Dark Consort

by Amber R. Duell

  “Come with me.”

  He pulled me close, tucking me beneath his arm, and we snuck through one of the back exits. Cobwebs filled every corner of the dim hallway, and the beige tiles were stained black from years of wear. Each door had a sign taped haphazardly below a peephole with the name of the store for receiving deliveries. The exits didn’t open to any of the customer parking lots, so they were rarely used by anyone other than employees, making them perfect for a private conversation. I leaned against the tiled wall and welcomed the coolness of it seeping through my shirt.

  “Okay.” I held my breath, knowing this couldn’t be good. “Go ahead.”

  The Sandman ran both hands through his hair and licked his lips. “Rowan’s going to be a bigger problem than we expected.”

  Anger flared in me, hot enough that the wall would surely have scorch marks afterwards. Of course she was. She set me up to kill the Weaver so she could kill me. Then she stole my Keep, loom included, and riled up my nightmares. “What did she do now?” I asked through my teeth.

  “The other day when I told you that Baku and I killed a nightmare?” He waited until I nodded to continue. “After, when we went back to the Dream Realm, we found it under attack.”

  “What?”

  “Nothing I couldn’t handle. A single giant beating at the barrier and some talking mushrooms,” he said, hands raised. “I didn’t want to say anything until my spies confirmed Rowan sent them, and then today I saw Kail.”

  “Kail?” I screeched.

  The Sandman’s eyes widened as the sound echoed down the hall, and he shot a look over his shoulder. “He offered his help.”

  “His help?” I barked a laugh. “He’s helped enough, wouldn’t you say?”

  “Regardless, we can’t trust him.”

  “You think?” I agreed. The grin flickered to life. Calm down, I thought to myself. Don’t lose yourself. The Sandman and I both knew what Kail had done, and neither of us would forget that.

  The Sandman paced away from me. “The timing is off. Why would he wait until right before your return?”

  “Does it matter? He obviously wants to set me up again.”

  I rapped my fingers on my thighs in contemplation. Why wasn’t Kail in the Keep with Rowan? Did she send him to find the Sandman? They could’ve had a falling out and delivering me was his way back into her good graces. Or maybe he wanted to be the one to find me first. The one to kill me and take the Weaver’s power.

  “I think…” The Sandman drew in a deep breath and stared at the exit sign over my head. “I think we should move the date back.”

  Sweat broke out across my body, and I shoved away from the wall. “I knew this would happen. Are you out of your mind?”

  “Not by much,” he said in a rush. “An extra week so there’s time to find out what their plan is.”

  “You have eighteen days to figure that out.” I scowled, and the grin mirrored the sentiment. Enough was enough. Rowan wasn’t going to make claiming my realm easy no matter when I returned. If anything, giving her more time was the worse option. Why let her get any stronger than she already was? We would have the element of surprise if I went back now, but I needed the Sandman to take me. And apparently, he wouldn’t. “Is this because you don’t want me to go back? You’d rather let Rowan rule in my place?”

  He blanched. “Why would I want someone else running the Nightmare Realm? Especially Rowan? As much as I hate admitting it, it’s yours. Besides, the nightmares are too unstable to rule each other—they need you.”

  “I’m unstable,” I shouted. I doubted I’d be any good at ruling, but anything I did there had to be better than the nothing I was doing here.

  “I believe in you, Nora,” he said simply.

  “Then take me back. Now, not later.” I tore off my sunglasses. “Look at me. I don’t belong here anymore. Keeping me here is doing more harm than good. If Rowan and Kail are setting a trap for me, we’ll deal with it together.”

  He lifted a hand to my face and ran his thumb over my cheekbone. “Let me get more information before we decide.”

  “We decided a long time ago.”

  He hesitated before leaning down to kiss me on the corner of my mouth. I wanted not to react, to let him know I couldn’t be sweet-talked into changing my mind, but I leaned into it instead. There was no telling how many more kisses we would have or what would change between us once I got back. I would be busy claiming the Keep and learning how to use the loom in order to cement my authority. And he would be… What would he do? He couldn’t be seen helping or the nightmares would never respect me.

