Sentinel's Rise: Book 1 - The Watcher and the Sentinel Series

by Yvette Bostic

  After a few minutes, Sara managed to collect herself and pulled the sheet from around her body. Darian’s shirt swallowed her. She pulled it over her head and threw it on the floor, then opened the bag on the bed. It was empty, of course. Just one more thing to add the list of bizarre.

  “This is stupid,” she muttered. “Where are my clothes?”

  “Think about what you want and put your hand in the bag.” Darian’s muffled voice reached her.

  “You’re standing outside my door?” she asked in disbelief.

  “No, you’re yelling loud enough for the entire house to hear you.”

  “I wasn’t yelling,” she mumbled and blushed, grateful no one could see her.

  She thought about her favorite jeans and the orange t-shirt that had ‘sarcasm is my second language’ emblazoned on the front. When she reached in the bag, her hand touched the fabric of the items she wanted. She muffled her ecstatic response and tipped the bag upside down while thinking of all the things she and Darian had tossed into it. The result was a pile of clothes, shoes, and toiletries in the middle of the bed. She threw the bag on the floor and got dressed. Yep, definitely bizarre.

  Her bedroom door opened into a small open-concept home. On her right, a light brown sectional sofa rested along the wall beneath a panel of open windows, while the short side jutted out in the middle of the room. Two low tables flanked each end of the sofa. A long, oval table made of pale wood and circled by eight chairs stretched along the wall on the left. A galley style kitchen extended on the far side of the table, with a bar separating it from the living room. Another row of opened windows ran along the wall above the dining table.

  Darian leaned against the kitchen counter, looking at her with the same expression he wore earlier. Eva and the blonde, Magdelin, sat on the sofa facing Sara.

  “I love your shirt!” Eva exclaimed.

  “Andrew bought it for me at the state fair last year,” Sara replied, smiling sadly. Thinking of him made her heart ache more than she could stand.

  Eva’s smile faded, and Magdelin stood quickly.

  “I’ve done what I can for now,” she said. “I’d like another session, but I’m not sure Mikel will allow the time for it.”

  Darian nodded and pointed at a plate of food on the counter next to him.

  “Make sure she eats,” he said. “Mikel’s giving us two hours, which is nowhere near enough time.”

  “No, it isn’t,” Eva replied, a deep scowl crossing her face.

  Darian and Magdelin left, and Sara picked up the plate of thick bread and dried fruit and moved it to the table. She hadn’t realized how hungry she was until she started eating. Eva joined her, and Sara watched the indecision on her friend’s face.

  “Which question do you want answered first?” Eva asked.

  “They’re gone, aren’t they?” Sara asked between bites, trying to swallow the lump in her throat along with the piece of bread she’d just bitten. She took a gulp of water and washed it all down.

  “I went to Julie’s house in Baltimore while Magdelin did her thing,” Eva said softly. “The entire neighborhood is gone. So is the office building where she worked.” She took a deep breath and grabbed Sara’s hand. “I found her in one of the medical tents.” Tears welled in her eyes and spilled down her cheeks. Sara’s chest tightened, knowing what would come next. “I asked them to take her body to the funeral home who took care of your mother, but they said it was destroyed as well.”

  “Where is she?” Sara asked, gripping Eva’s hand, her food forgotten.

  “She’s here,” Eva whispered. “We can have a service for her here if you want.”

  Sara’s throat swelled and that stubborn lump wouldn’t budge. Her daughter hadn’t survived, but Eva cared enough to bring her here.

  “Andrew?” she choked.

  “None of the flights made it into the San Diego airport.”

  Eva wrapped her arms around Sara’s shoulders as she sobbed. Even though she knew it was unlikely, she’d held out hope that Julie and Andrew had survived somehow. But they hadn’t. How could this happen? How could she go on without the ones she loved the most? And why was she still alive while so many others had perished?

  Eventually, Sara pulled away from the woman she’d thought she knew. Eva’s eyes searched hers, and Sara knew she’d get answers about her friend eventually.

