I peered into the dark water and saw a ghostly white image floating at the center of the lake.
“The Gazebo?” I whispered. I remembered seeing it when we passed the lake on our way into the village.
While the team struggled with the canoes and boats, Trip dragged me to the shelter of one of the weeping willow trees. When we were out of sight, he grabbed my arms and spun me around to face him.
“Whatever happens, we stick together, right. Don’t walk even three feet away from me. Promise.”
I nodded. This was the closest we had come to being alone and my heart stuttered. The thought seemed to cross his mind too and a tender intensity passed across his features as he gazed down into my eyes.
He tightened his grasp around my arms ever so gently and leaned in until we were a breath apart. I folded my eyelids as the air between us thickened. When I couldn’t hold a second longer, I closed the distance between us and his soft lips touched mine. I melted into the tender kiss and felt something awaken inside of me. Trust was seeded in that moment and I knew this protective boy would never abandon me.
He lifted his lips from mine and tilted back to look in my eyes. I was a mess, wrapped in the spell of his kiss and the protection he offered. Our breath mingled, ragged and brimming with the trust his kiss inspired.
“Where did Kate and Trip go? This is the last boat!” Pinky called out.
“Come on.” Trip grinned and we stepped into the moonlight and ran toward the boat Pinky struggled with.
“There you are. I can’t really manage this by myself.” She fumbled with the paddle. “My hands won’t stop shaking since the jump,” she said before waving at Kail, Caitlyn, and Navarro who had started paddling back to get her. “It’s okay, you can go on.” She gave me a knowing look and bit her cheek, trying not to grin.
“Get in, Pinky. We’ll row.” Trip handed me an oar and helped Pinky into the center of the boat. He motioned for me to take the front and he climbed into the back. I turned around to judge the distance between us and felt very uncomfortable with just those few feet separating me from him. I glanced around, but saw no signs of a sphere, so we paddled quickly to the center of the lake.
The rest of the team had already reached the gazebo, evidenced by all the boats tied to it, but only one person stood at the center of the gazebo instead of the eleven that should have been there.
“Hey, where is everybody?” Pinky leaned forward and murmured in my ear.
I shook my head and then threw the rope to Donnie who moved to the edge of the opening of the gazebo. As we neared, I saw a head disappear into the center of the gazebo.
“There’s a trap door,” I called over my shoulder.
Donnie helped Pinky out of the boat, then Trip and I clambered out behind her. Trip locked his hand around mine as we descended into a narrow stairwell that wound down into darkness. The stairs were made of cement at the surface, but dropped into carved stone steps as we entered an underground cavern.
I quaked with each step as we faded down into the darkness. We wound through rough-hewn corridors, descending all the while. Each step into the blackness became more and more difficult. I hugged Trip’s back as he followed Pinky into the inky black depths. The only sensory input was the warmth of Trip’s body with his hand in mine and the scuffle of foot steps ahead of us and Donnie’s behind.
The walls closed in tighter and tighter and cool wet trickles dripped onto the tops of our heads. The pressure of tons and tons of lake water threatened to bury us in the deep recesses of this dank dwelling.
“Trip,” I whimpered, when it became too much to bear.
He whipped me in front of him and wrapped his arms around me and whispered in my ear. “Steady, there, Katie girl. Not much further.”
The warmth of his cheek pressed against mine and the solid and strong arms that cradled me stayed the panic, but caused an entirely different physical urgency. I clung to him as fear and desire flashed through me.
What was the deal with me? I wasn’t this girl who kisses boys she just met and falls head over heels in love with strangers. I didn’t even believe in love anymore, not after what Daddy did to Momma. Even the connection I felt to Pinky and Caitlyn seemed unreal. Four hours ago we were strangers. Now they felt more like family. Weird!
But here I was with this gorgeous, protective boy wrapped around me in a dark chamber, whispering sweet words in my ear and—was that?—Yep, kissing my hair and cheek. Chills slid down my arms and fire coiled in my middle. This was getting too intense. I was going to jump his bones if he didn’t let up.