  “Give me today to see what I can find, and we’ll talk about it again tonight,” he murmured in my ear.

  I turned my head so my lips matched his perfectly and kissed him gently. He could have today to do whatever he wanted, but I wasn’t staying. If Rowan was planning something, it was even more reason to go back and snatch everything away from her. Everything she had given me.

  I’d been gone too long already.

  7

  Nora

  The glue of the envelope was bitter against my tongue. I pressed the flap down and clicked my pen, doubting myself for the hundredth time. I won’t be home for awhile, I explained in the letter. I’m safe. Don’t look for me. I would hide it in the bottom of my closet along with their gifts for them to find after they realized the internship was a lie. But what if my mother never found the letter? Or worse, what if she found it before I left? She snooped regularly in both my room and Katie’s—mostly mine. It was entirely possible she would happen across it even if I locked it in a box and bricked it up inside a wall. I could only imagine how my last moments here would go then. Still, I had to leave something for them.

  I tossed the pen down without writing Mom across the front and tucked the blank envelope inside a study guide that a certain someone passive-aggressively left on my desk. They wouldn’t believe a word of the letter anyway, but what else could I tell them? Gone to kick a nightmare off my proverbial throne. Back eventually. I hope. That would be monumentally worse, but Katie would suspect the truth, even if she didn’t want to speak it out loud. No one would believe her if she did—a fact I knew all too well.

  Coming back to visit after I learned how to Day Walk would be interesting. Who knew how long it would take for me to secure my position? What if they were all dead before I managed it? Being eternal, the only nightmare in a rush was likely Rowan. There were four quarters left on the board and the clock was eternally stalled. I shoved away from the desk, my heart fluttering in my chest. Goodbye was different than goodbye.

  I lifted my hands and stared at the stained skin. At the gold pulsing beneath. The internal grin cracked its lips, darkness spilling out. It circled my thoughts, twisting them until they almost broke. I strained to hold it back. I would come home. I would see them again. I drew a ragged breath.

  Then, just as fast as the darkness had spread, a sense of calm washed over me. The Sandman’s emotions brushed against mine, and the grin faded. I scrambled to shutter my own feelings. To hide the terrifying thing residing in me from him, but it was pointless. Even if I was an expert at it, the Sandman already felt the desperate fear. That’s why he cracked his door open—to offer me the only comfort he could. What would he do if he knew the reason? The truth pressed down on me, begging to come out, but who could I tell if not the Sandman? Definitely not Colleen. I glanced at the wall I shared with my sister and twisted my hands together. It was worth a shot.

  I crept from my room and up to her open door. Should I tell her? Katie wanted to forget, but maybe she would stop pretending if we were alone. Five minutes. That’s all I needed from her. I leaned against the door frame and watched as she lounged on her bed with one of the random catalogs we got in the mail. She was probably thinking about buying something since more than a few corners were dog-eared, the folds fanning the top of the pages out. My mother always made sure to toss them in the garbage before my sister had a chance to see
them, but she’d clearly grown lax while Katie was away at college. I’d never forget the time Katie ordered whoopee cushions in bulk, their purpose still a mystery. Simpler times. Carefree. A pang of longing left me slouching into the wood.

  “Where’s Kellan?” I asked when she didn’t notice me.

  Katie jumped, snapping the catalog shut. “Natalie’s parents went to California for Thanksgiving, so he offered to walk their dog.”

  “Dog? When did they get a dog?”

  Katie shot me a withering look. “You can talk to them, you know. They miss you.”

  The blood drained from my face. They had tried more than once to get in touch with me, but I couldn’t. Not when I was the reason their daughter was dead. At least Emery’s parents gave me a wide berth the few times I had seen them out and about. I was a reminder to them of what they lost, Colleen suggested, but I didn’t need a reason. I deserved to be avoided—not hugged like Natalie’s mother wanted to do every time she saw me. They should all hate me.

