The Glass Wall (Return of the Ancients Book 1) (12 page)

Betty welcomed me warmly as I joined them on the bleachers. She covered my knees with a blanket. It was getting cold and sitting on metal made it even colder.

“Oh, look! Here comes Samantha!” Betty jabbed me in the ribs with her elbow. “I told her you’d be a great little barista and she desperately needs reliable help.”

Samantha was a willowy blonde woman in her early fifties. She wore a tailored pantsuit, a light brown suede jacket, and lugged a purse that was so big it might have actually been a suitcase. She approached us with a sour look etched on her thin, narrow face. Not promising, I thought. I wondered if she was just temporarily unhappy or if it was her permanent expression.

I rose to shake her hand.

“You must be Sydney,” she said, clasping my hand vigorously. “Betty’s been telling me all good things about you. I trust her judgment of character. The job is yours if you want it.”

It was unexpected and fast. I wanted to tell them that Betty couldn’t judge character at all if she said good things about me, especially after last night, but I couldn’t disappoint her. She was obviously pleased.

“Thank you,” I said, a little timidly. “I’ll try my best.”

“Good then! Betty says you have special tickets to Jareth on Friday, so you can start Saturday instead. Be there at the shop at 10:00 a.m. sharp!” With a crisp nod, she left us.

“Samantha is a wonderful person,” Betty assured me. “You’ll love working for her!”

I wasn’t sure about that, but I knew that I didn’t want to see Jareth at all on Friday. I wondered how to tell Betty that when the band began to play. Then the stadium filled with cheering as the game started.

Grace managed to play three times for a grand total of four minutes the entire game. All three times our team scored a point before she ended up with some kind of penalty and the referee forced her to kneel on the sidelines. The last time, the referees and coaches of both teams got into a roaring fight over her antics. I had to admit that even I, who thoroughly detested sports, found it very entertaining.

On the ride home, Grace was in such high spirits that she forgot to treat me coldly over Rafael. I was relieved about that. I had discovered I didn’t like Grace giving me the cold shoulder.

There was a large box on the porch when we got home.

Betty read the label and smiled at Al. “All yours, honey.”

“Give me a hand, Sydney.” Al’s lips split into a wide grin. “You’re going to love this one.”

The box was heavy, and I helped him lug it into the living room and open it with a box cutter. White packing peanuts escaped in all directions as we lifted out a large Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

“Oh, this isn’t your average Rudolph.” Al laughed at my puzzled expression.

He tossed me an instruction booklet and I read aloud, “Rudolph the Undercover Reindeer.”

Even though it was dark and rainy, we had fun setting Rudolph up in the lawn and testing him out. With a camera embedded in his nose and his head turning from side to side, we got a much wider picture range this time. The quality was also much better than the previous cameras had been. I wondered what Al would do when it recorded someone disappearing. The thought inspired me to escape to my room and dig out my science notebook. It needed updating.

I sat on my bed, playing with Jerry and reading my notes. Then my eye caught on the name “Melody”. I sat up slowly, recalling Reese gripe at me about pushing her “Aunt Melody”. I knew it was a coincidence, but there had been so many of those lately. There had been the Equal, the mist, and now Melody. I wondered at what point I should start believing they were more than coincidences.

Shaking my head and wondering if I was starting to turn into one of those crazy conspiracy theory people, I turned off my light and went to bed.

I lay in the darkness, wondering if I should just go to that Jareth concert anyway. Maybe it hadn’t really been him on the porch on Halloween. I mean, why would Jareth care about the Mackenzies, or me? I didn’t
have
to use my VIP pass and go backstage with Grace. I could just hang out with Betty at the back and spy a little.

The more I thought about it, the more I liked that plan.

Chapter Ten - The Concert

Ellison ended up coming with us to Jareth’s concert at the Pike Place Show Box, a small nightclub type of place in Seattle. Betty picked us up directly after school and played a Jareth CD as we drove across the bridge into downtown. We parked at the waterfront and walked through the public market, tasting all the free samples we could find before coming across a fish stand where guys were throwing fish at each other.

I yelped as a huge salmon whizzed by my cheek. Surprised, I snapped a ruffled, “Hey!”

The man cocked a brow at me and grinned. He picked up another huge fish and hurled it to one of his buddies.

“Aren’t they going to get in trouble for goofing off?” I murmured to Ellison, shocked.

Ellison doubled over in laughter.

“They’re tossing the fish up to be wrapped,” Betty explained, patting me on the back. “It’s part of the show. It attracts customers.”

Feeling a little silly, I felt my ears redden a little and hurriedly moved away.

By the time Betty bought us sandwiches, I was already full from tasting mini-donuts, smoked salmon, and iced cappuccinos.

We didn’t have to stand in the long line forming for the concert. After all, we had the VIP passes, but only two. I gave mine to Ellison. Grace and Betty looked surprised, but I told them that I wasn’t the social sort and didn’t really want to meet Jareth in person. Grace bought it, because she saw me pretty much always hiding from people at school and knew I didn’t like a lot of attention. Betty was suspicious and asked me if I felt sick. Ellison, however, was immensely pleased to get the VIP pass.

Ellison and Grace disappeared into the doors of the nightclub a good hour before Betty and I could. We decided to wait at a coffee shop across the street and sat down to sip hot tea and browse the local newspapers.

By the time we got into line, I was getting excited.

The Pike Place Show Box was a fairly nice place, but the walls were painted a dark red that, combined with the awful opening band, made me wonder several times if I were in Hell. Grace and Ellison were up front, waving and screaming, but I sat at one of the little round tables in the back with Betty and sipped on diet cokes.

I could tell she was concerned about me. Every ten minutes, she leaned forward and screamed over the noise, “Are you feeling ok, honey?”

