The Glass Wall (Return of the Ancients Book 1) (33 page)

Finding the silence oppressive, I searched for topics of conversation. Recalling her comment from before that she had dandled Rafael on her knee as a babe, I asked quietly, “So, Harmony … are you like Rafael’s nanny or something?”

Rafael cleared his throat as Harmony gave a little laugh and really looked at me for the first time. “That’s the best comparison that I’ve ever heard!” she replied with a grin.

“Harmony is my bodyguard,” Rafael explained, briefly looking over his shoulder at me. “Fate Trackers are protected from birth since there are few of us left. Before she was assigned to me, she served as Captain of the Light Queen’s Guard.”

“Yes, and by the Light Queen’s order, I gave up my illustrious position to become a nanny.” She obviously found the concept highly amusing.

Rafael sent her an exasperated look. Selecting another stone, he placed it in front of the second bracelet. Another rainbow of lights arched through the mirror.

“Rafael always was—” Harmony began but abruptly fell silent. Rolling her eyes, she removed her trion from her pocket and said, “I seem to have blundered with that human Al.”

Hearing Al’s name, I sat up straighter.

“What is it?” Rafael paused, turning toward her in curiosity.

She fidgeted a little before answering. “I wanted to give the humans closure. I know they have bonded with Sydney … so I told Al that she came away with us for the weekend. I figured I could end it with a car crash or … something.” She winced at my outraged expression before shaking her trion in exasperation. “But this Al keeps calling her cell phone!”

I felt nauseated. I really was going to die. Rafael could say what he wanted, but everyone else was convinced I only had a day left to live. I glanced over to find him watching me in the mirror.

He beckoned me with a long finger.

I blew my hair out of my eyes. I didn’t want to hear niceties. I wanted the truth. But I went over and joined him, anyway.

He was prodding the bracelets with another silver toothpick but murmured, “Sydney, there is no cause to panic yet. Your fate line is still strong.”

“He gave up,” Harmony muttered from behind us, tucking her trion away.

Quietly, Rafael ordered, “Call him back, Harmony. Let him know that she’s safe.”

“Can I talk to him?” My voice cracked as I held out my hand, as though she would hand me my phone.

Harmony shook her head in a gesture of genuine sorrow. “It is impossible, Sydney. Your voice won’t carry through my trion.” Turning to Rafael, she drew her brows in a deep frown. “Calling him would be a mistake. The less contact we have, the better.”

His lips thinned into a tight line. “Do it.”

With an obvious lack of enthusiasm, she fished out her trion again and breathed a soft word. A threadlike beam of golden light shot up to the ceiling as she spoke. “Hi, Al! I just … like … found my phone, and I was going to, like, call you back sooner, but we were busy. You know how it is with girls!” She giggled.

My mouth dropped open. She was speaking in
my
voice.

“Yeah, I’m just chillin’ out with Harmony here on the beach,” she said.

“Chillin’?” I muttered. “I don’t talk like that!”

“We’re taking a nice little jaunt up the coast!” Harmony was saying, frowning at me. “Oh! The signal is breaking up now!”

For a brief moment, I heard Al’s worried voice as he responded by speaking louder. I was overwhelmed by a sudden wave of emotion. “Why can’t I at least say my last good-bye?” I choked, asking no one in particular.

“Have faith that it won’t be,” Rafael replied softly, focusing on the bracelets with grim determination.

I wished I could, but I didn’t know how. Instead, I watched as Harmony grew visibly frustrated imitating me.

Finally, she snapped, “Heaven’s Bells! That’s enough prattling about secret code words or whatever, Mr. MacKenzie! Don’t worry! I’m fine, and I’ll keep in touch. Give Betty all the best and Grace, tell her hugs and kisses. Bye!” With an annoyed flick of her wrist, she jammed the trion in her pocket.

“He knows that isn’t me.” I scowled as she rejoined us. “You’ve only made him more suspicious, especially by not knowing the Mackenzie Secret Code Phrase.”