  “Let’s take care of my baby,” she said, her throat aching with the effort. “I don’t think I can deal with anything else right now.”

  ~~~~~~~~

  Sara arrived on a wide plateau, still clinging to Eva’s arm as she tried to hold onto the contents in her stomach. She failed, dropping to her knees and cursing silently. Sharp, dry blades of grass stabbed her palms adding to her anger and grief. Couldn’t she have just one thing that was soft and tender? When her stomach finally settled, she took in her surroundings.

  Dry, scorched earth covered the desolate plateau, almost as if someone deliberately set it on fire. A cool breeze picked up the loose dirt, dragging to the ledge and carrying it away.

  In the very center of the desolate space stood a funeral pyre, covered by a white sheet and several layers of wildflowers. Was it really her baby beneath the myriad of colorful petals? When did these people have time to do all this? And more importantly, why did they do all of this? They didn’t know Sara from the man on the moon.

  Did it matter? Not really. Sara stood and approached her daughter, tears rolling down her cheeks. She wondered how the body could produce so many. She figured they had to dry up at some point, but they hadn’t yet.

  Sara laid a hand on her daughter’s forehead and mumbled softly. She was supposed to be planning a wedding and thinking about grandbabies. Her body shook with her ragged attempts to breathe. A parent should never have to lose a child, and no one should lose their entire family on the same day. But hundreds, thousands of people had today. The brutality of their loss made hers even harder to bear. Her mind refused to believe the possibility of demons destroying everything she loved, but she’d seen them. How could she deny it?

  She turned away from her daughter and moved to stand next to Eva. There was a reason she was still alive, and apparently, these people knew why. Her jaw clinched several times as anger warred with her pain and sadness. She would have answers. Darian stood next to her friend. His imposing presence fed her anger but didn’t quell her grief. He dragged her away from her home and dropped her into this madness. What made him think he had a right to be here and witness her pain?

  “Are you ready?” he asked gently.

  Sara nodded and took a deep breath. She wasn’t even close to ready, but she needed answers, and she could only deal with one heartache at a time.

  He approached the edge of the pyre, and she watched a small blue flame appear in his right hand. His left hand swept over his head as he tossed the fire onto the dry wood. His right hand joined his left and he brought both down to his sides. The fire surged through the dry timbers and engulfed her baby. Within minutes, it consumed everything, leaving a pile of ash and glowing embers. How had over twenty years of love been reduced to nothing within seconds? She wasn’t ready. He should’ve given her more time to say goodbye. She thought she would have a few more minutes to… what? Watch her baby burn? She shook her head. Maybe he was right. She didn’t need it to linger. Her knees wobbled, and she sank to the ground.

  Darian knelt beside her, and through her watery eyes, she could see the pain in his deep, blue eyes. Why did he mourn her daughter? Did it bother him that he just removed Julie from her life? She pulled her gaze from his. He didn’t kill her daughter, but he knew who did. Her grief turned to anger like someone flipped a switch.

  “I know you need more time,” he said. “But time is something we do not have.”

  “This is your fault, isn’t it?” Sara asked, tears streaking her face. She didn’t try to hide her bitterness. “All of you. You could’ve done something to stop this, but you didn’t.”

 
“We tried to stop the Overlords years ago, and nearly succeeded in killing all of them,” Darian replied, standing quickly and squaring his shoulders. “We lost over half our people in that battle, but no matter how much we give, it’s never enough to see their evil removed from this earth.” His chest heaved with each breath, and his fire flared across his fingers. He squeezed his eyes shut, and the flames died.

  Sara watched Darian carefully. Maybe they had tried to prevent this. Was she being selfish because of her own losses? The world’s devastation wasn’t a secret, nor was she the only survivor in this. She looked over at Eva, who hadn’t aged in the last twenty-five years. She shook her head, trying to separate her anger, grief, and confusion. Darian dragged her across two continents. Fire burned in his bare hands. Eva looked the same as they did in college. Sara narrowed her eyes; she needed to figure out who these people were.

