Page 95 of The Stone Secret
He couldn’t be a friend.
He was merely a tutor now.
The gates swung open, and we filed into the mid-afternoon sun, gravel crunching beneath our lastonflex shoes.
Yarrow and Levi led us onto a stretch of grass occupied by a stone circle.
I’d seen pictures of similar stone circles in books from the past. There were sites like this all over the rim.
“Everyone inside,” Yarrow said.
Levi led us into the circle.
There were twenty of us, ten from my dorm, including me and Derek, and the rest from the other dorm—faces that were familiar. But I was still working on remembering names.
“I protect you, my Cameron,” Derek said to me.
“It’s okay for some,” one of the gargoyles from the other dorm muttered.
“You have something to share with the class, Hamlin?” Yarrow asked, his tone cold.
“How is it fair that she gets…thatas protection?”
“Aw.” Ginia tracked an invisible tear down her cheek. “You need someone to hold your hand?”
“Shut up, Hamlin,” a goyle from his dorm said. “That’s her shield. We all have one, just not like him.”
“I’m just saying, it isn’t fair.”
“Life isn’t fair,” Curi snapped. “Get over it.”
Hamlin flinched.
“I’m going to activate the warp now,” Yarrow said, pressing his hand to the stone pillar in front of him. “Good luck.”
“Hold tight,” Levi said from somewhere close behind me.
I was tempted to look over my shoulder and find him but resisted. He was doing his part. I needed to do mine.
The world tipped and shattered as the warp ripped us out of the circle and away.
* * *
I cameto on all fours with bile shooting up my throat. I gagged and swallowed, wincing as it burned a path back down my throat. “Bleurgh.”
“You’re okay.” Derek helped me to my feet.
Around me, several of the other goyles were also busy dry-heaving. I guess I wasn’t the only one who had issues with warping.
Sharniza stood with her back to me, hands on hips, surveying the terrain—an abandoned parking lot with rusted vehicles and several boarded-up buildings to our right. There was a road beyond the broken barriers and an ominously silent settlement beyond that.
“Where are we?” Ginia asked.
“Test Zone 33,” Levi said. “The Stone Council uses it for training exercises for the alpha teams. They agreed to let us borrow it today.”
Touron and I locked gazes, and he arched a brow, probably thinking what I was—that Levi had used his connections to get this zone.
“And what are we up against?” Sharniza asked him.
