The Reckoning (The Sentinel Series Book 4) Read online

He nodded.

  I slid us both back to our bedroom and Seth lay down. I paused, deep in thought, then lay down next to him. Seth’s slung his arm over my waist.

  ‘We’ll need to tell the Guardians,’ Seth said. ‘After you’ve saved the world, we will need to be vigilant against an attack from the Oraculum. Just in case.’

  I nodded in agreement. I trusted Cain and Leon but if the others were still alive I knew I’d have to watch my back.

  *

  ‘No, no way.’ Seth said.

  I looked at Eli and he shook his head too. I sighed as I looked out from the roof of the fort over the forests and snow-capped mountains.

  It was four days until New Year’s Eve and I knew that I somehow had to master controlling the earth’s power and I didn’t have long to do it. And yes, yesterday had been a bit of a disaster but that was only because I hadn’t done it before or at least wasn’t conscious of how I had achieved it if I had done it in the past. I just needed to keep practicing at it but Eli and Seth were obviously not keen to have a repeat performance of yesterday.

  I turned back to them to try to persuade them again. ‘This is important. I think saving the world is going to take more power than I’ve got. What if this is the key, my connection with the earth, what if that is the thing that saves us?’ I said.

  ‘What if the earth’s power is one of those things you are just not meant to meddle with as Cain and Persia said,’ Seth said.

  ‘No one has ever tried before and no one has ever been strong enough to try. I’m an unknown quantity. I have been given all this great power and maybe I am as strong as I am because I’m supposed to utilize this connection with the earth. You say that I’m in tune with the earth and the weather responds to my moods, maybe the connection is greater than we realise. Maybe, I’m just the conduit to harnessing the power and that’s what I’m supposed to do to save it. Let’s face it, if this Armageddon moment turns out to be a giant meteorite hitting the earth or a black hole exploding just outside the earth’s orbit or something cataclysmic like that, a bit of telekinesis or shifting into a giant fish isn’t really going to be a lot of help. When I was first mastering my own power I had problems then but I got better. This is just about practising and getting used to it. But I’m never going to be able to master it if I don’t at least try.’

  Seth sighed heavily and looked over at Eli. They obviously communicated silently with each other before Eli turned back to me.

  ‘Very well. But you get one more shot at this. If you black out like you did yesterday, that’s it. There will be no more attempts after that.’

  I nodded. I would just try to take a very tiny bit for today, I’d just try to use it to do something small. I could build up to bigger things if I was successful after today. I just had to show them that I was capable of controlling it.

  I looked at Persia and she gently shook her head. ‘For the record, I don’t think this is a good idea.’

  I smiled, sadly. Grateful that she had kept her concerns just between us. ‘Duly noted.’

  I glanced over at Quinn and Izri who didn’t look impressed that I was trying again either. I had to prove to them all that this was the right thing.

  I closed my eyes against the disapproving stares and concentrated on my breathing as I filled myself with my power. I concentrated on the feel of the air around me, felt the energy that pulsated around us and I reached out for it, stretching beyond the sphere of my power. It was easier this time and as I forged the connection between me and the power of the earth, I felt this wave of power surge over me so hard and fast that I could barely breathe. I tried to direct it, use it to forge a beam of power from my hands but it was so hot it burnt through me and everything went black.

  I woke gasping for breath with Seth leaning over me with his fist poised as if to punch me. I was dizzy and exhausted, I was burnt all over and it felt like a few of my ribs had been broken, the pain in my chest was immense.

  When Seth saw that I was awake, he fell to his knees, his hands over his face as he sighed with relief.

  I looked around at all my Guardians and Quinn and was met with a wall of angry yet relieved faces.

  I caught my breath, healing the broken bones and the burnt skin and eventually sat up.

  ‘What happened?’

  ‘A beam of light ripped from your body and then you died,’ Lucas said, any trace of his normal cheerful demeanour had vanished.

  ‘I died?’

  ‘Your heart stopped,’ Quinn said, gravely. ‘Seth had to give you chest compressions and mouth to mouth.’

