The Glass Wall (Return of the Ancients Book 1) (35 page)

“Ok.” I nodded, taking a deep, wavering breath. “What do you want me to do?”

For a brief moment, an expression I couldn’t interpret crossed his face, and then he said, “It is you who must break it, Sydney. You must touch the wall.”

I stared at him, uncomprehending.

“Only a human can break the Glass Wall.” I barely heard his words through the sudden roaring in my ears. “I’ll do whatever is necessary to stop Jareth and the others, and you must not look back. Promise me that you won’t look back.”

“What
?” I gasped. “You aren’t coming
with
me?”

“You must run for the wall as fast as you can, regardless of what is happening. Do you understand?” He was shaking me, but I was so shocked I could hardly concentrate on his words. “Once we reach the Glass Wall, when I squeeze your hand, regardless of what is happening, you must run for it and not look back. Do you understand?”

I couldn’t believe this was happening. I couldn’t believe that I had to break the Glass Wall. It was no small wonder that they called me Blue-Threaded. My destiny certainly sounded disastrous.

“Remember, Sydney! When I squeeze your hand, run, and don’t look back!” Rafael was repeating with a frown.

Finally, I managed a feeble nod.

“Are you ready then?” he asked softly, his eyes filled with concern.

“How can I be ready?” I asked in a voice heavy with emotion.

Knowing that thinking about any of this would only turn me into a useless mess, I shoved him aside and, placing my first foot on the stairs, began to run, faster than I ever had in my life.

I could hear Rafael close behind me, but I didn’t let myself think about anything other than the fact that I had to run and focused only on the few steps in front of my feet. The steps before me seemed to spiral endlessly, but I kept circling down, flying over the stairs as fast as I could.

Finally, after what seemed like hours, I heard Rafael shouting from behind me, “When you get to the bottom, jump!”

At that moment, I circled the last spiral to see that only one flight of steps remained before the staircase ended abruptly in mid-air. The City of the Queens spanned far below us.

With his words just beginning to register, I couldn’t prevent myself from attempting a complete stop, but it was too late. Rafael followed behind me too fast.

I didn’t have to worry about jumping.

Rafael collided with me at top speed, knocking me down. Then we tumbled down the remaining steps before lurching over the edge.

I screamed.

There was nothing beneath us but the empty air over the city far below.

Chapter Twenty-Three - The Glass Wall

I kept screaming as we fell through the air.

Rafael was holding onto my ankle and shouting, but I couldn’t hear anything past my own voice and the rush of the wind. I was terrified. I was hurtling unchecked toward the City of the Queens spread out below me but growing more detailed by the second.

Just as I began to wonder how much it was going to hurt when I impacted the ground, Rafael grabbed my belt, tipped me upright, folded his arms about me and shifted.

Sucking in a long, wavering breath, I opened my eyes to discover that I was standing once again on compacted white sand. I stumbled out of Rafael’s arms and glanced around. Recognizing the mist, I suddenly realized that we were back at the Glass Wall.

We were not alone.

A short distance away, Jareth stood with his arms folded and his legs planted wide apart. Behind him, four Fae stood at attention, dressed from head to toe in black and wearing silver masks on their faces. They were obviously the assassins.

“Impressive, Rafael!” Leveling his trion at us, Jareth strode forward and shook his head incredulously. “I’ll have to study exactly how you escaped your quarters. I could have sworn that was impossible.”

Rafael bowed with a grand flourish.

Cocking a brow my way, Jareth eyed me up and down. “You look half decent for once, Sydney.”

I couldn’t believe that we had come all this way to fail now. How had he known? We hadn’t even gotten our ten seconds to run for the wall. “How did you—” I began.

“Know that you were coming here?” Jareth finished the question for me. “The only real danger we face is the destruction of the Glass Wall. Why would I be anywhere else? Even though …” He walked around us in a circle, shaking his head. “I never thought you would actually make it back here.”

