The Inner Circle, Book 3 of the Glass Wall ( A YA Urban Fantasy Romance ) by Carmen Caine, Madison Adler Read Free Book Online Page A

beyond me. I knew it was going to be harder than simply
flushing it down the toilet.
    But as I’d told Jareth, first things
first.
    I had to protect everyone from the
Mesmers.
    Samantha let me borrow the computer on my
lunch break and I searched again for ways to prevent mind control
but with little success. By the end of my lunch break, I’d gotten
pretty frustrated.
    Giving up, I whirled around in lazy circles
in Samantha’s swivel chair, watching the baristas scurrying about.
And as one of them walked by me with a big box of foil, I suddenly
remembered reading about how cats should be forced to wear foil
hats to prevent them from contacting their mother ships.
    Curiously, I typed in a quick search about
foil hats.
    Within minutes, I was reading the scientific
theory of how they worked. Apparently, a foil hat significantly
reduced the intensity of radio frequency radiation on the wearer's
brain, something called a Faraday cage.
    Excitedly, I read how even some older houses
were basically Faraday cages, the houses that had used chicken coop
wire and plaster as wall material. I didn’t think Al and Betty’s
house was that old, but maybe I could make a Faraday cage out of it
somehow.
    I didn’t think I could get them to wear foil
hats. Besides Al, anyway.
    But still, I was pretty excited. At least I
had something to try.
    The rest of the day passed quickly with no
sign of Jareth or Rafael. And soon enough, we’d turned the
Christmas music and the lights off and most of the baristas had
gone.
    “Wanna watch a movie with me and Grace?”
Ellison asked as we wiped the counters down.
    “Not tonight,” I said. “I’ve got plans. I’ll
just take the bus home.”
    “Ah, I see,” he said with a knowing
smile.
    I knew he thought I was talking about Rafael.
But then, I guess I was. But it certainly wasn’t going to be
anything like a date.
    Grace arrived then, telling Ellison to hurry
so they wouldn’t be late for the movie. And as Ellison reached for
the trash, I volunteered. “You just go with Grace. I’ll dump the
bags.”
    “Thanks, mate,” he said, doffing an imaginary
cap.
    I watched the two of them dash across the
street, holding hands. And for a minute, I felt a twinge of
jealousy.
    Annoyed with myself, I tossed the trash bag
over my shoulder and tromped through the back of the shop.
    “Tomorrow, it’s back to making cappuccinos
for you, Sydney,” Samantha said as I passed. She didn’t look up as
her fingers moved rapidly over the keypad of an ancient calculator.
“You’d like that, wouldn’t you?”
    I grunted, hoping she’d take that for
agreement. But, I much preferred washing dishes.
    Shoving the door open with my foot, I stepped
outside.
    It was already dark.
    Taking in a big gulp of fresh air, I looked
up at the night sky. There were no stars, or if there were, they
were obliterated by the city lights. A few snowflakes drifted down
lazily from above.
    Lugging the trash bag, I slipped a little on
the icy blacktop as I headed toward the dumpster about twenty feet
away. But I’d only taken a few steps before I had the nagging sense
that I was being followed.
    I heard it first. The small scratching sounds
of something scrabbling over the bricks behind me.
    I caught my breath in a huge sucking sound
and then whirled around. In the dim light, the trees across the
street suddenly took on menacing shapes.
    But then one of the shadows broke away from
the dumpster, and a blood-curdling scream tore from my lips as I
recognized the small gargoyle shape.
    It was Blondie.
    The backdoor of the coffee shop slammed
open.
    “What is it, Sydney?” Samantha asked. “Are
you ok? What happened?”
    And then Blondie’s unblinking gaze focused
directly upon Samantha, and his impossibly low voice vibrated.
“Turn away, human,” he said. “Go back inside.”
    “No!” I gasped, grateful that Jareth’s
protection rune was apparently working, but I was afraid for
Samantha. I didn’t want her to be