The Keepers Book Two of the Holding Kate Series Read Online Free

front of us.
    “Will you please honor us once more with a song?” He handed me an exact replica of my guitar from Jewel City.
    “How did you get this?”
    “I made it.” He beamed, proudly.
    I turned it over in my hands and examined the fine workmanship. “This is exactly like mine, Ash!” I strummed a few chords. It thrummed, perfectly tuned. In Jewel City, I had made one just like this to get us through the rough times. We would gather often and sing songs, at first in English, then as their language shifted, I would sing to them in the new tongue.
    “I didn’t know you could play.” Kate sat up, interested.
    I shrugged. “What do you want to hear?” I asked the family of my heart, looking into all of their eager faces.
    They began to call out their favorites. I picked a lively tune and began strumming. Navarro grabbed some spoons and a metal pan and set the pace. We sang a song about Tara and her mighty band of warriors. Then I transitioned into a crisp tavern song. Caitlyn and Eunavae jumped up to dance. When that song ended, they called for another and another. We laughed and sang until our eyes streamed happy tears and our throats ached.
    Caught up in the joy of my Jewel City clan, I turned to Kate to find her missing. I scanned the campsite and located her on the porch lying in the hammock with Trip. They swayed back and forth, pinkies linked, talking to Kim Stevens, Mama Ty’s assistant and acting RA of the Chartreuse cabin. She stood in the doorway thrown into silhouette by the cabin light.
    It was then that I realized we hadn’t been singing in English.
    I looked away and straight into Tara’s knowing eyes. We shared a moment of unspeakable dread. We both quickly turned away from the confirmation of the other’s expression.
    Donnie and Mel strode up behind me. “We need to go,” he whispered.
    “We have an appointment to keep.” Mel tilted her head toward the lake.
    “I think it would be better if we wandered off two at a time,” Donnie murmured. “Less conspicuous.”
    On the porch Trip lifted Kate out of the hammock and held onto her just a fraction longer than he needed to before he set her down and took her hand. They hopped down the porch steps and sauntered by the tennis courts toward the lake.
    I continued strumming the guitar. Donnie and Mel waited a few moments longer, then nonchalantly walked behind the cabin in the opposite direction of the Scriptorium. Their shadows strobed through the distant pines as they circled around toward the lake a few moments later.
    “My fingers are going to bleed! Ash, you’d better spot me.” I handed the instrument over to him and the next song started up. Tara strode into the cabin carrying dirty dishes. I gathered the rest and followed her.
    We stood at the kitchen sink side by side and rinsed the dishes. “How do you stand it?” she whispered. “How do you continue on as though nothing is horribly wrong?”
    I tapped a cup on the edge of the sink before setting it in the drying rack.
    “I need them to be close,” I confessed, realizing that my plan hurt Tara, too. She loved Trip and they had been together, sort of, since they rescued me from the jump of the Darchori Tree Dwellers. “I need to know that he will guard her with his life.”
    “You don’t know him very well if you think he would do any less for the rest of us.” She plucked up a dishtowel and dried her hands. “It’s who he is, Corey. He protects.”
    She stepped out of the back door and turned to wait for me. I dried my hands, took hers, and we stole off to the lake.
     

     
    We stood at the bottom of the lake in the Scriptorium entry chamber. Torchlight flickered across our faces as we prepared ourselves for the spiritual journey that would give us vital information for the jumps to come.
    “So, how does this work?” I asked Mel. “Are we all considered jumpers or commanders now? Are you three going in too?” I waved my fingers at her, Donnie, and Dirk.
    “We are