The Inner Circle (Return of the Ancients Book 3) (26 page)

We stayed that way a moment before I drew back enough to look up into his face, just inches away. He didn’t have any makeup on. None. But I didn’t ask why.

“So what does it mean, you having a dream?” I asked instead.

He shook his head several times and then spoke in a voice filled with wonder. “The ability to dream, to travel to dimensions unknown, has always been impossible for the Fae…until now.”

Silence fell between us. But it was a cozy silence. One in which I rested my head comfortably against his chest.

Finally, his voice rumbled in my ear, “I don’t have the slightest understanding of what it means, Sydney.”

We lapsed back into silence and probably would have stayed that way for a long time if Jerry’s wheel hadn’t begun to squeak. Drawing apart, we both glanced over to watch the mouse’s little feet zoom over the bars of his wheel in endless circles.

Rafael’s eyes locked on the mirror hanging over my dresser. “Mirrors act strangely around you, Sydney.”

“Strange?” I frowned, eyeing my reflection. I didn’t see anything unusual. Well, beyond the fact that I had a wild hairdo and looked really tired. “I look like me,” I said.

“Do you?” he asked softly.

Raising a brow, I glanced back into the mirror. And I was just about to say that I really looked like I always do when I noticed that my skin seemed to be glowing. Startled, I jerked and quickly glanced away.

“That’s just a trick of the light,” I said stubbornly.

I didn’t want to think about it. Not now. It was just too much.

Rafael watched me a moment, but then apparently understanding, he dropped the subject and moved closer to Jerry’s cage.

Immediately, Jerry hopped off his wheel and ran to the cage door to sit on his haunches and twitch his pink nose at Rafael.

Raising a brow, Rafael opened the cage. He’d barely put his finger inside before Jerry jumped onto it to perch like a parakeet.

“It’s strange how he does that,” I said, a little on edge. Was nothing normal anymore?

“And even stranger what he’s saying,” Rafael informed me as he drew his brows into a deep frown.

A shiver of trepidation traveled down my spine. Swallowing, I asked, “And what’s that?”

“He says that he’s not a mouse,” Rafael answered.

I stared at Jerry in horror, half expecting him to turn into some otherworldly creature right then and there. But then, with one look into his loving little eyes, my fear dissipated in an instant.

I could never be afraid of Jerry. It just took one look into his sweet little face to make that thought laughable.

“Maybe he’s going senile,” I suggested, kissing the mouse on the top of his fuzzy head. Suddenly curious, I asked, “What does he think he is?”

With a perplexed smile, Rafael gently returned Jerry to his cage. And as the mouse scampered back to his wheel to huff away, Rafael shook his head incredulously and replied, “He says he’s a seed.”

“A seed?” I laughed.

Rafael’s gray eyes filled with warmth, and he laughed with me. “Maybe you’re right that he’s confused,” he agreed. “He does seem to be awfully old for a mouse.”

That made me a bit sad. I didn’t want to think that I might lose Jerry soon, so I pulled my usual trick of deciding not to think about it at all and deliberately switched subjects.

“Do you think Melody might show up at work tomorrow?” I asked.

But the instant I mentioned the word ‘work’, Rafael insisted that I get some more sleep in order that my injuries healed properly. And shortly after, he kissed me warmly, patted Ajax goodnight, and disappeared.

Placing my Faraday cap firmly on my head, I sighed and returned to bed.

At once, Ajax jumped up beside me. I was prepared to do battle with him over who got the pillows, when to my surprise he cuddled up at my feet.

“I missed you too, Ajax,” I said with a goofy sentimental smile.

He lifted his head and shot me a withering look.

Switching off the lights, I lay back in bed. It took some time to go back to sleep, but I gradually succumbed, lulled into a peaceful slumber by Ajax’s familiar faint snore.

The next morning found me well rested and ready for work.

It felt strange to head to the coffee shop when I knew that there was a Fae Mission Control Center across the street trying to stop an alien invasion. No matter how much everyone insisted, making lattes and bagging pastries seemed to me a fairly useless way to help.

It began to rain slush as I hopped into Al’s pickup truck. He’d volunteered to drop me off.

