The Egg (Return of the Ancients Book 4) (12 page)

I gasped.

Apparently, that was what Rafael needed to know. He returned to kneel by Jareth’s head as the scene on the mirrors played in the background. I watched as he placed a hand over Jareth’s forehead and their skin began to glow.

It seemed less than a minute before a crystal shard erupted from Jareth’s forehead and hovered in midair a few inches above him. Threads of root-like light—about a dozen of them—ran from the crystal to disappear back into Jareth’s brain. As we watched, Rafael slowly and methodically zapped each root with a spark of light until finally all were clipped and the shard fell into his palm.

“You will carry out your mission!” Melody’s sing-song voice chanted suddenly.

Surprised, we all glanced back at the mirrors to see Melody bending over Jareth, a strand of light issuing from her finger and connecting with the tip of the crystal shard that she’d buried in his brain.

“No!” Rafael commanded, waving his hand to silence the mirrors.

But the Queens both raised their arms and overrode his order. “Play on,” they bade the mirrors. “And stop for no one.”

Rafael’s eyes widened in alarm and he turned back to me, but the Queens flicked a finger my way and I was immediately encapsulated in some kind of light bubble. I couldn’t move in it. And Rafael couldn’t reach me.

“No!” he shouted angrily at the Queens. “Give Sydney her chance. See what humans can do!”

“Nothing will stop you from your mission, Jareth,” Melody’s voice cut through the massive hall. “You will travel to the Second Dimension and you will destroy the Tree of Life!”

I’ll never forget the complete horror etched upon the Queens’ faces as they suddenly understood Melody’s plans. They were utterly, devastatingly, overwhelmingly taken aback.

“Destroy the Tree of Life?”
they shrieked in open disbelief, raising their trions at once.

I had no doubt they were going to destroy us all as we stood there. And they probably would have succeeded, if Jareth hadn’t suddenly leapt up from the floor. Grabbing Rafael’s arm, he reached into my imprisoning bubble as if it didn’t even exist and shifted us away in so fast a blur that the Queens didn’t even have time to speak a single word in their trions.

One moment I stood in the Hall of Mirrors with the Queens determined to kill us all, and the next, I smelled the familiar homey scent of fresh blueberry muffins.

I blinked in confusion.

We stood in the kitchen of Samantha’s coffee shop.

“Why here?” Rafael turned on Jareth to ask cryptically.

Sweeping the strands of long dark hair from his eyes, Jareth shrugged. “Samantha is the strongest being I know,” he answered simply enough.

As Rafael began methodically circling the area, furrowing his brows in concentration to burn protection runes on the walls, Jareth leaned against the metal kitchen table and helped himself to a fresh blueberry muffin. I guess I couldn’t blame him. Maybe he needed the energy. He certainly looked like he needed it. He was pale and his eyes puffy.

With the hairs on the back of my neck standing on end, I sidled closer to him.

So, Samantha was some kind of special creature. That made sense. No one else had been able to resist the Mesmers without the help of a faraday cage. Not even the Fae.

“What is she?” I whispered.

Jareth only looked supremely irritated and raised a curious brow to grunt, “Huh?” before he took another large bite.

I glanced around the empty kitchen to make sure Samantha wasn’t hiding in some corner ready to pop out and surprise us before I leaned closer to repeat again, “Samantha! What is she?”

Jareth scowled. Bending down, he planted his nose an inch from mine. “She’s a dragon, Sydney.”

I gulped and shivered. “A …
real
dragon?” I hadn’t known dragons really existed. Did they possess the ability to shape-shift, just like the Fae?

“Dragon?” he scoffed and rolled his eyes. “Did you hit your head on something, Sydney? Of course she’s not a real dragon! She’s human! Why would you think she’s not?”

It was my turn to scowl. “I don’t get it,” I practically growled at him. I felt let down. “You said she was the strongest being you knew.”

“And she is, Sydney,” he replied seriously. His eyes narrowed a little, and it took me a moment to recognize his expression for what it was. Admiration. “The thoughtforms that Samantha generates are among the most powerful I’ve ever witnessed. And in this place, her shop, they’re the strongest. The Queens’ trions won’t work here. No one can ultimately harm another in this shop. It’s infused with Samantha’s innate protection. And it’s a protection of the likes I’ve never seen before.”

