The Keepers Book Two of the Holding Kate Series (36 page)

“I have to. They threatened to kill Kate.”

“Kate is the MOTHER!” Tara screamed into the sky, balling her fists at her sides.

“What? What did you say?” Whistleu asked.

I sighed and put my head in my hand. Great!

“It’s true. Kate of a Thousand Years is the Mother!” Tara snarled at me. “You are dying to protect a monster! She is not loyal to you! She is manipulating you. Wake up! Corey!” She leaned over and shook my shoulders.

“Tara!” Trip stood and grabbed her arms. She crumpled into him and sobbed as they sank to the ground.

“She’s right,” Eunavae whispered at my side. “Don’t do this, Corey.”

“I talked to her, Eunavae. She isn’t the Mother. She is chained to a wall somewhere and they’re playing mind games with her.”

“No Corey, you didn’t talk to Kate. You talked to the Mother, pretending to be Kate.”

“No, you can’t lie in thought-speak, Eunavae. Your emotions speak as loudly, even more loudly than your words. She is really here, alive and well.”

I looked to Trip. He sat across from me, holding a distraught Tara in his arms. Eye to eye, I had to ask something of him. Something that went against everything I’d fought for.

I drew an uncertain breath, unsure if my voice would work. I swallowed and opened my mouth. Trip shifted, his face fixed on mine. “Trip, you must promise me. You must find her and take her home.”

His jaw tightened, but his eyes grew soft as he fought tears. “No, Corey. No man, don’t.” He tore his focus away. Tara’s shoulders shook as she doubled over. He tightened his hold on her.

“Promise me. Protect her. Get her back home and everything will work out the way it is supposed to.”

Trip’s face crumpled, but he nodded. “I promise, Corey.” I heard a sob as he gathered Tara in his arms and carried her over and sat beside me. Dirk followed them and knelt down at my side. His grip conveyed sorrow and respect as he squeezed my shoulder.

With Trip’s promise, sorrow and fear evaporated. I finally understood what the One meant in the chapel that night.

S
trength is made perfect in weakness
.

In this weak moment, when only my surrender could save the ones I loved, I felt perfect strength pour through me. Where I was weak, the Beautiful One infused me with his strength.

My friends circled around me, each reaching out to connect in their sorrow. I loved them more than any family or group I had ever been a part of.

“I need you all to know. I love you like family.”

Eunavae pressed her head into my chest. “Corey,” she rasped through trembling lips as she wrapped her arms around me.

“Are you sure this is the only way, Corey? We could fight, we could…” Dirk’s words trailed off when he saw my resolve.

Trip clenched his jaw and pressed his chin into Tara’s hair. Full of determination, his face spoke volumes. I knew I could trust him to get the team back safely and to care for Kate.

“When you get back, Kate gets everything. Make sure they understand she is my sole heir. She will take care of you all.”

Trip nodded once, his brows crashed together and his lip stiffened.

“No, she won’t Corey!” Tara rose up out of his arms, tears streaking through the dirt on her cheeks. “Kate, your Kate is gone. All that is left is that narcissistic dragon queen. You need to wake up and smell the dragon dung! I have seen how this ends. You die. We lose. Kate lives crappily ever after as the Mother on this god-forsaken planet! You aren’t fixing anything. You’re giving in. I beg you, don’t do this, Corey.”

“Tara.” I reached for her. She tumbled into the embrace shared with Eunavae, and we all cried together.

“Time is nature’s way of keeping everything from happening at once.”
  ~
John Archibald Wheeler

QUANTUM PERSPECTIVE SOURCE (QPS): KATE WILSON

The pebble in her boot had to go, it dug into the soft flesh of her arch with every step. Kate hopped on one foot, removed her shoe and shook it out. Corey and Trip continued climbing through the tunnel and their flashlights blinked out as they turned a sharp corner. Kate heard Corey call back to watch her head, his voice bouncing back through the dark corridor. She felt for her own flashlight and bent to put her shoe back on.

