The Reckoning (The Sentinel Series Book 4)

by Holly Martin

  I raised my shield and tentatively stepped up by his side. ‘Adam, I’m sorry—’

  I was interrupted with a great roaring sound filling the sky and tearing straight towards us. I peered out into the gloom of the darkness and realised that a great tidal wave, easily measuring nearly a hundred feet high was approaching at an incredible speed.

  I reached out with my powers, raising a shield again to protect the town behind us and at the same time used my powers to push the wave back.

  Adam laughed loudly and vanished from my side.

  The wave was powerful, several thousand tons of water thundering straight towards me. Somehow I managed to slow it and then turn the direction of the wave so it headed back out to sea. That action left the sea choppy and churned up but finally I managed to dissipate the waves enough that it was unlikely to cause any damage. Although as large waves crashed onto the shore and brought with it reams of dead fish, I realised that some damage had already been done.

  I quickly slid to Adam again, realising as I landed that he was standing at the foot of a volcano, channelling his power into the base, probably igniting the volcano that had lay dormant or churning up the lava of an active volcano but either way, smoke started billowing into the air from the chimney. I had wasted too much time trying to stop the tidal wave when really I needed to be stopping him.

  I reached for my powers and shot at him but my powers just glanced off the screen he had around him. We couldn’t use our powers while shielded, it was one of the drawbacks of them. But Adam had simply sidestepped this problem by creating a screen around three sides of him. The front was open allowing him to pour his powers into the volcano but he was protected on all other sides.

  ‘Adam, you need to stop this. Destroying the world is only going to kill you too. What will that get you? You’ll never be King of the world if you’re dead.’

  Golden plumes of red hot lava lit up the night sky as the volcano erupted and Adam laughed loudly.

  I flew up in the air, knowing that his screen differed from the shield in that there were gaps in it and probably didn’t protect him from above. He was still intent on the volcano and didn’t notice what I was doing. I filled myself with my power and shot down at him. I was still loathe to kill him but if I could hurt him, it might distract him long enough to talk to.

  The flame glanced off his shoulder, burning him and he leapt back in shock. He glared as he looked up at me and without warning he flew straight at me, a furious hatred on his face. He slammed into me hard and we tumbled through the sky together. I held onto him, trying to burn him enough to get him to let go of me but he held me tighter, burning me with his powers too. Pain sliced through me making it feel like my blood was boiling in my veins.

  As I suddenly thought about my daughter and what this could be doing to her, my powers exploded out of me with such force that Adam was ripped from me and sent falling through the sky.

  I soared down after him, healing myself as I flew. He seemed to be stunned or possibly unconscious as he was not doing anything to stop himself from falling, though I knew he wasn’t dead, I could still feel the connection we shared. But if he didn’t do anything to stop himself soon he was going to crash into the ground and I didn’t think any amount of strength would stop him from dying from that fall. I zoomed faster, trying to catch up with him and as the ground roared towards us at sickening speed, I managed to get hold of his foot and slowed both of our descent before we hit the ground. He suddenly seemed to realise what was happening as he looked around and then at me and with a smug smile he vanished from my grasp. I quickly pulled up out of my trajectory and flew back into the sky.

  The volcano was still spewing golden fountains of hot lava in the distance and I knew that if I tried to stop it, I’d be wasting time when Adam was clearly off somewhere else in the world wreaking havoc.

  I zoomed closer and saw all the villages and towns in the foothills of the volcano and I knew I couldn’t leave them to die under great rivers of hot lava.

  I quickly flew over the crater of the volcano, high enough that I wouldn’t get burnt myself but the heat from the lava and smoke was intense. I let out a beam of ice and snow from my hands, filling the hole with as much as I could to cool the lava flows and then froze over the top, sealing it in. The smoke slowed and stopped but I knew I couldn’t hang around to see if it had worked. I had done my best.

