The Brotherhood of the Snake (Return of the Ancients Book 2) (9 page)

They bowed in respect and with their big cats padding silently behind them, melted back into the shadows, leaving Melody standing alone on the porch.

She didn’t waste any time. “You must return to Avalon at once, Rafael,” she announced brusquely. “The Queens would speak with you.”

“Now isn’t the time.” He shook his head.

Her eyes widened dangerously. “There are those who may read traitorous motives into that choice, my prince.”

Rafael was quiet only a moment before murmuring, “So be it.”

At that, Jareth wrenched his gaze from Mrs. Patton’s yard to eye Rafael in dark satisfaction. “How far you’ve fallen, Rafael,” he observed in a tone plainly meant to be sarcastic but strangely lacking in his usual venom.

We stared at him in surprise, but further conversation was cut short as the garage door began to creak and grind open.

Immediately, Melody returned to the shadows as Rafael pulled me back into the house and Jareth followed, closing the front door behind him with a click.

We returned to the kitchen just in time to hear Grace demand from the family room, “Hey, where’s my Coke?”

Reaching for the glasses on the counter, I shouted back, “Be right there!”

But Grace wasn’t done. “You guys are sure taking a looooong time in there!” And with her voice adopting an ornery, teasing edge, she added in an even louder shout, “Whatcha you doin’?
Kissing
?”

I jerked, knocking a glass of ice off the counter, but Rafael caught it with a deft flick of his wrist before it hit the floor.

Silently, he handed it back to me with his face wiped of all expression.

Quickly, I averted my eyes and concentrating on the glasses, willed my cheeks not to blush.

“Better behave yourself in there!” Grace yelled again.

“Don’t be ri-ridiculous!” I retorted, stumbling a little over the words as I turned to Jareth and thrust two glasses of Coke with half-melted ice into his hands. “Make yourself useful and give those to Grace and Betty!” I ordered.

I expected a derisive response, but he surprised me by simply walking away towards the family room. As he disappeared behind Betty’s mound of Ebay boxes, I frowned and turned to Rafael. “What’s wrong with him?” I asked. “He’s not acting normal.”

But Rafael just stood there, staring at me with his enigmatic gray eyes in a way that was impossible to ignore.

I don’t know how long we stood there, eyes locked, before he took a deep breath and abruptly said, “I must go, little green-eyed pixie. I’ll send Ajax shortly.”

Before I could say anything, he disappeared in a cloud of mist.

“Pixie?” Jareth’s sarcastic tones rippled through the kitchen. “He’s calling you ‘pixie’ now? And he’s shifting?”

I whirled to find Jareth sizing me up and down with a critical eye, his brows furrowed in an angry line. He was still holding the Cokes.

Apparently, he hadn’t followed my orders after all.

“What’s wrong with ‘pixie’?” I asked defensively.

Rolling his eyes, Jareth stalked into the kitchen and slammed the glasses onto the counter. “Oh, ‘pixie’ isn’t a term that’s used lightly, and you know as well as I do that he shouldn’t shift. The Queens could have activated traps for him by now. And if not, they’ll definitely pick him up if he goes to Avalon and then tries to return to Earth. As things stand now, he’ll likely spend the rest of his life in prison … or worse.”

That made me scared, but angry as well. “And that’s
your
fault, Jareth! You’re the one that landed him in this mess by lying!”

“I never lied, you little fool!” Dark emotions played over Jareth’s face. “You don’t have the faintest clue of what’s really happening here, do you!’

I blinked, taken aback.

Ignoring me, he rolled back his sleeve to reveal a golden bracelet identical to mine. A spark of light leapt from its surface to melt into his skin. His brown eyes flashed angrily, and he pounded his fist on the counter. With a growl of frustration, he shouted, “The fool went to his mirror! Why would he do that? He knows it’s far too dangerous!”

He stood there with his feet planted widely apart, looking very dangerous himself.

I think that was the first time I truly internalized that Jareth was something much more than a petulant rock star. He played the part so well that I’d come to think of him as more of a troubled celebrity than a Fate Tracker playing a human role. The guy standing in front of me now was tall, dark, and powerful, reminding me more of a Navy SEAL commando than a singer specializing in onstage moves designed to make girls swoon.

Still, as intimidated as I was, I snuck an accusing glare his way. I still didn’t trust him one bit. As far as I was concerned, the jury was still out on whether he’d tried to kill me or not.

And as sneaky as I thought I’d been, he caught my look. Tossing his dark hair over his shoulder, he moved to hover over me in a threatening manner. “Oh, I know quite well that you’ve convinced yourself that this entire mess is all my fault!”

I swallowed but stood my ground.

But he wasn’t done. “Never forget that you’re playing a role in this drama too, Sydney. Rafael’s Blue-Threaded because of you. And now—”

Suddenly, he stopped and looked over his shoulder towards the window.

I knew he was sensing something about the Mesmers. I balled my hands into fists. I didn’t know what to do. I was a little scared of Jareth, but I was terrified of the Mesmers.