“Secret Phrase?” Rafael arched a fine brow as his lips pulled up into a genuine smile. “Al has proven to be quite the crafty one.” Glancing up at Harmony, he added, “He’s had us under surveillance since the day we arrived.”

It was Harmony’s turn to be astonished. She drew me away to the couch and we found some measure of distraction by talking about Al and his spying devices. But then it all became too much effort, and we lapsed into a silence.

Finally, I had to face the fact that I could do nothing but wait for Rafael to finish whatever he was attempting to do. It was hard to only count the seconds slipping by, because I knew now the exact number of seconds I had left to live.

Chapter Twenty-Two - The Stair

I was jolted awake by Rafael’s strangled roar of frustration.

Dazed, I staggered to my feet to witness him pounding the mirror with his fist as the room filled with a deep, throbbing vibration.

A sharp pain lanced through my skull, and I fell to my knees, clutching my head.

“Stop reflecting, Rafael!” Harmony screamed. “The mirror is hurting her!”

Instantly, the vibration ceased, and the pain disappeared.

Struggling to my feet, our current situation returned to me with a rush. Although I knew the worst must have happened, I wanted to know what is was.

“What is it?” I croaked.

Breathing heavily, Rafael leaned against the mirror with his head buried in one arm. He made a pounding motion with his other fist, but stopped short of striking the mirror’s surface.

I didn’t think he was going to answer me, but then I heard him whisper, “We are in the last hour, and I can’t alter the cipher. I have failed, Sydney.”

Pressing her lips together tightly, Harmony blinked rapidly and turned her face away.

“So? We have a whole hour, right?” I finally broke the silence that followed his words. “You aren’t giving up, are you?”

He didn’t respond.

Panicking, I ran to his side and shook his arm. “You can’t just give up!”

“What can I do?” he asked in turn, stepping back to face me, his voice filled with devastation and pain. “I must be wrong and … Jareth must be right.”

“You can’t
say
that!” I shouted, tears sliding down my cheeks. “You
have
to be right, you
have
to!”

He just stared at me, stricken with horror.

I couldn’t believe it was happening. I didn’t want to think that I might actually die in an hour. I knew they would never change their minds and at least let me live the rest of my life in Avalon. Harmony’s pained expressions had pretty much confirmed my time here was short. To think otherwise would be dreaming. And then I recalled Rafael’s comment about how humans could dream their own reality, and the inspirational quote from the school bridge suddenly popped into my head:
Man’s greatness lies in his power of thought.
Collapsing against the mirror, I sobbed, “Why can’t I just think or dream us all out of here?”

The silence in the closet was petrifying.

Then Rafael slowly straightened, and a look of wonder crossed his face.

“What is it?” Harmony sprang to her feet.

He seemed unable to speak. He just stared at me in outright amazement.

As the hair stood on the back of my neck, I found myself repeating her question, “What is it?”

Grabbing my hand, he pulled me to the table where the bracelets still projected bands of light through the clear stones and into the mirror. “Touch this, Sydney,” he whispered hoarsely, pointing to the stones.

Bewildered, but knowing we were out of time, I did as he asked.

As my skin connected with the stone’s cool surface, a new color entered the rainbow. It was an incredibly deep shade of blue.

Startled, I jerked my hand back.

The strand of blue disappeared.

Harmony gave a cry of utter astonishment as Rafael threw his head back and laughed.

“Is … that what I think it is?” Harmony whispered in awe.

With a gentle touch, Rafael guided my finger once more to the stone. Again, the blue strand joined the other colors of the rainbow in the mirror.

“It’s
exactly
what you think, Harmony.” Rafael replied in a hushed voice. “The Fae can never alter these ciphers … not until they can dream.”

“What is it?” I asked, unable to bear the suspense a moment longer.

Cupping my chin in his hand, Rafael leaned down and pressed his lips against my forehead. “You have saved our lives, little human. The blue strand lives in the Second World … a world I can never access … but you can.”