“What the—” Pinky’s string of expletives pierced the moment and we all laughed nervously.
I used the moment to put some distance between me and Trip. It felt wrong being out of his arms, like I left a part of me with him.
Uh No! You didn’t just say that.
I heard his huff of disappointment, or maybe it was a sigh of relief.
“We are almost there, jumpers. Just stay close.” Mel’s voice echoed back to us from somewhere far below. “Donnie?” She called.
“Yeah, here.”
“Is everyone in?”
“Yep, I am bringing up the rear.”
The floor seemed to level out and I sensed we had all gathered in a larger room. There was a scratching noise, and then a torch flared to life in Mel’s hand throwing dancing shadows on the walls around us.
I pressed into Trip’s side and looked hungrily into his face. The shadows exaggerated his angles and I swear he looked like some kind of avenging angel. He eagerly wrapped his arms around me as if he couldn’t stand the vacancy I left him with.
I glanced across the circle of familiar faces and noted Caitlyn was holding hands with Navarro. I arched a brow at her and she swayed her head over her shoulders in her hip hop way. I stifled a giggle. Pinky jabbed me in the ribs with her elbow.
“You are about to enter the Scriptorium.” Mel spoke in a hushed voice. “You may enter two at a time.” Her eyes were large and round. “This is the most important thing you will do to prepare for the jumps ahead. Memorize everything you see. You never know what you will need the most.”
“What’s in there?” Ash asked.
Mel cut her eyes to Donnie. “Only what you will need to survive. Nothing more.”
Donnie walked over to a pedestal that supported a basin of black water. The torch light danced over the mirrored surface. He lifted the basin and moved to stand in front of Ash.
“Leave your packs here. Take one stone and hold it in the palm of your hand.” We shrugged off our backpacks and set them aside. Donnie passed in front of each of us and we took a turn plunging our hands into the black water and coming up with a stone. Mine was about the size of a quarter, and appeared to be a soft blue color, but in the torchlight it was difficult to tell. Veins of darker striations covered the stone.
“Now, we wait.”
We stood there for a few minutes, staring into each other’s confused faces.
“What are we…ow!” Corey began. “It’s hot!”
I gasped! The stone in my hand began to glow like a coal. I opened my palm.
“The first pair is chosen,” Mel said. “Step forward. From this moment on you two will be team leaders.”
I gaped at her. Team Leader? I was not leader material. I had no desire to lead anyone anywhere.
Let me bring up the rear, in the safe footsteps of someone smarter and stronger!
“Enter the Scriptorium.”
I shook my head at Trip with a confused deer-in-the-headlights expression. His grasp on my hand tightened.
“Go on. Corey, Kate, you will go first.”
“Wait a minute.” Trip countered. “Why can’t we choose our own partners?”
“It is not for you to decide. The Scriptorium knows what each quest holds and who is best equipped to ensure your survival.”
“You mean she has a better chance of survival with Corey, than with me?” He cast an appraising scan over Corey
.
“Evidently.”
“Oh.”
“Trip?” I whispered.
“It’s okay, Kate. It’s better this way. Safer for you.” He looked at Corey with a piercing stare. Corey shifted and looked down nervously.
Mel pointed to the stone wall beside her and I moved toward it flicking my eyes between her and the roughly hewn surface. I met Corey and threw a confused face at him. He shrugged, just as lost as I felt.
“Place your stones against the wall. Together.”
We held out our stones and pressed them against the hard rock surface with a click. For a split second nothing happened, then in a flash the wall seemed to engulf our hands and we were violently sucked into the rock like fuzz bunnies into a vacuum cleaner.
The sunlight was too bright. My eyes were blinded by the unnaturally glaring white after being in a dark cave so long. The light caused stabbing pains and I plastered my hands over my eyes and tried to figure out what was going on. Air blasted up from around my feet, I could feel my hair blowing around. Corey pressed into my back, and I started to turn toward him.