“Shouldn’t the government be involved in all this, Al?” I asked him as we roared down the street. “I mean, this is such a big deal! Someone would believe us, I would think.”

Wouldn’t they?

Al pursed his lips. “It’s all about getting the right person for the right job, kiddo. Right now, our government would laugh us off as crazies, or even if we could convince them, they’d spend forever debating who should be in charge.”

I knew he was right. And no one was going to listen to us, that was for certain. And if Rafael or any of the other Fae revealed who they really were, they’d most likely be shackled in iron immediately while the government wasted precious time analyzing them and discerning if they were friend or foe.

“No, the best decision they’d ever make would be to find a real expert like Jack,” Al was saying. “And he’s already on the case.”

Just a few months ago, I would have laughed at the mere concept that Jack the Janitor could save Earth from an impending invasion of the lizard people. Now, I didn’t find it funny at all.

“Jack’ll find that portal before anyone else,” Al predicted with a chuckle.

Still, I felt left out going to work when all the excitement was happening back at home. “I just want to help,” I said under my breath as we pulled up to the back of the coffee shop.

Al heard me and reached over to tousle my head. “You’re at the center of all of this, kiddo. You’ve uncovered so much by just doing what you’ve been doing all along. It’s important. You’d probably mess things up if you just stuck around the control center watching other people work. Do your thing. That’s why you’re here!”

I looked at him, thinking again that he might just be one of the wisest men I’d ever met.

Waving goodbye, I watched him drive away, thinking that if I needed to trust one human to see Earth safe, it sure wouldn’t be some fancy Men-In-Black type agent or a president knee-deep in politics mostly worried about his re-election.

I’d pick Al.

With a smile, I walked through the back door of the coffee shop and ran straight into Ellison.

“And how’s the lovebird this morning?” he asked with wide, innocent eyes.

I picked up a dish towel and threw it at him.

He skipped around the corner, but a second later poked his head back to grin at me mischievously.

Feeling like I was doing everything
but
helping to save the world, I clocked in. I supposed there was one thing I
could
do, and that was to work on my Pikachu tulpa.

Loading the dishes into the dishwasher, I focused on the yellow Pokémon character. It was fairly easy that morning to summon the emotion of happiness. All I had to do was think of Rafael, and in my mind’s eye, I could see my Pikachu tulpa skipping, dancing, and jumping with joy.

Halfway through my shift, Samantha sent one of the baristas to fetch me to the front. Apparently, Jareth had arrived, and Samantha deemed him to be in a ‘mood’. And since she had to step out, she’d delegated the job of babysitting him to me.

As it turned out, he really
was
in a mood. One of the worst I’d seen.

Before I’d even had a chance to hang my apron up, he appeared next to me in a poof of mist, wearing a mahogany leather jacket and with his black hair fashioned into the style that reminded me most of a porcupine.

“I sure hope no one saw you shift out there. We have enough problems without people freaking out all over the place.” But then I froze. It took just one glance up at his face to know that something was really wrong.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

But before he could answer, Samantha’s phone began to ring.

He watched it for several moments, and then with a growl, strode to her desk and yanked the cord out of the wall. Turning to me, he demanded, “Tell me why I was created, Sydney!”

“How am I supposed to know that?” I scowled in response, a little surprised by his attitude. “What happened? You’re acting worse than usual.”

But he just gave a belligerent snort. An expression of defeat crossed his face, and his eyes took on a particularly wounded look.

“Am I a dark minion of the underworld?” he asked hoarsely.

I shrugged. “Only if you want to be.”

My cynical response had an unintended consequence.

“Do I want to be?” he asked, covering his face with his hands.

For the briefest of moments, I swore I saw scales beneath his fingers. But when he dropped his hands, there was nothing there. I brushed it off as my imagination.

“Do I
want
to be?” he repeated with pain in his voice.

I felt a rush of sympathy. “While I think you’re obnoxious and a total jerk sometimes, you’re not evil,” I told him as I grabbed his arm. “What happened to bring all of this on?”

As he often did, he ignored what he didn’t want to answer.