Thoughts of Corey under the stars, on the white beach later that night sent fireflies through her tummy. A stray thought breezed through her mind as she imagined their time together.
I wonder if it is safe with all those dragons flying around.
She had just tied a double knot in her boot lace when a peculiar sensation inched up her spine.

A strange musky odor trickled through the air and a scuff in the dirt behind her snapped her head up.

Massive beasts grabbed her. Large cloven hands clamped a cloth over her face. A sharp bitter odor tinged the cloth. Surprised and frightened, she fought and kicked, but there were just too many claws struggling to subdue her.

“Beauty! Don’t fight them. They are here to protect you.”
The familiar touch of Dagan’s mind gave her pause—or perhaps the sickly odor pressed against her face—but she stopped struggling.

“Dagan? Is that you?”

“Yes, Beauty, we have come to help you.”

“Where are you?”

“The Kiarnusk will bring you to me.”

“Let me get Corey and Trip.”

“No, they are already here. Let the Kiarnusk guide you.”

Through Dagan’s vision she could see Corey and Trip just a few feet away. They talked normally, evidently not alarmed, so she decided to believe Dagan. By an eerie blue glow, she looked into the hideous faces of three of the same beasts that had herded the children and dragons. The Rhinodudes. Dagan called them Kiarnusk. Disgusting creatures, they made Kate shudder.

“Take off your clothes, Beauty, and leave them there.”

“What? No!”
His intent came through the thought-speak, no malice directed toward her. Still something fishy unsettled her.

“Yes, Beauty, I have a different garment for you to wear.”

She remembered the last garment he tricked her into wearing, a dazzling sapphire blue gown covered in electromagnetic jewels that bound her to a power source to drain the life out of her.

“No.”

“Ah, Beauty, I didn’t want them to have to do this.”
The Kiarnusk jabbed her with a stick and an electric current ran through her body, paralyzing her. She panicked, but she couldn’t move, speak, or grunt. Nothing. Fear sat heavy in her breast, choking her with dread.

The Kiarnusk carried her through the maze of narrow corridors at their lumbering pace, scuffing the rock strewn floor. She couldn’t struggle since the paralysis still locked her into a board-like stiffness. Ending in an open chamber, the Kiarnusk chained her to a jagged rock wall. When the cuffs were secure, they jabbed her with their sticks and she could move again. She took a deep breath to scream, but they shoved something in her mouth and tied a gag around her head. Grunting and harrumphing, they lumbered out of the cave.

“Dagan!”

Silence.

“Dagan! Make them let me go!”

Silence.

“Answer me, Dagan!”

Nothing.

She curled up into a ball and wept bitter tears into the dirt of the cavern floor.

They fed her and led her to the latrine fourteen times before she stopped counting. She had no other way of marking the passing of a day. She assumed they fed her daily, it seemed about right. They didn’t bother putting the gag back in her mouth. She screamed herself hoarse on the first day, on the off chance that the Keepers were nearby and could hear. She finally gave up screaming and resorted to prayers for their safety.

“Dagan,” s
he whispered after what seemed several months when her tears dried up and the heaviness of darkness pressed in.
“Dagan, you once cared for me, I know you did.”

“We are bonded, Beauty.”

The sound of his thought speak sent a shudder of relief through her.

“Dagan, you have to help me.”

“I am helping you, Beauty. You are back home where you belong.”

“No, Dagan, I am not. I don’t belong here. I belong at Heartwork Village, with my husband and my friends.”

“Bah!”
He hissed.
“That place is evil!”

“Have you heard of Heartwork Village?”

“Yes, he says it is evil and must be destroyed.”

“Who says that, Dagan?”

“The Master of the Spheres.”

“Who is…who is the Master of the Spheres?”

Silence.

“Dagan. Dagan, please talk to me. Don’t leave me alone.”

“You are never alone, Beauty. We are bonded.”

“I’m…I’m afraid. Please help me to understand what is going on.”