The Glass Wall (Return of the Ancients Book 1) (30 page)

I tensed at that. “End this now” didn’t sound so good for me.

Rafael waited, obviously expecting her to continue. When it became evident that she had finished, he frowned, clearly perplexed. “What are you speaking of, Harmony?”

Not looking at me, she whispered, “Jareth swore you brought Sydney here out of love. No lasting harm has been done yet. The Glass Wall still stands. It’s not too late to admit your mistake.”

Rafael’s lashes fluttered in surprise as he focused on the shard of glass in his fingers. He flipped it repeatedly for some time before meeting Harmony’s gaze once more. “I will not sacrifice Sydney. I will find the truth! That will be the only way that she can live. Return to Earth and see if you can find any trace of the Tulpa. It was last in Sydney’s room.”

“No!
You
should return to Earth and hide where they can’t find you! They will be coming for you soon!” Harmony disagreed. Looking at me, her lip pulled down. “Sydney … you must stay. I’m sorry. I really am.”

“No!” I said desperately. “I don’t belong here! This isn’t right!” I knew that
staying
meant that I wasn’t going to be living long. “And aren’t you an advanced society? Why do you have to kill me, anyway?” I was close to tears.

“The danger is simply too great,” Harmony replied in a hoarse voice. “Even if you meant no harm, there are others here that would use you to accomplish a great evil!”

“Enough!” Rafael held up his hand. “If we prove the wall is not protecting humanity, the Queens will wait on Sydney’s judgment! Harmony, we must solve this mystery while we can. Sydney clearly saw Marquis using the Tulpa in the same manner as the Brotherhood: in the nose and eyes. This isn’t something she could have known.”

Harmony staggered back in disbelief. “This … simply can’t be!”

“I’m at a loss myself, but for now, focus only on the Tulpa. If we can find it, the Queens will be forced to hear me.” Rafael said, clutching the glass shard tightly. “Take Ajax with you. He can see behind the Glass Wall. He should be able to track it.”

At the mention of his name, Ajax leapt up from the cushion on full alert and loped across the room to join Harmony.

Laying her hand on the Doberman’s head, Harmony nodded. “I will look at once. Wait here.”

With that, they both disappeared.

Obviously, witnessing Marquis and the Tulpa had far greater implications than I had realized. It had apparently just swayed Harmony to our side. Still, I was threatening to panic once again. “This isn’t looking good, is it?” I asked, moving a little closer. I felt safer nearer him.

Rafael’s penetrating eyes shifted toward me. “We must find the truth. That is our only way out of this.”

I nodded, biting my lip to keep it from trembling. “What can I do?”

“At the moment, you and I still must wait,” he replied softly. “It’s not our time to act yet.”

I was too upset and anxious to wait. I thought I was going to burst. “How can we just sit here and wait?” I exploded. “Jareth is prancing around sealing your doom ...
my
doom! The last thing we should do is just sit while he ties all the loose ends with a bow! How does he have so much power? Why won’t they listen to your side of the story? That—”

“Hush, Sydney.” Rafael interrupted with a chuckle. “All is not lost.”

“How can you say that? I keep being told that I’m going to die!” I was losing grip on containing my fear. “How is Jareth getting away with this? He’s lying!”

Clasping my fingers lightly in his, Rafael pulled me to the wall. Touching it again, another door formed, and he pushed me through into a small sunny room filled with potted trees and trailing vines. In the corner stood a tall table made of glass with several matching stools perched on glass stems that didn’t look strong enough to hold anyone.

“Take a seat.” He pointed to one of the chairs. Settling opposite me, he continued, “There are a thousand reasons why Jareth might have said what he did. He’s a Dark Fae, and I am a Light.’

“Then how can they listen to your enemy?” I shook my head, astounded.

“We are not enemies,” Rafael explained patiently. “We are counterparts, a matching pair.”

I stared at him, dumbfounded. “Uh … a pair … like … married?” I asked.

