The Prophecies (The Sentinel Series Book 2) (7 page)

‘There were lots of them up here at one point, all manner of weird and wonderful creatures. I don’t know what the Oraculum or the scientists intended to do with them, I just think they wanted to see if it worked, if it could be done. But with the shape shifting gene being the glue that held them all together, almost anything was possible. We had flying horses, fish that could walk on land, it was a proper little freak show.’

And I was the biggest freak of them all.

‘What happened to them?’

‘Most of them died very early on, the combinations of DNA being too much for their bodies to take. Some escaped. Some went completely insane and we had to kill them.’

The Guardians’ answer to everything was to kill first and ask questions later. It wouldn’t have even crossed their minds to try to preserve and nurture the life they had created.’

‘There was nothing anyone could do, these monsters wouldn’t let anyone near them. Several of the scientists got killed or badly injured just trying to feed them.’

My brain suddenly caught onto what else he had said. ‘Some escaped?’

‘Hmm yes. Some were very small and managed to escape the cages they were put in.’

‘So we could be out for a run one day and bump in to a creature half giraffe and half bear.’ I laughed at the image.

‘It’s doubtful, as I said most of them died after a few months anyway. It’s been sixteen years since the last one was made. I’m sure we would have seen something like that wandering around before now.’

‘Thor has been in captivity for sixteen years.’ That was enough to make anyone insane.

‘He was the only one that survived. He was tamed though, the Guardlings used to take him out of his cage and take him for walks on a regular basis. That’s how he escaped.’

We broke the trees and Fort Naga loomed over us, silhouetted against the morning sky. It looked almost foreboding.

I flexed my shoulder, trying to relieve the pain of my broken bone. My body seemed to cope with this kind of pain much better than it should. I clearly had a higher pain threshold than most, another freakish thing that stood me apart from the others. Either that or I was getting stronger. I spotted the Guardlings in training as we walked back up to the fort but I knew visiting Cassidy later on for the third time in one day would not be looked on favourably by her or my Guardians so I guessed I’d have to save my rematch with Zach for another day.

Suddenly I had a flash of Aurelia, Persia’s tiny niece screaming and crying and I stopped. Lucas and Quinn looked at me in concern. She was a baby, that’s what babies did, though why the flash had suddenly come to me I didn’t know. Was something wrong?

I reached out for Persia’s mind and as soon as I connected with her, I could feel she was happy and contented.

‘Persia is everything ok?’
I carried on walking up the hill towards the fort, safe in the knowledge that there was nothing to worry about.

‘
Hey, Eve, I’m fine, are you ok?’

I smiled that she had turned the conversation so quickly round to me.
‘Are Clementine and Aurelia ok?’

‘Yes, I’m with them now, Aurelia’s fast asleep. Why?’

‘I just saw her crying that’s all.’

Persia went very quiet and when she spoke all traces of laughter had gone from her voice.
‘You had a prophecy of Aurelia crying?’

‘I don’t know if it was that, maybe it was, I just saw her crying.’

‘Where was she, who was she with?’

‘I think she was in your Mum’s front room, she appeared to be alone. I’m sorry I didn’t see anything more than that, it was just a flash.’

Persia was still silent.

‘Persia, it was probably nothing. You know I’m connected to Lucas. Maybe you’ve spoken to him whilst Aurelia was crying and he was thinking about it…’
I trailed off, it sounded lame to my ears.
‘If I get anything else, I’ll let you know straight away.’

‘Thank you. I’ll erm… speak to you soon.’

I severed the connection, immediately regretting that I had spoiled her fun with my silly prophecy.

‘You had to tell her,’ Lucas said softly. ‘Something could be wrong. At least they are a bit more prepared for it now.’

I nodded still wishing I had something a bit more substantial to report than a crying baby.

In my dreams I sat on my beach for a while, the palm trees stirring in the breeze, watching the waves lap gently onto the shore. With concerns over my hallucinations or prophecies, I had been ordered to rest for a few days. And to placate me Seth had insisted that he gave me a massage as I had missed out on one in Cyprus. He had been incredibly good with his hands and fingers, but I’d only experienced a few minutes of it before I’d ended up here. I really was a lot more tired than I thought. Here, everything was calm, nothing was real, which was why it surprised me when I heard the screams and desperate pleas for help getting louder and louder. It wasn’t just one scream I could hear, it was hundreds.

