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

bawling my head off.
    “I’m fine, honey,” she said as she got up and gave me a gentle pat on the shoulder. “I must’ve been tired. I almost slept through dinner. Oh my goodness. We’ll need to make something easy tonight. Al will be home soon.”
    Dimly, I noticed Jareth standing up as Betty asked him what had happened to his eye. It was already turning purple.
    I half-listened as Jareth gave her some lame excuse. Obviously, we couldn’t tell her that Rafael had socked him a good one after joining the lizard people.
    And then Betty was telling him to see a doctor. And at his assurances that he would, she reminded him to live healthily and eat more vegetables while insisting that he sit on the couch.
    “I’ll get you some ice for that eye,” she was saying as she picked up her dried-out cheese sandwich. “I didn’t realize I was that tired. I hate wasting food, but this looks fit only for the chickens now. At least, they’ll enjoy the treat.”
    As she disappeared into the kitchen, I recovered enough to turn my full attention back to Jareth.
    He looked pale. Sick.
    “How did …” I began, but I didn’t finish the question.
    Neither one of us wanted to think about what the answer might truly mean.
    I looked at his swollen eye. “Should I get some ointment for that or something?” I asked, pointing at it.
    Jareth gingerly touched his purple skin. “Rafael’s brutal when he wants to be,” he muttered. “I didn’t even see that coming.”
    A stilted silence fell.
    Jareth got up, and straightening his crumpled shirt, strode through the back door.
    I followed him.
    It was cold outside. The snow was melting and our feet made squelching sounds in the darkness as we headed for the line of trees that bordered Al and Betty’s backyard.
    Reaching the first tall pine, Jareth braced himself against it and leaned over as if he were going to be sick.
    “Are you ok?” I asked.
    “Ok?” He turned on me then, sweeping his long dark hair out of his face. “Do you really think I’m ok ?”
    I drew my lips into a grim line.
    “Only another Mesmer can break a catatonic trance, Sydney,” he rasped. “And the blue strand, the blue strand in Avalon that is accessible only in the second dimension. I could access it.”
    “So could I,” I reminded him in a feeble attempt of comfort.
    “You’re a human !” He spat the word contemptuously.
    I scowled at him, immediately annoyed at his tone, but I couldn’t stay angry for long. Whatever he was going through had to be hard.
    “What am I, Sydney?” he suddenly asked in a tortured voice. “What … am I?”
    I shrugged. I knew what he was asking. But I couldn’t believe for one second that Jareth was an evil Mesmer. “You can be anything you want to be,” I said stubbornly.
    He snorted.
    My scowl deepened. “I’m trying to help,” I pointed out acidly.
    But he wasn’t really listening to me. “That tulpa,” he grated hoarsely. “It’s alive in its own right. It has an evil purpose of its own. Something beyond what they’re trying to do with it. I think it wants you.”
    I couldn’t suppress a shudder. I already knew it wanted to finish eating me. But I didn’t want to think about that. “What are they trying to do with it?” I asked.
    But he ignored me.
    “And Rafael,” he said, beginning to pace under the tree. “I can’t fathom how I failed to see it. He really was in the Inner Circle this entire time.”
    Hearing Rafael’s name was like being stabbed in the heart. “The Inner Circle,” I whispered. “You were in it, too, weren’t you?” Somehow, I felt better pointing that out, as if somehow we’d discover Rafael was good after all.
    Jareth looked at me and answered grimly, “I was only trying to break in. I saw something strange in Melody’s fate lines, years ago. I’d … I’d thought Rafael saw it as well.”
    “You didn’t ask him?” I asked.
    He snorted. “We don’t talk. Haven’t you noticed?” He began to curse angrily