The Brotherhood of the Snake (Return of the Ancients Book 2) (12 page)

Rafael’s head jerked back and he clenched his teeth. “I refuse to participate in your delusions a moment longer, Jareth! Yes, I stated I’d investigate the Inner Circle and that I believe they exist, but they aren’t so grand and all-powerful as you apparently believe. They’re not master puppeteers, directing the strings of every Fae in Avalon. The Passing of Cor has been observed every year since his death and that was hundreds of years ago! Long before the birth of the so-called Inner Circle, isn’t that so?”

Jareth didn’t respond. It was an annoying habit. Whenever someone said something he didn’t like, he just ignored the entire exchange.

Finally, I broke the silence myself. “The Passing of Cor?”

Apparently, Cor was a topic that Jareth was interested in.

Sitting up a little straighter, he nodded at the white-clad Fae in the mirror. “Cor,” he repeated the name, pointing at Rafael with his chin. “He was Rafael’s forebear, King of the Fae, and the descendant of Queen Morgan le Fae. And most importantly, he was a Pure Blood, as is our precious Rafael. Every year, the Fae dress in white and throng to Zelphie and Rafael, his last living offspring, to demonstrate their support and desire that Cor’s descendants rise to retake the throne.” He eyed the mirror in disgust. “The crowds grow larger every year.”

It was odd to think of Rafael becoming King of something. It didn’t seem real. I watched the Fae in the mirror shout for him as a sudden thought popped in my head. I frowned.

“Won’t it be harder to escape when they’re all out there looking for him?” I asked. Recalling their abilities,  I added a little self-consciously, “Oh! I forgot you can shape-shift.”

“A Fae could never fool another Fae by shape-shifting,” Rafael replied, clenching his teeth tighter before confronting Jareth, “Escape?”

He said the word with such aggravation that I found myself thrown into a confused mix of emotions. Apparently, he wasn’t on board with Jareth’s idea of an escape plan.

“We’ll have to wait until they leave before making any attempt,” Jareth yawned, unperturbed, pointing to the demonstrators milling about in the streets below. “Their dedication is growing. They want their Pure Blood on the throne, or shall I say the Inner Circle must be escalating their plan?” He gave a scathing laugh.

Rafael’s jaw muscle twitched, and I figured with the way he’d been grinding his teeth the last few minutes that he’d soon not have any teeth left. I wanted to talk more about escaping, but I guessed I should let Rafael cool down a little first.

As Rafael and Jareth began glaring at each other again, I returned to the couch and helped myself to a red square of the gelatinous substance. It tasted just like strawberry Jell-O. “What’s this?” I asked.

“Strawberry Jell-O,” Rafael replied tersely, folding his arms and keeping his eyes fastened on Jareth.

“You’re kidding!” I laughed a little in the attempt to lighten the atmosphere. “Do you have like a black market for Jell-O or something?”

They didn’t share my amusement. In fact, they were back to ignoring me again.

I just sat back and watched them in astonishment.

They really
were
horrible teammates, nothing like the counterparts they were supposed to be.

But then, they were both cursed like I was.

They were both Blue-Threaded.

I scanned the mirror again, recalling the myriad of lines that I’d seen over Jareth’s head the night before, and the single Blue Thread weaving through them.

What did my Blue Thread look like?

How many fate lines did I have hanging over
my
head?

Suddenly, I wanted to see them.

I was just about to ask Rafael if I could have a look when the mirror went dark, and suddenly I was looking at myself in the mirror.

I heard Rafael’s sharp intake of breath followed by Jareth’s gasp, but I wasn’t really paying attention to them.

I was staring at an image of myself from the past, right before I’d moved in with Al and Betty.

I was sitting next to my mom, Maya, as she was being admitted into the rehab center. But this time, above my head, I could see a complex web of white lines. And like Jareth, one of them was blue.

Only, his Blue Thread had been the same size as the other lines.

Mine was huge and more like a blue neon sign hanging over my head. It seemed at least a foot wide and it shot straight up, disappearing into an inky black cloud at the edge of the mirror.

I shivered.

No wonder the Fae had been worried about me.