“Kate! Don’t move!” Corey bellowed over the blast of wind that buffeted around us. I felt his hands reach around me and he clamped me to his back, locking us together, back to back.
“Corey, what is wrong? I can’t see!”
“Me either. Just give it a minute for our eyes to adjust.” He kept his arms locked around me.
“Where are we?”
“Hold on.”
“Holy Guacamole!” His grip tightened.
I moved my hands down to his and tried to peek out of one eye. The light was still too intense. I squinted, using my lashes to filter the blaring brightness until they adjusted. When I could open my eyes without pain, I grabbed tighter to Corey, and slowly we turned to face each other wrapped tightly in a wrestler’s hold.
We were standing on a flat rock about a yard in diameter, lifted on a thin pillar of pale stone. I had been to the Empire State Building with my mom one year. We rode the elevators to the top and walked around the observatory. The height of that dizzying drop made me literally ill, but it was nothing compared to where we stood.
With no rails, no ropes, nothing to secure us, except each other, we gawked at the ridiculous drop. Miles below us were pink clouds painted by sunrise and beyond that, who knew? The wind was overwhelming and whipped around us, threatening to push us off the edge of the tiny stone we called foundation.
“Corey!” I cried. “Dear, God!” My whole body rocked in tremors of fear and cold. Corey hugged me tighter. “What are we going to do?”
He was silent for a moment, and then he spoke into my ear. “We are going to memorize everything we see, right? We are going to soak up everything we need to survive, okay?”
His calm tone was a balm. Right. Yes. We are going to observe and absorb. “I guess that means I have to open my eyes,” I whimpered.
He laughed. I felt his body chuckle as it was tightly pressed to mine.
Tension seemed to flow out of me and slide down the rock pillar. I felt a sense of giddiness—maybe it was thin air or adrenaline, I don’t know—but a sense of belonging engulfed me. As I embraced Corey, it was as though arms bigger and stronger than his held me. A feeling of pure love seemed to seep into my being, as though our souls were somehow exposed, and we were stripped down to our basic selves, wide-open to a greater being, a benevolent and loving entity.
Corey drew his head back and looked into my eyes. We simply stared at one another with round eyes and full hearts.
“Are you feeling this?” Corey asked with a sense of wonder.
I nodded and nearly purred with contentment and satisfaction. I looked up at Corey and his blue eyes mirrored the sheer joy and peace that I felt. His face broke into a wide smile and mine followed suit. We literally beamed at one another, bound together in a tight cord of sacred love.
“Wow.”
A rushing sound of ferocious wind twisted up the pillar. We leaned over to see the clouds swirling in tornado strength and rising up to meet us. The sound was like a train bearing down on us. We locked our arms around each other and braced for the impact.
Wind blasted us off of the stone and we flew into the air, ripped apart by the sheer force of the raging bellows. Only Corey’s iron grip on my wrist kept us from being blown in opposite directions. We were carried higher and higher in the current. Corey walked up my arm and screamed in my ear as he bolted me to his chest.
“Lock our belts together!” He shouted.
I reached down and unbuckled his belt and slipped it through mine before buckling it back around his waist. He nodded and still we flew higher and higher.
We began to relax a bit, realizing that we weren’t in any immediate danger of falling anyway since the wind seemed to be pushing us up. But that state did not last long. I guess it is true, what goes up—you know. We reached a peak, seemed to hover a split second, and then began to plunge toward who knew what.
I left my insides up above me and screamed as we plunged toward what could only end badly for us. I looked at Corey who was bolted to my side and the scream dried in my throat.
He was smiling! Seriously? Then I felt it too. A slight pressure seemed to cup us as if a great hand were controlling our fall. My mouth flew open and my eyes bulged.
Corey laughed and I thought it was the nicest sound I had ever heard. That same feeling of completeness swelled inside of me. Pure love. I found myself smiling, too.
We weren’t even falling anymore, not really, it was almost as if we were flying. Corey wrapped his right arm around my waist and yelled.
