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

We so rarely had time alone, quality time to just be boyfriend and girlfriend. I trained all day almost to the point of exhaustion and fell asleep some nights before I’d even got undressed. In the mornings, wrapped in each other’s arms, we’d talk or kiss, but invariably one of the personal guard interrupted us for one reason or another. I wanted a break from this. I had dedicated the rest of my life to being prepared for the end of the world, but would it be incredibly selfish of me to escape from it just for a few days. Just me and Seth in a house by the sea.

He caught my eye again, suddenly aware that I was still looking at him. He stared back, his head cocked in confusion at my unwavering gaze

'I love you,'
I said in his head. It didn’t even come close to how I felt for him. His face split into a grin and in a deliberate move he raised my hand to his mouth and kissed my third finger, in the exact place my wedding ring would be.

My heart lurched and then it suddenly occurred to me that Eli was still waiting for an answer.

I tore my gaze from the other half of my heart. ‘It was an accident Eli, it was no one’s fault. It was some kind of slow acting poison, Lucas could have drunk the whole bottle and we still wouldn’t have known. It didn’t hit us until fifteen minutes or more after we had drunk it.’

‘Then why is Lucas leaving if it’s not his fault? He insists you drank the juice before he did, he said he didn’t realise you were drinking it and he should have been more vigilant. Now…’

‘He’s leaving? What do you mean Lucas is leaving?’

‘He’s removed himself from your personal guard. Now I think…’

I didn’t get a chance to hear what Eli thought as I was out the door and striding down the hall to Lucas’s bedroom before Eli could utter another word.

I stormed in without knocking and was grateful that he was alone and not in some passionate embrace with Persia. To my fury, Lucas was packing.

‘What the hell is this?’

Lucas didn’t look at me as he carefully folded a shirt into a case. ‘I failed you. You nearly died because of it. It’s not going to happen again.’

I snatched the shirt out of the case and threw it back on the bed. ‘And how would this have played out differently if you had tested the juice before I drank it as you normally do. Neither of us could tell straight away that it was poisoned. It would have ended in exactly the same way, with both of us lying half dead on your bedroom floor. Or maybe, if you had drank more, you would be dead by now, and that certainly would be a failing on your part.’

Lucas picked up the shirt again but I snatched it from him. ‘It doesn’t change anything. You nearly died because I failed you. I should have…’

‘I nearly died because some sick twisted git decided to poison the fruit juice I drink every day. But regardless of whose fault it is, I’m not letting you leave, so get your clothes out of that case and stop being so stubborn and proud.’

‘You don’t have a choice in that’

He was angry with me, I knew that. Everyone was.

‘Stop being an ass.’

He turned back to his case and I watched as the shirt went back in. I sat down on the bed and let all the fight fall out of me.

I was exhausted. It just never stopped.

‘Did they catch Riley?’ I asked quietly.

Lucas shook his head. ‘He was long gone before the poison even took effect.’

‘Good.’

Lucas stopped packing. ‘Good? How is it a good thing that the person that nearly killed you has escaped?’

‘How old was he, five, six? I don’t want another death on my hands, especially not one so young. If you guys had caught him…’

‘He’d be dead.’

‘Exactly. It wasn’t him anyway, it must have been his brother, or his Mum.’

I refused to believe that someone so young had any knowledge about the bounty on my head or what it truly meant to kill someone. I’d only met Riley a few times; he always seemed to be down by the pool, jumping in and out and back in again. The first time we spoke he’d shown me his wobbly tooth. It was Riley that introduced me to the mango juice all those months before. He’d said it was his favourite thing in the whole world. I found it hard to believe he was planning my demise all this time. Riley was simply the messenger but whoever had sent him had been too cowardly to do the job themselves.

I tried to think back to when Riley had handed me the bottle of juice. Who else had been nearby? Lucas and I had been for a run as we always did. The juice was normally waiting for us inside the fort but yesterday Riley had run out and handed it to me. I had been hot, thirsty. Distracted by Lucas talking to Isaac, one of the other Guardians, I’d drunk it without thinking. It was Isaac who had realised I was drinking it before it was tested. He’d smacked the bottle out of my mouth so hard, he’d caused my lip to bleed. Lucas had nearly punched him for being so heavy handed. When he realised why he’d done it his anger then turned to me too. But it had already been too late. I’d disobeyed the rules and paid the consequences.