  “I thought you said you were done running from your problems,” Katie said. “Isn’t that what you told me when I was in the hospital?”

  “Didn’t you admit the Sandman was real in the same conversation?” I countered, all sense of nostalgia flying out the window.

  “It’s not healthy to believe in fairy tales.” Her voice dropped at the end, her face contorting. “It’s easier to live in the here and now.”

  “Easier?” I echoed, giving her an icy stare. “Easy isn’t always right. Easy is blind. It’s spineless and weak and accomplishes nothing.”

  “It accomplishes giving me a normal life. What does believing do?” she asked. “Does it help you? Are you happy, Nora?”

  “Are you?” I dug my nails into my palms. My happiness was forfeit—the price I paid for everyone’s safety. This was a mistake. Katie favored her fantasy world over the truth, and hearing that I was about to become a permanent part of the Dream World wouldn’t change that. “You will never have a normal life, Katie. You’ve seen the Night World, and its stain will always be a part of you.”

  “No.” She stood and stormed to her closet. “I get to decide what’s a part of me. Not you. Not them.”

  I rolled my eyes. “You can’t choose it any more than I can.”

  She ripped an old sweater from a hanger and slammed the closet shut. “This is your fault, Nora. If you hadn’t welcomed the Sandman into your life, he never would’ve been a part of mine. So, no. You’re right. I can’t change what happened, but I can live with it in my own way.”

  She wasn’t wrong. How different would things be now if I had told the Sandman no when he first asked to hide a secret in my dreams? A secret that I still carried in my head like a tumor. Its presence wasn’t painful, but I knew it was there, a fading light among the darkness. I unwittingly brought this reign of terror down on my family. On my boss, Randy, and Natalie and Emery. Even Detective Bell. But I also saved countless others. Something a different Dream Keeper might have been too weak to do.

  Katie tsked at my silence and brushed past me, careful not to make physical contact. I stood in her doorway until I heard the front door slam shut behind her.

  Fine. Just… fine.

  I ran back to my room and tore my note from the study guide. If she didn’t want to hear it now, she wouldn’t want to hear it later. I shredded the note into tiny pieces and threw them in the trash. Reality hid behind all kinds of masks. Katie didn’t want to recognize the Night World? Then let her believe I was still in this world. At an internship, in a crack house, dead. They lost their right to know. I was the Lady of Nightmares now, and I had to do what was best for me. No one else would. Right now, that meant getting back to my rightful place.

  Not in three weeks.

  Not in four.

  Now.

  The Weaver’s magic swelled inside of me, black smoke coiling, consuming. My anger at Katie, at everything, fed it. The promise of leaving calmed it.

  “Mara,” I called, my voice strangely authoritative. Nothing. I rapped my fingers on my thighs and tried again, standing taller. “Mara!”

  “Lady,” she croaked from behind me. A gentle breeze brushed through the now open window, and I turned to find her perched on the edge of my mattress. Thin lines crinkled around her dark eyes, and she bobbed her head once. “How may I be of service?”

  The rational part of my brain screamed at me to send her away. The Sandman had warned me not to interact with her, yet here I was, inviting her into my bedroom. Don’t be stupid. The thought echoed against my skull, but I was committed. “Do you know the way back?”

  She blinked her wide eyes. “If I did, would I be here?”

  “Don’t play with me. You said you could help.” My tone was sharp enough to cut. “Do you know or not?”

  “I cannot travel it,” she said carefully.

  I folded my arms across my chest to cool my temper. “Knowing how and being able to travel it are different things.”

  “Indeed, indeed.” Mara’s face twitched. “If you are asking how you can get back, I do know a way.”

  I leaned forward on the balls of my feet. “Tell me.”

  She grinned. “First, we must come to terms.”

  “Terms? I already said I would take you back to the Nightmare Realm.”

  “How do I know you aren’t lying?” she asked.