He threw back his head and laughed outright. “Absolutely
not
! We are, or should be, like brothers working side-by-side in the perfect balance of strength and weakness. Our present Queens are true counterparts as well—the Queen of the Dark and the Queen of the Light. True counterparts aren’t common here, and they may show up in any profession. Together, Jareth and I should have accomplished great things.”

I blushed, feeling foolish.

Anger and resentment replaced the humor on Rafael’s face, and his eyes took on a distant look. “Jareth and I have never trusted each other. We have experienced extreme difficulties from the moment we met, and our only success has been in creating the weakest pairing of Fate Trackers ever to have existed.”

“Is that why he’s lying now? Imprisoning us?” I asked.

“To be fair, Jareth is within his rights to place me here while he presents to the Queens. I would have done the same in his place,” Rafael replied with an indifferent lift of his brows. “As Fate Trackers, it is our duty to avert the disasters we see. I can’t fathom why he failed to mention the Tulpa. It gives me far fewer choices to act upon and less time to do so.”

At that, my hysteria threatened to resurge, and I couldn’t resist whispering what really concerned me. “Am I really going to … die now?”

Reaching across the table, Rafael took my hands in his and squeezed them in a supportive gesture. “Your fate line is far too strong for that, Sydney, and it’s only growing stronger by the moment.”

Those words soothed my panic. Gripping his fingers tightly, I bowed my head and forced myself to focus on calming down. It took some time before I managed to raise my head and ask, “How can you be so sure? I mean, what is a fate line? Is it something like a crystal ball?”

He obviously didn’t understand the crystal ball part, but shrugged it off. “Fate Trackers see the Threads of Fate flowing through each living thing.”

“You see … like … real lines?” I asked, a little incredulously.

“Yes.” He nodded slowly. “The silken Threads of Fate appear above each living thing’s head, and they are ever-changing, as each decision made affects others in the most unexpected ways. We search for and track the Blue Threads.”

“Are you sure my line is getting stronger?” I whispered.

Clasping my hands tighter, his smile broadened. “Most definitely. You’re quite the courageous one, little human, and each moment I spend in your company convinces me even more that I’m on the right path.”

I desperately held onto his fingers, wanting him to repeat over and over again that I wasn’t going to die.

Finally, he said, “We will act soon enough, and we should prepare.” Withdrawing his hands, he leaned over and touched the wall next to the table. “You must drink this. It will prevent the nausea the next time we shift.”

A compartment in the wall opened up, and he pulled out two glasses. One filled with a clear, amber liquid and the other with what looked like milk.

I got the milk. “What’s that?” I asked, pointing to his.

“You can’t drink our water any more than we can drink yours.” He smiled, humor glinting in his eyes. “You would be drunk in under a minute.”

“Drunk?” I snorted. I eyed my milk suspiciously and then suddenly recalled their bizarre addiction to artificial sweetener. “Ah! So is
that
why Harmony put Equal in her water at school?”

“Equal neutralizes the effect for us.” He nodded. “Drink.”

After a momentary hesitation, I did. It tasted quite pleasant—like bananas. When I was finished I asked, “Where are we shifting to?”

Sprawling back in his chair, Rafael expelled a long breath, tapping absently on the table. “At the moment, I can’t shift anywhere. I’m a prisoner. We must first escape this tower.”

I sat up eager for action. I must have been obvious because he started grinning.

“We can’t escape until the evening.” He leaned over and tousled my head with a chuckle. “So I’m afraid that you must practice patience for a few more hours, at least.”

“Hours?” I mouthed, deflated. Throwing my head back, I heaved a loud sigh of exasperation.

“Come.” He rose, holding out his hand.

As he led me back to the room with the circular red couch, I began to think about Jareth some more. He had obviously been at odds with how Rafael had chosen to read fate. He had also said that I was never going home. I was going to ask Rafael if that were true, but thinking of my life now living with Al and Betty filled me with so much emotion that I couldn’t form the words. I was afraid he might tell me that the most I could hope for was to live the remainder of my days in Avalon. Instead, I settled for asking, “What are you going to do? What is the plan?”