An incredulous expression flashed across his face. “What
are
you up to, Sydney? Now, you’ve got the Mesmers yammering as well!”

Pushing me aside, he strode over to the window and peered out into the darkness.

And then I suddenly knew.

When the first Mesmer had screamed, Jareth had collapsed in the parking lot. He’d just asked me if I could hear them. And he kept staring in the direction of Mrs. Patton’s lawn menagerie. “You hear them, don’t you,” I said. It wasn’t a question.

Jareth’s shoulders tensed. He didn’t have to say it.

I shivered. “How?” I didn’t think he was going to tell me.

But after a moment, he turned slightly to one side. I could see the outline of his jaw. It was tight, clenched. “Perhaps it was the Tulpa," he offered. "It seems to have changed everything. You should never have let that thing loose.”

I went rigid as guilt washed over me.

He was right. I
had
played a role in this drama. But I wasn’t about to admit that to him. And I didn’t want to think about any of that right now. I was becoming increasingly worried about the Mesmers. “Are they out there right now?” I asked, joining him at the window to point across the street.

“They’re there, watching us. And they want the Tulpa,” he explained tersely. “They know it’s still here.”

“Huh?” I gasped, glancing around.

“Yet it isn’t,” Jareth muttered, drawing his dark brows into a line. “It’s almost as if it’s caught between the dimensions somehow. But how can this be?”

“What? Where is it?” I prompted when he fell silent. “How can you tell?”

“That’s precisely the problem, Sydney,” he retorted irritably.

He wasn’t making sense, but it wasn’t the first time. I didn’t like hearing the Tulpa wasn’t completely gone. I knew we had to catch it, but I wanted to be ready, set some kind of trap. I didn’t want that thing randomly popping up in my bedroom again, taking me by surprise.

“Hey, where’s the Coke?” Grace grumbled, stepping into the kitchen.

I jumped in surprise, but Jareth didn’t respond. He just kept his eyes focused on the inky darkness outside.

Grace’s mouth dropped open. Flapping her hands, she drew a big question mark in the air and mouthed the words:
“What’s he doing here?”

I took a deep breath, desperately thinking of a reply, but she didn’t really care. Grabbing her phone from her pocket, she began snapping his picture.

Snatching the glasses of soda from the counter, I shoved them at her, and grasping her shirt, led her towards the family room. She resisted at first, leaning back to catch a glimpse of the rock star in the kitchen but finally allowed me to guide her back to the family room.

I couldn’t blame her, but I was close to screaming in frustration that he was really a fairy who, at the very least, suffered from a horrendously bad attitude and, at the very worst, might have just tried to kill me.

But even as I thought it, I knew that in spite of whatever he was pulling that he wasn’t one of the bad guys. Somehow, I was beginning to believe that he’d just wanted us to break the Glass Wall.

Betty glanced up from her seat on the gold shimmery couch and sent us both a vague smile before returning her attention to the show and chuckling along with the laugh track.

As I tried to drag Grace over the threshold, she held her ground and asked in a fierce whisper, “Hey, aren’t you going to tell me why he’s here? I thought you liked Rafael!”

I scowled, frantically searching for something that would sound logical and then hit upon the truth, or most of the truth, anyway. “Jareth’s moving in with Rafael for a while. They’re cousins.” With another little shove, I added, “Believe me, you’ll see more than enough of him, and it won’t be so pretty. And for the record, I don’t like him at all.”

“
Cool!” Grace’s eyes lit with excitement. She practically bounced onto the couch, her fingers flying over her phone as she began texting her friends with the news.

I turned to go, but then the sight of Betty and Grace sitting next to each other on the couch made me pause.

I experienced a wave of protectiveness. They looked so comfortable and cozy together, what I imaged a normal family to be like. There were times, of late, that I could easily imagine that I belonged
with
them.

I stood there for a moment and fervently vowed to do anything I could to keep them safe from the Mesmers before scurrying back to join Jareth in the kitchen.

He was standing exactly where I’d left him, staring out the window, apparently oblivious to the fact that I’d even been gone.

“So, what’s the plan?” I asked after a moment.

He didn’t respond.

I waited a few minutes, but as the ticking of the kitchen clock grew louder by the second, I cleared my throat and asked again, “Jareth! What are we supposed to do now? How are we supposed to catch this Tulpa? And what about the Mesmers? Are they still out there? How do we get them to go away for good?”

He just stood there, eyes locked on the window.

My heart jumped in my throat. Rafael had warned me about this. He’d said the Mesmers could hypnotize their victims and put them into catatonic states.

Had Jareth fallen under their spell?

I wanted to scream in terror. Instead, I forced myself to shake his arm in the attempt to rouse him. “Jareth! Wake up!”

He didn’t react. His unblinking eyes were glued outside.

Thinking quickly, I spied a fork on the counter, and picking it up, jabbed him in the arm.

The response was instant.

Grabbing my wrist, he twisted me around and pulled me close.

We shifted, and a moment later, I stood in a place that I’d thought to never see again.

I was back in Avalon.