Rafael didn’t reply, but the muscles in his jaw visibly clenched.

“Why did you lie?” I blurted. It was easier to babble than to face the fact that we had lost. “Why didn’t you tell the Queens about the Tulpa?”

“Pah!” Rafael tossed his head, his eyes seething. “There is only one possible answer to that question, Sydney. Jareth refrained from sharing that detail because he knows what the Glass Wall is truly protecting, and he wishes to protect it himself!”

Jareth’s eyes flashed in turn and, lifting his chin defiantly, he retorted in a contemptuous tone, “How astute you are, Rafael. I
do
know the Glass Wall is protecting humanity, something you have forgotten in your current delusional state.”

“Who is delusional?” Rafael was asking when I felt him squeeze my hand.

I didn’t want to leave him. It didn’t feel right. The four assassins were standing on alert behind Jareth, and if Rafael succeeded in distracting them from me as I dashed toward the wall, I didn’t see how he could survive when it was five against one.

Again, he squeezed my hand, and this time harder. He was shouting at Jareth, and even though it felt like a betrayal, I dashed for the Glass Wall.

I could hear shouts and screaming, but I bolted forward, pounding through the swirling mist that thinned with every step to reveal more of the Glass Wall rising majestically above me.

When I was about twenty feet away, I heard Jareth’s deep voice from close behind, and my feet instantly rooted to the ground with such force that I reeled back from the shock of it, jarring my bones and teeth.

I fell backwards onto the compacted white sand so hard that the air was knocked out of my lungs. I lay there, struggling for breath as Jareth’s footsteps crunched my way. I couldn’t hear anything from Rafael, and I was afraid that meant he was dead. I didn’t think I could see that.

“You’ve proven to be quite dangerous, Sydney.” Jareth judged sarcastically, kneeling next to me. “Can you doubt now that you’re Blue-Threaded? If I hadn’t stopped you from touching the wall you would have brought disaster upon all of your kind. Does that mean nothing to you?”

I didn’t know what to say, so I just glared at him as I struggled to sit up. It was hard because my feet were glued to the ground.

Rising, he studied the Glass Wall spanning in all directions behind him. “It’s beautiful, isn’t it?”

“It’s a lie,” I grated, fisting my hands. “Why are you doing this? As Rafael’s counterpart, aren’t you supposed to be helping him?”

Turning back, Jareth subjected me to a deadly glare. “There is much more to that particular story, Sydney. Rafael isn’t to be trusted. From the very beginning, he denied that I
was
his counterpart and sought to read fate only for the glory and fame!”

I was thrilled to hear Rafael from behind me, accusing, “That’s a lie! It was you who refused to trust
me
from the start!”

Now that I knew he was alive, I glanced over my shoulder to see the assassins motionless upon the ground and Rafael staggering to his feet a short distance away. A gash on his forehead bled profusely, and he was clutching his side, but he was alive.

“You have been hiding something from the start, Jareth!” Rafael condemned in a scathing tone. “How could I trust you when even the mirror couldn’t hear you?”

Jareth’s lip lifted in a slight snarl, and he gave a humorless laugh. “You are most gravely mistaken if that is what you think! The mirror has always heard me quite well. You have been so caught up with Sydney that you’re no longer thinking clearly!”

“Meaning?” Rafael raised his voice.

Pausing for dramatic effect, Jareth finally drawled, “Didn’t the mirror summon us
both
when Sydney was in the claws of the Tulpa?”

Even though I didn’t know entirely what that meant, I knew part of it was true. I had only called Rafael. I hadn’t expected Jareth to appear as well when I hadn’t even read his phone number. Glancing at Rafael’s face, I saw that it had turned white, but I couldn’t tell if it was because of what Jareth had said or if it was because he was injured.

“And now you ask me to trust you?” Jareth gave a scornful laugh. “You want me to help destroy the wall when you are so blind?”