I didn’t really understand, but I didn’t care at the moment. “Are we going to live now?” I asked in a garbled voice.

“Well, you’ll live for a little while longer, anyway.” Harmony retorted sarcastically, but she was smiling. “At least you’ll be able to escape the tower now to carry on this mad scheme!”

I knew she wouldn’t be treating the subject so lightly if she thought we weren’t going to succeed. Suddenly flooded with hope, I found myself grinning.

“Then let us use our time wisely and finish this now,” Rafael said crisply. “Touch the stone and speak your name, Sydney.”

With quivering fingers, I followed his orders. As I said my name, the deep blue strand of light rippled and pulsed to merge with the others before settling back to its original place.

Shaking his head in wonder, Rafael slid the bracelet onto my wrist. “Touch it, Sydney.”

As I did, a beam of golden light shot out and up to the ceiling, much like the one that had come out of Harmony’s trion.

By their overt sighs of relief, I knew it had been successful, but I didn’t have a clue of what it really meant. We quickly repeated the process for the other bracelet and shortly after, Rafael was sliding it onto his own wrist and producing a matching beam of light.

“You have accomplished the impossible, Sydney,” Rafael murmured, executing a bow of the deepest respect. “We can now use Raven’s classification to exit the tower undetected.”

“Then we are going to escape now?” I asked, excited but scared at the same time.

“Absolutely!” Rafael’s face relaxed into a broad smile, but almost immediately his brows swept into a faint line of disapproval as his gaze raked me up and down. “However … you simply can’t escape attired in such a manner!”

For a moment, I thought he was joking, but when it became apparent that he was serious, I glanced down at myself, puzzled. “Change clothes? Don’t we have less than an hour?”

“There is enough time.” Rafael tilted his head thoughtfully to the side. “With your coloring, I would think a dark purple or silver would serve quite well.”

Harmony joined him, pursing her lips. “We should also try a jade green,” she said, tapping her chin.

I watched them, bewildered.

“But not just any jade green ...” Rafael differed, narrowing his eyes a little. “Perhaps a dye from the Summer of 879—or Spring of 678 might be the right one.”

Harmony sniffed, apparently insulted. “I’ll never understand the reputation that the Spring of 678 has. They hadn’t even discovered triviluthim back then! The shade is simply wrong, a travesty of fashion!”

As Rafael’s gray eyes responded with a passionate flash, I cleared my throat and interrupted them in utter amazement. “Aren’t we trying to hurry? Who cares what color I’m wearing?”

They both looked at me, shocked.

“Simply because we are rushed doesn’t mean that we leave without proper grooming!” Rafael explained, a little coolly.

“Huh?” I couldn’t believe my ears.

“Harmony can start your mask while I locate the correct jade green.” He brushed my reaction aside with a wave of his hand and disappeared among the racks of clothing in his closet.

I looked to Harmony for support, but she was obviously on Rafael’s side. Dragging one of the stools to the mirror, she touched its shiny surface. From the ceiling, some kind of complex shelving descended, composed of drawers and compartments of eye shadow, glitter, and brushes.

“Take a seat, Sydney.” Harmony smiled in invitation. “It’s time to start your mask.”

I hesitated, but figuring that we would waste even more time arguing, I climbed onto the stool. “Are you sure we have time for this … mask?” I couldn’t help muttering.

“You can’t walk among the Fae without a mask.” Harmony frowned at me.

“Oh! Is it a disguise?” I asked, thinking I was beginning to understand. “Would I stand out too much if I wasn’t dressed correctly?”

“Most likely no one would notice as they are too concerned with their own appearance.” She rolled her eyes as she plucked a couple of containers out of a drawer.

I hadn’t expected that and frowned impatiently. “Then why am I bothering? Who cares what I look like if I only have an hour to live? Actually, I’m sure it’s less than an hour now!”