Dreamer (The Dream World Chronicles Book 1)

by Camille Peters

  “That’s not true,” Stardust piped up. “The dream dust thefts began before Eden ever set foot in this world.”

  Galaxy stroked his chin. “An excellent point.”

  “Those thefts are definitely not her,” Darius interrupted. “One look at her locket and her lack of dream dust only confirms that.”

  “Thank you for that insightful opinion, Nightmare Darius,” Galaxy said. “I agree, those thefts are likely the work of someone else, but unfortunately there are other suspicious matters surrounding Dreamer Eden which must be addressed.” He cast me an apologetic glance. “We’ve noticed your unusually frequent trips down to Earth at times other than for Weavings. The Council is also reminded of the observations made by Nightmare Darius when you first appeared before us—being seen by Mortals while living on Earth, suspicious magical activity surrounding you, outrageous claims to be able to receive dreams…isn’t that right, Nightmare Darius?”

  Darius hesitated, casting me an uncertain, even regretful glance. “That’s true…however, my earlier investigation was inconclusive, so I’m currently pursuing other possible explanations.”

  Ember waved his words away dismissively. “But didn’t you tell me she’s scarcely won any Weavings for your Mortal, who is already several months old?”

  “I admit my concern has only grown the more we’ve monitored her,” Galaxy said. “It’s unacceptable for a Mortal to experience so few dreams. I expected better after Eden’s earlier showcase of skills.”

  Darius shrugged. “With all due respect, it probably can't be helped when her partner is considerably more talented than she is.”

  Galaxy pursed his lips but seemed to accept this explanation, and I relaxed my rigid posture. I never would have believed there would come a time when I’d appreciate Darius’s usual conceit.

  “But you’ve been investigating her for months,” Ember said with an almost hungry desperation. “Haven’t you discovered anything unusual in all that time?”

  I tensed as everyone turned towards Darius. I braced myself—this was the opportunity he’d been waiting for to expose all my secrets he’d discovered and ensure his coveted place on the Council.

  He glanced at me, and I pleaded with my eyes for him to keep quiet. He didn’t even hesitate before turning to face the Council. “I’ve been with Eden every night for the past several months and I can confidently conclude there’s nothing unusual about her.”

  I sank against the cloud podium in fierce relief. I couldn’t believe it. Darius—the man who’d given me so many reasons not to trust him—had just rejected his perfect opportunity to betray it and kick me out of the Dream World.

  Darius caught my eye and winked, an assurance that everything would be alright. A flutter filled my heart as I smiled shyly back.

  Our exchange wasn’t lost on Ember. She looked back and forth between me and Darius, her face twisted as if she’d tasted something sour. Her disapproval only deepened when Darius avoided her eyes, which only seemed to confirm her suspicions.

  Before she could confront him, a member of the Investigations Team entered the Chamber and whispered something into Investigator Cedar’s ear. His face grew solemn, and with a curt nod he straightened. “Please forgive the interruption, but I’ve just received the results from our test on the magical fingerprint discovered at the scene.”

  Ember pounced on the opportunity. “Excellent. Present it immediately.” Before he had the chance, she snatched the parchment from the investigator’s hands and hastily read it. She smirked. “As I suspected—the magic is an exact match with Dreamer Eden’s.”

  My legs weakened. I clutched the podium for support.

  “Impossible!” Stardust exclaimed. “She didn’t do it. She couldn’t. She wouldn’t.”

  Galaxy shook his head, face chalk white, while Ember gloated in sickly triumph. “The truth has prevailed.”

  Darius gnawed his bottom lip. “I still assert she’s innocent.”

  Ember swiveled towards him. “You don’t know when to give up, do you? How could you possibly make such a claim after all the irrefutable evidence that’s been presented?”

  He hesitated only a moment before he clenched his jaw and lifted his chin. “Because it was me.”

  Gasps erupted throughout the chamber, the loudest being Stardust’s gleeful “I knew it!”

  Ember looked like she’d been slapped. “Have you lost your mind?”

