The Sentinel (27 page)

‘It was a big elaborate plan, starting with getting us to move house so we would be more vulnerable to an attack.’ Eli sighed angrily. ‘It was Abe, it had been from the start.’

‘No!’

‘I sort of had my suspicions. Not at first, I just thought he was young and impetuous. But of late. I knew someone was betraying us but I couldn’t figure out who. When the Outer Guard came to us, before you slid, he fought against us. I killed him myself. The attack on your parents’ home, the Putarians finding out where we were training, the notes, they were all him, or aided by him.’

Betrayal burnt deep in my heart.

‘Was he not pledged to me?’

‘I don’t know, I thought he was. Samuel chose him for you.’

The Guardians went silent, all deep in thought.

‘But they’re all dead, this Corben that you seem to know, he’s dead too?’ I asked, remembering his eyes filled with joy at the prospect of my death.

Eli shook his head, angrily. ‘He wasn’t among the dead, he must not have followed you into the woods.’

I swallowed, nervously. He lives to try to kill me again another day.

‘I’m not sure how you will take this but some of your other Guardians are dead too. Your teacher Mr Curtis, Matthew, two others that you didn’t know,’ Eli said, quietly.

I felt numb. Although I had barely known these Guardians I felt grief flood through me at their loss.

‘What were their names?’ I whispered, choking back the tears. Seth was next to me, his arm round my shoulders

‘Kyle and Loren.’

I nodded feeling numb and cold as my body melted into Seth’s. Four more deaths on my hands.

‘What now?’ asked Seth over my head.

‘The Fort I think.’ Eli flicked open his phone, and tapped out a quick number, then wandered a short distance away from us to make the call.

I hugged Seth tightly to me, burying my face in his chest to block out the pain. I heard Eli come back.

‘We need to get to one of the fields down there to get the helicopter.’

I felt Seth nod, then I felt his warm breath next to my ear. ‘Can you walk Evie?’

I nodded weakly. We started to slowly make our way down the hill, my Guardians in such close formation round me that I could barely move forward without touching them. I felt dizzy though the drugs and the grief made me seem detached from my body, from my legs. After the third time I stumbled, drunkenly, down the hill, Seth swung me up into his arms and carried me the rest of the way, ignoring my feeble protests.

We finally broke the trees and walked out into the moonlit field, the wind softly swishing the long grass around us. Soon a vibrating sound indicated the imminent arrival of the helicopter. A great black shadow blocked out the moonlight as it landed not far from where we were waiting. It was huge, looking more like a small plane than a helicopter. It was matt black, even as the bright moonlight flooded the field, it was almost impossible to see. Seth put me down so we could climb on board more easily. Eli directed me to a seat in the middle and I sat down feeling empty inside. Seth fastened my seat harness around me, then sat down next to me, taking my hand.

The helicopter took off smoothly. It was so loud under the rotors that it would make talking impossible.

So even my home wasn’t safe anymore, even with five Guardians and a shape shifter I wasn’t safe. I suddenly thought about Quinn.

‘
Are Quinn and Persia coming
?’ My voice sounded flat in my head.

‘
We’ll send the helicopter back for them tomorrow
,’ Seth replied.

‘
Were they ok in the house, with the fight
?’

Seth laughed out loud. ‘
We were fighting the Putarians when suddenly this great Grizzly Bear was fighting with us. He literally threw the Putarians against the wall. Quinn can get pretty mad sometimes eh
?
And Persia, well, I seriously wouldn’t want to get on the wrong side of her. She’s ferocious.’

My friends, my brother had all fought for me and I had ran away. I had thought it the best for all of us. To slide out and then pull them to me, but that action had resulted in four of my Guardians being killed. Next time I would fight alongside them. A thought suddenly occurred to me.

‘
You were fighting in the house?
’

‘
Eve don’t start. I swore to protect you, as Eli said, you can’t order us not to protect you. In a situation like that when you were under attack, all the Guardians in the area were called.’

‘But I ordered you to not come near me…’

‘Your life must be protected at all costs, it supersedes all orders.’

