The Glass Wall (Return of the Ancients Book 1) (28 page)

Abruptly, he let me go, clutching his hand to his face as a clear fluid seeped through his fingers.

I stared, stunned.

I knew that he wasn’t human, but seeing the clear blood only drove that fact home more than anything else had done before.

There was a lengthy pause.

“I deserved that,” Rafael finally admitted in a somewhat calmer, muffled voice. His heavily eye-shadowed eyes peered at me from over the top of his hand, which he clamped tighter over his profusely bleeding nose. “But you’re gravely mistaken. I haven’t saved your life. They won’t allow you to live here. They won’t even want to take the chance. The consequences are too disastrous. More likely, we are both dead.”

As the words sank in, I began to shake. “Why?” I finally managed to whisper.

“Because you shouldn’t be here, and I should never have brought you!” Rafael closed his eyes and his shoulders sagged. “Most likely I am wrong and nothing is amiss with the Glass Wall.”

Glancing at his hands, he shrugged out of his shirt and used it to wipe the blood from his hands and face. He still wore a tight-fitting black tank top, one that revealed a lithe, muscular figure.

“What is this Glass Wall?” I asked again. My voice was shaking now too.

Casting his soiled shirt aside, he replied, “The Glass Wall protects Earth, all of humanity, from the Brotherhood of the Snake. My kind has guarded the Glass Wall for over a thousand years. Without it, your planet would be in grave danger.”

I was getting overwhelmed with fright. All I really wanted to do was to run around in circles and scream. I scarcely heard him as he continued.

“We first encountered humanity in the time of your King Arthur, and you were well on your way to being enslaved by the Brotherhood. Our Queen at that time, Morgan, constructed the Glass Wall to protect your race from their evil designs. I am from a long line of Fate Trackers, who hold the sacred duty of protecting the wall above all else and … I’m the first … to come this close to breaking it.” His words ended in a devastating whisper.

Morgan. The name sounded familiar, but I collapsed to my knees and covered my hands with my ears. I didn’t want to hear anymore.

I stayed that way for quite some time until my mind began to calm.

I wanted to go home, back to Al and Betty, but I was stuck on an alien planet. Panicking wouldn’t help and would only lead me to miss opportunities to return to Earth. I was going to have to get rid of my fear, or at least bottle it until later. Screwing my eyes shut, I allowed myself three, long, deep breaths and then informed myself it was time to let the panic go. From this moment on, I was only going to focus on how I was going to get home.

It took me several tries, but I finally managed to steel my resolve. I rose to my feet to face Rafael.

He was slouching before me with his hands in his pockets, and his enigmatic eyes studied me impassively. Standing with the two moons behind his back, his bold eye shadow gave him an even more unearthly appearance than usual.

I was scared, but I knew the only way out of it was to act, not to sit there and wallow in emotion. “What 
are
 you?” I asked the question that I’d been trying to answer for weeks.

His gaze still locked with mine, he answered quietly, “We are the Fae.”

Frowning, I strained to recall any incident where humanity had interfaced with an alien race called the Fae. I shook my head. “I’ve never heard of them. You must be mistaken. If humanity had met an alien race a thousand years ago, it would be all over our history.”

“It is.” His lips curved in a smile. “We have a healthy presence in your culture, though we are now relegated to the realm of myth and children’s tales. We are referred to as Fairies, though some accounts still call us by our proper name, the Fae.”

My mouth dropped open in surprise. I would have laughed in the past, but now it wasn’t humorous. The situation was far too dangerous. Instead, I just licked my dry lips and mumbled, “You don’t have wings!”

Rafael gave a humph that sounded a lot like a laugh. “We never did. It was how humans chose to document our ability to Phase Shift. You see us vanish when we shift between the places we wish to be.” He reached over and touched me lightly on the tip of my nose and his eyes sparkled a little mischievously. “As you have discovered, the first few times are quite nauseating.”

It was hard to believe what I was hearing.

Rafael was a Fairy. They all were Fairies. Fairies!

