The Sentinel by Holly Martin

tighter against him and I knew that for now, at least, I was safe.
    *
    ‘Stop it,’ said Seth, a smile playing on his lips.
    ‘What?’ I tried to look innocent.
    He subtly nodded to Eli who was glaring at me in the rear view mirror. I sighed and let the small flame in my hand wink out. Eli had already told me off that morning for practising my powers of telekinesis on my breakfast bowl. He wanted me supervised when I used my powers but I was keen to get to the church and get started.
    We were in a new car today, a gleaming white BMW 4x4. I think Eli still missed his silver Land Rover. The roads were icy and Eli was forced to go slower than he would have liked. Of course I was getting the blame for that too. I’d heard him mumble something about me making it sunny rather than icy and treacherous.
    Abe’s car was following close behind, they were going to pick up Persia and her sisters as Persia’s mini wouldn’t make it to the church in this weather.
    Lucas wasn’t with us today and I found myself missing him. Maybe he would join us later.
    ‘Is Lucas having a day off?’ I asked Mason.
    ‘We don’t have days off Eve. We are pledged to you for life,’ he said, clearly insulted by this slur on their character.
    Alexandria turned round to talk to me. ‘Deus don’t need a lot of sleep, an hour a night or a day a week. Lucas seems to be more in tune with you than the rest of us so he is on duty at night too. He is sleeping today but he probably won’t need to sleep again now until next week.’
    I looked back at Abe in the car behind.
    ‘And there are others, it’s not just my Personal Guard is it?’
    ‘There are many Guardians pledged to you. There are the Outer Guard, Abe’s team, they maintain the perimeter on the house, make sure no one enters or goes near that shouldn’t be there. There are many that were part of the secret, your teachers, doctors, dentists. At the moment they are maintaining this cover as we don’t want too many things to change around you as people might start to notice. There are others who have normal jobs, that are ‘on call’ so to speak. If we need them, they’d be here. There are some at the Fort, training the new Guardians.’
    ‘There are different teams too,’ Quinn said, sitting on my other side. ‘There are the Putarian and Reaper teams. They are Guardians that are tasked with rescuing the Donum and the Zekis from the Reapers when they can find them. They’ve got very good at tracking them down, though sadly there are still many that they don’t find. There are Guardians tasked with killing the Putarians as well. The Assassins. As hard as the Putarians are trying to purge the earth of anyone none pure, the Guardians are searching the earth for any Putarians and killing them. The team searching for Putarians round here is the biggest as that is the most immediate threat to your life.’
    The Oraculum really were covering all bases. I had to be alive at the end.
    Eli glared at Quinn and I gathered he shouldn’t have said that last bit.
    As we rounded a bend, the car slithered on the ice, but as Eli skilfully got it back under control, Abe’s car slammed into us from behind. Our car skidded over the verge and plunged into the frozen canal. My scream was trapped in my throat as water sloshed over the windscreen and we were faced with a murky green underwater world.
    Glass smashed behind me, raining down shards of painfully sharp confetti on top of us. I fumbled with my seatbelt. We had to get out and quick. Though to my surprise, Seth’s hands stilled my own. I looked up into his calm eyes.
    ‘Stay where you are. The Guardians have this under control.’
    I heard the front door being opened and I saw Alexandria disappear into the icy green depths below. Water sloshed into the foot well making the car tilt and sink quicker. Eli climbed gracefully out of the driver’s seat and past me into the back of the car, making the car level out again. For the first time I