The Brotherhood of the Snake (Return of the Ancients Book 2) (14 page)

As if from a great distance, I observed my pulse quickening and I wondered how I could be thinking and feeling so many conflicting things at the same time.
I knew I was supposed to be—at the very least—thinking of the lizard people, but he’d turned his head to look at me and was leaning down.

His distracting lips were close and moving closer, but then his words succeeded in snagging my attention.

“—
and she’s unschooled in Light,
yet the bracelet is reacting as if she’s an Adept and fused with its vibrations.” His voice was cool and calm.

Shaking my head a little, I stepped back; my wandering thoughts making me feel foolish.

I’d heard stress made people do strange things.

I guess it was true.

“Then there’s much we don’t understand about humans and Light.” Jareth slammed his fist against the wall. “That means she’s dangerous and could do it again.”

That was alarming enough for me to give them my full attention. I wasn’t all that keen to see the lizard people again.

“How can I prevent that?” I asked in a hoarse whisper.

Rafael reached over and squeezed my shoulder with a comforting smile. “Perhaps if we learn how you managed it the first time, we could avoid repeating it in the future.”

Sliding his hand down my spine, he let it rest against the small of my back and guided me to the mirror.

My heart lurched at his touch only to fall to my toes as his words sunk in. “You want me to try calling them again?” I gasped, horrified.

“No!” Rafael quickly assured as Jareth joined us.

“But they might come if I stay here!” I insisted, shivering a little.

I was getting tired of being scared. With a pang of longing, I wished I could go home to Al and Betty and just be a normal teenager, finish school, and get over my secret crush on Rafael. “They can’t,” Jareth grunted. “They know I’m here now.”

His statement caused both Rafael and I to send him a strange look, but the surface of the mirror had already begun to ripple, and our attention was immediately diverted.

“What is it, Sydney?” I heard Rafael ask.

His voice sounded miles away.

Betty’s laughter rang through the room, and the mirror burst into color, displaying a life-sized version of Al, Betty, and Grace setting a homemade cake on the kitchen table. There they were, singing “Happy Birthday” to my double sitting primly and properly before them with a bright helium balloon tied to the back of his chair.

As Al’s baritone rose above the others, my heart gave a little flop.

No one had ever made me a birthday cake before. In fact, I’d never had a party in my life.

With mixed emotions, I watched them sing as they placed three brightly wrapped presents in front of the Protector pretending to be me. When the song was over, Betty laughingly ordered the candles to be blown out and a wish to be made.

My first stab of outright envy arrived as I watched my double open the present from Grace. It was a new cell phone case with “Sydney” bedazzled on it. I could tell from the crooked letters that she’d made it herself.

It made me do a double take.

Grace lived and breathed sports. I’d never seen her do anything crafty. My throat closed with emotion over the thought that she’d labored over something for me. Why would she do that?

Betty’s present turned out to be an expansion tube for Jerry’s cage. In my mind’s eye, I could see Jerry sniffing it excitedly. Betty laughed. “You gave me a mouse for my birthday,” she said. “It’s only fitting I should get you something for yours.”

A lump rose in my throat, and my eyes stung with the first hint of tears.

Al pushed the last box across the table. The wrapping paper fell away to reveal a small black box with bright green letters:
The Alien Time Catcher
.

“It’s a watch, kiddo.” Al eagerly snatched the box from my double’s hands and took it out. “It’s designed to detect lost time. When aliens mess with our reality, it’ll stop working and record the exact moment they began tinkering. Thought you could use this in your investigations. Jack swears it’s the best on the market. It’s a sensitive, scientific instrument, Sydney.” He patted the fake Sydney on the head and clipped it on her wrist.

Grace leaned over the table to peer at the small black watch. She squinted and grinned. “It isn’t working, Dad.”

“Impossible!” Al’s brows knit into a firm line. “Let me see that, Sydney!”

“Enough!” I inhaled shakily.

It was all I trusted my voice to say.

My vision blurred, and I stepped back.

I’d just witnessed the first birthday party anyone had ever thrown for me, and I hadn’t even been there.