“Why’s it so big?” I whispered hoarsely. “It isn’t a line. It looks more like a road! It’s at least a foot wide!”

When no one replied, I glanced over my shoulder, but Jareth and Rafael weren’t looking at the mirror.

They were staring at me.

I suddenly felt scared. “What’s wrong?” I asked, my voice shaking a little. “Did my Blue Thread really grow?”

When they still didn’t reply, full panic set in.

“I made the wrong decision, didn’t I?” My lips were so numb I could scarcely form the words.

I wanted to cry.

Rafael stepped forward to softly lay a comforting hand on my shoulder.

Even Jareth looked a bit sympathetic.

“No, Sydney,” Rafael reassured me. “You’ve yet to face your challenge.”

“Then my Blue Thread’s always been that big?” I squeaked. “How can you call that thing a thread? It’s huge!”

His eyes filled with compassion. “We didn’t want to frighten you.”

“Oh? You didn’t want to tell me that I had an entire Blue-Threaded tapestry hanging over my head?” I tried to laugh. I really don’t know why. It wasn’t a laughable situation. “Why’s it so big? What does it mean?”

I could tell he didn’t want to answer me. He looked like he’d much rather be anywhere else. But he finally admitted, “We aren’t certain as we’ve never encountered this before. Most likely it’s related to the magnitude of your decision.”

I glanced back at myself in the mirror again.

If that was true, then I was going to affect a lot of people.

I felt sick. My decisions weren’t just about me anymore. It was weird to think that I was responsible for so many people. It didn’t feel real. In fact, none of it felt real, from the Tulpa to the lizard people.

I still found them difficult to really grasp, after all I’d never really seen one.

I took several deep breaths, but it didn’t really do a thing to calm me down.

It took me a little while to realize that the silence around me was unnatural. Finally, I glanced up to find their eyes still locked on me. I couldn’t begin to interpret their expressions.

“What’s wrong?” I gulped.

Jareth didn’t speak. That in itself was unusual.

After an extraordinarily long time, Rafael nodded at the mirror and admitted, “It’s the mirror. How did you summon your fate lines? Only Jareth and I can do that. You’re not a … Fate Tracker … obviously.” His voice grew softer with each word until it trailed away completely.

I frowned, confused. “I didn’t do anything!” I began a bit defensively.

But then the mirror turned black and a hissing sound snaked through the room, immediately bringing our conversation to a complete stop.

The hissing grew louder, and the mirror’s surface began to flicker red.

Mist appeared.

I heard voices and fragments of conversation interspersed amongst the hissing.

“…
not far from her …”

“…
must still have it!”

“Have to get it back and quickly!”

“We can’t proceed without it! It is key to our success!”

“But did she corrupt it?”

I caught my breath, knowing the words referred to me. I shivered as a chill ran down my spine.

The mist drifted across the mirror for a time before finally parting to reveal a red sky with black cliffs rising above a sea of lava. Columns of smoke drifted up from the ground, curling around dark forms writhing in piles at the top of the cliffs.

I peered closer at the wriggling masses, and then drew back, startled.

They were lizards.

Large and snake-like, they were all shapes and sizes, some resembling dragons while others looked like mutated dogs with scales. All of them were alert, their multi-lensed eyes searching in our direction as if they sensed our presence.

One of the lizards opened its mouth and emitted a sound worse than someone scraping their fingernails on a blackboard.

I gasped, covering my ears with my hands, noting from the corner of my eye that Rafael was doing the same.

However, Jareth was not.

He was staring at the mirror impassively and in an almost vacant manner, as if in some kind of catatonic state.

That thought made me realize just exactly who the writhing masses of lizards were.

I was looking at the lizard people.

Horror filled me.

The lizards rose as one, lifting their noses in excitement as above them a black creature with wriggling tentacles popped into view. The creature floated above their heads, its appendages stretching out in all directions, and then as it attempted to flee, the lizards’ tongues lashed out. Pulling the wriggling creature down, they ripped it apart and greedily consumed it.

The whole thing was disgusting and creepy. “Make them go away!” I croaked in a gargled whisper, shuddering with fear.

