Novum: Revelation: (Book 4) Read Online Free Page A

understand, he’s been my husband for over ten years now. We’ve been together almost as long as I was with your father.”
    Jake rolled over to his side and felt warm blood running down his cheek. Nate’s hand reached down and handed him a cloth. “Sorry, sport. I didn’t mean to hit you so hard. I’m afraid your nose is bleeding pretty badly.”
    Jake took the cloth and held it against his nose while he stood up. He looked at Nate, a short but well-muscled man in his fifties. He wondered just how much worse he would be feeling if the man had decided to hit him hard. “I deserved it,” he said, “and besides, I’ve taken a good number of punches in my life. It sort of feels… familiar .” He looked at his mother. “I’m sorry for yelling at you. I’m really sorry for calling you a liar.”
    “But I did lie to you, Jake,” she said softly. “About your father. About a lot of things.”
    Jake sat on one of the big logs that surrounded the fire pit. “So, if he came in here with the rest of you, where is he? What happened to him?”
    She sat down beside him and took his hand in hers. Her skin felt cold and unfamiliar. “He saw a ship too,” she said. “Our ship.”
    “Where?” he asked.
    “In the lake, just like you did.” Her eyes seemed to glaze over, but maybe it was just an effect of the firelight. “None of the rest of us saw it, of course. Otherwise, we might have gone with him.”
    “Gone with him?” The implications of what she was telling him made his head spin. “He went to go look for your ship, didn’t he? Just like we did. Just like I did.”
    She nodded. “And just like you, he came back after a few hours.”
    Jake looked at the fire. “But he didn’t give up, did he? He went back.” He looked at her. “That’s what you meant about me being like my father, wasn’t it? You know I’ll try again.” She just stared at him. “How many times did he go back?”
    “Four times.”
    He looked back at the fire. “And on the fourth attempt, he found his ship?”
    “No. On the fourth trip, your father didn’t come back.”
    He stared at her for a long time. “Now I understand why you didn’t want me to go. I also understand why you’re going to try to stop me again.”
    “No, Jake,” she said then wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him close to her. “I’m not going to stop you. I actually want you to go out and find him. I want you to find your father.”

Chapter 04
     
    Jake felt a little awkward sneaking into AJ’s hut, but he couldn’t wait any longer. When his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he made his way over to her bed. He smiled then whispered in her ear, “Time to wake up, sweetheart.”
    There was a flurry of motion, and suddenly he found himself flat on his back on the dirt floor with AJ straddling his chest. One hand was on his throat and the other cocked back and ready to strike. “Don’t hit me,” he sputtered.
    “Jake?” She instantly relaxed her grip and dropped her striking arm. “Drown you, Jake Stone. I could have killed you. What are you doing sneaking into my room?”
    “It’s a hut,” he corrected, “and I came to tell you that…” He paused when he realized there was a lot more skin touching his chest and arms than there should be. “Wait, are you wearing any clothes?”
    She gently slapped his face as she rose off of him and crawled back under her covers. “That’s about as close as you’re ever going to get to bedding me,” she whispered.
    “Bedding?” he asked as he stood up. “Is that the term they use here? Sounds only slightly less clinical that procreating .”
    “Why are you in here, Jake?”
    The urgency came back to him. “I came to tell you that I’m heading out again. Heading west, and you all are invited. That is if you still want to come.”
    “Heading west,” she repeated. “Going out to look for our ship again?”
    “No,” he replied. “This time I’m going out to look for my father.”
    It