And suddenly my desire to remain in the Dream World took on an entirely new meaning—I wanted to remain not just because it was my home; I wanted to remain with him, a man who was becoming one of my dearest friends and the only one who seemed to truly understand me. I couldn’t be pulled away now.
Which meant I had to do all in my power to keep both the nightmare flower and this forbidden relationship a secret at all costs.
Chapter 24
I floated rather than walked with Darius through the park on the way to our Weaving. I eyed his hand with every step, itching to take it and continue to explore the feelings that had stirred within me while sitting with him beside the waterfall. Darius’s mouth lifted as he glanced sideways at me, a smile that was followed by the caress of his pinky across the back of my own hand, a sensation that was both pleasant and frustratingly teasing.
We shared a secret look as I curled my own fingers against his palm, but before I could weave our hands together, my neck prickled with the sensation I was being watched.
I froze and Darius frowned in concern. “What is it?” he asked gently.
I stiffened as the feeling shifted and I felt the heat of a stare boring into my back. “I think someone is—”
On cue, Stardust suddenly appeared beside me with a pop as she morphed from a bumblebee back to her cumulus form. My bubble of happiness burst at her disapproving glare, but before I could even say a word in defense, she launched into her tirade.
“I’ve been looking everywhere for you. The Weaving started hours ago. Where have you been?” Her suspicious gaze shifted to Darius, who was standing rather close beside me. Her scowl deepened. “What’s he doing here?”
The last thing I wanted to admit was that we’d gone on a rather pleasant outing together; the moment had been too lovely for me to expose it to her disapproval. As if sensing my unease, Darius’s fingers brushed against mine, his touch reassuring.
“I had an errand in the Dream Realm,” he said smoothly. “When I finished, Nemesis and I encountered one another and became distracted discussing tonight’s Weaving. We’ve only now just noticed the time.”
Stardust’s deepening frown told me she clearly didn’t buy his excuse. My panic grew, squeezing my chest, and Darius gave me another reassuring touch. This time his caress wasn’t lost on Stardust’s acute observation. Her gaze darted to our hands and sharpened. “What’s going on?”
“Nothing,” we both said hastily…perhaps a bit too hastily.
“Nothing?” Stardust said wryly. “I highly doubt that.”
Her suspicion only escalated my rising anxiety. I couldn’t bear to have Stardust suspicious of me. She was one of my only friends, an ally in my quest to prove myself to the Council. If she discovered my relationship with Darius was deeper than was normal between two weaving partners…
As if sensing my fears, Darius stepped away from me with a rather conceited look. “We’ve dawdled long enough. Any longer and Nemesis won’t have time to finish her dream. Ready to lose?” His look was challenging, but it did nothing to dispel the softness of his gaze, my assurance that he was putting on an act for my suspicious cloud.
I readily accepted his excuse for us to end this awkward confrontation, but even the Weaving didn’t prove an adequate enough distraction from my nerves or Stardust’s suspicion. A Weaving I’d anticipated to be an extension of our magical outing together was instead spent enduring my stern cloud’s chaperoning.
I did my best to avoid both her knowing gaze and Darius’s, certain one look at him would cause me to reveal my carefully guarded secret to my condemning cloud: something had shifted between Darius and me, something beautiful but still rather alarming. The thought made it nearly impossible to focus on constructing my dream.
Despite my distraction, I not only managed to finish, but unexpectedly won the Weaving. As my dream dust gathered in a cloud and seeped into my locket, I finally lifted my gaze to meet Darius’s intense, smoldering stare. “I won?” I asked weakly.
He shrugged. “It appears so.” His grin was a bit mischievous, and I suddenly realized that for the first time he’d let me win. My heart pounded wildly. What did that mean?
You know what it means. The thought caused me to smile…a smile that faltered the moment Stardust noticed it.
“It’s time to go, Eden,” she said stiffly, as if she were my mother rather than my pet.
“I’ll see you later, Nemesis.” The heat of Darius’s breath caressed my ear as he leaned closer. “Eden.”