  “How long ago was that?” Sara asked, finally pulling herself off the ground.

  “Almost two hundred years,” Darian replied.

  Sara turned to Eva. “You were there?”

  Eva nodded, and Sara’s gaze shot back to Darian. Her anger won again.

  “How are you not old and decrepit? And where did that fire come from?” She snapped her head back to Eva. “And you knew about this the whole time we were friends? How could you keep this from me?” Her head whipped back and forth between the two of them, finally settling on Eva. “What am I doing here?”

  Eva looked at Darian with a pleading expression.

  “You and I are supposed to be the ones who save humanity from a broken world,” he replied, dropping his gaze to the brittle grass beneath his feet. “I never understood the true meaning of that statement until today.”

  “That’s ridiculous! And who declared me the hero of the world?” Sara asked. “Clearly they’ve lost their minds. Look at me! I’m no one with no special skills, and I’m certainly not strong enough to fight against the monsters I saw ravaging my town.”

  “I’m so sorry.” Darian took a deep breath. “I thought I was doing what was best for you by leaving you in peace, allowing you to live your life.” He reached out, as if he would touch her but pulled his hand back. “I realize now I was wrong. You won’t have the time you need to adjust to what is coming.”

  “What if I refuse what is coming?” she asked in defiance. “I can’t fight against those things.”

  He shook his head and disappeared, leaving Eva and Sara alone.

  “So, where are those answers everyone promised me?” Sara asked turning her anger to Eva.

  “I suppose I should start with our purpose,” Eva said, exhaling loudly. “It took me a while to get it, but you’re smarter than I am.”

  She led Sara to a pair of stone benches at the edge of the plateau. The vast jungle spread out before them, its canopy opening briefly in places. Its serenity was a blatant lie, an insult to the chaos the world had just experienced and the storm raging inside of Sara.

  “As you know, Mikel is the leader of the Council of Light,” Eva started as she took a seat on one of the benches. “He’s much older than either me or Darian. The purpose of the Council is to maintain a balance between good and evil. People are naturally both, and it’s not our place to bring judgement on them when they stray too far.” Eva glanced up at Sara. “Our job is to ensure that true evil, like the demons, doesn’t overpower humanity.”

  Sara looked at her skeptically, taking the seat beside her. Eva’s explanation sounded a little too unbelievable, like a really bad movie. “That didn’t work out so well today, did it?” Sara asked, not hiding her resentment.

  “No, it didn’t,” Eva replied. “Normally, Aneera would see the demons being summoned and we’d have some warning that something was about to happen. As you know, the demon summoning was last, not first.”

  “If you knew who this mastermind was, why didn’t you kill him last time?”

  “We tried,” Eva insisted, and Sara noticed the moisture welling her friend’s eyes. “The men Darian mentioned, the ones we lost, were killed in that attempt. I…” She choked back her tears with effort. “I lost half of my family and a very dear friend. Darian nearly lost his life. Only he and one other made it out alive.”

  Sara bit her lower lip, letting the silence drag on. She wasn’t sure how she was supposed to feel. She’d just lost everything, and the future for humanity didn’t look very promising. Eva implied they’d try to kill this thing once and paid dearly for their efforts. What did they expect her to contribute? And really, who picked her as the savior of the world? What a load of shit.

  She turned back to Eva and finally broke the silence. “How does Darian do that thing with the fire?”

  “Darian has several gifts,” Eva replied, wiping away her tears. “He controls the air around him in several ways, but fire is the most obvious.”

  “And you?” she asked, not wanting to believe Eva’s words. Even though she’d seen it with her own eyes more than once today, Sara didn’t want to believe magic was real. That any of this was real.

  “Are you sure you’re ready for that?”

  “It doesn’t look like I’m going to have a choice,” Sara replied, curling her lip.