Samantha’s
protection. A
human
? I held still, shocked at the thought. Could humans really be
that
powerful? How did they do it?

Jareth reached over and pinched my nose. “It’s her heart, Sydney. When a human operates solely from the heart in everything they do, the true power of humanity is unleashed.”

I opened my mouth. I don’t really know what I was going to say. Probably that I didn’t believe him, but I didn’t have time to get the words out because Rafael joined us then and pointed at the back door.

We followed the direction of his finger.

The Queens had arrived.

They’d taken the time to change but not for vanity’s sake. They were dressed from head to toe in black and white body armor. It was overwhelmingly obvious that they were readied for war.

The silence that descended upon the kitchen was absolute. We just stared at each other, waiting for some side to make the first move.

A box fell off a stack in the storage room just as the door flew open and Samantha walked into the kitchen.

As usual, her eyes zeroed in on me first.

“Sydney, what are all these folks doing in here?” she asked crisply, clearly less than thrilled. A frown of disapproval creased her brow. “This isn’t sanitary.”

I opened my mouth but no sound came out.

I’m not even sure Samantha noticed. Clearly working to keep her diplomatic smile in place, she waved her hands to shoo us all out. “You’ll have to go out front now, young ladies. This area is strictly employees only.”

The Queens greeted this with a severe frown. “Be gone!” they ordered.

But Samantha did the complete opposite. With her hands upon her hips, she headed for the Queens. Rafael moved forward as if to block her, but the Queens raised their trions before we could stop them.

“You shall suffer for your disobedience, human!” they cried, their voices reverberating throughout the kitchen and causing the pots and pans to rattle on the walls. “Be rooted to the ground!”

Chapter Seven – My Type

But the Queens power didn’t affect Samantha. She just walked right up to them and snatched the trions right out of their astonished fingers.

“Interesting toys you have there,” Samantha observed with a professional detachment. “I’m assuming you’ve had a bit too much to drink, young ladies, so I’ll just take these before you poke someone’s eye out. Now, follow Sydney up front and she’ll give you some of our blackest coffee. It’ll sober you right up.”

The Queens just stood there, speechless. I
almost
felt sorry for them. They’d just been experiencing one shock after another.

Samantha clapped her hands. “Hop to, young ladies,” she directed, clearly working to keep her smile in place. “I’ve got work to do now, and you know very well you shouldn’t be back here.”

When they still didn’t make a move, Rafael stepped forward, waving them towards the door before pivoting on his heel to lead the way. They didn’t resist. Still dazed, they just fell in line behind him.

Samantha nodded in satisfaction before turning to Jareth. Her cool gaze swept over him, not missing a thing. “Eat a few more of those muffins, Jareth, you look like you need them,” she suggested, nodding at the discarded cupcake wrapper on the table next to him. “You really should focus on wholesome foods. Remember, your health is a gift and not to be taken for granted. You should really use your fame for the good. Those young ladies could do with a better role model to emulate, don’t you think?”

She nodded in the direction of the Queens stepping through the door into the coffee shop dining area. They obviously heard her. Their backs went rigid, but they kept walking and the door swooshed shut behind them.

Jareth’s deep laugh rang through the kitchen. Even though he was growing stronger by the minute, he still looked like he was suffering from a horrible hangover. Stalking toward Samantha, he lifted her up by the waist and whirled her into a circle before setting her down lightly on her feet.

“You’ve no idea what you’ve done tonight, dragon,” he chuckled. Placing his hand dramatically on his heart, he lowered his lashes to add, “I think I’m falling in love with you.”

“Right,” Samantha replied, entirely unfazed. Turning to me, she charged, “Take this handful of a young man right up front and give him some of that black coffee too, Sydney. And keep him on a tight leash so he can’t rile the place up, will you?”

Shaking her head, she moved to her desk in the corner, but the telltale crinkle of amusement hovering at the corner of her eyes betrayed her amusement at Jareth’s antics. She had a soft spot for him. I guess I could understand that. For all of his obnoxiousness, he somehow grew on you.

Jareth turned and his dark eyes smiled down at me. “Why, thank you, Sydney,” he drawled in the most mocking of tones. “Nice to know I’m cherished.”

