He turned, then, whirling so fast that Jenny stepped back. The air was hot and electric, as if heat lightning were about to explode. She could feel the storm building in Julian. She knew the risk she understood why Summer was crying. And Jenny was having to fight off the two people she lovedīest-Tom and Dee-for a reason she couldn't even explain clearly to herself. "Will you get her out of here!" Julian snarled.Įveryone was shouting. Dee and Tom were both pulling at Jenny now, trying to get her away from Julian. Insanely, inexplicably, she wanted to stay and talk to Julian.Įven without seeing his face, she could tell that his control was breaking. "Home," Audrey said, in a voice of such startled longing that Jenny almost yielded to Tom's steering hands. The phone was lying on the floor where it had fallen, receiver off the hook. It was partly open, and inside Jenny could see her grandfather's hallway, including the small telephone table with the white doily on it. But there was no fence or wall, just the door standing in space and looking tremendously solid, as if it had always been there. It was set between two enormous stones, like a gate. There was a rough wooden door standing on the far side of the building. Tom grabbed Jenny's other arm and wheeled her in the opposite direction. "Get her out of here! Before I do-something-" Get her out." Without looking at Tom, he spoke in a distorted voice, thick with restraint. Then, without speaking, he whirled around.
The corner of his mouth jerked as if he were about to say something more-or maybe it was involuntary. A look like blue ice about to break up and fall into dark water. His eyes were fully dilated, with the look Jenny had seen in the cave. It's the last Game, and it's over now."įor the first time Julian looked at her. "I can go and I can take Tom," she persisted. "Let's go," Tom said abruptly, his fingers closing around her upper arm. And he did seem tired-his whole body looked tired. "You've won," Julian said, and there was no emotion in his voice. She would have thought she would enjoy announcing her victory more than this. "We have won, haven't we?" she said, suddenly uncertain. Or maybe-or maybe he was just tired of playing. Probably because he has something worse up his sleeve, she told herself. Jenny had fully expected him to try it again this time-so why hadn't he? Why hadn't he appeared before they got Tom and Zach untied? Why wasn't he dressed as a pirate, fending them off with a cutlass, smiling and pointing out that they had to get to Tom and Zach to rescue them? Why wasn't he playing the Game? Every other time they'd won a Game, Julian had unveiled some weird twist at the last minute, had found some way to crush them and laugh at them. Jenny was braced for some kind of a trick, too-ready to fight Julian, to argue him out of it. "Are you going to pull anything?" Tom asked tightly. The Shadow Man seeing the one thing he could never have, she thought. Julian wasn't exactly looking at Tom, but for a moment he'd glanced at Tom's hand on her shoulder-and there was wistfulness in his eyes. "I ought to try to kill you," he said to Julian. As if to say he was there to back her up, whatever happened. His hand rested on her shoulder, lightly, not possessively. He wasn't going to let her face Julian alone.
#JULIAN FROM THE FORBIDDEN GAME FULL#
Tom was there, looking devilishly handsome and full of cold, protective fury. Was something else, something Jenny only recognized when she felt a presence beside her. What was the look in those eyes? They were midnight-colored and full of shadows-but there It's the last Game, and this time there's no way you can bend the rules. "We've won," she said with more confidence than she felt. His gaze seemed curiously veiled-as if he wasn't exactly looking at her, but through her. She tried to look him directly in the eyes, but it was hard. It was up to her to face him, Jenny knew. He was wearing the duster jacket again, and he had his hands in his pockets.
He was surrounded by ferns and fake palms. Julian was standing beside a ticket booth with a brass telescope on top.
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