The Inner Circle, Book 3 of the Glass Wall ( A YA Urban Fantasy Romance ) (15 page)

“I’m going with you,” I said, locking my
fingers around his arm.

“Fine!” he growled.

And then we shifted.

We were standing in front of an old rundown
house with various rusty car bodies cluttering the yard. The
sunlight was bright, and the air pleasantly warm. I looked around
but couldn’t see much other than miles of endless desert and the
odd cactus here and there.

With his trion at the ready, Jareth strode
onto the creaking porch and kicked the door in.

And then froze.

I rushed to his side and standing on my
tiptoes, peered over his shoulder into a room lined with tables
stacked with paper.

But it was the tall form standing in the
corner, leafing through sheets of loose paper that caught my
attention.

It was Rafael.

“You’ve been
spying on us this whole time,” Jareth accused, striding into the
house. “And how did you get here? You can’t shift. The Queens
banished your light.”

Rafael lifted a cool brow. “There are mirrors
everywhere, and more than one Fae would be willing to bring me
here,” he replied calmly.

“You’re lying,” Jareth retorted, tossing his
head.

I hung in the doorway to collect my
thoughts.

I hadn’t expected to see Rafael so soon. Just
a few short hours ago, I’d clung to him. I hadn’t walked away like
I knew I should.

Thinning my lips into a line, I scowled,
annoyed with myself.

I had to stick to the plan. I couldn’t let
him love me. I was going to have to drive a wedge between us, no
matter how much my heart said otherwise.

Jareth and Rafael continued to trade barbs as
I stepped inside.

“You’re not acting in the interests of the
Inner Circle,” Jareth was saying.

“Oh?” Rafael’s voice was cold. “You forget
that I
am
the Inner Circle.”

Jareth sent him a searing look. “And what
would Melody say if she were to discover that you’re spying on
her?” he asked in challenge.

Rafael tossed the papers he was holding back
onto the table. “There’s nothing here anyway,” he said with a
dismissive wave of his hand. “These are merely research papers on
the reptiles of the world, nothing more.”

Jareth stepped forward to inspect them
himself.

And then Rafael turned towards me.

I quickly looked away. Was I capable of
deliberately breaking his heart, even if it
was
for the
greater good? Could I look into his magnetic gray eyes and tell him
that I didn’t care even though it was an outright lie?

Feeling like a fool, I bolted into the next
room.

“Great job, Sydney,” I muttered to myself,
glancing around.

I was standing in a musty kitchen. It
obviously hadn’t been used in years. A thick layer of dirt and grit
covered every surface. There was a rusty sink under a window, which
held only a single shard of glass in its rotting frame.

The place was creepy.

I shivered.

I was just about to return to the living room
when a shadow slipped down beneath a cupboard. Frozen, I could only
watch as it lengthened and grew taller, forming into the man with
the black top hat.

“Look here, Sydney,” the apparition
whispered, pointing to another cupboard.

His voice was clear this time, more than it
had ever been before. And then a gust of wind rattled the window
and blew him apart, scattering him in various directions until he
was simply gone.

I stood there, shaking, trying not to be
afraid and desperately reminding myself that the man in the top hat
had to be good. After all, he’d warned me of imminent danger
before.

But still, it was spooky to have seen him,
and I couldn’t force myself to go look into the cupboard as he’d
suggested.

“What are you doing, Sydney?” Jareth growled
from behind me.

I licked my dry lips and pointed to the
cupboard. “There,” I said. “Look in there.”

He scowled at me, and I could tell he was
weighing with the temptation of brushing me off. But there must
have been something in my voice that made him think twice.

Acting extremely put out, he stalked over to
the cupboard and flipped it open.

Inside was a small box.

Raising a brow, he picked it up and hefted it
with one hand.

“What is it?” I asked.

Jareth didn’t answer. He just set the box
onto the counter and stared at it in astonishment.

Curious and feeling safer, I moved to join
him just as I heard Rafael enter the kitchen as well.

I didn’t look his way, but I knew he was
close. Too close.

“That’s a Bloodline Box,” Rafael stated. His
deep voice sounded next to my ear.