  I slid to Adam again and I realised he was standing inside the church grounds where I had played as a child in England and later where I had first trained. He was directing his power into the ground and as I watched the ground shook and trembled, an earthquake rumbling outwards from the epicentre where Adam stood.

  I filled myself with my power again and tried to hit him with a beam of fire but as I suspected he was shielded and my powers just glanced off. I wasn’t strong enough to penetrate his shield.

  I had to reach him somehow. I had to talk to him but what could I say that would capture his attention? What could I say that would make him stop?

  Suddenly I had an idea. It was a risk to my daughter. A huge one. But it might work and if the world had been destroyed, my daughter and I had no future anyway so I had to do something to stop him.

  ‘Adam, I’m pregnant,’ I shouted out over the noise of the earth cracking. ‘A little girl. You’re going to be an uncle.’

  Adam stopped, his powers winking out as he stared at me. Maybe, just maybe there was some compassion buried deep beneath the anger and hate. And that was what I was counting on.

  I stepped forward. ‘This world is a beautiful place and I want my daughter to grow up experiencing this beauty. I want her to grow up knowing her uncle is a great man, that he has incredible power, much stronger than me…’ I added to massage his ego. ‘…but that he uses it for good. She will know that you had this really crappy start to your life and the Oraculum treated you abysmally but despite that, you grew up to be a kind and wonderful man that didn’t let bitterness destroy him. Don’t you want to be that man Adam? Don’t you want to see your niece grow up, laugh with her, play with her. We could be a real family.’

  He stared at me, not moving not saying a word. His face was completely blank as he took in my words.

  ‘You’re pregnant?’ he said.

  I nodded.

  ‘The child of The Sentinel?’ he said.

  I shifted awkwardly, that didn’t sound like he thought that was a good thing. I nodded again.

  ‘Someone else for the world to worship when they should be worshipping ME!’ Adam roared, suddenly directing his powers straight at my belly.

  I wasn’t quick enough to shield myself but I managed to leap out the way, his powers slicing through my leg instead. I cried out.

  But he didn’t stop as he aimed for my stomach again I let my own power rip out, an arc of white hot fire roaring towards him. A furious hate filled my veins. He had tried to kill my daughter. He had a chance to change his mind, but now I knew the only way to stop him was to kill him and after the hatred he had just shown my unborn child, I had absolutely no qualms in doing so.

  This was going to end now.

  Our powers met in the air between us, sparks flying as we tried to outdo one another but we were matched in strength. As much as I tried to force my power towards him, he managed to keep it back with his own.

  He created another beam, aiming that straight for my stomach too and I fended that off with my other hand, two great arcs of power zipping in the air between us.

  Wrath like I hadn’t felt before filled me, everything he had put me through, torturing Quinn, killing Alexandria, and now this. I should have stopped him months before, I should have ended it then, but now he would pay.

  I ran towards him, my power still roaring out of me. His eyes widened in shock as he tried to defend himself against my powers, I punched him in the face, twice and followed through with a knee to the stomach before he staggered back and quickly shielded himself.

  He stared at me with absolu
te hatred as he felt his nose. I had clearly broken it and unlike me he didn’t have the healing powers of the Zeki to be able to fix himself.

  Suddenly he vanished but I quickly followed as he landed in the grounds of the fort.

  ‘Adam, let’s end this now. If you want to kill me, fight me like a man,’ I shouted. ‘Stop running away, stop hiding behind your shield. Let’s see, once and for all, who is the strongest.’

  He laughed, confidently and raised his hands to the sky. Within seconds the midday sun vanished behind dark clouds and a roaring ripped across the skies as he summoned the wind. Thunder rumbled, lightning cracked as wind whipped past us faster and harder than anything I’d ever felt before. Clouds swirled and rushed across the sky and as I realised he was creating a huge tornado, a great funnel of wind smashed into the grass mere feet from where I stood and I was tore from the ground and swept up into the sky.

