The Inner Circle, Book 3 of the Glass Wall ( A YA Urban Fantasy Romance ) Read Online Free PDF

slouched
against the side of his house, just inside the circle of his front
porch light.
    I held still.
    I couldn’t see his face. It was too dark. But
then he stood straight, and I could feel his eyes on me. He lifted
his chin in acknowledgement.
    I was going to have to confront him. But not
yet. Not until I’d come up with a plan. Sticking my hands in my
pockets, I backed through the door when I bumped into something
furry.
    With a yelp, I whirled to see Ajax’s dark
eyes staring at me, his pointed ears on high alert.
    I locked eyes with the shiny black
Doberman.
    “What are you doing here?” I asked. I wasn’t
about to keep Rafael’s spy in the house. “Go home, Ajax,” I
ordered, pointing across the street. “You can’t stay here.”
    Ajax flattened his ears against his skull and
growled in protest.
    A cold draft of air blew through the door and
I shivered, not entirely just from the cold. I had previously felt
safe from Mesmers with Ajax around. But I couldn’t let him
stay.
    “How can I trust you?” I asked and then
insisted. “Go home! I have Tigger. He’ll protect me.”
    Ajax’s lip curled back in displeasure,
revealing a row of pointed white teeth. But I wasn’t scared of him
anymore. Adamantly, I advanced, and he knew I meant business.
Chastened, he backed away.
    “Now!” I snapped.
    But ditching Ajax was harder than it looked.
He plainly didn’t feel compelled to take any orders from me. He
kept sidestepping me, and he was so sleek, there wasn’t anything to
grab onto. His tail was the size of a Twinkie and kept slipping
through my fingers.
    It was only when Rafael whistled from across
the street that he finally left, but at the edge of the yard, he
stopped to send silent waves of reproach my way.
    Rafael was staring at me too.
    I stared back, growing angrier with each
passing moment.
    What did they expect?
    I’d just found out Rafael wasn’t a
particularly nice guy. I certainly wasn’t going to keep company
with his dog.
    We probably would have glared at each other
all night if Grace hadn’t come home, pulling up the driveway in
Ellison’s Volkswagen Beetle.
    Rolling down the window, Ellison poked out
his shaved head and waved cheerfully. “I’ll pick you up for work
tomorrow,” he offered. “We’ve almost got the same shifts.”
    I just had time to nod before he was backing
out, and Grace bounded up to the porch, lugging a bag of groceries.
And as Ellison zoomed away, I glanced across the street.
    Rafael was gone.
    Grace pushed past me to dump the groceries
onto the countertop.
    “Sorry I’m late,” she said apologetically.
“We went to a fancy restaurant.”
    Dressed in gray sweats and with her black
hair pulled back into a severe ponytail, she looked as if she’d
just come from the gym. But then, Grace was such a tomboy, she
didn’t care to dress up. It was one of the things I liked about
her. She was comfortable in her own skin.
    Al came into the kitchen then, and as they
began to chat, I suddenly wanted to be alone and escaped to my
room.
    Kicking my shoes off, I leaned against my
dresser and stuck my hand into Jerry’s cage. I gave the mouse a
fond poke in the belly and filled his dish with seeds.
    As I opened my top drawer, my eyes fell on
the small metal hand mirror that Rafael had given me. Clenching my
jaw, I grabbed it and tossed it in the trash, but in less than
fifteen minutes, I was digging it back out.
    Looking into the mirror, I said, “You’re such
a jerk, Rafael. I want you to know that.”
    I hoped he’d get the message somehow.
    Irritated, I shoved the mirror into the back
of my drawer. I could always throw it away later.
    My eyes fell on my Fae bracelet then. I still
couldn’t get the darn thing off. I was getting so used to it that I
barely noticed it anymore. I knew it only worked in Avalon. Or at
least I hoped that was true. But regardless, I couldn’t do anything
about it.
    Leaning my forehead against Jerry’s cage, I
muttered under my breath,