The Sentinel Keeper (Forest Series) by Sarah Kent Page B

needed to stand up to him. Fight him. She was fighting for herself. She had always stood alone.
     
    He wanted her next to him.   The thought hit him straight in the gut.
     
    Not possible. The gods had made sure of that.
     
    He shook his head and let out a bitter laugh as he opened the heavy door into the tower kitchen.
     
    The very last thing he needed right now was to face his warriors, but Blane, Aslan and Shara were sitting at the kitchen table when he walked in.
     
    “Jesus,” he cursed, sidestepping them and heading straight to the storeroom. “Haven’t you got anything better to do but wait for me around here?”
     
    Aslan leapt to his feet following Melchior to the storeroom.
    “What the hell happened?’ he asked.
    “Beth’s sleeping,” Melchior said. 
    “And the Priest?” Aslan asked. “He is going to want to speak to her.  Have you told him yet?”
     
    Melchior knew he had to face their questions at some point, both the Priest as messenger of the Gods and his own warriors. He owed it to them. The problem was, he didn’t know what he was going to do.  He chose to face the easiest audience first. Better now than later.
     
    “Yes, she is a Dreamwalker,” he said and pulled a chair up to the table and sat with them. “I figured that out earlier just before the fucking Priest hit town. But I am pretty sure she is not working for Niyan.”
    Blane frowned.
    “How can you be sure?”
    Melchior sat down with them and started tucking into a side of beef.
    “I saw her dream and there is no way they are on the same side. He had her tied down and was about to kill gut her with his favourite weapon.”
     
    Shara froze. Then speared a delicate strawberry with a long talon. 
    “Not the stone knife.”
     
    “You got it,” Melchior nodded.
    She bared her fangs in a quick hiss. All three men leapt up, chair flying as they stepped quickly back from the table. Shara’s venom could spit as far as her arrows, and the result was far more deadly. Her eyes were narrow yellow slits as she looked down. After a few seconds he retracted the fangs and started to gently nibbling on the fruit.
     
    The others slowly moved back to the table, exchanging glances as they righted their chairs and sat back down. Something dark had gone down in the days that the Dark Lord had held Shara his prisoner before he had left her on the rocks for the birds of prey to tear her apart. She had never spoken of that time, but the damage was all over her like a scar that would never heal.
     
    “How is it possible she is alive?” Aslan said. “When the Dark Lord killed them all decades ago. How is it that she has just appeared out of nowhere?”
    “It could have something to do with the fact that she clearly no idea what she is, or what sort of danger she is really in,” Melchior said. “It doesn’t seem possible, but it appears that she grew up all alone and doesn’t know her own powers or what they mean. But the gift is passed down from mother to daughter, so her mother must have been a Dreamwalker as well. But she has never know her so it may have seem as if the bloodline had died out. That’s possibly why she is still around.”
     
    Aslan leaned over and snagged a chunk of beef from Melchior’s plate.
    “And yet she dreams of him. She is going to lead him here Mel, you know it.”
     
    Melchior frowned, but a heavy feeling descended on him.
    “Yes. That I know to be true. He is using her somehow, and I think it is to find me. He has not killed her yet for a reason. But she is here now and I will protect her. I won’t let him touch her,” he said.
     
    He could feel the room grow still as all eyes locked on him.
    “What’s that my man?” Aslan asked with a quick sideward glance at Blane that Melchior did not miss. “You feeling her?”
     
    Melchior stilled any more comments with a glare.
    “Let me say this. She is of special interest to me. And nobody will touch her.”
    His eyes held Blane’s yellow ones for