  Wind ripped past my face so fast I could barely breathe but I quickly realised that Adam was caught up in the tornado too as he swept past me laughing manically. He didn’t care that he might die now, he just wanted to destroy me and the world that I cared for so much.

  Lightning arced around us as we span in the air and as Adam swirled above me still holding his arms out to make the strength of the tornado stronger, I aimed all my powers at him and let them rip through the sky towards him. They glanced off his leg and I heard him cry out in pain.

  He wasn’t shielded.

  But I couldn’t direct my powers straight, we were both spinning around too much to get a clean shot.

  We were hundreds of feet off the ground now but below us I saw the tiles from the roof of the fort ripped off and tossed in the air as if they were confetti. My friends were in there, my family.

  I flew towards him, anger and hatred exploding out of me in a white hot wall of power but he was shielded now and he just laughed as my powers dissolved round his shield. But as I zipped past right by him, I saw the furious hatred cross his face. As I tumbled and span through the air, his powers hit me hard in the back, burning straight through my clothes blistering my skin. I screamed out in pain.

  I reached out with my powers and sucked all the wind and power of the storm into my hands directing everything back out at him. It slammed into Adam so hard that despite the fact that he was shielded again he went tumbling through the sky and vanished from sight behind the blackness of the clouds. I twisted in the air, wondering where he had gone but he didn’t come back and something told me he was no longer here.

  I closed my eyes, calming the storm until the air around me was still and quiet and as the clouds cleared I could see I was alone.

  I slid to him, finding him back in the grounds of the church again.

  He smiled smugly at me as he resumed his attack on the earth, drilling into the surface with his power as if he was aiming for the earth’s core.

  I slammed my fists against his shield in frustration but it made no difference. In a fight with our fists I could kill him, but he would never let that happen. In a fight with our powers, neither of us would win, we were both equally strong.

  I paced away, desperately trying to think of something to stop him. I turned back to watch him helplessly as he poured all his powers into the hole in the earth, boring a laser of white hot heat into the earth’s core.

  The earth groaned and suddenly split right in front of me, the chasm travelling down the hill and as far as the eye could see. It was deep too, and steam and heat burst from the tear. He was going to split the world in half and I knew he had the power in him to do it as I had that power too.

  Suddenly I knew what I had to do to stop him. I had to channel the power of the earth again and I knew it would kill me to do it. But if I could stop him, that was the only thing that mattered. I wouldn’t have that bright future with Seth but my daughter would. Persia had seen it.

  I swallowed down the heartbreaking feeling of never seeing Seth again, of never holding my daughter in my arms, of letting everyone down when I had given them hope just a few hours before.

  I reached out for Seth’s mind. ‘Seth, I love you, never forget that.’

  ‘Evie? What’s happening? I—’

  I quickly shut my mind to him and blocked out the Guardians. I couldn’t risk any of them by letting them come here.

  I looked down at my tiny belly and visualised a shield around my womb in an attempt to protect my daughter from what was going to happen next.

  I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, probably my last and as I let it out I filled myself with my power. I felt the power of the earth humming along the sphere of my own powers and to my surprise I could feel that it was weakened. The earth was this mass of living energy and Adam was slowly killing it.

  Maybe because the earth knew what I was doing or maybe because I knew how important this was to get it right, but when I reached out beyond my own sphere of power in an attempt to absorb the power of the earth one last time, it came much easier than my previous attempts.

  The earth’s power roared through me, burning through my veins and my heart but this time it was different. It didn’t consume me, I was in charge.

  I directed all the power of the earth into my hands and fired it at Adam. A beam of light so big and so powerful ripped from my fingers and tore through Adam’s shield like a sharp blade cutting through fog. It hit him square in the shoulder and I had the satisfaction of seeing his shocked surprised face stare at me in wonder before he was suddenly running towards me, his own arc of powers directed straight at my heart. I pulled everything I had from the power of the earth and as he launched himself through the air towards me, his hands outstretched for my throat, my powers ripped through the rest of his body and turned him to dust which drifted away in the breeze.