Then, the light moment fled. His eyes adopted a haunted look once again, and he moved away, clenching his hands into fists.

I wasn’t sure what we were waiting for, but I didn’t have the nerve to interrupt him at the moment. He looked too tense. Instead, I sat back down and ran my fingers through the dirt. It was a bit like damp sand. I began to draw patterns in it with the tip of my finger and let my mind wander.

Maybe none of this was real. If I were lucky, I would discover that it was all a bizarre dream. Just in case, I pinched myself, but nothing happened. It was not surprising. In my entire life, there never had been an easy escape for me from anything difficult.

However, this time, a healthy portion my current problem was my own fault. I’d taken the Tulpa from Marquis’ car.

“I’m sorry,” I apologized, still resting my cheek against my knee and drawing swirly patterns in the sand. “I never should have taken that red tube from Marquis’ car, but I really wanted to give it back yesterday.”

It took some time before Rafael’s voice answered mine. His thoughts had obviously been very far away. “What?”

“I didn’t know there was a Tulpa in it. You know, I’ve never even heard of those before.” I kept talking, still focusing on the sand. “I was just curious what Marquis was doing and—”

I yelped as Rafael hefted me to my feet. I looked into his eyes, startled.

“Marquis?” His face held a mixture of bewilderment and disbelief. “You took the Tulpa from 
Marquis’
 car?”

“Uh, yeah.” I admitted, slightly alarmed. “Al and I saw him … opening it up and …” I fell silent, uncertain why he appeared so disturbed.

“And what, Sydney?” Rafael breathed, horror-stricken. “You saw him doing what?”

“I don’t know!” I began shaking. It took me several long minutes to control my fear so I could reply. “It was weird. That thing stuck its tentacles in his nose and eyes … I guess. It was hard to tell ...” I trailed off.

He shuddered and closed his eyes, his face losing all color once again. I thought he was going to vomit.

“I’m sorry.” I really didn’t know why I said it. It just felt like I should.

Rafael’s mouth twisted in dismay. With his eyes still closed, he whispered, “Are you certain … that it was Marquis?”

“Yes,” I said. “We recorded him on video.”

His eyes flew open and his brows arched a little. “Recorded?”

Biting my lip, I admitted, “Al thought you were a drug dealer. He had a couple of video cameras recording your … house … since you moved into the … neighborhood. He’s been a bit suspicious. He got the alien detection kit at Thanksgiving. The thing that went off yesterday … ” It was harder to come clean than I thought. Even though I was still scared, I felt my cheeks redden with embarrassment.

Rafael just stared at me.

“I knew you would be here, Rafael.”

Both of us whirled to see Jareth standing behind us, dressed in his full black leather outfit, dangling chains, and porcupine hair. Apparently, he had taken the time to change.

“You always come here when you’re upset.” Jareth drawled. Tilting his head to the side, he sized me up and down. “I see that you have recovered, Sydney.”

Recalling quite clearly that in our last encounter he had tried to convince Rafael to let me die, I sent him an unforgiving scowl and muttered, “No thanks to you!”

“It’s nothing personal.” Jareth shrugged indifferently. “But make no mistake; Rafael has only delayed your death for a short time. No human is allowed to live in or leave this place.”

I glanced away as I willed my fear to stay bottled, and Rafael reached over and gave my shoulder a reassuring squeeze.

“I hate to interrupt you, Rafael.” Jareth folded his arms in a creak of leather and jingling chains. “But now that we have inexplicably arrived in this fate line, we should inspect the Glass Wall before taking any further action.”

Rafael sent him a measured look. His lips curled into a mocking smile as he said, “How pleasant to see you come to your senses at last.”

“I shall root Sydney here.” Jareth replied.

At once, Rafael’s eyes flashed and his lips set in a thin, uncompromising line. “Sydney comes with us!” he said.

“Why would I be that foolish?” Jareth’s face darkened. “No one would ever permit a human so close to the Glass Wall!”

“You have no choice,” Rafael countered evenly.

