Read Stones: Theory (Stones #4) for Free Online Page A

you’re using it.” Jessica squeezes his hand hard and stops. “We’ve only been here a couple of weeks. It’s so beautiful. And we’re safely away from any nuclear fallout. I’d hate to leave already.”
    Matt peels his eyes away from Jessica and bends down. A red twig catches his eye, and he picks it up off the soft forest floor. “Don’t worry. I’m right about the Stone. Once it’s bonded with a Holder, an energy field of microscopic filaments flows out from it. That’s what Ryzaard’s instruments are detecting. I’m not a physicist and can’t explain it, but I can bend the field around the Stone, like a protective shell. Exactly the same way the cloaking box works.” He snaps the twig in half between his fingers and stands. “It’s not easy, but it seals the Stone off from the outside. As long as I concentrate on it, the Stone will be hidden from Ryzaard.”
    As he speaks, a column of fire as thick as a tree trunk shoots down out of the sky, breaks through the forest canopy and slams into the ground twenty meters downhill. It strikes a cluster of tents on the hillside. All of them, and the trees around them, instantly burst into flames.
    Screams float up from the meeting place further down the mountain.
    “It’s Ryzaard.” Matt wraps his arms around Jessica and pulls her down to her knees. “Where’s Yarah?”
    “She said she was going to play up on the ridge.” Jessica gets a horrified look in her eyes. “The trees get thin up there. Yarah will be exposed.” She pivots, slinging the pulse rifle off her shoulder and pointing it up to the sky.
    They both see them through the leaves. The outlines of two large transports float a hundred feet above the top of the canopy. They have no rotors or any other visible moving parts on the outside and hang in the air as silent as a soaring hawk.
    Jessica brings the rifle up to her eyes. “No noise. How’s that possible?” Her thumb clicks off the safety as her finger stretches out and finds the trigger.
    “No!” Matt gently pushes the barrel of the rifle to the ground. “Don’t use it. It’ll only give away your position. The EM lasers may be set to auto-target any weapons.”
    Another solid pillar of fire drops down on a pile of equipment near the tents. A series of small explosions jump up as generators and batteries burst into flames.
    The ground shakes under their feet.
    Matt puts his mouth to Jessica’s ear. “Get to the caves as fast as you can. I’ll find Yarah and meet you there.” He jumps to his feet and starts to run uphill.
    “Wait,” Jessica says. “I’m coming with you.”
    “I can’t let you take that chance.” Matt drops to his knees in front of her, his eyes traveling up to meet her face. “I’ll be careful. Please, Jess, just get to the caves.”
    She rests her hands on top of his, and turns, looking downhill at the destroyed camp, now completely engulfed in flames. Then she turns back and slings the rifle onto her shoulder. As Matt stands, she grabs his neck and pulls him close so their foreheads are touching.
    Her eyes stare into his.
    “Five minutes, Matt,” Jessica says. “If you aren’t at the caves in five minutes, I’m coming after you.” She bolts on a horizontal line that takes her straight across the hill away from the camp.
    Matt watches until he sees her duck and disappear into the mountain.
    Screams come up the hill from the meeting area where the Children were gathered.
    Slipping the Stone from his pocket, Matt lets his eyes close and drops into the darkness behind his lids.
    Yarah, where are you?
    He hears the reply in his mind, like an echo inside a closed room. “Up on the ridge. I see them. Two ships shooting out fire.”
    Come down as fast as you can and get to the caves with Jessica.
    “But what about the Children?”
    I’m heading to them now. Get to the caves!
    Matt opens his eyes and sprints downhill past moss-covered trunks, glancing up through openings in the trees at the ships above.