Free The Key of Kilenya by Andrea Pearson Page B

his breath and plunged his arm forward. Nothing
happened at first, but then he saw the sheen separate where he
touched it.
    Jacob took the last step forward, pushing
himself into the veil. The cold mist encompassed him, causing the
pinpricking sensation to cross him head to foot. A great deal of
pressure enveloped his entire body, making movement difficult, and
he felt winds swirl around him, pulling his shirt up, blowing
through his hair.
    An intense pain suddenly hit him—starting in
his chest and moving to his extremities. He felt as if he was being
electrocuted—he couldn’t move, and his body shook. He couldn’t even
breathe. His fingers felt pulled from their joints, and there was
no sensation in his feet. He tried to back out of the veil, but
felt as though some invisible force was holding him in one
spot.
    After what seemed like an eternity, but was
probably only a few seconds, the feeling left him, and he doubled
over, gasping for breath. The pain left his muscles, replaced with
numbness, and he lost his balance, falling back into the room.
    Jacob lay awkwardly on his side, no feeling
in his body whatsoever. Had he been zapped? Hit with a Taser? Even
his brain seemed paralyzed.
    Sensation slowly returned to his limbs, and
he rolled onto his back, staring up at the ceiling. What on earth
had happened? Or, more precisely, what on Eklaron had happened? Had
he really been electrocuted? And why hadn’t it killed him? Had the
people in the room tried the same thing with similar results? He
flipped to his stomach and slowly pushed himself to his knees,
ignoring the dead body only a foot or so in front of him.
    He stood and turned to face the sheen. It was
the only way out of the room—he was sure of it. Did he dare try to
walk through it again? He grimaced, imagining going through the
pain once more. Or two or three times. Who, after experiencing
something like that, would volunteer for a repeat? He looked around
the room at the dead bodies. There was no way he was going to stay
here and die like them. He had to get that Key. He had to get Akeno
out of the forest. He had to see Matt and his family and Ebony and
Kenji again, and he definitely had to try out for the basketball
team before he died. A fierce determination hit him. He would get the Key. Nothing was going to stop him.
    Resolved to be successful, he put up his hand
and took a step, biting his lip when the tingly sensation moved
from his fingers to his arm. This time, however, he steeled himself
against the pressure of the winds and pushed as hard as he could.
The same intense pain began, making his breathing stop, but he was
already in a forward motion and continued pushing.
    A loud, sudden pop made him jump, and the
pressure, the mist, the pain, and the wind were gone. Nothing was
left but the simple door frame.
    Relief coursed through his body, and he
paused, breathing deeply. Why did it work this time and not the
first? Deciding to think on it later, he took one last look into
the room, then sprinted across the long hallway and down the
stairs, his joints protesting. He crossed the front entryway and
exited the house, expecting something to jump out at him any
minute, relieved when nothing did.
    Once outside, Jacob looked around for any
sign of either snake, but something odd caught his attention. The
trees appeared to be pulsing toward the same point in the forest,
some distance away. And that spot appeared to be moving.
    A sick feeling overcame him as he realized
that whatever moved through the forest was coming his way, and that
the trees wanted to be close to it—trees that had been trying to
kill him earlier. His imagination spun wildly out of control.
    Running to the edge of the pit, he saw Akeno
digging through the junk. The furniture had been burned a while
ago—he couldn’t tell how long it had been.
    He ran down the three-foot slope into the pit
and reached Akeno. Not even waiting to see what mood Akeno was in,
Jacob took a tight hold on the