The Egg (Return of the Ancients Book 4) (25 page)

As I looked at the beauty surrounding me, a rainbow of color lit the sky. I couldn’t see Jerry’s star anymore, but the trunk of the tree was expanding rapidly, filling with a light beyond beautiful to see.

The ground beneath us cracked, and we were rocked back by the impact.

TopHat glanced up at the tree and then back at us swiftly.

“It is time for you to go,” he said in a suddenly urgent tone. “The power you have unleashed will soon obliterate this place.”

We stared at him numbly. There really wasn’t any place to go
to
. We were surrounded by bottomless pits in every direction.

But then, even as I thought it, a white staircase ascended from below, leading out from our pinnacle of rock, across the chasm, and to the lands of the Shadows of Death beyond.

The Man in the Top Hat pointed. “Run, children, run!” he urged as the pinnacle of rock upon which he stood teetered dangerously to one side.

I was going to ask him if he was safe, but he’d already begun to fade away and then Rafael was pulling me down the stairs.

I ran, even though I didn’t really understand why I was running.

I mean, I was still trapped in the Second Dimension without water or food. Jerry was a tree now. Jareth couldn’t shift out because of his lizard DNA. And Rafael couldn’t shift because he was a Fae trapped in the wrong dimension. We were doomed, anyway. So, why run?

But Rafael dragged me along at such a rapid pace that I couldn’t spare the breath to share my thoughts.

Behind us, the light of the new tree grew brighter and brighter, making our shadows smaller and smaller as we hurtled down the white staircase to the ground below. Several times, I tripped, but Rafael was there, yanking me upright and carrying me forward.

The stairs seemed endless.

My muscles were aching and my lungs burning for air as the tree grew even brighter behind us. I could feel the heat of the light on my back, and I could smell smoke in the air.

House-sized chunks of the dead tree began falling around us as the new one rose in all its glory to take its place. It was like running through a war zone. We tripped, sliding down the last steps when a sudden blast from behind overtook us. The force knocked us off our feet, robbing the very air of oxygen as the wind rushed over our heads.

We hugged the ground, gasping for air as light and debris fell around us.

Rafael struggled to his feet.

“Run!” he coughed, grabbing me by the back of the neck as he tried to heave me forward.

In the gathering dust, I could see Jareth attempting to rise, but he was having a hard time breathing too.

I looked behind me.

The new Tree of Life was brighter than the sun and it was still growing, tossing great shelves of rock and huge chunks of the old tree out of its way as if they weighed nothing. I could see a huge tidal wave of debris heading towards us.

We weren’t going to be able to run fast enough to escape it. I didn’t see the point of trying anymore. In fact, none of us did.

Rafael sank to one knee as Jareth crawled over to us and wheezed, “Game over.”

I just squeezed his hand as hard as I could. He did the same.

I looked into Rafael’s gray eyes, letting my eyes speak the volumes of love I had for him before we all turned to watch the tidal wave rumbling towards us.

It was then that we heard him.

Ajax. Ajax barking.

The sound propelled all of us to our feet. We whirled around, looking in all directions, and then I felt it. Some strong invisible force tugging at me. Covering my mouth and nose with my sweatshirt in order to breathe, I grabbed Rafael and Jareth’s hands and let the invisible force guide me.

The force grew stronger with every step, rushing us along as the ground beneath us trembled from the sheer weight of the approaching wave of debris. I didn’t want to get separated from Jareth and Rafael, I held onto them as tightly as I could as the force grew so strong I feared we might be ripped apart.

Ajax’s barking was getting louder.

The ground beneath us was splitting open from the immense force of the arriving tidal wave.

And then I saw it, and there was no mistaking what it was.

It was Al’s Tulpa, a pristine creation of white and blue light in the shape of a multi-faceted star, a thing of beauty and incredible power, yet soft, protective, and inviting. It was a Tulpa of unconditional love. The love of a parent for a child.

TopHat was right. It really
was
all about love. All of it. Love really was the strongest power of all, even spanning dimensions to protect us.

Al’s Tulpa was pulling us home, and somehow, Ajax was barking through it.

I could only laugh. I’d arrived in the Second Dimension through a Tulpa. And somehow, in his garage with tinfoil-wrapped Snapple bottles and his ghost-hunting equipment, Al had rigged his Tulpa to carry us home.

