The Inner Circle (Return of the Ancients Book 3) Read Free

family room where I’d found her.
    Placing her upon the couch, he knelt beside her and held out his hands.
    They began glowing with light.
    I looked down at her, lying in that catatonic state. Her chest heaved with every breath as if it were her last.
    I couldn’t let myself think. I just hovered over them for a time, but when her labored breathing only continued, I moved to pace at the foot of the couch.
    Suddenly, Jareth began to curse, and he rose abruptly to his feet.
    I followed his gaze to Betty’s face.
    Her lips had begun to turn blue.
    Rushing to his side, I gripped his arm. “Can you help her?” I asked. My voice trembled.
    He didn’t answer me at first, but then he finally admitted, “I … don’t think so.” His dark eyes looked horrified.
    I couldn’t believe it.
    Shoving him aside, I reached down and shook Betty’s shoulders.
    “Wake up!” I shouted. “You can’t go like this!”
    It didn’t help.
    I recalled how I’d broken Blondie’s hold on me before, by filling myself with love. I looked down at Betty. Once, I’d thought her a plain, average woman with mousey-brown hair and a face that no one would remember. But now, I couldn’t understand how I’d ever thought such a crazy thing. As I stared down at her, I saw the kindest, most beautiful woman in the world.
    My eyes filled with tears.
    Dropping next to her, I buried my face in her shoulder and tried to let my feelings of love wash over me. But I couldn’t concentrate. I didn’t think it was going to work. As I felt her shudder under my cheek, I drew back.
    I could tell with a single look that she didn’t have long.
    “Once they’ve gone catatonic, only a Mesmer can bring them out,” Jareth explained, ashen-faced.
    It was hopeless.
    Turning back to Betty, I held her hand.
    “Mom,” I whispered.
    My voice broke. I’d never called anyone that before. My own breath came in one dragging sob.
    Jareth’s fingers gripped my shoulder.
    I looked up.
    His expression was shuttered, but he ordered in a low voice, “Let me … try something.”
    Numbly, I got out of his way.
    He didn’t do anything. He just looked at her.
    I fidgeted. And just when I was about to start yelling at him to take action, I saw them.
    Scales.
    Scales rippled down from his neck, covering his skin just like I’d briefly seen before in Avalon, and just like I’d seen in the Hall of Mirrors. His face had changed and there was an unusual magnetic pull coming from his eyes.
    “Wake up, Betty,” Jareth said.  His voice was impossibly low. Soft. Rumbling.
    The words were pleasant. Calming and peaceful. I wanted to forget everything else and just listen to him talk.
    As Jareth collapsed on the floor, Betty took a long, gasping breath.
    I couldn’t move. I could only watch as Betty sat up slowly, looking confused.
    Passing a hand before her face, her kind, warm eyes glanced up to meet mine. “Hi, honey,” she said weakly.
    “Are you ok?” The words zipped out of my mouth before I could stop them. “Are you really ok?”
    “I’m fine, honey,” she answered, drawing her eyebrows up in a question. “Oh my, I must have fallen asleep. My poor cheese sandwich.”
    She pointed to the cheese sandwich still sitting on the coffee table. The cheese had completely dried out.
    It was then that she noticed Jareth passed out by her feet. “Oh dear, is he ok? What happened?”
    I felt numb.
    Jareth stirred. His skin had returned to normal. There was not a scale in sight.
    “He’s fine,” I said. My throat was dry.
    She didn’t believe me until Jareth straightened and sent her a dark scowl. “I’m fine,” he muttered under his breath.
    He certainly sounded like his normally annoying self.
    I turned my attention back to Betty and studied her tired face.
    “What is it, honey?” she asked. Her reassuring smile put me immediately at ease.
    She was really going to be all right.
    “I’m … just glad you’re ok,” I said. It was a struggle to say the words without