Seeking to distract myself from his
overpowering presence, I peered around Jareth’s arm and focused my
eyes on the box instead.

I blinked in surprise.

The box looked like it was made of
intricately carved silver, and the top was emblazoned with the same
symbol that I’d seen on Marquis’ ring. The symbol glowed as if it
were on fire.

“That’s Marquis’ emblem,” Jareth said in a
strangled voice. “Only those of his bloodline can open that
box.”

“Strange,” Rafael commented. His voice
sounded distant and cold. “I haven’t touched it. How did it
activate?”

There was a strained silence, a silence I
didn’t quite understand.

And then Rafael spoke. “Sydney, please touch
the box.”

I eyed it apprehensively a moment, and then
gamely touched the edge with a fingertip. The metal was hot but not
enough to burn. As soon as my skin made contact, the symbol faded
entirely, and the box morphed into what looked like a simple block
of gray-painted wood.

“Weird,” I said.

I could feel Rafael moving behind me, his
chest brushed lightly against my back. And then his hand reached
over my shoulder to touch the top of the block.

The symbol blazed to life as the box once
again changed into silver.

“If you wouldn’t mind, Sydney,” Rafael
murmured into my ear. “Please touch the box again.”

Trying my best to ignore Rafael’s nearness, I
quickly tapped the top and as expected, the symbol immediately
disappeared.

There was a longer silence this time. A long
time in which I was keenly aware of Rafael’s hard-muscled chest and
arms just millimeters away. In the effort to distract myself, I
turned to Jareth.

“What
is
this—” I began, but my words
faltered at the expression of horror on his face.

And then Rafael leaned forward expectantly
and commanded, “Open it, Jareth!”

Jareth didn’t move. His face was white.

“Open it!” Rafael thundered again.

“You know … I can’t,” Jareth replied, but he
sounded even more uncertain than he looked. “The lid must have been
opened already. Or maybe it’s Sydney…” his voice trailed away into
silence.

“Me?” I asked, confused. “I didn’t do
anything.”

And then in a lightning-quick movement,
Rafael gripped Jareth’s arm and twisting it back, forced his hand
against the box.

As Jareth’s hand collided with the gray block
of wood, the symbol sprang to life and the top of the box flew
open. What looked like a handful of gray sugar-cubes flew in all
directions.

Rafael gasped and Jareth choked.

I glanced at them in surprise.

“I don’t even need to see what’s on those
cubes,” Rafael whispered in a hoarse voice.

Jareth stood there, frozen. Rafael looked
ill. In fact, they both looked sick.

When neither one of them spoke for a bit, I
said, “I really don’t get it.”

Finally, Rafael cleared his throat. “Jareth’s
father must be …” he hesitated, and then mouthed, “Marquis.”

My mouth dropped open. “That would mean that
you’re …
brothers?
”

Neither one of them answered me. They just
stared at each other, stunned, with expressions of disbelief etched
upon their faces.

And then Jareth choked, “No. This is some
kind of trick.”

Grabbing the cubes from the box, he strode
into the living room where a large, dusty mirror hung on the wall
behind the tables. Flicking the cubes open, he released sparks of
light and flung them into the mirror.

A jumble of images began to play, images of
Melody experimenting on various animals, spraying them with Lysol.
Armadillos. Coyotes. Snakes. Dinosaur bones. And then she was
standing triumphantly over something, and when she drew back, I
could see it was a Mesmer.

I gasped.

“
Melody
created the Mesmers,” Jareth
whispered the words we were all thinking.

“This makes little sense,” Rafael said with a
trace of wariness in his voice. “Why would she develop parasites
for their use?”

They both fell silent as the mirror displayed
Melody dressed in a white cloak, taking blood from Marquis and
mixing it with various concoctions before playing what we’d seen in
the Hall of Mirrors, the images of her injecting a needle with
strange contents into the dark-haired Fae who had given birth to
Jareth.

And then Jareth appeared in the mirror as an
infant with scales covering his skin. Melody stood in the
background nodding in satisfaction as Marquis hovered over him,
laughingly calling him ‘son’.