  “You don’t.” Because I was. I didn’t like leaving Mara in the Day World, but I’d ignored the Sandman’s warnings once before. Asking for advice was one thing; bringing her with me was another. “If I have to wait for the Sandman, what do you think your odds will be? He banished you, so something tells me he won’t let you just waltz back in.”

  Mara’s thick tongue darted from between her teeth and licked her thin lips. “There’s no guarantee he’ll ever take you back. He already wants to delay your return by another week.”

  “He—” I went still while my heart kicked into overdrive. “Have you been spying on me?”

  “Following. Not spying. How else was I to know when you were ready for me?”

  My mouth fell open. How? Where? I should’ve noticed. Should have somehow sensed her lurking. A cold chill prickled my skin. I had. That was her I felt watching me the other day during training, and again in my room. There had to be other times, too. What else had she seen? Sweat trickled down my spine. My mind raced over conversations between the Sandman and me. If she knew he warned me about her… No wonder her promise of help was laced with disbelief. Still, there was no guarantee she was near the shed that morning, so I had to play it cool.

  “The Sandman will take me back as promised,” I said with conviction. “Unless you help me get back sooner.”

  “Me?”

  I glared at her. “You what?”

  Mara tilted her head. “You said help me get back. Not us.”

  Crap. I schooled my expression into one of indifference. “I’m the best chance you have, and it’s now or never. Make a choice.”

  She was quiet for a moment, her gaze sweeping over my arms. “You might not be strong enough to carry us both back,” Mara said at last. “It seems to take a great deal of focus.”

  The probability was high that she was right. I was weak, and, more importantly, my magic was untrained. There was no way to test it here outside of shuttering my emotions, and that continued to be an epic fail. I needed to be in the Nightmare Realm to learn. To test my limits. To reach my full potential. I drew a sharp breath. “Then why are we having this discussion?”

  Mara crept along the edge of my room. “You still carry the Sandman’s dream, which might help… buffer things.”

  “You know what?” I snapped as my unease grew. “Never mind. I’ll figure it out on my own.”

  “I’ll help, Lady. If you give me your word that I’ll go with you.”

  I had lied to the Weaver, tricked him into leading me to my sister. This would be no different, but if she had heard—if she did suspect…The Sandman said she was too weak to
do any harm while still in the Day World, but she was strong enough to continue following me undetected. “And if I can’t carry you back?”

  “Promise to try,” she seethed.

  “I make promises to no one.”

  Mara’s scowl darkened her entire face. The dark veins beneath her skin spread like wildfire, creating a map of twisted lines.

  “But,” I added, “if you tell me how to get to the Nightmare Realm, and if I decide to use that way instead of having the Sandman help me, I will consider it.”

  “That’s not enough.”

  I nonchalantly shrugged one shoulder. “It has to be.”

  She hissed. “Let the Dream Lord take you then.”

  “All right.” I waved a hand dismissively. “Leave.”

  Mara leapt out the window without another word, and I flopped down on the bed, staring at the ceiling. Double crap. The Sandman wouldn’t leave me here forever, that much I was sure of. He loved me, and it would kill him to watch me completely wither in the Day World. But three weeks was too long to wait. I closed my eyes and exhaled slowly to calm myself. In and out. Two times. Three. On the fourth inhale, something bore down hard enough to make me wheeze. My eyes flew open to find Mara leering down at me.

  “Lady,” she said in a grave voice.

  Her feet rested on either side of my head as she sat on my chest. I pushed at her knobby knees and attempted to twist my way out from beneath her, but she was like a slab of granite. Hard, heavy, and immovable. She blinked, callous, and a flash of heat raced through me. The taste of sulfur burned up the back of my throat, the grin widening into an angry snarl on my face.

  If I couldn’t handle one weakened nightmare, the Sandman was right: I wasn’t ready to go back. I let instinct focus my energy, let the grin guide it with pinpoint accuracy. Magic built and built, a flooded lake held back by the flimsiest of dams.

  Seeming to sense I was about to burst, Mara lifted herself slightly. “Use the threads to take you home. And dare not forget me.”

  Then she was gone a second time.