  Crap. Well that at least explained where I’d got the broken ribs from. I’d died. I couldn’t believe it. After all the attempts on my life over the years, I had managed to kill myself, even if it was only for a few seconds.

  I reached out for Seth but he flinched away from me. ‘I can’t even talk to you right now, I’m so angry with you. We all told you not to do it, Cain and Persia warned you against it and you had to do it anyway.’

  ‘I’m not doing this for fun, I’m doing this because I think it’s the only way I can save the world,’ I snapped.

  ‘Well you’re never doing it again,’ Seth said as he stood up and walked away from me. I could see he was visibly shaking.

  ‘I’m doing this for our daughter,’ I said in his head and he turned round to look at me. ‘If I can’t save the world, then we will never have that future with her.’

  ‘If you die before the end of the world comes then we will never have that future with her or each other either. I’m not letting you risk your life like that again.’

  I bit back the groan of frustration. I looked around the roof and could see that everyone was furious with me.

  None of them understood. I was so fearful of not being able to save the world that I was willing to try anything. But the annoying thing was, they were right though. I couldn’t do anything that would put my life in danger before the end came.

  I stood up not wanting to see the looks of disappointment and anger anymore and I walked off the roof and down the stairs. I was so sure that the connection with the earth was the secret to saving the world but I just couldn’t risk it.

  I heard footsteps come after me as I knew there would be and as I walked down the corridor I looked round to see Trey catching me up.

  ‘You OK kid?’ Trey said, as he fell into step by my side.

  ‘Yeah. I just had to try. I will do whatever it takes to try to save the world and I although everyone else has complete and utter faith in me that I’ll be able to do it, I honestly don’t think I’ll be able to do it on my own.’

  ‘I know. I get it. Desperation does crazy things to people.’

  We walked down the stairs and outside and not really knowing where I was going and what I was doing, I absently followed Trey into the woods. Needing to do something to take my mind off the impending end of the world and probably my failure at saving it, I broke into a run and Trey started running at my side. I pushed myself faster until I was aware of my heart beating in my ears and my chest was heaving from the exertion. Trey kept up with my speed easily, seemingly jogging along by my side.

  Suddenly something hit me so hard in my side that I felt my ribs break instantly as I sprawled across the forest floor. I tried to get up, ready to fight, but I got a kick to the face and I wasn’t aware of anything after that.

  Chapter 11

  I opened my eyes, looking up at the sky, dappling through the branches above me. Remembering the attack, I sat up in alarm, but Trey pushed me back down, firmly.

  ‘Trey, what happened?’ I looked around, wildly.

  ‘Can you reach your Guardians?’ he asked, urgently.

  I reached out for them but came up against a brick wall. I shook my head.

  ‘Your powers, can you access them?’

  I shook my head, they were blocked too.

  ‘Can you heal yourself?’

  I tried, but to no avail. ‘No.’

  ‘Good,’ Tr
ey said, standing up and walking away from me.

  My head was spinning and I was so weak I could barely move my arms and legs. I closed my eyes, momentarily, confused slightly by Trey’s ‘Good’ comment.

  I opened my eyes and looked around the clearing. There were no bodies of our attackers, no one else with us. Maybe Trey had moved me since the attack.

  I frowned. It had been a bit lax of Trey to let them get to me. When the Putarians attacked the other day when I was with Lucas, he didn’t let any of them get anywhere near me, and that was with a great big knife sticking out of his gut. Now I had been knocked unconscious and drugged before Trey had stopped them. And why hadn’t he taken me back to the fort, why move me away from the attack and then leave me in the woods.

  I tried to sit up again, but I had no strength. Trey came back carrying a rope.

  ‘Trey what’s going on?’ Unconsciousness was creeping up on me again.

  ‘You really aren’t the sharpest tool in the box are you?’ Trey said, laughing to himself.

  This wasn’t just a casual comment, a joke, there was something very nasty about his tone of voice.

  I swallowed uneasily. ‘Can we go back to the fort, I think one of my ribs is broken.’

  ‘Eve, haven’t you figured it out yet?’ Trey knelt by my side. ‘I’ve kidnapped you, I’m taking you to the Putarians.’

  ‘What?’ I said, incredulous, waiting for him to laugh at his little joke, but his eyes were cold now.