  “I assure you, it’s true,” Darius said, his voice gaining confidence. “I’m the one who created and used the metamorphose potion, which I learned at the Academy. As her weaving partner, I’ve had ample opportunity to obtain some some of the residual dream dust left behind from her weavings under the guise of assisting her, and tonight at the flying colors I planted a vial on her and stole one of her clips when I touched her hair. In essence, I set her up.”

  The room became deathly quiet. My mind scrambled to connect Darius’s mismatched confession together, but the pieces wouldn’t fit. “It couldn’t have been you.”

  “Of course it couldn’t,” Ember said.

  “Can you prove it wasn’t?” Darius asked calmly. “Do you have evidence stronger than a direct confession? There’s no definite proof I’m lying or that Eden is guilty. Eden even has an alibi; as I implied earlier, I was with her the entire flying colors show until I left to use the potion.”

  “You foolish boy,” Ember hissed. “Are you determined to lose your place on the Council for a mere Dreamer? There’s no possible way you would have done it.”

  Darius looked squarely into his mother’s eyes. “You’re right, I didn’t, but I’ve just presented the likely possibility that Eden was framed.”

  Ember gaped at him.

  “Well, this is an unexpected turn of events,” Galaxy said. “Although we have what appears to be conclusive evidence against Eden, Nightmare Darius’s alternate explanation has shed new light on this unusual case. He gave a plausible defense for how this evidence can be interpreted as a setup. I conclude this investigation requires further study. Before I end tonight’s proceedings, I want to leave you with a warning, Dreamer Eden.” His eyes narrowed. “Consider yourself on probation. If I discover you have any involvement in this or any other of the recent Nightmare plots, or if you fail to improve your weaving performance, we’ll be forced to suspend you. Understood?”

  Mouth dry, I nodded, while inside I screamed. Only one more chance? How could I use it to prove to myself and the Council that this was where I truly belonged?

  Chapter 29

  I waited restlessly for the arrival of Darius, frequently looking out the window for any sign of him against the dark horizon despite him never having arrived by flight before. I nibbled my lip worriedly. “Darius has never been late.” I kept my voice lowered to a whisper so as not to awaken Maci, who’d been sleeping roughly these past few nights.

  “It’s rather suspicious that he’s late for the Weaving immediately following your meeting with the Council,” Stardust said wryly.

  Surely it was only coincidence, though I couldn’t deny the timing looked bad. My mind still whirled from the events that had transpired this evening—the Council’s accusations, their ultimatum granting me one final chance, and especially Darius’s defense. The gesture had finished the work that had begun during the flying colors show and dispelled the remainder of my anger, opening my heart back up to him, leaving me once more anxious for his presence, and not just for the Weaving.

  I searched the velvety night, dark save for a few pinpricks of stars. Stardust took advantage of my silence to expound on her latest suspicions.

  “Spiderweb’s case outlining how you could possibly have been framed was a bit too neat and tidy, as if he was the one to do it. His late arrival only deepens my suspicions that he’s using the time to plant more evidence against you. But you might as well take advantage of his absence and start weaving so you can pull off a win, one you need now more than ever.”

  She needn’t have reminded me h
ow much was currently at stake in my standing with the Council. I tore my gaze away from the sky to give her a skeptical look. “An illegal Weaving?”

  She drooped. “Comets, I forgot about that unfortunate detail. That would be foolish to do when you’re on probation.”

  It would, though I knew I wouldn’t have been able to be so unfair to Darius even if I’d had the opportunity, not after everything he’d done…and everything he continued to do. Guilt twinged my heart for my treatment of him at the flying colors show, memories that haunted me as we waited for him.

  After nearly fifteen minutes of waiting, Darius appeared in his usual lightning fashion, out of breath. “You’re late,” I stated, voice weak with disbelief.

  “I was looking into something.”

  By the knowing look in Stardust’s eyes, she suspected it had been about me and the accusations the Council had laid at my feet, confirming the suspicions she seemed determined to have against him.

