Free Fountain of Secrets (The Relic Seekers) by Anita Clenney

don’t hear whispering?”
    “No.”
    “I do.”
    “It’s all in your head.”
    “Maybe.” Kendall started walking along an old path that led from the graveyard into the woods. “Look there. It’s a church.” The church was old and it had stained glass windows. Her dad loved stained glass. He’d given her a piece for her birthday once.
    Adam moved ahead of her. He tried the door handle. “It’s open.”
    “Then let’s go in.”
    “I don’t want to,” he said.
    “Come on, you know you want to.”
    His eyes were narrowed. He was angry with her. “You’re going to get us in trouble and expect me to bail you out.”
    “Then act like a chicken and stay out here, but I’m going in.” She opened the door and went inside. “Where’s the seats?” she asked.
    “Doesn’t look like a church to me,” Adam said, sticking his head inside the door. “It looks more like a temple.” He took a few more steps until he was standing right behind her.
    There was writing on the walls, and in the front of the church there were three big stones. “This is strange. I’ve never seen stones like this in a church. Reminds me of Stonehenge. I wonder what this means.” There was writing on the stones. It wasn’t in English. Didn’t look like any language she’d ever seen. She tried sounding out the words. She reached the end and felt strange inside. Like she might float to the ceiling.
    “Kendall, we need to leave. Now!” Adam’s voice came from behind her. She turned to him. His face was tight and his eyes looked scared. She’d never seen Adam scared. Not even when he saved her from the snake. His eyes widened and she looked back at the stones. The letters were glowing now. She took a step back and a light burst out of the stone. She felt like a wave had crashed into her body.
    Kendall woke and saw the shadow hovering over her. Her wrist stung, but she was too weak to move away. She heard heavy footsteps running toward her, and beyond the shadow she saw two glowing eyes rushing at her. She opened her mouth and screamed.

CHAPTER FIVE

    T WO HOURS EARLIER…
    “Wake up!”
    Jake groaned and rolled over. His skull felt like it had split down the middle. Each breath sent a stabbing pain to his ribs. Several of them were broken. He shook his head and tried to remember where he was. The rattle of keys and the armed guard reminded him.
    “You, come with me,” the guard said in broken English. An Iraqi.
    Jake pulled himself to his feet. His stomach burned from the bullet still festering inside his gut. He’d been shot while helping the girls escape. The girls… God, what had happened to the girls?
    “Is this him?” the guard asked.
    Jake looked at the man standing behind the guard. He’d never seen him before. The stranger wasn’t Iraqi. American maybe? Rich. That much was obvious from his clothes.
    “That’s him,” the stranger said. He was British.
    “Who are you?” Jake asked. He looked like a GQ model with a bad attitude.
    The man didn’t smile, just looked at him with dark, stormy eyes.
    “Your savior,” the guard said, with an ugly sneer.
    Jake woke from the dream of Iraq to someone pounding on the door. He looked at his watch. Eleven p.m. Must be Kendall. He shouldn’t have left her alone. The vision of her parents had been tough on her. No damned wonder, witnessing your own birth. Seeing a mother you’d never met. He got up and opened the door. “Want to sleep in my bed—”
    “No, I don’t want to sleep in your bed.” Nathan pushed past Jake.
    “Dream of the devil,” Jake said. “You got a good reason for pounding on my door in the middle of the night?”
    “Where’s Kendall?”
    “Not here,” Jake said, scratching his chest.
    Nathan looked around the room as if Jake might have stashed her somewhere. “Where is she?”
    “In the tower room. She was hoping to have a vision.”
    “Of what?”
    “Her parents. Remember the child she said was born in the tower room? It was Kendall.