Read The Torn, Book One of the Holding Kate Series for Free Online Page B

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