The Egg (Return of the Ancients Book 4) (22 page)

“I will chase you until the end of time, little pixie,” he replied with a small smile teasing his lips. “I will always come for you, no matter what dimension we end up in.”

I knew there was a bunch of negative things to think about. Like the fact that we were trapped here and would likely die of thirst before I figured out what my Blue Thread was all about. But I didn’t want to think about any of that right now. Right now, I had that moment with him. And the only thing I wanted to do was to be happy with him and kiss him.

So I did.

His lips were soft. Warm. And the kiss was timeless. I stayed there, wrapped in a warm cocoon of love and sharing a happiness that exceeded any expectation that I’d ever had of romance.

Finally, our lips parted and I whispered, “I guess I’m learning to live in the now.”

“It’s not a bad thing, is it?” he asked, his smile growing.

I just laughed.

I think I could have stayed there forever. I probably would have.

But then, Jareth lurched to his feet, and then I heard it.

A hollow, wailing sound.

Emerging from the black forest behind us was the Mutant Tulpa.

Chapter Twelve – The Forbidden

Briefly, I wondered if we could escape and hide in Samantha’s haven just yards behind us, but I knew we’d never make it in time to escape the Mutant Tulpa’s clutches. It hovered in the air, only a few feet away at the edge of the shadowy forest.

This time, there really was nowhere to hide.

The Mutant Tulpa had grown even larger since I’d last seen it. And more powerful. It just hung there, emitting fear and terror that instantly wiped out what fragile progress I’d made in controlling my thoughts. How could I destroy the evil staring right at us, something made from years of accumulated human fear? It was far too strong and powerful for me.

My dread manifested itself as a Tulpa above my head. I heard it pop into existence. It actually shrieked, voicing what I’d felt inside. And as I watched, it left me, pulled as if by some invisible string to the Mutant Tulpa crouching a short distance away like some grotesque oversized tarantula.

The Tulpa my dread had produced was only a few feet away when one of the Mutant Tulpa’s black tentacles snaked out to latch onto it. With a slurping, sucking sound, it swallowed it whole.

I closed my eyes and shuddered.

The Mutant Tulpa was a cannibal, eating even its own kind.

Again, I heard another Tulpa appear above my head. I couldn’t watch this time as the entire process repeated itself.

It was hopeless. We couldn’t escape.

And then I remembered Al drilling survival techniques into my brain.

A person who survives is a person who FIGHTS!
’F’ for
First and Foremost, Face your Fear,
‘I’ for
Inquire about Injuries,
‘G’ for
Get good and warm,
‘H’ for
handle Hunger,
‘T’ for
treat Thirst
, and ‘S’ for
Send that Signal of Distress. Fight your fear with logic and never give into it. Take action and move on!

Logic. Take action.

I took a deep wavering breath, and raised my chin, inspired to fight back.

Rafael and Jareth had positioned themselves on either side of me. Their strong faces were determined. Fierce. Absolutely loyal. They stuck with me through thick and thin. I was grateful for their presence and their love warmed my heart.

I faced the Mutant Tulpa once again, but I couldn’t think of a single thing to do. I didn't have an inkling of how to win this encounter.

It chose that moment to expand and reaching out its black, wriggling arms, it emitted a long, low hiss and actually called my name.

“Syyyyyyyydnnneyyyyy,” it whispered in a hideous voice.

I quailed in my shoes. This was it. It really was coming for me this time and I didn’t have the slightest idea of how to defend myself.

It really
was
going to eat me.

Time slowed down for me then, I guess because I was certain that I really was living my last moments. I wished I could have seen Al, Betty, and the others one last time. I glanced up at Jareth and Rafael, glad they were standing with me to the end.

Looking at Rafael’s handsome face, I suddenly wanted my last conscious moments to be filled with love. I expelled my breath and then I just let everything else go, letting my feelings for him fill me from head to toe.

“That’s it, Sydney,” Jareth cried, jarring my thoughts. A tone of excitement ran through his voice. “It’s
love
. Love overcomes fear. This isn’t a battle of
strength
. We can win this thing!”

I opened my eyes, startled.

