to give you somebody to love, somebody to fight for. Before you were even made I saw a prophecy of you two together, of your marriage, of your long and happy life together. So yes we made him to fulfil that prophecy.’

‘But what if he didn’t love me? What if his duty to protect me, made him resent me? How far would you have gone to ensure that prophecy came true? What did you do to him to make him love me?’ I didn’t even bother to keep our conversation in our heads, a horrible tightening feeling settled across my chest, across my heart. It all made sense now; he didn’t love me because I was special or funny, or because I was a nice person, or because I was pretty. I definitely wasn’t pretty but there was a small hope that Seth thought I was. He loved me because of what the Oraculum had done to him, either through manipulation or because it was his duty, or they used their powers to corrupt his mind and forced him to love me. I’d always thought he was too good for me, that I wasn’t in the same league as him and here was the proof, we were never meant to be together at all. ‘He had no choice,’ I said quietly, more to myself than to Cain

Cain smiled at this. ‘No he had no choice.’

Disappointment and loss flooded through me. ‘He loves me because it was his duty to love me,’

Cain looked alarmed. ‘No!’

‘Then because you made him so he would love me, you manipulated his DNA, his genes so he would love me.’ Tears welled up in my eyes.

‘Eve, it wasn’t the prophecy, or his duty that made him love you. It wasn’t anything we did. It was you, it was all you. He had no choice but to love you, from that day you spilt milk all over him, you reached into his chest and held his heart and you never let go. You were destined to be together.’

‘So you haven’t done anything to make him love me, no powers, no talking to him about his obligation, no manipulation.’

Cain smiled. ‘He loves you because of who you are, not what you are. It’s nothing to do with us. We haven’t corrupted his mind, you did that all by yourself.’

‘Oh.’ I flushed with embarrassment. I really shouldn’t be left alone, it gave me too much time to think, too much time to come up with the worst possible case scenario. When I was with Seth my glass was brimming over, but when I was alone, I was definitely a glass half empty kind of girl.

Cain grinned. ‘
Now I wanted to talk to you about Helez’s prophecy.’

‘Yeah, I have no idea what that was. One minute Nereus is here proudly telling me how he was going to die for me, the next they were talking about a prophecy that Helez had this morning, not a good one, apparently.’

‘Helez has foreseen that you are going to kill him,’
Cain said simply.

‘Me personally?’

Cain nodded.
‘You stab him apparently.’

‘Why?’

‘I have no idea,’
he shrugged
.

‘You seem very relaxed by all this. Nereus kills Samuel, Nathaniel then kills Nereus and months later, one of the few Oraculum that is still loyal to me gets murdered by me, and you don’t seem bothered by this at all.’
How could he not be bothered, these were his friends, his brothers?

‘
There is only one reason that I can foresee that Nereus would kill Samuel and that’s because there is a serious threat to your life, and he kills Samuel to protect you. If you kill Helez then you must have a very good reason to do so. Helez is only disappointed in himself, because he knows at some point in the future he must let you down for you to react in that way.’

‘I can’t imagine ever killing someone, unless it was in self-defence, or because they had killed someone I loved.’

‘Exactly, I’m sure the killing is just.’

I sighed, sadly
. ‘You have a lot of faith in me.’

‘I know you Eve. I’ve watched you grow up so closely, I know you so well. I don’t doubt you for a second.’

‘Nereus said something about Samuel, when he heard Helez’s prophecy he said. ‘Maybe Samuel was right.’ What did he mean?’

Cain shook his head angrily
. ‘Nereus doesn’t really believe that, it was just a shock to hear of Helez’s death. Samuel claims he has had a prophecy, that with all the powers that lies within you, and the mix of Donum, Oraculum, Zeki, Guardian and shape shifter DNA it actually turns you mad. Samuel claims that it is not you that saves the world but it is you that destroys it.’
He shrugged, as if he didn’t hold much belief in Samuel’s prophecy.

I gasped
. ‘Oh god, really?’
As much as I hated the title that I had been given as the saviour of the world, I hated the destroyer of the world even more. Maybe Samuel was right, maybe this cocktail of DNA would turn me mad. I stepped up to the bars
. ‘Cain, promise me that you will kill me before it gets that far. If you think I’ve turned evil, kill me before I do anything. Don’t stand loyal to me as I destroy the world. Kill me, promise me that.’

Cain smiled.
‘You see, that passion, that’s what will save the world in the end, there’s no way you could destroy it. You would rather die yourself. I believe that Samuel has made this prophecy up to try to discredit you. I think he hopes that by turning the Oraculum against you, those that will ultimately seek to destroy him, will seek to destroy you instead. Like I said before, Eve, I know you so well, there is nothing remotely malevolent about you, unlike Adam, his soul is black.’

‘Adam?’

Cain paled, realising he had said something he shouldn’t, he quickly changed the subject.
‘So Eve, your wedding is soon, and as one of your nine fathers, and your Mum not being around I feel maybe I should give you some advice about your wedding night.’

Urgh
. ‘No thanks Cain.’
I blushed furiously
.
There was no way I was having this conversation, through the bars of a cell with a member of the Oraculum. In fact there was no way I was having this conversation at all with anyone.

Cain seemed unfazed
. ‘But you and Seth…’

‘We’re fine thanks.’

‘Eve….’

‘Cain, you can either change the subject or you can go now, I am not talking about that with you.’

Cain smiled. Nothing seemed to faze Cain. The very foundations he had built and stood on for four hundred years was about to come crashing down. Three of his friends, his brothers were going to die because of me and even the prospect of talking to his sort of daughter about sex hadn’t fazed him.

‘After four hundred years, it takes very little to faze me Eve; in fact the only thing that has fazed me in the last three hundred years was you going to the Reapers.

