Keeper of the Books (Keeper of the Books, Book 1) by Jason D. Morrow Read Free Book Online

only escape.
    “We gotta get him, Nate. He’s got the rest of our money!”
    Nate had a feeling this went far beyond money. He had just seen the man disappear. That meant either Nate himself was insane, or Montgomery was telling the truth. There truly was a world within those pages—a different world that offered an escape. Not just an escape from the bounty hunter…but from this life perhaps. If this really was a different world, did that mean there were different opportunities? A different life?
    Nate nodded toward the book. He had no time to explain his side of things to Joe, but he knew Joe would follow the money. “Then we better get him, little brother. Grab the book.”
    Joe shimmied across the floor toward the book where Tyler Montgomery used to be. He closed it quickly and made his way back toward Nate. “I can’t believe we’re doing this.”
    “Maybe Galamore is a lot like Montana,” Nate said.  
    “Well, once we get our money we’re coming right back,” Joe said, though it sounded more like a question than a statement.
    “Open it up,” Nate said.  
    “You two have ten seconds before we blow your cabin to pieces,” the bounty hunter declared. “One…two!”
    Joe opened the book and began reading the text. Nate noticed he wasn’t on the scrolling text like Montgomery had showed them. Did that matter?
    But just like Montgomery, Joe started falling inward toward the book, and in a flash, he was gone.  
    “Three!”
    Nate reached for the book, closing it as he scooted himself to the back wall of the cabin.
    “It’s all right,” Nate said to himself. But was it? What if Montgomery was feeding them lies? But who could just make this stuff up?
    “Four!” The bounty hunter had probably already lit the fuse. A single stick of dynamite would make this tiny cabin crumble, and Nate along with it.  
    “Five!”
    Nate opened the book and immediately found the page where the text was being written in perfect cursive penmanship. The words he read made little sense to him.
    The land was in turmoil, and for the first time for many years, President Jacob DalGaard felt happy. At least he would see one of his enemies hang from the gallows.
    “Six!”
    The gray elf, Marum, waited in her cell. She thought of the angry faces of the crowd that awaited her. She thought about when the executioner would tie the noose around her neck and ask if she would like a bag over her head. The gray elf would decline. She would die with her eyes open, the world in front of her.
    “Seven!”  
    Nate looked up. What was this? He turned back to the page.  
    Marum buried her head into her pillow and began to cry softly. She felt like a coward, but the time was drawing nigh, and her life would come to an end within minutes.  
    “Eight!”
    There was no rescue in sight. Not from her brother. Not from her friends. But what if a stranger were to help her? The man…the one who had just appeared in the cell only a few feet away from her. The door was unlocked. He was armed. He could walk out. He could save her. Who was this man?
    “Nine!”
    That was it. Nothing more was written. As he stared at the pages, he couldn’t help but feel something strange. It was like a breeze, perhaps a draft from the bullet holes in the cabin, but it seemed out of place. Then he could feel his face being pulled toward the open book like a magnet to metal. For some reason he tried to resist the pull but he couldn’t. He almost expected his face to smash into the pages but the impact never took place.
    “Ten! Light them up!”
    But the explosion never came, and all Nate saw was darkness.  

Nate

    Autumn, 903 A.O.M.

    Nate awoke with a start and his immediate surroundings were not clear to him, nor could he remember what had happened only moments before. His heart was beating fast like it might be if he had just escaped a firefight or if he had been running away from someone, but such a situation was not present in his mind. He tried his best