  ‘Forty million pounds Eve,’ he laughed, grabbing my hand, as he started to wrap the rope round it.

  ‘You’re joking right, this is a joke. You’re Seth’s brother, my brother in law, you wouldn’t do this.’

  ‘Eve, for forty million pounds I’d sell my first child. Hell I’d sell my heart, lungs and kidneys if I knew I could still live without them.’

  I pushed him away, with my free hand, trying to force myself off the ground, but Trey forced me back down, and I was weak, feeble. I fought against him, as hard as I could, but Trey pressed me to the floor with his knee, and I cried out as I felt the pressure on my broken rib. He caught my other hand and tied it viciously to the first hand.

  The ground actually felt like it was pulsating beneath me, as I vainly tried to fight Trey off, but I couldn’t put up any kind of resistance. I was dizzy and the betrayal burnt through my heart.

  Trey finished tying my hands, then turned his attention to my feet.

  A noise from the bushes caught both of our attention, the branches shifted and out stepped Isaac.

  Trey instantly went for his knife.

  ‘Whoa, easy there, I’m not here to stop you,’ Isaac said, holding his hands up.

  ‘What?’ Trey asked, his hand still on his knife hilt.

  ‘I’m rather annoyed that you got there before me, but I’m certainly not going to stop you. Maybe we can come to some arrangement,’ Isaac said.

  Trey narrowed his eyes suspiciously, as betrayal ripped through me again. First Trey now Isaac. I trusted Isaac completely, though I had trusted Trey too.

  Isaac pressed on. ‘I’ve been planning this for ages. At first I thought I was doing something honourable, protecting the saviour of the world. I had no idea that I would be babysitting a child. She’s immature, arrogant and a spoilt brat. Do you know how many times her and her stupid husband have thrown me into a wall or a wardrobe? How ungrateful is that? I gave up my life to protect her and she treats me like that. When she broke the bonds that attached me to her, I was going to leave, but then I thought, I could actually make some money from this. I’ve been planning for months, but it was difficult, Eli, Lucas, the others, have her so well guarded. I should have just claimed to be some long lost cousin or something, like you did. You just walked straight into her life. Or maybe I should have been nicer to her, that seemed to do the trick with you. But fair’s fair, you did get to her first. I presume you have contacts in the villages, someone to take her to.’

  ‘Yes of course, I have men waiting for me in Ty.’

  ‘Good, I can help. When the Guardians come after her, and they will come after her, I can help fight them off.’

  Trey looked unsure.

  ‘Seventy-five, twenty-five split?’ Isaac said, stepping closer. ‘You did most of the hard work, after all.’

  Trey nodded reluctantly, though I could see in his eyes, that as soon as Isaac’s back was turned, or I was handed over, Isaac would be dead, before a single coin touched his hand. He resumed the tying of my feet.

  ‘Good, so forty five million for you, fifteen million for me,’ Isaac said, stepping closer again.

  Trey’s head shot up. ‘What?’

  Isaac frowned. ‘My contacts in Aquil offered me sixty million for her, what did your contacts offer you?’

  ‘Forty,’ muttered Trey, the knots on my legs forgotten. I feebly wiggled my legs and the ropes fell loose, though I couldn’t stand up.

  Isaac stepped closer and took over the tying of my feet, tying the knots so tight, the ropes dug into my flesh. I groaned in pain and Isaac flashed me a look of contempt. ‘Well I’m no expert but maybe we should meet my contacts instead.’

  Trey nodded, licking his lips greedily, even with the split he was still going to get five million pounds more.

  ‘So what’s the plan, do we kill her now,’ Isaac pulled out his knife. ‘It would be easier if she was dead. If she’s alive, we run the risk of the Guardians finding her, or her fighting off the effects of the drugs and fighting us. Let’s kill her.’

  ‘No, Isaac, they pay less for her dead body, they want to kill her themselves.’

  Isaac pulled a face as he shuffled closer to me, his hand not loosening its grip on the knife. ‘Yeah I had heard that too. OK so we take her alive, we’ll just have to keep her topped up with the drugs, do you have lots of spare?’