“You know I’m right.” Rafael began moving stiffly toward us. “You know that Tulpa should never have entered Earth!”

“There might be other explanations.” Jareth raised his trion and pointed it at me. “Not another step this way, Rafael. All I have to do is kill Sydney, and this entire fate line will cease to exist. Things will return to what they should have been from the start!”

“You’re a fool!” Rafael swore, pounding his fist against his thigh. “That Tulpa was cultivated from the suffering of many humans over a long period of time—”

“Why pin that on the Brotherhood?” Jareth interrupted with a flare of anger. “Humans are fully capable of torturing themselves! They have spent thousands of years doing it!”

Rafael’s gray eyes were alive with passion as he took another step forward. “Jareth, you know humanity can’t summon the Tulpa to their own dimension, nor can they create one capable of converting a human into pure emotion! That Tulpa was a hybrid creation of the Brotherhood! Do not let your hatred of me blind you!”

“Halt!” Jareth ordered. Turning his back on me, he moved to bodily block Rafael as they both began to shout at each other once again.

At that moment, Harmony appeared, dropping quickly by my side to press a small white stone in my hand. She murmured, “As long as you have this with you, Sydney, the Fae won’t be able to locate you on Earth—not while I live.” Pressing another one into my hand, she added, “This one is for Rafael. Don’t let him go until he holds it in his hands. Do you understand?”

I recognized the fairy rune of protection. I looked up into her face, astonished, and desperately seized upon the small thread of hope surging through me. She didn’t sound like she thought all was lost.

“And you can trust Zelphie!” Harmony hissed hurriedly. “She’ll help. Do you understand?”

I nodded as Jareth began to shout.

“Perhaps I should just end all of this now!” he roared, whipping around to point his trion at my head.

He drew back in surprise upon seeing Harmony beside me, and Rafael took advantage of his distraction to lunge his direction. They rolled heavily to the ground.

“Start running, Sydney!” Harmony yelled as she pointed her trion at my feet.

In the few feet I managed to lurch, I heard Harmony scream and Rafael shouting, but once again, Jareth’s voice rose above everything else to order me once again. “Not another step, Sydney, or I really
won’t
hesitate to kill you this time!”

I froze, expecting to be rooted once again, but when it didn’t happen, I turned slowly to see Harmony unmoving on the ground with Jareth and Rafael only a few feet behind me.

Rafael was breathing heavy, weaving unsteadily on his feet and in obvious pain.

“Then it comes down to how fast can you kill me,” Rafael whispered, locking gazes with Jareth.

And then everything happened at once.

As Jareth moved to point his trion in my direction, Rafael leapt, but this time directly at me. His arms enveloped me, propelling me forward, just as a beam of pure energy shot past my ear so close that I could feel the intense heat on my cheek and smell the acrid stench of burning hair.

Somehow, Harmony was shouting.

Jareth roared.

Then Rafael pushed me through the Glass Wall.

Chapter Twenty-Four - Home

The Glass Wall breaking was beyond anything I could have ever imagined, and I knew that if I survived, the experience would remain burnt forever in my soul. The sound was incredible, a combination of shattering glass, a roaring train, and the rumble of a didgeridoo, but it was the vibrations that rumbled through us, wave upon wave of them, that made me believe that my bones and teeth were going to splinter into tiny pieces.

We fell in total darkness, and the sounds and vibrations grew stronger with each passing moment. The force pressing against us made it difficult to even breathe and all but impossible to open our eyes. I found myself crushed against Rafael’s chest. I couldn’t have parted from him if I wanted to. Desperately, I clutched Harmony’s stones in my fingers, convinced that without them, neither of us would survive.

The sounds and vibrations continued to build, and as waves of unbearable pain began to pulse through my body, I heard Rafael screaming. I found myself doing the same. I don’t know how long it lasted. I screamed for an eternity, gasping as I fought for each harsh draught of air.