“I don’t want to see anymore,” I said, futilely pulling at the thin golden bracelet, stubbornly ignoring the tears streaming down my cheeks.

As the mirror went black, R
afael gently pulled me into a compassionate embrace.

I hated sympathy when I was upset. It always made me cry more, and I couldn’t stop myself from sniffing into his shirt.

Resting his cheek on the top of my head, he murmured, “I’m sorry. We’ll get you safely back home to them.”

“I’m fine,” I replied in a muffled voice. The words sounded like the lie they were.

I could have stayed in his arms forever. I felt like I belonged there, but it was strangely that thought that made me stand back.

Jareth stood close by, leaning against the wall and watching me with a strange expression on his face that suspiciously looked like sympathy, but I wasn’t sure he was truly capable of that.

Not wanting to stand there, wallowing in emotion, I resolutely raised my chin and pointed to the bracelet on my wrist.

“Can’t you just get this thing off?” I asked them.

Jareth looked away.

“It’s not coming off, Sydney,” Rafael answered gently. “It’s fused with you in a way we can’t understand.”

I didn’t like hearing that. I glanced at Jareth for confirmation. His continued silence was affirmation enough. I drew my brows together in a frown. “But I don’t even know how it’s working,” I said.

“It appears the mirror may be responding to your heart,” Rafael informed quietly. “You’re accessing it in an entirely different way than we’d thought possible.”

I didn’t like the implication of his words. “My heart? You can’t be right. My heart never wanted to see the lizard people.”

But even as I said it, I began wondering how much it was really true. I had been thinking of them a lot.

“Then humans are exceedingly dangerous.” Jareth’s dark words shattered my thoughts. “Their ability to dream coupled with the mirror’s window of possibility can only mean disaster in the end, given their ignorance and lack of control. They’re like infants sucking on nuclear warheads … or worse.”

I glared at him, but even I couldn’t argue with his words.

“We’ll lock the mirror until we find the solution,” Rafael announced grimly.

Turning to the mirror once more, he waved an elegant hand.

Immediately, Rafael’s likeness appeared, dressed in a white t-shirt, designer distressed jeans, and wearing a minimal amount of eyeliner this time, around his gray eyes.

He seemed so warm and genuine that I almost didn’t know which Rafael was the real one. In fact, strangely, the longer I stared at the Rafael in the mirror, the more I felt like the one I was standing next to was the copy.

Even as I thought it, I saw the amusement flicker in the mirror-Rafael’s eyes.

“Astutely observed, Sydney.” The mirror version of Rafael laughed. “My mirror holds the true me. My thoughts, my beliefs, and my very soul are all recorded here, to act unhindered by the games being played out there. Have no fear, little green-eyed pixie. Your access to this mirror has now been terminated.” He smiled.

That smile tilted him all at once into the dangerous category. I caught my breath. I could fall hard for that smile, and I’d not let Raven or dire consequences to the universe stop me.

He was beginning to fade, but he wasn’t done talking to me yet.

“Remember your dreams,” he was saying, talking louder as his image grew weaker. “Dreams can open dimensions, Sydney. You have the power to make your dreams real!”

The Rafael in the mirror disappeared to be replaced by a view of the streets below, overflowing with white-clad Fae.

“’
Pixie’, Rafael?” Jareth’s tone was harsh, accusing. “You still dare to call her ‘
pixie’
? Haven’t you done enough to her yet?”

Rafael pressed his lips together, and his eyes grew hard.

“He didn’t say anything!” I found myself coming to his defense and pointing to the mirror. “The mirror said it, not him.”

“That’s even worse, Sydney.” Jareth skewered me with a venomous look. “The mirror reflects his true soul, just as he told you! He’s trained that mirror since birth.”

I didn’t know how to respond to that because I honestly liked what he said.

And in spite of all of the tension, I couldn’t help but recall our conversation in the parking lot. Did Rafael really think I was cute? He hadn’t just been trying to be nice before? I don’t know why that was so important to me at precisely that moment, but it was.

I ended up just staring at them both with my mouth slightly ajar.