Reaching up, I grabbed ahold of his ear and pulled him forward. “Yeah, you do grow on people, Jareth,” I confirmed. “Kind of like a wart.”

He snorted but let me drag him through the door to the front.

It was getting late and looking through the large front windows I could see that it was already dark. But that didn’t really mean much. Seattle was north enough for the sun to set by 4:30pm in the wintertime.

The baristas were chatting by the espresso machines as Ellison suddenly emerged from behind me, precariously balancing a stack of pastry boxes and tubes of paper cups. We almost collided.

“Oops, sorry,” Ellison muttered under his breath as he moved quickly away.

He seemed uncharacteristically subdued, but I didn’t have time to find out why. I scanned the coffee shop, looking for the Queens. The evening customers had settled into their comfy brown velvet chairs, many focusing on their laptops as they sipped steaming lattes and nibbled on Samantha’s pastries. The atmosphere was pleasantly peaceful.

My eyes fell upon the thin, disapproving blue-sparkled lips of the Fae Queens seated at a small table in the corner. Rafael had just stepped up to join them, flipping a chair in reverse to sit down and cross his muscled arms over the back.

“Ready?” Jareth asked in my ear.

He didn’t wait for my response. He just pushed past me and approached the Queens table, snagging a chair along the way with a booted foot and kicking it into place next to Rafael before taking his seat.

All of their eyes zeroed expectantly upon me.

Slowly, I forced my feet forward. My mouth suddenly went dry. “Coffee?” I croaked as I arrived.

“Sit!” the Queens barked in reply.

I didn’t possess Samantha’s courage. I sat down at once.

“Explain,” they ordered.

“Never underestimate the power of a human,” Jareth responded at once, leaning forward to prop his chin in his hand.

They lifted their brows at him. Apparently, Jareth had a way of irritating the Queens, too, although this time, I was on his side.

“Are you as powerful as Samantha, Sydney?” they asked me then, subjecting me to appraising glances that plainly indicated they didn’t think so.

I swallowed.

Could I be like Samantha? Maybe … someday. I knew I wasn’t that extraordinary now. “No,” I answered honestly. “I’m just your average type of teen.”

“Which may very well be enough,” Rafael inserted quietly.

We all looked at him.

Rafael sent me an encouraging smile as he pushed a hand through his blond hair, leaving some of it standing on end. It only made him look like he’d stepped out of a high-fashion magazine. I don’t think he could look bad, even if he tried to.

I shook my head, realizing my thoughts had wandered. I guess I was getting tired. Taking a deep breath, I forced myself to focus on his words.

“Yes, our fates lead to the Tree of Life,” he was telling the Queens, giving words to their deepest fear. “But Sydney is a human and her Blue Thread promises a choice for the benefit of all, not the total destruction that you fear. Have faith in her.”

The Queens didn’t buy it. They scowled. “How can one behold the Tree of Life and not destroy it? You ask us to believe in your words and promises alone?”

“Is that not what faith is?” he asked mildly.

Their scowls deepened as they pressed their blue-sparkling lips into thin lines. For a few moments, they hesitated, as if weighing their words. They leaned forward to speak in low soft voices. “Months ago, we heard whisperings in Melody’s mind, echoes that distressed us greatly. We heard the screams of the Fate Trackers she had murdered to protect her creation, a creation we suspected would bring Avalon to the brink of disaster. And we learned that you, Rafael, held the key to turn the tides of fate. We had faith that you were strong enough to do what must be done. You had already proven your loyalty by working with us to reveal the Inner Circle and their designs, and you supported us on the throne. We knew Earth was a test for you, and we prayed you would be strong enough for this trial, to pass this test.”

Here, they both paused to look at me.

I sank down in my chair, feeling terribly guilty. It was obvious they thought he’d failed that particular test.

There was a stilted silence. One in which Rafael calmly met their gaze and Jareth yawned a couple of times.

“And now,” they finally resumed their speech. “Now, after you have failed your test, after you have failed your Blue Thread … now you ask us to turn a blind eye, to allow the three of you to walk a path that ends with the destruction of the Tree of Life? How can that be the right path when so many wrongs have been done? How can you ask us to simply trust that you’ll make the right decision when you’ve already failed at least twice before?”