I leapt to my feet, frantically and looked around, but my beach remained undisturbed, a calm, tranquil haven whilst somewhere, judging by the torturous screams and cries for help, people were dying.

I closed my eyes and let the screaming absorb me. I concentrated on one of the cries. ‘Save my baby, please, if I’m going to die, please let him live.’

I focussed on that voice, blocking out all the other voices, and I stepped through to its source.

I landed in a field, with grass almost as tall as me, surrounded by mountains. The sun was just breaking above the mountains, bathing the fields in a weak golden rosy light. The gentle breeze swished the grass around me, but other than that it was calm, still, silent.

Seth suddenly appeared by my side. He took in the field, took in my body, tense, rigid, alert, and he tentatively took me in his arms.

‘Eve, are you ok?’

I nodded, confused. ‘I heard screams.’ I leant my head against his chest, sleepily. Waking from a deep sleep before I was ready was never a good move.

Seth kissed my forehead. ‘Where are we?’

I shook my head in confusion. ‘I have no idea, I heard screams, hundreds of people screaming and crying and I slid here.’ I looked around at the empty field.

Lucas appeared then, looking confused as well

‘Eve…’

‘I’m fine Lucas, I just, I…..I must have been dreaming.’ But why here, why would I come to a place I had never been to before?

Lucas and Seth heard it before I did, as they both turned to look at the sky above the mountains, behind me. I turned as well but could see nothing. A low misty haze hung over the mountains. Then I heard it. Faintly, in the distance, I could hear a high pitched whirring and spluttering and a few seconds later the haze broke, a plane was plummeting to the earth, heading straight for us. Its left wing was ablaze.

The pilot was vainly trying to level out the plane, to try and land straight rather than nose first but they were coming in too fast. My heart was in my mouth as the screams I had heard moments before on my beach filled my ears; painful, desperate sobs, cries and pleas.

Without thinking I filled myself with as much power as I could and took hold of the plane with telekinesis. It was hard; I had not tried to control something so big and with its own source of power before, something with an engine that was trying to fly one way, something that was rapidly losing its fight against gravity.

My power pumped through my veins and I pulled more, using everything I had to take control of the plane and suddenly I had it. It buffeted in the sky and then was still.

I quickly created a ball of water and doused the flames on the engine. Then gently, so softly, like I was carrying a new born baby, I brought the plane down onto the ground. I straightened up the plane and touched it down with the tiniest of bumps with the nose of the plane just a few metres away from where we stood.

The screaming slowly died out and then slowly cheering started. The pilot lifted his head from his hands and stared in disbelief at being on the ground, at being alive, and then at me, his eyes wide and staring.

I ran forward to the door, if anyone was hurt, I could heal them but Lucas caught my arm and held me back.

‘Eve we need to get out of here now, they’ll be so many questions about this, so much that can’t be explained. You cannot be here if the pilot starts pointing at you.’

‘What if people are hurt?’

‘At least they’re not dead, you’ve seen to that.’

‘Lucas….’

‘Eve, please,’ said Seth. ‘Lucas is right, you’ve saved hundreds of lives today. We cannot be here when they start to figure out what happened. How is it going to look when a young woman gets on the plane in the middle of nowhere, a plane that should be in pieces and starts magically healing people? Your face is already known by half the world that wants you dead, it does not need to be known by those that don’t.’

I turned back towards the plane and then back towards Seth and Lucas. I nodded reluctantly and stepped back between them. I took hold of both of their hands and slid back to my bedroom.

There was a man waiting for me.

Immediately Seth and Lucas stepped between me and him. How had a man managed to get unseen into my room? I had Guardians outside my room for this exact reason. He was huge, with short red hair and a furious expression on his face.

‘What did you do?’ he hissed, angrily.