  Trey nodded, rooting in his pockets to show Isaac what he’d got. But the split second that Trey’s eyes went to his pocket, Isaac reacted with such speed, launching himself at Trey, thrusting the knife through his throat so hard, it came out the other side.

  Trey stumbled backwards, feeling round his neck in confusion and pain. Then his face set angrily and he yanked the knife out in one quick movement, launching himself at Isaac.

  But Isaac was already on his feet and he delivered a kick to Trey’s head so fast that his neck must have broken instantly, and his body crumpled to the floor, his face, a frozen mask of anger and terror, landing just centimetres from mine.

  Isaac stood over him with a look of revulsion for a second, before kicking him away from me. He snatched the knife from his hand, wiped it on Trey’s clothes and turned back to me.

  ‘I should kill you myself,’ Isaac snarled. ‘Idiot child, this is exactly the reason why Eli said to ensure there was always two of us with you. He was worried something like this would happen.’ He bent and cut the ropes from my hands. ‘But of course Trey wouldn’t do anything would he, he’s family,’ Isaac mocked, turning to cut the ropes from my feet. He paused when he saw how the ropes had dug into me and gently rubbed my wounds. ‘Sorry, didn’t mean to hurt you,’ he said, gruffly.

  He turned back to me, still holding the knife threateningly. ‘Don’t trust anyone, do you hear me, not Lucas, Eli, any of them. Forty million pounds is a lot of money and loyalty only runs so deep. As I’ve said before, the only one I would trust to be alone with you is Seth, the boy is so ridiculously in love with you, if he was offered a hundred billion he wouldn’t take it. But there’s always the risk that there could be shape shifters running around. So just be careful about going places alone with him too.’

  Isaac snatched the necklace that Trey had given me from around my neck and looked at it in surprise. ‘It’s a tracking device,’ he said, showing me the small computer chip that was inside the broken wooden star. ‘He was clearly scared we would leave the fort. This was so the Putarians would find you if we did. He clearly sold you out weeks ago, he’s been planning this for a while.’

&nb
sp; He slammed the necklace into the floor and ground it into dust with his boot.

  Tears smarted my eyes with relief, with a joy that Isaac was still loyal and, despite the betrayal, I still felt a loss at Trey’s death. Seth would be so upset, as would Zach.

  Isaac’s face softened slightly, as he put his knife back on his belt, he took my face in his hand, looking at my cheek which felt sore from the kick I’d received. ‘Are you OK Eve?’

  I nodded. ‘I think so, a bit sore, a bit groggy.’

  Isaac nodded, checking my pulse. I closed my eyes as I felt Isaac run his hands down my ribs, my hips, my legs, my arms, and round my neck, checking for injuries.

  ‘You have a broken hip and two broken ribs, can you breathe OK?’

  I opened my eyes and nodded.

  ‘I’ll try to be as gentle as I can,’ Isaac said, bending to pick me up and true to his word, he scooped me up as if I was made from finely spun glass and he was afraid I might crumble in his arms. We started heading back towards the fort.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ I muttered, closing my eyes, feeling unconsciousness take me.

  ‘Hey,’ Isaac said, angrily. ‘Stay with me, I’d prefer it if you were conscious. Sorry for what?’

  ‘If you think I’m ungrateful. I know we haven’t always seen eye to eye but I’ll always be grateful for what you…’

  ‘Oh shut up,’ Isaac said, gruffly. ‘As if all that stuff I said was true. I was just saying that to get him on my side. If I thought that little of you I would have left a long time ago.’

  As we broke the trees, the sunlight blinded me and I closed my eyes against it, but the motion of Isaac walking made me feel queasy. I heard footsteps running towards us, and I stiffened involuntarily.

  ‘Seth and Eli,’ explained Isaac, quietly.

  I forced my eyes open.

  ‘Isaac,’ Seth said, his breathing accelerated. ‘Is she OK?’

  ‘She will be, a few broken bones, drugged up to the eyeballs again.’

  ‘Trey?’ Seth asked.

  Isaac’s face darkened at this. ‘His corpse is back there in the woods if you want to go and cry over him, or give him a decent burial.’