There really was only a small group of people I could truly trust. And one of them, the Guardian I was closest to, was about to leave.

‘Is this your idea or Eli’s?’ I gestured to the case.

‘It’s mine.’

A wave of hurt punched me in the gut.

‘I understand. Babysitting me can’t be much fun; its dull, monotonous and not to mention dangerous. If you want to go, I won’t stop you.’ I stood to leave. ‘You’ve been a good friend, my best friend. I won’t ever forget that.’

I ignored the stab of anger and hurt that slammed into my brain along with Lucas’s thoughts.

I made it to the door but he was suddenly there in front of me preventing me from leaving. I cursed how quickly the Guardians could move.

‘I am not a coward, nor do I find being with you in any way boring. You know how I feel for you. I would stand with you till the end of time, but not when something I did caused you to nearly die.’

‘I need you Lucas. If you don’t want to go, and I really don’t want you to go, then get off your bloody high horse and stay. The last few months have been hard enough, please don’t make this any harder.’

I could see he was wavering. He couldn’t bear to leave me, I could feel that.

‘Can’t you consider this your first warning or something?’

He gave a half smile.

I leaned into him, wrapping my arms around him tightly. ‘I’m not letting you go, so if you want to walk out of here, you’re going to have to do so with me clinging to you like a leech.’

I felt his arms wrap around me, hugging me to him tightly and felt him sigh with defeat. I had won one battle at least.

‘You do anything like that again, I’ll kill you myself, you understand?’

I nodded against him

Just then the door opened and Persia walked in. I tried to shift out of Lucas’s arms but he wasn’t finished hugging me yet. Persia didn’t seem the least bit bothered by finding her boyfriend in the arms of someone else. I loved how Persia was so relaxed about our relationship. As much as I trusted Seth, I’m not sure if I could contain the green eye monster within if I found him in the arms of another woman, regardless of how innocent it might be.

‘Oh good, you two have sorted out your differences, I guess you’ve talked him out of his ridiculous idea of leaving.’

‘I’m staying, I can’t trust her to keep out of trouble if I leave.’

Persia smiled. ‘Eve we have to go, it’s my Dad’s sixtieth at the weekend and all the family are having a big party to celebrate. But we’ll be back next week.’

Persia had mentioned this before, but all the days seemed to blend together here and I hadn’t expected it to come around so soon.

‘You’d be very welcome to come. I know Mum and Dad would be delighted to see you again. Clementine misses you too. And don’t you want to see the baby?’

I smiled. Persia had been showing me photos of her niece Aurelia for weeks, ever since the surprise arrival of Clementine’s baby. I had no idea that she had been pregnant all those months before when I had first learned of my destiny to save the world. Neither, it seemed, did Persia and Izri. Though it did explain why Clementine had decided to stay in England when we had relocated to the fort in the Tibetan mountains.

I was hugely tempted to pop back and see Aurelia, this gorgeous flame headed little girl, just for a few minutes. Lucas’s hands tightened around me and I felt the ‘no’ clearly in my head as if Lucas had shouted it out loud. I didn’t need the reminder. I could never go back to that world, not when so many people wanted me dead. I was concerned enough for Persia and Izri going back with her known association with me, but her family had not come under any threat since we had left, partly due to the Guardian presence that the Oraculum had installed in the immediate vicinity of their home.

‘I’d love to.’ I ignored Lucas’s fingers digging into me as he held me. ‘But I can’t. I’m sorry Persia.’

She nodded then shifted awkwardly. ‘Well the helicopter is waiting and I just came to say goodbye.’