The Mutant Tulpa had drawn back sharply, reacting as if it had been burnt. It hung there, hissing and spitting like a cobra.

Could it be true? Was the Second Dimension so different a place from Earth that battles here could be won with emotions? The lizards had reacted to the word
peace
. The Mutant Tulpa was made of fear … could love be its antidote?

There was no doubt that it was inching away from me.

As if from a great distance, I heard Rafael’s words of encouragement, “Think of love. Remember, the many shades of love are a never-ending source of power, far stronger than fear. Fear has no place in the presence of love.”

The many shades of love. He’d told me about that before. Seizing his words, I just started thinking about the people and things that I’d come to love. I’d actually grown fond of quite a few of late, beginning with Jerry snoozing in my sweatshirt pocket, to Al in his garage, Betty, Grace, Ellison, Samantha, and ending with Rafael and Jareth standing by my side.

The Mutant Tulpa began to pant and squeal like a pig.

It was the strangest thing to watch as the golden sparkles above my head began to fly at the screeching Tulpa, joined by butterflies and creeping vines from Samantha’s inspiration towering behind us.

Tendrils of golden, pulsing light formed, tethering the Mutant Tulpa’s tentacles into place as it vainly tried to escape. After each tentacle was secured, the threads began to loop, weaving around the Mutant Tulpa to encase it in a cocoon of light. It didn’t take long before it was fully encapsulated. At first, the cocoon wiggled, but with each additional thread of light, it grew weaker, until finally, with an explosion of golden sparks that lit the night sky like a billion stars, the entire cocoon vanished.

The Mutant Tulpa was no more.

We stood there, waiting in the serene calm that followed and watched the spot where it had disappeared. Behind us, I could still hear the flutes playing in Samantha’s crystal towers.

Finally, I asked, “Is it gone … for good?”

My voice sounded unnaturally loud.

Rafael stirred at my side. “Yes,” he said with conviction. “Its fate ended there.”

I turned on him, ecstatic. As another thrilling thought began to form, I excitedly grabbed onto his arm. But his gray eyes saddened and he shook his head before I could even frame the question.

“I’m sorry, Sydney. That wasn’t your Blue Thread,” he said quickly.

I scowled a little and glanced away. “Of course it wasn’t,” I acknowledged, a trifle bitterly. “It wouldn’t be so easy, would it?”

Both Rafael and Jareth had been forced to face their inner demons with their Blue Threads. I would most likely have to do the same, even though I wasn’t even really sure what my inner demon actually
was
.

Brushing the thoughts aside, I turned my attention back to the Mutant Tulpa’s demise. It was still kind of hard to believe it had finally met its end through love.

“Well, score one for us,” I said at last. “At least the Lizard People are going to have to start over again. It’ll knock them back a bit.”

Jareth snorted in agreement.

I turned to look at Samantha’s haven once again. “And she helped us, even here,” I said with a smile, recalling how her butterflies and vines had come to our aid.

I just stood there, admiring the beauty of the place. I really didn’t want to leave it, but I knew we had to move soon. My Blue Thread was still in existence and I guess that meant it had to do something with the Lizard People’s puppet strings. That was the only thing I knew to pursue at the moment. Like TopHat had said, I just had to concentrate on the next step. And it didn’t matter that Blondie had said the cords were indestructible. He wasn’t exactly one to be trusted.

Pointing to the channel of light running into the dark forest, I heaved a sigh and said, “Well, let’s get it over with then.”

“Right,” Rafael agreed, but his brows were creased in a worried frown.

“What is it?” I asked, concerned.

He exchanged a glance with Jareth before murmuring, “Nothing.”

I didn’t really believe him, but I didn’t press the matter further. I was sure I wouldn’t like the answer.

Forcing my feet to move away from Samantha’s creation was one of the hardest things I’d ever done. But as I did so, I couldn’t help smiling a little in admiration of her strength of spirit. She’d not only created a haven on Earth with her coffee shop, she’d created an oasis in the Second Dimension as well. And in both places, she’d helped rescue me from the Lizard People’s mad designs. She truly was a powerful being.