  He yanked fistfuls of flowers and thread from his bag. “I wanted to follow up on the investigations given by the Council and see if I could uncover the real culprit behind the event at the Flying Colors…no, it wasn’t me.” For Stardust had just opened her mouth, undoubtedly to accuse him of that very thing.

  She snapped her mouth shut with an indignant huff. “True criminals are too sneaky to actually confess. As far as I’m concerned, you’re guilty until proven innocent.”

  He ignored her…but not me. He paused in removing his weaving supplies to study my taut expression. His own frantic one gentled. “Are you alright, Eden?”

  I swallowed the lump of emotion in my throat and forced a nod, but he wasn’t fooled. He strode over and, after a moment’s hesitation, he rested his hands gently on my shoulders. “I know you’re likely worried after the Council, but please don’t be afraid. Everything will be alright.”

  I lost my precarious hold on my emotions and my chin quivered. “How? All that evidence, the Council’s suspicions, their ultimatum…”

  Darius rubbed his hands up and down my arms, his touch soothing. He’d never been so openly affectionate towards me when around Stardust, but I was grateful he didn’t feel the need to play the part of indifference now. It only deepened the shame of my behavior towards him earlier this evening, how easily I’d become angry and accused him.

  “Darius, I—” I began.

  “It’s alright,” he said again, cutting my apology off before I could even begin it.

  But it wasn’t, not my earlier behavior and certainly not the situation I found myself in now. But more than that, I felt I wasn’t alright, that there was something inside me I didn’t understand, something dark and frightening, which seemed to grow with my fears and worries.

  “How can it be?” I whispered. “What with the accusations against me and…everything else…” My accidental creation of the nightmare flower burned in my memory, and I couldn’t finish.

  My gaze darted towards Stardust, who watched us through narrowed, suspicious eyes. I’d managed to keep the flower I’d inadvertently created a secret from her, and I wanted to keep it that way, especially with how accusatory she was prone to being when there was a mystery to solve.

  Thankfully, Darius seemed to sense what I couldn’t say. “I’m looking into that too, Eden,” he murmured quietly. “I haven’t found an explanation yet, but I’m sure there is one.”

  I feared there was. You’re a Nightmare. The dark voice that just wouldn’t go away returned, dark and slithery. I tried to push it away, but the tension and terror lingering from my confrontation with the Council made it nigh impossible. Tonight had only confirmed my deepest fears. If I were truly a Dreamer like I desperately hoped, then wouldn’t my place in the Dream Realm be easier to keep?

  “No one must find out,” I stuttered. “If the Council learns of it, especially now that I only have one more chance…” My stomach clenched. One more chance was hardly any at all. But it had to be enough. I had to remain here, no matter what happened.

  I lifted my gaze to meet Darius’s green eyes, wide and reassuring. And although the anxieties pressing against me didn’t leave, in that moment I felt…peace. For I trusted him.

  He gave my shoulders a reassuring squeeze before releasing me, leaving me yearning for his comforting touch again. “I’ll keep trying to help you. In the meantime, we should begin our Weaving.”

  The last thing I wanted was to weave a dream, but my assignment left me little choice. Unsurprisingly, I found myself quite distracted; it was all I could do to concentrate on each careful stitch, but I needed to, for it’d never been more crucial a time for me to focus.

  But even my best efforts produced a rather mediocre dream, one that certainly wouldn’t improve my standing with the Council. It was as if everything I touched wasn’t good enough. I bit the inside of my lip to suppress the tears fighting to escape.

  To my surprise, I still managed to win. Instead of feeling elated, I only felt numb. There was no way I could have pulled off one of my rare wins on my own while in such a state.

  I frowned at the dream dust pouring into my locket before lifting my questioning gaze to Darius. “Did you let me win on purpose?”

  His eyes widened almost too innocently. “Why would I do that?”