Rolling his eyes, Jareth snapped, “You’re useless, Sydney! With thoughts like that, you’ll do nothing but seal your own disaster!”

I was really going to have to find out how he followed my thoughts with such uncanny accuracy, but I couldn’t think of a response. My brain had basically turned into sludge. I just watched as Jareth began bickering again.

But Rafael quickly cut off Jareth’s tirade.

“It’s time we focused on the real issues here, Jareth. We aren’t safe anymore,” he said. “We’ve got to get back to Earth, and we have to find that Tulpa! We’ve got to trace it, find out how it arrived. It might even help us discover how far the lizard people have extended their reach with these cords of light and exactly what that means!”

“Well, it’s not anything good,” Jareth said with a scornful laugh.

To think of the lizard people controlling humans and Fae like puppets was very disturbing.

Rafael was apparently thinking the same thing because he added, “We must find out who they have dangling from their strings. They might very well have all of Avalon and Earth in their clutches!”

That made Jareth pause. He tilted his head speculatively, and after a moment, muttered, “They could have even the Queens themselves!”

Chapter Eight – Abnormally Normal

“Yes,” Rafael agreed with obvious reluctance. “The lizard people could be controlling even the Queens.”

Immediately, I thought of Melody and my repulsive reaction to her, so I chimed in, “And Melody?”

They both turned to me then, raising their brows in unison, apparently astounded that I’d even conceive of such a thing.

I swallowed, immediately feeling defensive.

Arrogantly, Jareth brushed my comment aside and said, “There’s only one way to find out who the lizard people are controlling.” He paused dramatically before adding, “The Hall of Mirrors.”

Rafael recoiled. Tightening his lips into a grim line, he responded curtly, “No!”

“You know we have no other choice!” Jareth all but growled. “How can we take one step further without knowing who we can trust? The mirrors can show us how to detect who is under their control! All we have to do is ask!”

Rafael hesitated, but then shook his head, “Yes, but it’s practically impossible to break into the Hall of Mirrors!”

“Really? You’re royal-blooded! We all know you can get into the castle undetected!” Jareth retorted, shooting him a daggers look. “And not all that long ago, you commandeered Raven’s classification by cracking security codes impossible to break. With your newfound talent for mischief, breaking into the Hall of Mirrors should be simple.”

I caught my breath, remembering how I’d accessed the blue light in Rafael’s mirror to help him modify the bracelets.

“I could take us there and perhaps even get us in, but we can’t get
out
!” Rafael said with a hard expression on his face. “And if you’re caught in my company, you’ll be executed on the spot with no questions asked. Are you willing to run that risk, Jareth?”

“
Executed?” I repeated in surprise. I’d always thought more advanced societies were above such primitive behavior.

“It’s high treason for me to even discuss this.” Rafael’s jaw locked. Lowering his voice, he added, “I would be executed—along with any who stood with me—simply for even
thinking
of visiting the Hall of Mirrors!”

“Why?” I demanded, outraged on pure principle.

He took a deep breath and looked away.

“Only a reigning Queen or King can access the Hall of Mirrors,” Jareth supplied for him. “They’d think he was claiming the throne and that we were his accomplices.” He rolled his eyes at the thought and added, “The risk doesn’t bother me. Let’s go!”

“What’s so special about these mirrors?” I mumbled under my breath. The Fae and their customs were a little odd, but then, I had to admit humans did some really weird things, too. After all, we made people take their shoes off in airport security lines. That probably sounded pretty strange to the Fae.

“They’re not just any mirrors,” Rafael replied, apparently hearing me. “These mirrors were built by the Watchers, mirrors so pure that they have recorded every moment in history for all three of the dimensions.”

That was surprising. “Wow. That’s a lot,” I said in the understatement of the year.

“Not just like events in a movie, Sydney,” he continued, searching my face. “These mirrors have recorded everything and everyone to their very soul, just as my own mirror has for me. They can speak as though they were that soul.”

That was downright creepy. That meant I could have a conversation with Cleopatra, Henry VIII, or even the real Robin Hood. But that made me think, and I asked a little startled, “Everyone … like me, too?”