  I staggered back, the power winking out as I hit the floor.

  It was over. Adam was dead.

  Chapter 20

  My skin felt burned, like I had just walked out of an inferno, my heart was beating faster than I’d ever felt it beat before, I could barely catch my breath. But I was alive.

  But as steam and heat billowed out from the great chasm that Adam had created I knew that I had to try to repair the damage that he had done.

  I filled myself with my power again, but what came so naturally before now seemed almost impossible, where before my powers were this huge well of strength, now they were barely there at all.

  I shakily stumbled to my feet as I reached for the power of the earth again and let it roar through me. I closed my eyes and reached for my healing power which thankfully was still as strong as it had always been. I poured everything I had into the hole and the chasm that Adam had created, filling it with my healing power and slowly, my connection with the earth told me that it was getting stronger, that I was somehow managing to heal the damage that had already been done. I opened my eyes and looked at the chasm. Although it hadn’t closed completely, it was no longer billowing smoke and steam and it was a lot smaller than it was before. I had managed to stop Adam before he had caused too much damage. I had saved the world.

  As my powers winked out, I slid back to my bedroom.

  I landed, knowing it was all over, but the pain was immense, an unbearable burning ripping through my body, soaking through my skin. I staggered and just before I passed out I forced myself to project.

  Seth caught my body, scooping it up into his arms, he checked my pulse, and closed his eyes in agony. ‘She’s dead.’

  ‘Lucas…’ I started, but Lucas was already at my side, he made a show of checking my pulse as well, but then his hand trailed almost casually down to my stomach.

  ‘She’s fine,’ Lucas said, and I could almost hear the smile in his voice. ‘She’s strong Eve, like her Mum.’

  I watched as Seth, sat down on the bed, kissed each of my fingers, slowly, methodically, then took off my shoes and socks, and pulled me tighter onto his lap. He breathed into my neck, kissing me again. The other Guardians, those not privy to my secret an
d who had been deliberately placed there to see me die, stood aghast, watching him enveloped in his own grief.

  It was heartbreaking to watch.

  ‘Seth you know I’m here don’t you?’

  Seth looked up, looked at exactly where I was floating, then looked back to my body again. ‘Yes, because I can feel you, Eve, and our daughter too, I can feel you both.’

  I gasped. ‘Like Lucas can feel me?’

  ‘I don’t know what Lucas feels, but yes I think so.’

  I smiled to myself. Finally.

  Some of the Guardians drifted out, awkwardly, none of them wanting to encroach on Seth’s final goodbye, until it was only my personal and outer guard left.

  But as we discussed, they didn’t break from their roles, just in case anyone was watching.

  ‘We will… erm need to organise a funeral,’ Eli said, quietly.

  Seth nodded.

  It needed to be quick too, I couldn’t stay like this for too long, I needed food and water. They could hardly attach a corpse to a drip.

  ‘Most of the people who would like to say goodbye to her are here in the castle, or out on the slopes of the mountain, can we do it for tonight, sunset, she’d like that,’ Seth said, sensing my urgency.

  ‘I’ll do my best,’ Eli said. ‘There’s a lot to organise,’ he said meaningfully, especially how to pull it off convincingly. Whilst I projected, my body went into some kind of hibernation, my breathing was shallow, barely there at all, but if anyone got too close to me, they might figure it out. And what would they do with my body, put it into a coffin and come back after night and dig me back up. I didn’t like the sound of that.

  ‘Cremation?’ Lucas said.

  Seth eyed Lucas and nodded.

  ‘That’s very final, I hope you guys have a plan, how to pull off setting fire to me without actually doing it.’

  ‘Ah what’s the worst that can happen,’ Seth laughed, as he nuzzled against my neck, hiding his smirk from view.

  I could sense Seth too, could feel his euphoria, he had me, it was over and I was still alive, as was his daughter. That was all he cared about. We had to get through the next few hours and our future, our beautiful future together could finally start.