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

all going to draw a stone. The Scriptorium will decide who goes in and who stays. The ones who go in will be the jumpers, the one who stays will be the Jump Commander.”
    It sounded right. Let the One decide.
    “Since we are a new team, we may have new team leaders, too,” Dirk explained as he passed the bowl of black water around and we each took a stone. “We pretty much start from scratch here, tonight.”
    Team leaders were chosen by the Scriptorium as intuitive members to help guide the team into making decisions based on moral and cognitive matters, rather than survival instincts only. They usually had the ability to see through threats to the heart of the issue that needed to be resolved in the quantum therapy sessions. The Scriptorium chose the first boy and girl of each team to enter the chamber ahead of the others and solidified them as team leaders for the remainder of the stay at Heartwork Village. The last time we descended to this antechamber the Scriptorium chose Kate and me as team leaders of the Chartreuse gang, but this was a different team. With Donnie’s and Mel’s experience, I assumed if they weren’t chosen as jump commander, they would be chosen as team leaders.
    I didn’t have time to consider it very long. The stone already glowed warm in my hand. I held it out at the same time Kate held hers out. They both burned with an inner fire. Her mouth hung open, as shocked as I. She gave Mel and Donnie an incredulous look as she passed them to step to me.
    “I’m not surprised at all, Kate. We knew you would still be team leader,” Donnie said, and Mel squeezed her arm.
    We approached the rock wall as we had before, but this time I looped my belt through hers. She huffed in amusement, and raised her arms to give me room to work, cocking an eyebrow. My heart raced at the thought of another thousand years with her. I tested the buckles, gathered her into my arms, looping my fingers into her belt at her back. She wrapped her slender arms around my waist and pressed her cheek against my chest. We lifted our stones to the cave wall.
    Click. We were slurped into the Scriptorium.
     

 
     
     

     
     
“At every junction in the quantum highway there may have been new realities created, but the path that leads to us is clear and unambiguous .” ~ Don Hainesworth, 2013
     
    THE BRIGHT LIGHT faded. I stood alone. Kate absent, not looped to my side. I didn’t have on my jeans and screen tee. I didn’t even have on my shoes. Instead, a loose fitting cotton shirt, bright white, tucked into fine khaki trousers. Barefoot, I stood on a smooth boulder that overlooked a vast field of grain. It arched ripe, ready for harvest. The stalks swayed heavily in the soft breeze.
    “Son,” a deep resonating voice spoke, but I heard it deep in my chest and not with my ears.
    “I am here. Is it you? Are you the Beautiful One?”
    “I Am.” The Immortal Song wafted through the wheat stalks with a whisper. The voice of the One pulsed pure and beckoning.
    “Turn and gaze upon my reward to you.”
    I slowly turned and my heart swelled in my chest. A sparkling stream cascaded down the hillside, and in the streambed stood my beautiful Kate. Resplendent in a white gossamer gown, the hem soaking in the stream, Kate enchanted my soul. Her hair gently billowed in the slight breeze and curled around her breasts. Golden bands crisscrossed around her body, pressing the sheer dress around her tiny waist, accentuating her feminine curves.
    I slowly slipped to my knees at her chaste beauty and desirable form. “She’s for me?” I breathed. All I ever hoped for, all I ever wanted, Kate, my Kate to be completely mine as I committed myself to her.
    “I have ordained it. Woo her as your wife if that is your desire. It is my will for you, my son.”
    “It is my desire. She is my desire.”
    “So be it, but know this. Even as you give yourself wholly to her, she will not be able to reciprocate.”
    “She doesn’t love me?” My