I looked at my feet with embarrassment.

‘
Anyway, since you won’t talk to me, maybe I’ll just talk to Seth instead.’

‘You will not,’
I said, angrily, my face burning with embarrassment.

Cain smiled as he turned to go, then he suddenly turned back and looked at my feet. I followed his eyes down to Quinn and my heart leapt.

Cain broke out into a huge grin and walked back up the corridor, chuckling to himself as he disappeared into the darkness. He knew.

I lay back on my bed with embarrassment. Thinking about Cain talking to Seth about our wedding night, made me curl up inside. I had known that the intenseness of my relationship with Seth, the strength of our love for each other, would naturally lead to the next stage at some point, but I’d always been too nervous to instigate it myself. What if I did something wrong, or if I wasn’t very good? But as Seth had never brought it up then neither had I. But being married meant things would change, there would be certain….expectations.

Thankfully I didn’t have any more time to think about that as the metal gate clanged again. I rolled off my bed and went to stand by the gate. Three men were walking down the corridor towards me; Matthias, Nathaniel and Samuel. I swallowed nervously. Nathaniel had been the one that wanted me dead when I had inadvertently spied on his conversation with Cain. Samuel was the one that would die because of me. This conversation was not going to be good.

‘Eve, I am Nathaniel of the Oraculum.’ I caught Quinn out the corner of my eye; if mice had hackles they would most definitely be raised by now, Quinn looked positively furious. ‘This is Samuel and Matthias.’ He gestured to the two other men, who apparently couldn’t speak for themselves. Matthias was the tallest of the three, in fact he was quite possibly the tallest man I had ever seen, and with a broadness to match. Samuel had white blond hair that had been shaved so close to his head, that it could only have been a few millimetres long. His eyes were an empty flat, black and there was something almost reptilian about them.

‘Hello,’ I smiled, politely.

This clearly displeased Samuel though, his lip curling in derision. ‘So this is what I’m going to die for, this is what causes my brother to turn against me and murder me. We gave you life, gave you a house, a family, ensured you had enough money to buy your clothes, food, holidays, and protected you, watched your every move. We paid your school a vast amount of money to hire Guardians as your teachers, so they could protect you at school. We gave you Guardian and Donum friends to protect and guide you, we gave you everything you could ever need. But ultimately that isn’t enough, you want me to sacrifice my life for you, for me to die for you.’

‘I don’t want you to die for me, I don’t want anyone to die for me,’ I blurted out, before I remembered that I should be calm and polite.

‘Tell that to Caleb,’ Samuel smiled cruelly. I took an involuntary step back.

‘Samuel that’s not fair. We gave her Guardians to protect her that were willing to die for her,’ said Nathaniel, with some annoyance. Matthias remained unmoved, his face a stony exterior.

Samuel seemed startled to have Nathaniel speak against him like this, but he pressed on with his assault. ‘If she hadn’t gone, he would still be alive.’

‘If I hadn’t gone then Persia, Izri and the other children would be dead,’ I said, bitterly.

‘That’s got nothing to do with you. Seven deaths are inconsequential when you are charged with saving the world. Billions of people’s lives would be at stake if you died and you’re worried about a few insignificant children.’

My heart engaged my mouth before my brain did. ‘So I certainly shouldn’t be worried about your life then,’ I shrugged. ‘It’s just one life after all, one insignificant life out of the many that I will ultimately save.’

Samuel took a step back, his mouth falling open in shock and disgust. Matthias’s stony facade was even broken for a millisecond, when he rolled his eyes with exasperation. Nathaniel’s jaw clenched angrily.

‘Eve we gave you everything…..’

Remembering the reason that Samuel was likely to die for, I stepped closer to the bars. ‘Have you, have you really? What about loyalty, have you given me that? Have you thought about what brings about your demise? It is clear that there are those on the Oraculum who are loyal to me and those who are not. It is clear that for the Oraculum to murder each other in my presence it will have something to do with those who choose to fight for me and those who fight against me. I think you need to consider very carefully which side of the fence you want to be on, because ultimately it is the decisions you make over the next few weeks that will bring about your death. Nothing is set in stone, Samuel, we can still choose the paths we take.’

Samuel’s fists clenched at his sides. ‘How dare you… You presume to tell me…’ He turned and stormed back up the corridor. Nathaniel shook his head angrily and followed him.

I turned to Matthias. ‘
Eve, shall I hand you a shovel to dig your own grave,’
Matthias sighed wearily, in my head, before turning and walking back up the corridor.

And I knew he was right, I had effectively signed my own death warrant.

I lay on my bed for hours with the warm lump of Quinn by my side. Two o’clock came and went and no more visitors came to see me. Except a Guardian who brought me some basic food and water, which I shared with Quinn. At least they didn’t plan to starve me. I guessed my outburst had angered them. I wondered how long they would keep me down here for. Or was this it now, would they keep me here till the end of the world came round? Well that wasn’t going to happen, I still had all this power surging through me, I’d give them a day or two but after that I was going back to Seth. I wasn’t going to miss my wedding.

I kept an eye on the time, producing a tiny flame occasionally to look at my watch. Midnight came and went and I slowly drifted off to sleep.

Sitting on my beach in Mexico, watching the waves gently lapping onto the shore, I was suddenly joined by a shadow.

‘Hi Cain,’ I sighed, knowing it was him, without even looking up.

Cain sat down next to me, smiling as he looked out to sea. ‘I thought you’d never go to sleep, I’ve been waiting for you for ages.’

I shook my head, with a smile. ‘You could have come down and told me to go to sleep.’

Cain smiled then turned his soft brown eyes on me. ‘Eve, what did you do, they’re furious.’