“Then … I do carry his … blood.” Jareth
swallowed, breathing hard.

Rafael seemed to be having difficulty
breathing as well. “It explains … much.”

But Jareth wasn’t listening to him. “I’m an
experiment,” he whispered hoarsely, pointing to the papers on the
table. “But created for what purpose?”

I licked my dry lips as he began to pace, but
before I could say anything, he slammed his fist on one of the
tables and simply disappeared.

“Not again,” I snapped, immediately thinking
of his number sequence. I was going to have to talk with Jareth. He
couldn’t keep running away every time something happened that he
didn’t like.

This time, Jareth didn’t respond to my
summons. I supposed I couldn’t really blame him, considering what
we’d just seen.

“How did you find the Bloodline Box?”
Rafael’s cool voice intruded upon my thoughts.

I whirled to face him, startled.

How had I forgotten he was there? He was just
a few feet away.

Abruptly, I stepped back.

He raised a brow at that, and then he slowly
walked around me in a circle before moving off to lean against the
doorway and fold his arms across his muscular chest.

I stood there silent, watching his pulse beat
in the hollow of his throat. How was I going to make him mad enough
to walk away?

“Do you have something to say to me?” he
asked suddenly.

His eyes churned with emotion. He was even
more dramatically handsome than usual. I glanced away. He certainly
wasn’t making it easy, but now was my chance. And I took it.

With a stubborn lift of my chin, I said, “I
meant it. Leave me alone.”

He didn’t turn away or run off mad like I’d
expected him to.

He didn’t even look insulted.

He merely lifted a brow and asked,
“Really?”

“Absolutely,” I replied with what I hoped was
conviction.

Spinning on my heel, I walked back towards
the kitchen, but I didn’t go in. I didn’t really want to see the
man in the black hat again.

“Where are you, Jareth?” I muttered under my
breath as I punched his numbers into my cellphone and hit
‘send’.

It didn’t work. It wasn’t a valid phone
number.

And then Rafael’s hand fell on my shoulder.
His touch was like a jolt of energy and a flood of emotion ran
through me.

I had to hurt him, and quickly before I lost
my resolve.

Clearing my throat, I faced him and said,
“Leave me alone. Ajax was right, you know. Jareth’s more my type.”
And then to seal the deal, I added, “I love him.”

Rafael’s clear gray eyes were steady and cool
as he studied my face. And then he said the last words I expected
to hear, “I feel like kissing you.”

I gaped up at him, furious with myself that
in spite of everything, I felt the same way. But I forced my lips
to say the opposite, “Don’t you dare. I love Jareth.”

He leaned closer, bringing his face within
inches of mine.

I swallowed. Why was he making this so hard?
He should at least participate by getting insulted. Frowning, I
ordered, “Take me back to Seattle.”

“I can’t,” he said, looking somewhat amused.
“You were there when the Queens took my light. I can no longer
shift.”

I took an involuntary step back. He followed
and took the opportunity to move even closer. I scowled. He was too
confident. Did he know the effect he had on me? One look into his
enigmatic eyes made me pretty sure that he did.

“Why are you trying to run, Sydney?” The
corner of his lip twisted as if in amusement as he focused his gaze
above my head.

Suddenly, I figured out what he was doing.
“Are you reading my fate lines?” I asked. That was close enough to
mind-reading in my opinion. “Stop it. You don’t have my
permission.”

He lifted a querying brow. “Why, what are you
trying to hide?”

“I don’t owe you any answers,” I said,
shooting him a mutinous look.

He moved a step closer.

I tried to look away. I really did. But it
was hard. I was inexplicably drawn to him.

Summoning one last effort to resist, I put my
hands on his chest to push him back.

That was a big mistake.

I immediately became distracted by the hard
muscles under my fingers, and he knew it because he smiled with a
suggestive lift of his brow. And then he moved his hand to lightly
cup my jaw.

All it took was that one touch, and I forgot
everything else but the warmth of his skin.

“There isn’t a choice anymore,” he whispered,
forcing my chin up with his thumb to look me straight in the eye.
“For either of us. Fate can’t be fooled.”