I felt the ground beneath my feet fall away. I couldn’t hold onto Rafael and Jareth anymore, the current was just too strong, but I knew it didn’t matter. We were safe. I just closed my eyes and let it all go. Opening my arms, I just laughed and let myself enjoy the ride.

I’d expected the return journey to be similar to my last Tulpa-jumping experience, but it wasn’t. This one was like weightlessly floating softly on a cloud.

Ajax’s barking got louder and louder as I drifted down like a feather.

Gravity returned all at once, and I landed facedown on Rafael’s chest. He grunted a little from the sudden impact. I could feel the cold concrete of the garage beneath my feet and the smell of Al’s truck oil.

I was home.

“We made it back,” Rafael murmured into my hair as he lay beside me.

I burrowed my face into his chest and smiled. I felt so good I didn’t want to move.

Ajax’s barking turned into happy yips and then his nose sniffed me carefully as if to be sure I was unharmed.

Laughing, I rolled over and hugged him as he thrust his wet nose directly into my face and graced me with a big doggie kiss full on the lips. His Twinkie-sized tail wiggled so furiously that his entire hindquarters wagged.

“I love you, too,” I whispered into his long, pointed ears.

And then Rafael was reaching down, pulling me to my feet.

Jareth stood a few feet away, shaking his head in disbelief. “You did it, Sydney,” he said softly.

“We all did,” I choked, recalling what TopHat had said. “We
all
made the right choice.”

We stood there awhile, the three of us, in complete shock and then I heard Al’s voice.

“Bingo!” he boomed. “It worked!”

He was just a few feet away, tall and bald in his army fatigues with his brows furrowed into a trench. I didn’t hesitate. I launched myself at him, unashamedly letting my tears spill down my cheeks. He looked tired and haggard and with stubble on his chin, but he was beaming with paternal pride as he swept me into the biggest bear hug I’d ever received in my life.

I hugged him back as hard as I could. I was going to let myself feel from now on. Starting with Al.

“I love you, Al,” I said, laughing and crying at the same time.

“I love you, too, kiddo,” he replied, crying, too.

The door leading to the kitchen opened and Betty stood there with Grace and Ellison peering over her shoulder. 
With distracted smiles, they took in the mess.

And then Betty addressed Al with an uncharacteristic sternness. “These explosions are going to have to stop, honey!”

I looked around the garage again, seeing it through her eyes this time.

The garage was in a complete shambles. Bottles of aluminum-foil-wrapped Snapple were strewn everywhere. PVC piping and copper wires hung from the ceiling. Rafael, Jareth, and I were completely covered in white dust. Several inches of it blanketed the floor as well.

And then I noticed a towering, middle-aged man with a full sandy gray-streaked beard and ponytail standing behind Al. He wore metal-rimmed glasses and a bright red Hawaiian shirt under a faded Harley-Davidson jacket. Even though I’d never seen him before, I knew instantly who he was.

Jack.

“I’ll get this cleaned right up, Betty,” Al was saying. He tried to look appropriately apologetic, but he was also rubbing his hands together in glee with a big grin on his face. He was beaming, and he looked anything
but
sorry.

Betty frowned, and I think she was going to say something, but Al was saved by the oven timer going off in the kitchen.

“The cookies are done,” Betty said then, her frown already disappearing. “The lot of you can’t have any until this … this contraption is safely tossed into the recycle bin.” She pointed to the Snapple bottles lining the walls and waved her hand at the rest of the garage.

Jack stepped up behind Al and bowed. “We’ll take it down right now, little lady,” he promised, obviously trying to ease the situation. His voice was unusually high and soft-spoken for such a big man.

Betty smiled and with a sigh, shooed Grace and Ellison back into the kitchen. Before the door closed, they both popped their heads into the garage and winked at me. I didn’t really know what they meant by it, but I didn’t care. I just winked back.

As soon as they’d gone, Al laughed and slapped his thigh. “It worked, Jack! It brought our kids home! We did it. Those tri-axis meters of yours combined with that Tesla Coil did the job.”