It had all been for nothing. He had still continued to fight for me and when it came down to it, when he was called to fight alongside me, he came because my salvation was more important than my orders, than my silly demands. There really was nothing I could do to save him. I looked out the window away from him, into the darkness. We were above the sea now. I could see the silver ribbons of moonlight glinting off the water below, as if there were hoards of treasure buried beneath the waves.

Suddenly I could see another shadow outside the window, in the distance, something fast flying through the clouds towards us. I leaned forward in my seat to get a better look and Eli, seated at my other side did the same, to see what I was looking at.

‘
What did you see Eve?’
he said in my head.

I shook my head. ‘
It was a plane, I’m sure of it, but it was so small
.’

Eli looked at me, his eyes widened in fear. He obviously communicated with the pilot as we suddenly dipped down so we were skimming over the waves. Then I saw it clearly. It looked like a harrier but about half the size, as it fell in at our side. Eli was on his feet faster than was possible. The helicopter swerved violently away from the plane and Eli didn’t even lose his balance. But the manoeuvrability of the plane was much more agile than our oversized helicopter and within seconds he was on our side again.

‘
I take it he’s not one of ours?’

I didn’t need to see the wary glances between my Guardians to know he wasn’t.

‘Corben. He must have seen us take off in the helicopter, he must have arranged this.’
Eli explained.

‘Do we have any weapons on board?’

Eli shook his head. ‘
It’s designed for transport not combat.’

My heart hammered against my chest, was there no end to this madness. The Putarians would never stop until I was dead. Eli opened the door to the helicopter, the plane was so close I could clearly see the features of the pilot, the features of a furious hate. And then in a moment of pure insanity, and pure precision Eli leapt from the helicopter and landed on the nose of the plane.

‘NO!’ I screamed.

As the helicopter swerved away again the last glimpse I saw of Eli was the plane trying to shake him off and Eli punching a hole through the roof of the cockpit.

I looked back at my Guardians in horror, all of their faces set grimly.

‘We have to go back for him.’

Mason shook his head.

‘Turn the helicopter round,’ I yelled to our pilot.

The helicopter flew on and I felt my hands ball into fists. But then there were two more planes emerging from the darkness and Seth and Lucas were on their feet, both of them heading towards the door. Rage filled me and I found myself ripping off my harness and was on my feet too. Alexandria tried to hold me back but I shrugged her off. One of the planes released a small missile, but somehow the helicopter, thanks to the skilful flying of our pilot, managed to shake it off.

‘Missiles! Are you freaking kidding me?’ I screamed.

As one of the planes dipped in closer, Seth curled ready to pounce but I was faster. Instinctively a beam of white hot fire shot from my hand, tearing through the nearest plane. It erupted into a fireball of hot melted metal that cartwheeled into the ocean. A wave of sickness rode through me, the drugs still in my system trying to suppress my powers, but I ignored it. I redirected my anger and my fire to the second plane, tearing through that as well, but as the plane turned into another fireball, the fireball cartwheeled towards the side of the helicopter, completely taking out the tail.

The helicopter, without its tail blade to counteract the power of the rotor blades above us, started spinning out of control. It was so fast that the sky and sea sped past in a blur of sickening darkness. I lost my balance and fell hard onto the floor. Seth was on top of me a second later, his arms around me in an unbreakable protective cage. I looked up into his eyes, filled with so much fear. As the whirring of the engine got louder, we gambolled forward and as the sickening sound of metal crumpling around us filled my ears, everything went black.

22. The welcome home

When I came round, it took a few seconds to ascertain where I was, what was happening. I was cold, that much I was sure of, freezing cold. An orange glow flickered in the corner of my blurred view. I tried to move but something hard was wrapped around me, constricting my chest and my arms. It was windy, the force of a gale tearing through my hair, across my face. I willed my eyesight to focus, but it was all a blur. I couldn’t move, I couldn’t see and I had no idea whether Seth or the rest of my Guardians were even alive. I felt panic rising through me, at the thought of losing Seth, of not knowing what had happened, what was still happening.