  Warmth filled my heavy heart, all the more welcome after the icy terror that had clenched it unceasingly since standing before the Council. His sweet gesture was like a shaft of light in the darkness that had shrouded me since first fearing he’d betrayed me, and despite the worry hovering over me like a heavy shadow, I managed a smile, which he returned.

  His smile caused a fluttering feeling to fill my heart, similar to what I’d experienced while sitting with him at the Alcove of Waterfalls, but deeper, as if the connection between us was only growing stronger. And even though those feelings were undoubtedly dangerous and forbidden, in that moment they brought me nothing but joy, right when I needed it the most.

  “The Council suspected you?” Angel gaped at me over her doodles of cloud-shaped designs she’d scribbled in her sketchbook. “Based on what evidence?”

  After our Weavings, I’d wasted no time in summoning Angel and Iris to my room to tell them what had happened. Even sharing the recent events didn’t make them any easier to understand.

  I groaned. “Loads. If I wasn’t certain of my own innocence, even I would have suspected I was guilty. Frankly I’m surprised they didn’t suspend me.”

  “Don’t exaggerate; I found the evidence entirely circumstantial,” Stardust said. “Not to mention I put up an impeccable defense. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Investigations Team sends me an invitation to join.” Her magnifying glass form bristled smartly.

  “It wasn’t good enough for Nightmare Ember. It’s obvious she doesn’t trust me.”

  Angel tapped her lips with her quill. “Perhaps she’s involved somehow and seized the first opportunity to pin the blame on you.”

  Iris sighed. “Oh Angel, someone so respected would never do something so shady.”

  Angel rolled her eyes. “You have too much faith in people. The fact that she’s a Nightmare is reason enough.”

  “Definitely,” Stardust chimed in. “Every Nightmare is a potential suspect. The question is: which one is the true culprit?”

  I buried my face in my hands. “Thousands attended the festival. It could have been anyone.”

  “Then it’s up to us to discover which one it was. Here’s a list of our prime suspects.” Stardust morphed into her notebook and scribbled out a list, Spiderweb written at the very top, followed by Creepy Nightmare Pair, whom I assumed to be Blaze and Trinity.

  “It couldn’t have been Darius, not when he’s the one who got the Council to back off.”

  Angel gasped. “He did what?”

  “He wasn’t really defending her,” Stardust said. “A Nightmare is incapable of such compassion.”

  I frowned. “But he’s the one who presented the possibility I’d been framed.” Not to mention s
he’d been witness to the compassion he’d displayed at our Weaving—not that I was about to bring that up in front of Angel and Iris.

  “Yes, but by confessing in a way that made it appear he was sticking up for you, he deflected the blame from himself. Such a trick is a common diversionary tactic amongst criminals.”

  Angel stroked her chin. “She has a point.”

  She smirked. “Finally someone who recognizes an excellent conclusion when she hears it. The fact so much evidence pointed to you indicates someone set you up, and Spiderweb is the one who could have most easily done it.”

  “But if he were truly guilty, wouldn’t he have let me take the fall?”

  For a moment Stardust looked deflated at the hole I’d discovered in her logic, but as usual she didn’t remain deterred for long. “I admit I’m still working out Spiderweb’s motive for that particular point, but I still have a solid case for his guilt. Let’s examine the main points of his ‘false’ confession in more detail.”

  She morphed into her notebook form, flipped to a blank page, and tilted her body so we could see each point as she wrote it.

  “Point number one: Spiderweb is quite familiar with your magical style, and you haven’t performed magic in front of any other Nightmares; therefore logically he’s the only Nightmare who is even capable of obtaining some of your dream dust. Correct?”

  Heart pounding, I nodded.

  “Point number two: he claims to have planted the vial in your bag at the festival, which he could have easily done. I myself am a witness to his disgusting touches, so don’t try to deny it.” Stardust shot me an icy glare.

  My cheeks warmed at the memory of how close we’d sat together. Tonight had been one of the few times he’d voluntarily touched me.

  “When would Darius have been able to do any of this?” Iris asked. “We were together most of the festival.”