I smiled shyly, pleased I wouldn’t have to wait hours until our next Weaving to see him again; we’d find one another at the Dream Festival and attend together, almost as if we were…courting.
But that moment couldn’t come until I’d endured a lecture from my grumpy cloud.
I expected her to launch in the moment Darius left, but to my surprise she remained silent our entire flight home. But I sensed her angry energy, which was certain to be a storm when it finally burst.
The moment we arrived back at Angel and Iris’s flat, Stardust flew me to Angel’s bedroom, where we found her painting her nails bubblegum pink. In any other circumstance Angel’s playful, vibrant bedroom would be rather inviting—splashes of color covered the walls as if she’d thrown paint on them while in a temper, transparent snowflakes hung in streamers from the ceiling, and half-finished sculptures crowded the floor. Her furniture was constructed from a variety of candy—cupcake seats with fluffy cotton candy pillows, licorice shelves laden with more nail polish than books, and a gingerbread desk stacked with towering cans of paint.
The rest of the room was in various stages of packing as Angel prepared to move into her own place with Caspian after their upcoming Pair Ceremony, which would make their union official according to the laws of the Council.
I nervously slid off Stardust and perched on the edge of one of Angel’s frosted seats. She eyed my anxious expression before her gaze darted towards Stardust’s glower. “Is everything all right?”
Stardust swelled herself up. “Something is going on between Eden and her Nightmare partner.”
Angel stilled, horror overtaking her previous cheerful expression, while Iris poked her head from the adjoining room, her own eyes wide. “Eden is involved with who?”
“It’s not like that,” I hastily said, but the words felt like a lie. After tonight I could no longer deny that things were becoming very much like that.
Iris crossed the threshold to the opposite seat. The moment she settled, Stardust eagerly shared her suspicions with her attentive audience.
“Eden was unusually late for her Weaving, but no matter how much I searched, I couldn’t find her anywhere…until I entered the park, where I found Eden emerging from the Alcove of Waterfalls with him.”
Iris gasped while Angel’s eyebrows rose. “You were at the Alcove of Waterfalls with Nightmare Darius?”
“Why is that bad?” I stammered, despite already suspecting the answer to such a question.
“Because that’s a popular destination for Pairs. So for you to go there with a Nightmare…” Her lip curled in disgust.
“A place for Pairs?” My heartbeat escalated that Darius had taken me to a romantic location to help alleviate my fears. Could that possibly mean that we were paired? A girlish smile threatened to emerge at that tender thought, but I fought to suppress it. A trying interrogation was not the time to dwell on such pleasant notions.
Iris frowned. “Surely you’re not suggesting that Eden and Nightmare Darius are…” She gave a rigid shake of her head to dispel the thought. “Pairs occur between a couple who share a magical connection. Surely a Dreamer and a Nightmare’s magic is far too different to match in any way.”
Connection…my heart flared in hope. From the moment I’d learned about them, I’d always wondered whether I’d also have a Pair, something part of me doubted considering I was likely Half-Mortal. The thought had saddened me, for I’d always secretly yearned for romance. But I’d never allowed myself to want it
too much, not when I’d spent a lifetime being the least popular candidate for boys to court back home.
But if something existed between me and Darius… “What sort of connection?” I asked. “Love at first sight?”
Angel pursed her lips. “Not quite. More like…a connection at first sight. Even a paired relationship takes time to develop. The difference is it’s the most natural relationship in the Universe, a connection of two souls that puts them on a path whose only destination is for them to be together, even if their actual love for one another develops over time.”
My heart only pounded more wildly. “And does one recognize their Pair right away?”
“Usually, but not always. Sometimes it takes a while to sense the magical connection, but there are always signs, because beings who share a connection have unique magical peculiarities between them that don’t exist between anyone else.”
My hope blossomed further. “Have Dreamers and Nightmares ever been paired?”