‘
Eve, you’re ok, stay calm, you’re ok,’
said Seth’s glorious voice in my head. And the panic subsided almost immediately. If Seth was still alive, then I could just about cope with anything else.

The wind roared round me, filling my ears.

‘
Seth I can’t move, something’s on me.’

The constraints around my chest loosened the tiniest of fractions. ‘
That’s me, silly.’

I lifted my head and in the moonlight could just about make out Seth’s arms round me, the inky black water over my legs, and I let my head fall back onto Seth’s chest.

‘
Is everyone else ok?’

The silence from Seth was almost deafening, finally he broke it. ‘
Mason doesn’t look too good and Andrew, the pilot, is dead.’

I closed my eyes again, trying to clear the immense dizziness in my head, trying to block out that someone else had died for me today. I could feel my body going limp, like I was drifting off into the blackness of unconsciousness again.

‘
Evie, can you stay with me please.’

I didn’t reply. The blackness beckoned, and I knew there I wouldn’t have to think about any of this, that I could stay there for a while in blissful ignorance. The tendrils of the blackness surrounded me, slowly swallowing me and I let it.

‘
Eve, Mason is dying, you need to heal him.’

My eyes snapped open, and I forced them to focus. It was only then as I looked up at the sky above me that I realised what was the cause of the gale force winds. One of the harrier jets was hovering above us, the down thrust of the engines, releasing its torrent on us. Furiously, I felt my power surge through me again.

‘
NO EVE, it’s Eli, it’s ok.’

I released my power.

Eli was obviously not keen to leave me unguarded in case of another airborne attack.

I looked around me, as much as I could with Seth holding me tight. The remains of the helicopter was on fire and debris scattered the sea around us. I spotted Mason floating in Lucas’s arms not far away from us, he had a huge gash to his head. Caleb and Alexandria were treading water not far behind them.

‘
Seth, let me go, I need to help Mason.’

‘Can you swim?’

‘Of course I can swim.’

‘No I didn’t mean normally, I meant are you fit enough to swim.’

‘Yes I’m fine,’
I struggled against him.

Seth released his hold on me, and whether it was the drugs, the dizziness from being knocked out or the intense cold that had settled around my limbs, but my arms and legs refused to work the way I wanted them to and I sank beneath the waves. I heard Seth sigh with exasperation in my head as he pulled me back to the surface.

‘
Ok maybe I need a little help,’
I admitted, as I choked up the water I had swallowed. Seth towed me over to Mason and I put my hand on his head, expecting to feel the worst, expecting to find a whole host of internal injuries, but the only thing I could find was a bit of dizziness and the gash on his head.

Mason opened one eye, to look at me, suppressing a smile. ‘
Ok, dying might be a bit of an overstatement.’

I scowled at Seth, who had obviously only said that to get me to stay awake. I imagined my golden ball of light flowing onto the area where the gash was, my hand shook with the cold or the effort, but the wound healed up, quickly and I let my powers wink out, feeling sick again. I let Seth take me in his arms again and I lay face down on his chest.

‘
I hate you sometimes,’
I muttered.

‘
No you don’t, you love me, really,’

‘Yeah I do,’
I sighed.

‘
What hate me?’

‘No, love you, that’s the problem. What are you doing here anyway? Are all my orders completely worthless, you can pick and choose when to obey them? So you had to come to the house and fight, so you had to come and rescue me from the car, but when I was in the helicopter, I was supposedly safe, you should have left me then.’

‘Well it was a good job I didn’t wasn’t it,’
he replied, angrily.

‘Arghh you drive me mad.’

‘Look let’s just not talk for a while,’
he seethed
.

‘Fine,’
I said.

‘Fine.

And we floated for a while in angry silence. I was surprised by how much body heat Seth was giving off, so much so that I hardly felt cold at all. Except my fingers, they were numb. I surreptitiously tried to rub one set of fingers with my thumb, in an attempt to bring them back to life.