Ah. My cue to leave. She certainly hadn’t come to say goodbye to me. I pulled out of Lucas’s arms and gave Persia a quick hug before I left them to it. The flash of warmth and love Lucas gave Persia before I closed the door behind me made my heart clench with happiness. But standing in the corridor was an even bigger shock. Caleb was kissing Izri as passionately as if his life depended on it. I had heard rumours they were together, but apart from the odd look between them I had seen no evidence to confirm this. Clearly, saying goodbye when they spent every waking moment together was hard. Surely Caleb and Lucas could go with them. They didn’t have to be committed to me every single day of their lives. There were enough Guardians in the fort to protect me in their absence. Although, before I could even fully form that idea in my head I knew that Eli wouldn’t go for it. Especially not after what had happened the day before. I sighed as I walked back up the corridor to face him.

To my surprise Seth and Eli were embroiled in a pretty heated argument.

‘It should never have happened,’ Seth said.

‘I know. If she’d only followed protocol…’

‘Don’t give me that. If she had it wouldn’t have made any difference. Something needs to change.’

‘There is a very big price on her head, huge in fact, I’ve never seen a bounty so high. It’s tempting many people.’

This angered me. ‘So many people come and go here every day, any one of them could be eyeing me up so they can collect the reward.’

‘No one will get close to you Eve…’ Eli protested.

‘But Riley did. Well, his family. I’ve played with him down by the pool. I’ve chatted to his Mum. Unless you want to lock me in a cell where I talk to no one, it’s going to happen again.’

Eli clenched his fists but he had no words with which to reassure me.

‘So I’m not safe here, I’m not safe anywhere, unless I live in a house on an island in the middle of the ocean, with only my friends and my personal guard for company.’

‘That’s not a bad idea,’ Seth mumbled.

‘Well, we will have to be stricter on who comes up to the fort,’ Eli said.

‘How? There are hundreds of people up here every day, what are we going to do, make them all pledge to me before they get on the helicopter?’ I asked. This whole situation was ridiculous. The constant vigilance of my Guardians couldn’t cover every base. I was safer here than anywhere but I wasn’t a hundred percent safe. I never would be.

‘Now that’s a good idea,’ Eli nodded, approvingly.

‘Eli! I was joking, you can’t do that. Most of the people are just cooks or maids, you can’t ask them to pledge their allegiance to me, and it’s got nothing to do with them.’

‘If they want to keep their jobs, they’ll pledge.’ Eli said, almost speaking to himself now.

‘You can’t sack people just because they won’t pledge to me. For some people this is their home, has been for years before I came along, you can’t kick people out of their home.’

‘Fort Naga is your home now Eve, you’re the only one that matters,’ Eli said.

I stared at him, incredulously. No wonder there was so many people wanting to kill me. If my Guardians were going through life with this attitude, that no one else mattered, that everyone else was so insignificant, they would have stepped on a lot of toes along the way.

‘I’m going for a walk,’ I muttered angrily.

Eli stood up. ‘Eve?’

But I walked out, not sure I could keep my temper around him at the moment. I walked quickly down the stairs and outside, hearing the footsteps of my boyfriend as he followed me closely. I headed for the pretty gazebo at the end of the pool. The summer flowers had just started to trail up the sides. From here, you could see for miles, nothing but mountains and forests as far as the eye could see in every direction. I sat down on one of the benches inside and Seth sat next to me.

‘We could get married here one day, right here surrounded by all these flowers and that view,’ Seth said, quietly. Clearly he was trying to distract me.

I decided to humour him, I needed something else to focus on. ‘I don’t know; this place kind of feels like my place of work. When we get married I’d like to do it somewhere a bit more romantic, instead of having five hundred Guardians standing over me, expecting an imminent attack at any moment. The poor priest, forced to pledge to me before he was allowed to marry us. The best man, carrying a machine gun, the flower girl carrying two knives tucked into her bouquet just in case. The groomsmen wouldn’t have flowers in their lapels they would have an axe. And how would you slide the ring onto my finger, if I had to permanently shield myself? We’d have taste testers sampling all the champagne and canapés before we ate them. And what about our honeymoon, how would that work? We’d be lying there in bed, surrounded by a twelve strong armed guard, all trying not to look as we…’ I trailed off, blushing with embarrassment.

Seth nobly changed the subject. ‘So where would you like to get married?’

‘On a beach somewhere, maybe Mexico. We could elope, don’t tell anyone where we’re going, just me and you, on a beach, getting married as the sun sets.’

‘Ok, if that’s what you want.’