Her eyes narrowed. “What’s the purpose behind these questions? You’re not truly suggesting…”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” I said hastily, but these words also felt like a lie. Her description had perfectly captured both the yearning and the beautiful feelings I’d been experiencing towards Darius from the moment we’d met—the connection, the need to trust him, the longing to be near him, the warm, tender way he made me feel…and while I didn’t yet love him, I felt I was falling towards that destination with no way to stop it.
But how could these feelings exist between us if Pairs only occurred between two beings who shared a magical connection, one that was surely impossible between a Dreamer and Nightmare? Did that mean…could I be a Nightmare after all?
But I’d no sooner had this rather sobering thought than I remembered something Darius had said about our connection beside the waterfall. It’s happened once that I’m aware of, back when the Dream World was first created. Had he been talking about our friendship, or a paired relationship?
I blinked rapidly to dispel the thoughts and found my friends watching me suspiciously, still awaiting my excuses for tonight. I nervously fiddled with my hair as I frantically tried to come up with another explanation for my outing with Darius other than the wonderful one I was beginning to hope it’d been.
“I had a Weaving question…and he offered to help…”
The excuse only deepened their alarm. “Eden,” Angel said tentatively. “I know you haven’t been in the Dream World long, but…it’s unlikely Nightmare Darius wanted to help you with your weaving.”
My heart sank. “Why not?”
She sighed. “Because Nightmares are not to be trusted. It’s as simple as that.”
“Perhaps some Nightmares,” I ventured. “But—”
“No, Eden, all Nightmares.” Angel’s entire manner had hardened. “Their magic is far too different from ours, their world a place of darkness, shadows, and fear, a contrast to our world of light. Nightmares and Dreamers don’t mingle. Ever.”
“That’s not quite true,” Iris said. “While the two realms don’t often mingle outside of weavings, the Council is trying to encourage less animosity between the two worlds.”
“Their efforts will change nothing,” Angel insisted. “Our differences are far too vast for us to ever bridge them.”
I frowned. While in theory I understood the animosity between Dreamers and Nightmares, the rift between the two worlds made little sense whenever I was actually with Darius. Our relationship, while surely forbidden, felt anything but wrong.
“He’s been very kind—” I managed, an inadequate defense for all he was coming to mean to me.
Stardust snorted. “Kind? He’s given you nothing but trouble from the moment you arrived, or need I remind you all the times he’s investigated you, both on Earth and while here?”
A sliver of doubt entered my mind. He had been paying me a lot of attention of late…I gave my head a rigid shake. “He’s only been trying to help me.”
But then I remembered the notebook I’d found, where he’d carefully chronicled all the information he’d discovered about me. Had I trusted him too easily?
Iris pursed her lips. “Does he have a reason to get close to her?”
“Eden’s powers are rather unique,” Stardust said. “He undoubtedly wants to use them for his own ends.”
I gave her a sharp, warning glare to not be so open about my magic, but the damage had been done.
Angel’s eyebrows rose. “You have unique powers, Eden? What are they?”
I gave Stardust another dark glower and she at least had the sense to look contrite. “I’d rather not share,” I said stiffly.
Angel frowned, looking rather hurt, and guilt prickled my conscience that I was once more allowing my secrets to harm the few friendships I had.
Angel lifted her chin. “Whatever your powers are, the fact that they exist creates the possibility that Nightmare Darius is using you, which explains his insincere interest in you. This wouldn’t be the first time he’s done something like this.”
Foreboding encased my heart like a heavy shadow. “What do you mean?”
“It’s just a rumor—” Iris began, but Angel leaned closer, a dark glint in her eyes.
“Years ago, Darius got rather close to my Weaving Partner, Blaze, and his Pair, Trinity.”
My unease deepened at the mere mention of their names.
“The story goes that Darius and Trinity combined their powers for a sinister purpose,” Angel continued. “No one knows what Darius’s powers are, only that they’re unique and very dangerous. Then, more recently, he and Trinity were discovered together at one of the earliest instances of when the balance began tipping in the Nightmare Realm’s favor. Because he’s the Head Nightmare’s son, Darius avoided suspension. But if he’s still interested in tipping the balance, he’ll need access to unique powers to achieve it.” She gave me a penetrating look.