Eli, Caleb, Mason and Alexandria appeared in the room between me and the man. I could barely see the man now.

‘I hardly think she needs protection from me,’ the man said. ‘It’s the others she’ll need protection from if they find out about this.’

‘Matthias, say what you’ve come to say, then leave,’ Eli said. They knew him? Yet my protection detail was still in a tight formation around me.

‘What she has done is the most stupid thing she could possibly do. If they find out about this…’ He trailed off, clearly worried.

A sense of euphoria filled me. What had I done? I had just saved the lives of hundreds of people. I had finally done something good with my powers, instead of just party tricks. I felt the smile spread across my face. But judging by Matthias’s reaction, I realised that for some reason, this was a bad thing.

I stepped forward, angry, but Seth refused to let me through. ‘Matthias, what have I done that was so wrong? I’ve done something good, I’ve saved lives.’

‘Lives that were not meant to be saved, they were all fated to die today.’

I clenched my jaw, angrily. ‘You’re angry at me for not letting hundreds of people die, I had a prophecy, I heard them screaming. I was given the prophecy for a reason, not so I could do nothing.’

This threw Matthias. ‘You had a prophecy?’

I nodded. It must have been that, how else could I have heard their screams?

Matthias started pacing nervously. ‘It doesn’t change anything, if they find out, this could be very bad for you.’

‘Why?’

‘You’ve interfered in fate. And you…’ He gestured angrily at my Guardians. ‘You’re supposed to keep her from harm, this includes acts of insanity.’

‘What’s done is done, she can’t change that, so if that’s all you came to say then you can go,’ Eli said.

Matthias gave me a final glare and vanished.

The room was very quiet and their tight formation around me hadn’t altered. ‘Who was that?’

Eli turned to face me. ‘Matthias of the Oraculum.’

I had met two members now, but why were my Guardians so fearful for my safety around them? What did I have to fear from the Oraculum, from those who created me?

‘Cain, also from the Oraculum, came to us a few days ago to say that we were not to trust any of the Oraculum anymore,’ Lucas answered my unasked question. ‘He said that you were not allowed to go anywhere with them alone. He was very vague about why but just said there was a feeling of unrest and angst within the Oraculum and that some of the more… hot headed members may be quick to act and that wouldn’t be a good thing for you.’

I stared at him. ‘And that wasn’t something you thought I should know?’

‘We didn’t want to worry you. It may be that what Cain told us was untrue and he had his own reasons for turning us against the Oraculum like this, but regardless of the truth of his words, it seems prudent to be extra cautious around them,’ said Mason.

I removed myself from their protective formation and sat on the bed. ‘They’re not actually going to harm me though. I’m destined to save the world. They created me for that purpose. What will happen if they kill me? Who will save the world then?’

My Guardians didn’t appear to have an answer for that.

‘I don’t understand what I did wrong,’ I said, quietly.

‘I’m not sure I do either, but I’ve never seen Matthias so disturbed before,’ Lucas said.

My Guardians were uneasy, I could tell that and it didn’t make any sense. Although I hadn’t really had the greatest respect for the Oraculum after they created me and left me to my own devices, I never realised that I had anything to fear from them.

‘Get some rest Eve, we’re all going to stay in here tonight. I’m sure the Oraculum won’t come to you but we’ll be here just in case,’ Eli said.

I climbed back into bed but was disappointed slightly when Seth didn’t join me. He sat down on the window seat with Mason and Alexandria. He was in Guardian mode again. I sighed as Caleb flicked off the light, plunging us into darkness, though the weight of their oppressive gaze only seemed to intensify within the shadows in the room.

I lay awake for a long time staring at the ceiling unable to sleep. I wasn’t sure if it was my audience watching me, the lack of Seth in my arms, or this new threat that I hadn’t even known existed until a few moments before.

I thought back to the plane crash and I couldn’t help but smile. Maybe helping with things like that was my true purpose or at least part of the reason I had been created. I could be like a real life super woman helping people escape from burning buildings, car crashes, earthquakes, tsunamis or tornadoes. I could finally start doing something good.

With that heart-warming thought, I finally drifted off to sleep.