Another dark creature similar to the first popped into existence. The lizard people scrambled over each other viciously to capture and devour this one just like the first.

I covered my mouth with my hands.

“Stop feeding them, Sydney!” Jareth barked, breaking into my thoughts.

His surprising words jolted me out of my horror.

Simultaneously, the lizards froze. Turning as one, they rose on their haunches and peering through the mist, stared in our direction as if they could see us.

They’d sensed us somehow. Or more accurately, they sensed me. Somehow, they’d breached the vast distance between us to focus their attention on me. They were watching me with mysterious eyes, eyes reminiscent of bottomless, coal-black pits, and eyes that I felt myself falling into.

The stench of sulfur filled the air, and suddenly it was unbearably hot.

Dimly, as if from far away, I heard Rafael shouting, “They see us! Don’t look at them, Sydney!”

But it was too late. I already knew that. And I couldn’t look away, I couldn’t even try.

A low voice rumbled through my bones, vibrating my teeth. “It’s the girl. She’s the One.”

Several lizards crouched, their forked-tongues flicking out eagerly as they prepared to leap.

I knew they were coming for me, but there was nothing I could do as 
I heard Jareth’s dark voice slithering through my mind, hissing much in the same manner as the lizards’ had. “You can’t have her. She isn’t yours. She’s mine.”

The lizards held still.

And at the same time, I somehow snapped out of my altered state.

“What’s going on?” I gasped, whirling to Jareth. “How did you do that?”

“Do what?” Rafael turned to me, his face pale. “What did he do?”

“Who are you?” The lizard voices chorused in my head again, but this time, I knew they were speaking to Jareth.

Jareth lifted his hands.

Immediately, mist began to swirl in the mirror. There was a flash of light, and a new chilling scene was superimposed on top of the old one. Hundreds of humanoid forms were scattered across the mirror, each connected to the naval by an umbilical cord of bright, golden light. The cords of light fanned out in all directions, trailing off to disappear into the mist.

I wondered what was at the other end, and then the mist briefly parted, and I saw my answer.

Lizards.

Each golden cord of light was connected to a fork-tongued lizard.

I felt sick.

Clearly, the lizards were some sort of macabre puppet masters, controlling their victims, or perhaps—and I felt even sicker—sucking their energy like ticks.

Rafael gave a muffled cry.

Startled, I followed his horror-struck gaze.

He was staring at one of the human forms linked to a particularly large, black, and disturbing lizard.

But then I realized it wasn’t a human at all.

It was Marquis.

Chapter Seven – The Puppet Masters

Staggering back, Rafael’s eyes remained glued to the mirror as his hands flew to his temples, and a hoarse cry wrenched from his throat.

I could scarcely breathe.

The mirror’s reflection altered, focusing on Marquis and Zelphie walking in a garden as blue, butterfly-winged dragons glided in the sky overhead. Zelphie was talking, but I couldn’t hear her. She appeared highly agitated as she waved her hands emphatically in the air and made rapid chopping motions.

Marquis yawned, clearly bored.

At that, Zelphie stopped abruptly, pivoted on her toe, and angrily strode away.

With an indifferent shake of his head, Marquis watched her go before resuming his walk alone. Nothing about him appeared amiss, save for the faint image on the mirror of the golden cord of light stretching out from his stomach to the dark, oily lizard sprawled on the black cliffs a dimension away.

I shuddered.

Just how many people did the lizards control?

Suddenly, Marquis stiffened. After a moment, he whirled to face us, his brows drawn in a puzzled frowned as he lifted his hand to his forehead and began searching the empty air in front of him.

Unconsciously, I took a step back.

Was he searching for us?

His lips crooked in a half-smile and for a brief moment, his eyes morphed into reptilian slits as his tongue forked and black scales shimmered over his skin.

I gasped.

Rafael looked ill and covered his face with his hands.

Suddenly, I didn’t want to see anymore. I just wanted to run away. But was it too late? Had Marquis sensed us somehow? He could be looking for us, or perhaps all of those writhing lizards on the cliffs were as well.

I didn’t want to think of just how many there might be.