“I want to try something. Follow my lead.”
I nodded and watched to see what he was going to do. He maneuvered us to where we were lying out straight like sky divers, and then moved his arm to direct us. I mirrored his motion with my arm and we actually started directing our fall. We quickly learned how to spin and flip and whirl in a circle. It was amazing as though we were playful seals and the sky was our ocean. We danced on the sky waves for what seemed like decades. No, I literally mean, we did this for decades, twenty or thirty years passed, maybe more, I don’t know for sure. We were outside of the normal passing of time. We had entered the realm of eternity.
Sheer joy bubbled up inside of me. I couldn’t stop laughing. Corey’s blue eyes twinkled and his blond hair buffeted in the wind. We laughed until our sides hurt, then Corey wrapped me in bear hug and dove to the side and we began to tumble head over heels. We leveled out and he held me tightly with one arm and touched my face with his other hand. We smiled into one another’s eyes, lost in the eternal moment of joy and love and purity. He turned so I could lie along his body. I propped my elbows onto his chest and we talked for hours, days, years, decades as we fell through the sky and fell in love. He had the most pure heart I had ever encountered and the most startling revelations about life. The sound of his voice became my hiding place and I crawled into it and lived there, anticipating the next words he would say.
He was engrossed by my menial thoughts and expressions. He hung on every word I said as though each syllable were a priceless jewel to cherish. I spoke of things with him that I could never share with anyone else, completely safe in his arms. I had no fear that he would reject me. With each word I spoke, his love encircled me, drawing me nearer.
Eventually, I noticed something whirring past us and broke eye contact to see what it was. Pink fluffy stuff, like cotton candy, sparse at first, flew past us. I looked over Corey’s shoulder my hair flying out behind me.
I pointed and he adjusted our fall so he could see beneath us. The pink fluffy clouds were gathered in a dense net and we were falling toward it very quickly. As we penetrated the thickness we began to slow until the fluff was so heavy it stopped us completely.
We were entirely blanketed in thick pink down. All around us, above us, below us, we were resting at the center of warm pink comfort.
I was relieved that we did not e
nd up a splat on some rock below and I was exhausted. I snuggled against Corey’s comforting warmth and he stroked my hair until I fell asleep. Wrapped in his arms, I felt security and peace like I had never felt in my life. I sighed and pressed against his strength. He locked his arms around me and hummed in my ear the most content sound anyone ever made.
We breathed as one.
We dreamed as one.
Time was fluid.
It trickled around us…
through us…in ebbs or drifts,
…slow and languorous,
…caressing our senses,
…defining our memories.
“Is this a dream?” I murmured in a timeless haze.
“Mmmhmm.”
We had held each other for an eternity, basking in sheer joy and deep abiding love. I stroked his smooth arms and chest. “I like it.”
“Mmmhmm.” He touched my hair, my cheek, my lips and ran his finger down my jawline to my ear lobe. He traced my neck, my collar bone, my shoulder. I turned my head to accept the tender gestures. We had always been like this, together. I couldn’t remember a time in my life that did not consist of floating in bliss with Corey.
“I have loved you for a thousand years, Corey.” My half lidded eyes gazed into his.
“I will love you for thousands more, Kate.” His smooth voice seemed connected to something deep inside of me. When he spoke, I quivered in response, as though he plucked a string that vibrated at my core.
“Do you hear the singing?” I spoke into the crook of his neck and traced the line from his ear to his collar bone with my breath.
“Mmmmhmmm.”
“Can you make out the words?” I breathed in the warmth radiating from his body and something stirred deep inside of me.
Corey cocked his head to listen, while tracing my face with his finger. “He loves us too.”
“Yeah, such a great love.” I sighed in complete harmony with Corey and the voice. We were eternal.
“So much love,” his voice was a mere whisper. He turned my chin up to his face and gazed into my eyes with tenderness and passion born of an eternal bond. “Can I kiss you, Kate?”
The Torn, Book One of the Holding Kate Series Page 4