My apprehension grew. Was there any truth in Angel’s story? By Stardust’s solemn expression, I could tell she believed every word. Sense dictated that I should as well, but my heart had different ideas; it created enough doubt to prevent me from embracing my friends’ warning.
It’s just a rumor, I reminded myself. One spread by the Dream Realm with a bias against all Nightmares. It was similar to what I believed had happened to Mother, who’d been suspended for supposedly dangerous reasons. Yet I knew Mother and had no doubt that the accusations against her had been unjust, just as I suspected Darius’s were now.
Was I naive to trust him so easily?
Despite my reservations, our connection was undeniable. Would my desperation to fit into the Dream World force me to bury the romantic feelings just beginning to bud between us, or would I embrace them and walk the path that would risk all I’d dreamed of?
Chapter 25
The rosy, golden light of dawn glistened across the festival grounds, dancing against the floating bubbles and sparkling confetti that twirled in the gentle breeze and the garlands of jeweled, vibrant blossoms that hung from the eaves like wisteria. Mouthwatering scents of pastries, fairy floss, flower nectars, nebula cream, and fruit filled the air. Everything burst with celebration, magic, and good cheer.
We met up with Angel, Iris, and their clouds in front of the sunrise and sunset display before exploring the various exhibits. Stardust carried me through the gold-tinted streets, her jabbering drowned out by the peals of laughter coming from the crowds pressing against us on all sides.
I warily eyed the Nightmares we passed. While some had distinctly eerie styles—the one oozing mildew was especially startling—several could almost pass for Dreamers if it weren’t for the aura of unease that shrouded them.
“How can you tell whether or not they're Nightmares?” I asked.
Stardust carefully maneuvered around a group huddled in front of a map, recoiling to avoid accidentally brushing against them. “You just know; it’s a feeling that radiates from them, which makes them e
asier to avoid.”
“We shouldn’t avoid them,” Iris said. “The festival is meant to bring everyone together to increase the harmony between our worlds.”
Angel rolled her eyes. “It doesn’t look like anyone is building bridges of harmony to me.”
Sure enough, the two groups eyed each other with suspicious gazes and gave one another a wide berth whenever they passed, the unease between them palpable.
Iris wrung her hands, on the verge of tears. “This is awful. No one is even attempting to build relationships. This never happened at previous festivals.”
“What do you expect with the increasing Nightmare happenings?” Angel asked. “I refuse to interact with any Nightmare, not when one is a dream dust thief.”
I frowned. Both her and Stardust’s aversion would make it difficult to sneak away and meet with Darius like we’d arranged, a challenge I hadn’t foreseen when I’d accepted Darius’s invitation. It was difficult to reconcile the feelings slowly developing between us with the reminder that we came from different worlds with a history of animosity.
You already have a difficult time fitting in, my ever-present insecurities reminded me. If anyone learned that not only do you not avoid a Nightmare, but you actually like interacting with him…
I was pulled from my uneasy thoughts as my friends began discussing where we should explore first. Angel consulted her program. “A cloud chiseling contest is starting in a few minutes at the rainbow pavilion; I have to do my part to ensure a Dreamer victory by participating.”
We witnessed Angel take third place for a rather impressive dragon sculpture, and then, to silent Stardust’s pleadings, we strolled over to the unicorn petting zoo, enclosed in a meadow of dancing wildflowers. The only unicorns I’d ever seen were the occasional illustrations within books of legends or their rare appearances in dreams I’d watched. Unlike their pencil drawings or fuzzy dream counterparts, real unicorns were shimmery, beautiful creatures that radiated light. I stroked a marigold unicorn’s mane, smooth as silk. Iris cooed as she nuzzled a violet one while Angel perched on her cloud, Sprinkles, while filing her nails.
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