  “I suppose not,” Eva replied. “My gift is similar to one of Darian’s. It’s how he found Claud and I. Claud is my twin brother.” She reached out her hand and a strange expression crossed her face, almost like a sort of peace and longing. “I can manipulate the shadows around me, pull them close to my body and make myself invisible.”

  Sara raised an eyebrow. “Really?”

  “Shall I demonstrate?” Eva asked tentatively.

  “By all means.”

  Could her mind really take any more? Did it even matter? She asked for answers but wasn’t prepared when her friend disappeared. Sara looked around and cursed.

  “She left me alone, knowing I can’t get off this stupid mountain.”

  A weight on her shoulder startled her, and she jumped up from the bench.

  “I’m still here, sitting right next to you.” Eva’s disembodied voice made Sara’s skin crawl. “My ability conceals my presence but not sound.”

  Eva reappeared next to her, still sitting on the bench with her hand on Sara’s shoulder. Sara’s mind reeled. People shouldn’t be able to disappear like that. They could be anywhere, and no one would know. She gasped at the implications. Darian knew his way around her house. Had he been spying on her?

  “Darian has this same ability?” she asked.

  Eva nodded.

  “He’s been at my house, hasn’t he?”

  Eva nodded again, a frown pulling at her young features.

  “How long has he been spying on me? That’s how he knew exactly where my bedroom was.” She stood, and her faced flushed with her anger. “Did he enjoy watching Andrew and me?”

  “Sara, calm down!” Eva exclaimed. “He never entered your house while you were home. You have no idea how much pain it has caused him watching you fall in love with someone else.”

  “Why would he care who I love?” Sara demanded.

  “Because you are his Sentinel, and he is your Watcher.”

  Sara stared at Eva, her eyebrows meeting in the middle. Did they really think she was some chosen one? Had they all lost their minds?

  “And I’m supposed to know what that means?” Sara asked.

  “Only together can you save humanity from a broken world,” Eva whispered.

  “Why do you keep saying that?” Sara snapped. “What’s happening, and why does everyone think I’m the one who can fix it?”

  A new voice startled them both. “You have been touched by God, Seraphina. Your strength will come when you’re bonded to your Watcher.”

  “You’re not explaining it very well,” Sara stated, glaring at the newcomer. The man with short, brown hair, the one who had been fiddling with the radio earlier, stood before them.

  “The bond between our Watcher and Sentinel gives them the strength to do what the res
t of us cannot,” he explained. “Our numbers have varied over the years, but we’ve always been few. The demons and cultists who summon them have always outnumbered us. We need your bond with Darian to stop what the demons have started. Without it, we cannot win.”

  “You really believe this, both of you?” Sara asked. “How is any of this even possible? You’ve implied that magic is real, and these creatures are demons. Like demons from hell?”

  The man whose name she struggled to remember nodded. Again, her brain refused to wrap around what she knew to be impossible. Maybe this was all a really bad dream, and she’d wake up soon.

  “Yes, I’m sorry,” Raphael continued. “I know this is hard for you to accept, especially when you should be grieving. We are the only ones capable of stopping them, but not without you.”

  Sara turned away from them and looked out over the canopy of trees. A soft breeze caressed her skin, drying the sweat beading across her body. Just this morning, she’d said goodbye to Andrew and gone about her usual duties on the farm. How was she now in South America talking about demons that would destroy the world?

  “I need to see your aura,” the man said softly.

  She turned around and narrowed her eyes at him. What exactly did that mean?

  “Let me explain that really quick,” Eva said, stepping closer and giving Sara an apologetic smile. “One of Raphael’s gifts is to see the way people use magic. I imagine he’s trying to determine if you have any latent abilities now that you’ve been through one of Magdelin’s sessions.”

  “Magdelin’s sessions?” Sara asked, balling her fists at her sides. The blonde woman seemed so nice, but what had she done while Sara slept? She felt herself unraveling. How much more did they think she could take?

  “You were out for most of it,” Eva replied. “Magdelin is a talented healer, but she’s also the reason we don’t age.”

  “And she is the catalyst for your strength,” Raphael added, staring at Sara’s hands. “You might need a training session with Mikel.”