Instead, he held out his hand, and a moment later, one of his protection runes appeared in his palm.

“Why do these even work?” he asked me in a tortured tone. “They shouldn’t, you know. Protection Runes have
never
worked against the Mesmers.”

I was starting to get genuinely worried now. “You know, it doesn’t really matter, does it? I’m just glad they work now.” I was struck by a sudden thought. “Hey, maybe they can be used against Melody.”

That apparently jolted him out of his pity party. “Melody?” He frowned. “What’s Melody have to do with this?”

Pulling my cellphone out of my pocket, I waggled it in front of his face. “You know, the video.”

He looked at me in extreme irritation. “I really don’t understand you humans sometimes,” he scoffed. “What video are you talking about? I swear you have the attention of a gnat, Sydney.”

I narrowed my eyes. Did he really not remember? He sure looked like he didn’t.

It was disturbing.

We were going to have to find Melody double-quick and stop whatever she was doing to him. But I didn’t see the point of discussing it further. There was no point in stressing Jareth out even more.

“You need some food,” I said.

He didn’t even object as I yanked him to the front of the coffee shop.

Pushing him down into one of the comfortable chairs, I ordered, “You just sit here and rest, and I’ll get you something to eat.”

I was all ready for him to whine and complain, but to my surprise, he simply laid his head in his arms wearily and gave a heavy groan.

Keeping a close eye on him, I hurried to the pastry case and got a blueberry muffin. But when I returned to set the plate on the table, he lifted his head and tossed me an arrogant look of disdain.

“Quit feeling sorry for yourself,” I said, heading him off. “We’ve all got problems, you know. You don’t get it any worse than the rest of us.”

“Oh, are you part lizard?” he snidely asked under his breath.

“You’re acting like a big baby,” I retorted.

He just scowled at me. So, I left him alone and returned back to work.

Most likely, Melody had tortured him again.

She had to be stopped soon. It was getting very serious. I wondered if she might have unwitting allies back in Avalon that were helping to hide her. Maybe there was a way to reveal her evilness via some kind of Fae alert system. She couldn’t be a fugitive for very long if every good Fae citizen was on the lookout for her.

As I started wiping the toddler nose-smudges and fingerprints off the front of the pastry case, I was struck by a wacky idea.

Maybe I could send out an alert myself.

I had the video of Melody on my cellphone.

On Earth, we’d coordinate with police, put up fliers, hold a press conference, and post the evidence online for the world to see.

But I wondered how it worked in Avalon.

What did a Fae press conference look like? Judging by their Mission Control Centers, press conferences probably involved a lot of soft chiming music, mirrors, and glowing crystals.

I wondered what Rafael would say about my idea, but I instinctively knew he’d tell me not to do it, just out of fear for my safety alone. Messing around with Melody could definitely be lethal, that was for sure.

For the next hour, I continued to clean tables as the customers came and went, but I couldn’t shake the idea of catching Melody by broadcasting some kind of
Avalon’s Most Wanted
.

Finally, on my lunch break, I decided I couldn’t resist a little experiment.

Jareth had slouched back in one of the chairs and had apparently fallen asleep. I took that as proof of my theory that Melody had spent the night experimenting on him.

Well, it was about time somebody tried
something
to thwart her.

Selecting a tuna sandwich and a glass of iced tea for my free meal, I fished out my cellphone and sat down in a quiet corner, intentionally choosing a place in front of a mirror that hung behind one of the chairs.

I felt a little foolish, and I almost gave up before I even started. I think the only reason I continued was that I didn’t really believe it was going to work.

As Melody’s video began to play, I faced it towards the mirror and held my breath.

Nothing happened.

Well, almost nothing.

A lady came into the coffee shop with her five-year-old son. And as his mother ordered coffee, the little boy spent the entire time watching me, shaking his head from side to side as if I’d lost my marbles.

I almost quit right there.

But then taking inspiration from Al, I let the video play out.

When nothing happened, I tapped my fingers for a bit, slightly disappointed even though I’d expected nothing would really happen.

But as I tapped, my eyes fell on my Fae classification bracelet.