He jerked a little at the sound of my voice, startled from his thoughts. “We must first wait for Harmony.”

His answer was frustrating because it was useless. I wandered about the room, looking outside the window, but the floating hills were no longer diverting. I drummed on the glass for a time before turning to find him watching me from his heavily-painted eyes. He had a bemused smile on his lips.

“What is it?” I asked waspishly.

“You are quite brave,” he answered, again flipping the shard of glass in his fingers. “And you’re taking this experience remarkably well.”

“Not really.” I shook my head. “I just don’t want to panic and miss the opportunity of getting home. I can freak out later.” My voice broke on the word “home” and unexpected tears burned my eyes.

With a compassionate look in his gray eyes, he said, “Take heart, Sydney. I do not believe your fate will end as you fear.”

That was comforting, but then I suddenly recalled Jareth’s words and scowled, “Jareth said you were a dreamer.”

“No.” Rafael expelled a breath and looked away, clearly a little insulted. “It was odd for him to say that. We Fae do not dream—only humans do.”

“Dream?” I asked, glad for the temporary distraction from my panic. “You don’t dream?”

He shook his head.

“Well, it isn’t all that fantastic.” I shrugged. “Most dreams are quite boring, anyway. And I don’t remember most of mine.”

He was obviously amused. “Dreams are much more than you realize. Humans are a powerful race. You dream and thus you create your own reality.”

I was hardly in the mood for philosophy. I snorted and muttered sarcastically, “Then, I’ll just whip up a dream and get us out of here.”

“There is more truth to that than you know, Sydney.” Rafael chuckled. “But there are faster ways right now.”

“Which brings me back to my original question … what is the plan?” I asked, feeling a twinge of annoyance. Annoyance was useful. I could grow it into anger. Anger would give me much more strength than panicking would.

Rafael merely watched me as his eyes began to twinkle.

It irritated me. “What is so funny?” I snapped.

“I have no doubt that you’ll rise to accomplish great things, Sydney.” He dipped into a graceful bow. “You’re a very strong person.”

Suddenly realizing that he never answered any of my questions, I snapped, “Is this some kind of fairy trick? Divert instead of answer what I ask?”

“Fae.” Rafael flipped the glass shard in the air and caught it deftly between two fingers. “Not fairy.”

“Whatever.” I snapped.

“There is a very big difference,” he replied, noticeably a little aggravated himself now.

“You are doing it again!” I frowned. “You deliberately don’t answer me!”

“I’m working on the plan,” he stated casually. “There’s nothing for us to do now but wait.”

I was sure he was lying. He didn’t seem like he was working on anything. He just looked like he was killing time. Figuring he already had a plan, but that he wasn’t about to share it with me, I began to pace in front of the windows, oblivious to the fantastic scenes drifting in front of me. I kept waffling between frustration and fear until I felt like I was going to explode.

Finally, I strode to the couch and threw myself facedown upon it, and screamed as hard as I could. I kept screaming, but then somehow, the screams turned into sobs. I was scared. I missed Al, Betty, and Grace terribly, and I was growing more convinced by the minute that I was never going to see them again.

The couch dipped a little as Rafael sat beside me.

“What if I never see them again?” I wailed into the cushions. “I never even got to tell them good-bye! Betty will probably … probably worry ... She’ll think I ran away!” At that, I burst into fresh tears.

Rafael patted my shoulder in a soothing gesture.

“I don’t know why I’m worried about what they’re thinking!” I sobbed harder, perplexed. “After all, I’m just a foster kid, a government paycheck.”

“You worry because you love them, Sydney,” he supplied quietly.

“They are just foster parents.” I choked down a sob. “I haven’t known them that long.”

“Sometimes, love grows very quickly,” came his soft response.