We headed towards the cords of light twisting away through the looming dark forest. The trees made me uneasy, so I walked close to the edge of the stream of glowing light, pausing periodically to glance around from time to time.

I noticed Rafael and Jareth were doing the same.

“What is it?” I nervously asked them after a while.

We’d left Samantha’s place behind us and stood in the middle of a black grove of trees. The surrounding shadows seemed different now, more oppressive. Almost evil.

“Maybe we should go—” I began uneasily.

But before I could even finish, the ground beneath us caved in and we sank to our knees in foul-smelling mud. The stench made me gag. Something unholy slithered around my ankles and I screeched.

“What is it?” I gasped in rising hysteria, flailing in the dark, stinking water.

When I didn’t get an answer, I really got scared.

“Rafael! Jareth!” I screamed at the top of my voice.

I sloshed forward in a panic. I couldn’t find my footing in the muck and slipped, getting a mouthful of dark liquid. It tasted worse than it smelled, and I struggled to my feet, coughing and gagging.

Suddenly, Rafael loomed in front of me, reaching down to grab my forearm and bodily lift me out of the swamp and out onto a dry patch of land.

“I didn’t think of this!” I half-sobbed, holding onto his strong arms.

“Hush,” Jareth said, unexpectedly appearing at our sides. “They’re coming after us.”

“They?”
I shrieked.

It was dark, but there was enough light from the cords running in the conduit that I could see the scowl illuminated on his face. He pointed to the large dark shadow of what looked like a willow tree hanging over the black swamp water. It was barely visible in the dim light. The long branches were swaying gently as if in the wind, but then one of the branches dropped into the swamp and swam towards us.

As it got closer, I could see it was a sickly pale serpent with gray scales and red eyes that glowed in the dark.

I was far too rattled to even begin trying to direct my thoughts in any useful way that might have stopped it.

“Let’s run!” I yelled.

“This way,” Rafael urged.

His fingers clamped over my wrist and he pulled me towards the light cords, away from the swamp.

The serpents followed. More and more dropped from the tree, slithering through the swamp water to crawl out after us. Our feet made squelching sounds as we ran, the serpents at our heels. Hissing and jumping at us, they were driving us away from the infested marsh and back towards the conduit.

It was terrifying.

Finally, we reached the conduit, and the snakes suddenly disappeared.

We stood there, looking at each other in confusion.

“Let’s go,” I said in a hoarse voice. “They might come back.”

Jareth nodded and we took a step, but then Rafael dropped to one knee by the light cords and lightly skimmed his elegant fingers over them as if he were playing an instrument.

The muscles in his jaw flexed.

“What is it?” I asked hesitantly.

I wanted to leave the place. The serpents might choose any moment to return, and I didn’t want to be there if they did. But as Rafael’s face turned into sharp lines and hard angles of worry, I found my concern over the serpents supplanted with a growing feeling of apprehension.

“What is it?” I repeated more urgently this time. “Is it bad? It kinda … looks bad.”

He was outright scowling. It made me realize that I’d never really seen him scowl before.

Finally, he murmured as if thinking aloud, “The light … it’s corrupted. It carries darkness with it.”

I shivered. I didn’t know what it meant, but it certainly didn’t sound good.

Jareth looked alarmed.

I was about ready to get all upset again, but then I felt myself frown in confusion. I mean, how could the light
be
pure when it was being manipulated by a dark, oily lizard in order to control a human or Fae a dimension away?

“Isn’t that to be expected?” I asked.

But Rafael wasn’t really paying attention to either of us. He’d separated a strand of light from the others to peer at it closely.

Both Jareth and I moved to squint over his shoulder.

The cord looked like a bright white glow stick filled with light. And the longer I stared at it, the more I could see something dark running through the heart of it. It was black and moved like hordes of tiny evil ants.

“Its core is rotten,” Rafael whispered. “The light itself is ancient, pure … but it’s rotting.”

Jareth’s face hardened with concern. But he wasn’t staring at the light. He was moving swiftly to the dark trees clustered nearby.

“Hey, watch out, Jareth!” I hissed in warning, afraid the serpents would return.

But he wasn’t listening to me.

He reached out to touch one of the trees, but the moment he did, it melted away.