“Yes, we did it, Al,” Jack agreed with a grin, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose. “Using that EMF meter to transmit Ajax was a great idea, too. I’m going to have to try that with my ghost-hunting.”

Fae were popping into existence all around us, and the garage became a hive of activity.

Jack didn’t seem surprised at the Fae arrivals. I took that to mean that he’d already been introduced. He stood by the card table in the corner, carrying on an animated conversation about infrared illuminators, full spectrum cameras, and electromagnetic hotspots with a couple of Fae Protectors. They were clearly interested in his collection of tin cans rigged to a shortwave radio, Al’s Snapple bottles, and my Christmas EMF meter. There wasn’t a Fae light crystal in sight.

I looked at the PVC piping duct-taped to the bottles, amazed that Al and Jack’s invention had projected Ajax’s bark to guide us home and suck us back from the Second Dimension.

Rafael moved behind me, and I glanced back to see a serious expression in his tired, gray eyes.

“What is it?” I asked, reaching up to brush the white dust out of his hair.

The corner of his lip lifted in a rueful smile. “Al’s brilliant. He really
did
build an inter-dimensional portal in his garage,” he said it loud enough that Al heard.

Al tipped his hat and shot him a quick smile. “I’m just glad you kids are safe,” he said. “It don’t matter who built it.”

Hearing Al say
don’t
made me realize then that I was really home.

“It’s … really over, isn’t it?” I choked a little, looking up at Rafael.

He just locked his arms around my waist and pulled me into a close embrace, dust and all. “It depends on what you’re speaking about, my little pixie,” he said softly.

There was just enough of a suggestive touch in his tone that I felt myself momentarily grow shy before a flash of concern flooded through me. “You aren’t leaving, are you? You can’t!”

His laugh calmed me at once. “I’m afraid your fate is tied to mine,” he answered. “Though you may have to visit Avalon from time to time.”

We were interrupted by several ceiling tiles crashing to the floor. Al and Brock laughed an apology for startling us before returning to their task of pulling the remaining copper wires from the ceiling. As Jareth guzzled an untampered bottle of Snapple, more Fae arrived to help clean up.

It was then I spied Harmony, standing a few feet away with her blue eyes averted, clearly not wanting to interrupt my intimate moment with Rafael. It made me blush a little as I realized that I’d just been standing there hugging him in front of everyone.

Catching my eyes on her, she quickly looked up and joined us. And after a quick round of hugs, she thrust a bottle of Snapple into my hands. My mouth was dry. I just took it and drank as she popped the top off another and, adding a packet of Equal, gave it to Rafael.

“Heaven’s Bells! We were so worried,” she said then, watching us drink. “We couldn’t reach you. We thought it was the end.”

“It almost was,” Rafael said, shaking his head.

“How long were we gone?” I asked between swallows.

“Almost two weeks,” she answered.

I blinked in surprise. Time clearly ran on a different cadence here than in the Second Dimension.

“What happened?” she asked.

“A lot,” I said. I knew I’d tell them all about it soon, but I couldn’t talk about it much now. It was still a bit overwhelming.

Rafael squeezed my hand. He clearly understood. “In time,” he told her.

Brock and Al walked past us then, hefting large plastic garbage bags over their shoulders, and I saw that the garage was already clean. The Fae had made short work of it. I was suspicious that they’d cheated by shifting half of it away to some other location, but as long as Betty didn’t catch them, it didn’t matter.

“You look terrible, Sydney,” Jareth said, sauntering back to join us with a sliver of a grin.

He looked pretty exhausted himself. In fact, we all did.

“Why don’t you kids go get cleaned up and rest up a bit,” Al suggested, wiping his palms together briskly. “From what Jareth’s told us, we’re not in danger anymore. Time to relax and celebrate. We can learn the details later.”

“Yeah, I guess it’s really over,” I agreed, feeling suddenly drained.

As Rafael guided me towards the kitchen, Jareth fell into step beside us.

“You really did it, Sydney,” he said with a bit of a crooked grin. He reached over and gave me a fierce, one-armed hug.

I hugged him back. “We all did,” I had to say.

“True, of course,” he said, returning to his old obnoxious self. “You couldn’t have done it without me. That much is obvious.”

I just rolled my eyes at him. I knew he was all show. He had a huge soft streak running through him.