Jareth stared at him a moment before remarking cynically, “Really? I can simply deliver you to your Queen, thereby washing my hands of this entire affair, and I wouldn’t even be questioned! All of the offenses in history 
combined
 are nothing compared to what you are in the middle of achieving, Rafael!”

“And you will simply walk away?” Rafael laughed. It was a deep, rich laugh rife with an elegant contempt. “As my lifelong counterpart, I know you as well as you know me. You care more about discovering the origin of that Tulpa than I do! I’d wager my life’s blood upon it!”

Jareth’s eyes filled with a hot anger, but he replied steadily enough, “It does no good to wager your blood as it’ll spill soon enough anyway, but perhaps I can wait a little while longer.” Turning to me, he withdrew from his sleeve the silver pen-like device I had seen before. He pointed it at me. “Do you know what this is, Sydney?”

I nervously shook my head.

“This is a trion.” His voice adopted a chilling tone. “The Fae have harnessed the power of sound to create this deadly weapon. With a single word, I can obliterate you as fast or as slow as I please.”

I swallowed. So I 
had
 been in danger on the night that I’d first heard of the Glass Wall.

“I will be escorting you,” Jareth continued in a harsh monotone. “If you take as much as a single step toward Rafael, I will annihilate all traces of you. Do you understand?”

“No! I don’t understand at all!” I snapped as he closed the distance between us in two large steps and grabbed my arm.

“We are going to inspect the Glass Wall, and you must come with us, because that fool refuses to leave you behind,” he explained. With a sneer on his lips, he addressed Rafael, “If you even touch a single hair on her head, I’ll annihilate you as well, regardless if you’re a Fate Tracker or not! I will never allow you to take her back to Earth.”

Ignoring him outright, Rafael sent me a graceful nod and a reassuring smile. “Trust me, Sydney. I have faith we will find the answers we seek.”

At that, Jareth broke into a loud, condescending laugh. “Recall, Sydney, I’ve pointed out before that Rafael is quite the dreamer.”

“Odd choice of words.” Rafael raised a brow at him, and his eyes flashed dangerously. “Perhaps it is you that has dreamt of this Tulpa before? Shall we look into the mirror?”

Jareth jerked. I could feel a ripple run through him, but I didn’t understand either of them or what it meant.

Then, Rafael’s demeanor changed. Adopting a harsh tone of command, he lifted his arm and ordered, “To the wall. At once!”

With that, he vanished.

“Hold onto me tightly, Sydney.” Jareth scowled down at me.

With his fingers clasped around my arm in a death grip, he shifted, taking me with him.

Again, I was overwhelmed with an intense wave of nausea. Squeezing my eyes shut and falling to my knees, I was unable to look around to see where we had shifted to.

“Take deep breaths, Sydney.” Rafael advised as Jareth warned, “Keep away from her, Rafael!”

It took longer than they both liked before I could open my eyes. Jareth reluctantly offered a supportive arm that I promptly shoved away as I struggled to my feet on my own.

He grinned.

I was standing on what looked like white, compacted sand. I could only see a short distance ahead of me and on each side, before mist obscured my view. Rafael stood a respectable distance away, somewhat masked by mist with his thumbs stuck in his pockets and his eyes focused over my shoulder.

Slowly, I turned.

Behind me rose an immense wall of glass, like a monstrous dam of inconceivable proportions. It spread in both directions with each end fading into the mist. I stood before it, filled with a profound sense of awe, feeling to be the size of an ant in comparison.

“This is the Glass Wall, Sydney,” Jareth announced in an unusually restrained tone.

“It’s a … real wall!” I exclaimed in utter amazement.

“No.” Rafael disagreed, still maintaining his distance. “It’s a representation of our protection of humanity for as long as no human rejects it. Though to you, it would appear to be a real wall.”

I couldn’t believe it wasn’t real. The surface was shiny, mesmerizing. I wanted to reach out and touch it, but before I could even move, Jareth clamped his fingers on my arm.