“Yes!” I smiled each time.

Finally, the opening bands finished screeching, and there was a break while Jareth’s crew set up and changed the stage.

Through the crowd, we couldn’t see Ellison and Grace, but they began to text us. They had actually met Jareth, and he’d been pretty cool. He’d signed Grace’s notebook and Ellison’s stomach. They had each gotten a T-shirt and a signed photo.

I was starting to feel a little foolish, and honestly, a little jealous. I had obviously let my paranoia get in the way of having a bit of fun. I began to regret, just a tad, my choice of giving Ellison the VIP pass.

“Honey, why don’t you join them?” Betty kept prodding.

I shook my head, and then conversation became impossible as Jareth came out on stage, and all the girls in the building began to scream at once.

From where I was, I couldn’t see what he really looked like. He was wearing so much make-up, and his teased black hair stood out from his head in all directions. He could have looked like anything underneath it all. His voice was amazing and he sang all my favorite songs. He was an incredible showman, prancing up and down the stage with fireworks exploding behind him in all directions, and he seemed to change outfits in the blink of an eye.

Soon, I found myself screaming and clapping with the rest. All thoughts of spying were long gone, and the energy in the room sucked me in.

Finally, as he ended the last set, Betty insisted I get a little closer for the encore.

Giving her my sweatshirt, I pushed my way through the crowd, successfully squashing any concerns that I had and letting myself get caught up in the moment. I didn’t figure I’d be able to get very close. It was, after all, Jareth, but I guess everyone must have been tired from all the jumping and screaming, because just as he came back on stage I found myself squeezed right in between Ellison and Grace—right in the very front.

“This is so fun!” Ellison screamed in my ear, and then flames shot out of the stage floor and Jareth began to sing again.

Metallic silver makeup completely covered his face, and he wore a white, sequined space suit with a plunging neckline that revealed his muscled abs. Again, it was impossible to tell what he really looked like, but I no longer cared anyway. I was screaming the words and raising my hands with everyone else. A few people crowd surfed and made it all the way onto the stage before bouncers pulled them down and escorted them away. Jareth kept singing.

I closed my eyes and waved my hands, and then, all of a sudden, fingers closed around my wrists, and I felt myself lifted onto the stage.

Screaming out of fear this time, my eyes flew open, and I found myself standing next to Jareth as he sang. He clamped his arm firmly about my shoulders as he shouted out something about Seattle and pointed to me.

The crowd went wild.

Just a few feet in front of me, I could see Ellison and Grace grinning and giving me the thumbs up sign.

A little stunned, I remained where I was, listening to Jareth sing into my ear. I could feel his rib cage vibrating as he belted out the song.

As the seconds passed, I began to get excited. I was actually on stage with
Jareth
! He had his arm around me!

Then, the thought crossed my mind that now would be a great time to get a good look at him. I could settle my crazy suspicions once and for all.

I’d just plucked up the courage to examine him closely, when Rafael emerged from the screaming crowd, leapt onto the stage, and strode right toward us. His eyeliner was at least a half-inch thick, and he wore some kind of a flashy metallic jacket with his blond hair standing out in all directions, just like Jareth’s wild mane.

If I hadn’t known who he was, I probably would have thought he was part of the show.

In fact, the crowd apparently thought so because everyone began to scream more with the exception of Grace and Ellison. Their mouths had dropped open.

The bouncers looked at Rafael, a little confused, but they turned away as Jareth placed his free arm around Rafael’s shoulders and kept singing.

The last words were scarcely out of his mouth before he was leaving the stage, herding both Rafael and me to the back.

Too dazed to even panic, I stumbled several times, but Jareth was strong. He swept me forward, and in just a few seconds, I found myself standing in his private dressing room as Rafael strode through the door.

“Let me go!” I shouted, struggling a little in his vice grip.

Jareth wasn’t even looking at me. He had turned his full attention to Rafael with a cynical laugh.

Rafael stood before him, arms folded. His jaw was rigid as his eyes filled with a cold fury.

Obviously, Rafael and Jareth knew each other very well and not in a friendly way. If they were to fight, I wasn’t honestly sure which one would win. Both of them were the same height and matching build.

There was an intense silence, and then Jareth let me go and moved to grab a towel. Wiping the makeup off his face, he said, “I wish I could say it was pleasant to see you again, Rafael.”

“Likewise, Jareth,” Rafael replied. His tone was cold, but even and calm.

There was a moment or two of silence as Jareth thoroughly mopped the towel over his face. He bunched it up like a basketball and shot it into the trashcan before turning to face me.

I almost fainted. He really
was
the same man from Halloween. I was so stunned that I couldn’t think.

“I see now why you’ve protected this one so much.” Jareth bowed slightly in my direction before shifting his gaze back to Rafael. “But since you know where our mentor is, you should have called me. You know that I only want to help her. In fact, I’d wager I care more for her than
you
do.”

Rafael said nothing, but his gray eyes narrowed.

After a moment, Jareth snickered a little, “Could it be you don’t know yet?” Tossing his head back, he chortled. “And I was always so jealous of you, thinking you were the better Fate Tracker! Could you really not know that Sydney has been
touched
?”

“Touched?” I repeated. My voice sounded thin and shrill. Had I caught something?

At that, Rafael strode to my side and grabbed my hand. His fingers felt warm, almost hot, over my skin as he cradled my fingers between both of his hands. He stared down at me, impassively.

Jareth began moving about the room, shrugging out of his sequined outfit and into a black one. With a whistle, he lifted his hand, and the white pigeon I had seen before flew down from the curtain rod to perch on his shoulder. I hadn’t even noticed it had been in the room.