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triangulating a possible location when he abruptly made an excuse to depart the command center. Whilst he was gone, her tracker stopped receiving entirely, thus I fear he might be one of Melody’s minions.”
    Melody’s minions. It kind of had a ring to it. The silly thought made me suddenly realize that I was getting tired. The day had been a long one. Tiredly, I looked at Brock, the fair-haired Fae Protector who’d shape-shifted to assume my identity and had pretended to be me while I’d been detained in Avalon. He’d really made quite a mess of my schoolwork. But none of that was really important anymore.
    “Then did you find her before she was warned?” Rafael was asking.
    “We replicated the Earthly GPS satellites’ signals on Avalon and believe her tracker received them somewhere near the rock beneath the Queens’ Palace,” Brock replied, moving closer to speak in a voice barely above a whisper. “And I can’t promise that Jareth is there with her, but the entrance is secret and cannot be reached by shifting. Somehow, she has blocked all light from penetrating her location. We can’t enter if we can’t find the light.”
    I didn’t know there was any place—outside the Second Dimension—that the Fae couldn’t shift into. I watched them both frown.
    Rafael murmured in a low voice, “There is one who knows.”
    Brock hesitated. He glanced quickly in my direction, before nodding crisply at Rafael. “Right,” he said. “I’ll ask her, at once. But I don’t think she’s inclined to help. Not after … recent events. Rejection, you know. She doesn’t take well to it.”
    She? I was sure I knew who “she” was. Raven.
    Raising his hand, he touched the elegant gold classification bracelet circling his wrist. I glanced down at my own gold bracelet that we’d used to escape Avalon. It felt like years ago now. I still couldn’t get it off. And now that I’d managed to summon Melody and start the whole mess in the coffee shop by accidentally accessing its light, I suddenly wanted it off more now than ever.
    But as usual, the thing wouldn’t budge.
    Rafael brought me back to the present with a gentle squeeze on the shoulder and a light peck on the cheek.
    “Grace is here and Betty will be soon. Perhaps it’s best they not see us right now,” he said. His warm smile slipped a little as he added, “And we really need to track Jareth down.”
    I barely had time to nod before he and Brock disappeared, leaving a telltale smattering of mist floating in the family room.
    I heaved a breath of relief that Jareth was somehow still alive. Perhaps it had something to do with his lizard DNA. Whatever it was, I was grateful. Truly grateful. Somehow, I’d grown to love him like a brother—a really obnoxious one but a brother all the same.
    Feeling better by the moment, I headed for the kitchen as the front door banged shut and I fell into line behind Grace who was dragging her soggy lacrosse gear across the floor. She unceremoniously dumped it into a pile in the middle of the kitchen. Gathering her black hair into a ponytail, she peered over Al’s shoulder.
    “Whatcha up to, Pops?” she asked with a curious grin.
    Al looked up from his boxes of spy equipment spread out over the kitchen table. “I’m taking inventory here, kiddo,” he said, a little distracted. With a frown, he patted his shirt pocket and pulled out a small notebook and pencil. “Ah, I’m late. Jack’s expecting me to check in. Can’t miss it.”
    I wanted to tell him the good news about Jareth, and I could tell by the serious expression in his eyes that he was worried, so I said, “Looks like Jareth might make it back here, after all. His … uh … concert wasn’t … uh … cancelled after all. He’s making an … unexpected recovery.”
    Al’s bright blue eyes lit. I guess that’s what I loved about Al. He accepted people for what they were. He let them be weird, maybe even obnoxious, and chose to focus on their strengths