Dreamer (The Dream World Chronicles Book 1)

by Camille Peters

  I’d spent all our Weavings since the flying colors in an internal battle between wanting to speak with Darius and pretending he didn’t exist, which had been rather easy considering he made no attempt to talk to me either.

  Judging by his hardened expression, this encounter would undoubtedly be another one of cool indifference, one with which I’d have no choice but to play along. “What are you doing here?” I snapped, struggling to ignore the twittery feeling in my stomach at the sight of him.

  Darius leapt gracefully from the tree and shook loose leaves from his upright hair, causing Bolt hidden within to emit a muffled peep of protest. “I should be asking you the same thing. I can’t believe you’d come to Earth while still on probation. Do I need to remind you of your precarious position with the Council, Nemesis?”

  My heart prickled at his use of my nickname, and I hoped that his hostility was solely for Stardust’s sake rather than his own feelings for me fading. But it was more than that—his expression and his tone were different than whenever he performed his usual ruse of indifference; this time he seemed genuinely upset with me.

  I swallowed the tears already clogging my throat and defiantly lifted my chin. “If it’s so forbidden, then what’s your excuse?”

  “To babysit you, of course.” He pulled a leftover twig from his hair and began to mechanically break it into tiny pieces. “I suspected you were up to something suspicious; you were unusually fidgety during our Weaving.”

  I opened my mouth to reply, but before I could come up with an excuse, Darius held up his hand, silencing my words.

  “Before you try to justify why you’re being so careless despite my risking everything to help you—or more likely, choose to deny everything—it’s only fair to tell you there’s no use trying to hide anything anymore. I know all of your secrets, and have for quite a while, so you might as well save us both time. Spill.”

  “As if we’d fall for the most obvious ploy in a villains’ bag of tricks,” Stardust said wryly. “I doubt you know anything.”

  “No?” Darius cocked an eyebrow. “You’re probably right. I don’t know anything about her unusual ability to see dreams, nor did I just witness her disappearing into one.”

  It was as if all the air had been sucked from my lungs. “How did you—”

  “Did you honestly think I bought your ridiculous reason for knowing the details of the nightmare I gave Maci several weeks ago? Please. After all this time of our knowing one another, I can’t believe you still insist on underestimating me. As soon as you so conveniently supplied the details of a nightmare you couldn’t possibly know anything about, I realized all the strange trances I’d witnessed during our partnership must have been you spying on my other masterpieces.”

  I balled my hands into fists. “You Nightmare.”

  He rolled his eyes. “Thank you for the compliment. Now, let’s cut the theatrics. Care to explain, my little Nemesis?” Despite his taunting me with having discovered my biggest secret, his tone and look remained friendly, trusting…but it was undoubtedly nothing more than another act.

  I gritted my teeth. “As if I’d explain anything to you.”

  “Still uncooperative? I suppose we’ll have to do this the hard way.” He pulled out a notebook, black and covered in silver spiderweb designs. My heart sank. I recognized that notebook.

  “You’ve been keeping a list?” Stardust sputtered.

  “Don’t tell me you’re surprised,” he said. “As an investigator yourself, you know how valuable keeping a record of your findings can be. Eden’s ability is beyond any magic I could have ever imagined. I needed more information to piece together all her strange mysteries.”

  “So that’s the only reason you invited me to the flying colors, so I could ‘fill you in’?” I shouldn’t have been surprised, but part of me had still hoped…

  He looked rather hurt before the look cleared. “Believe it or not, I genuinely wanted to go with you.”

  “Why should I believe that?”

  His eyes flicked to Stardust before he cleared his throat. “Whether you believe me or not is of no concern to me, but it’s the truth.”

  Stardust rolled her eyes with a disbelieving snort, but my tightened fists loosened slightly. “Then why have you been so keen on investigating me? Are you trying to have me suspended?”

  His exasperated expression softened to one that was rather sweet. “Don’t overreact, Nemesis, I haven’t shared my most interesting findings with anyone, especially not the Council. I stand by what I’ve told you from our first meeting: all I’m doing is to help you.”

  I scoffed. ”Do you expect me to believe that when I know for a fact you’ve already shared my secrets with Blaze and Trinity?”

  He stiffened. “You’ve met Blaze and Trinity? When?”

  “Don’t try and weasel out of answering me.” My old resentment had returned, as unwelcome yet as burning as ever. “The moment you discovered my secret, you spilled it to your Nightmare chums.” Rather than feeling relief at having finally released my anger, I only felt more confused, as if the venom behind my words didn’t belong between us.

  “I haven’t talked to Blaze and Trinity for years,” Darius said stiffly. “Not since we had a…shall we say, a disagreement. They can’t be trusted.”

  “And you can?”

  His entire manner suddenly transformed to the more gentle Darius that I was growing to care deeply for. “If that were true, why did I stand up for you against the Council after the flying colors? Did my defense mean nothing to you?”

  “Your so-called defense was nothing but a ploy to get Eden to trust you so you could steal more information from her later,” Stardust said in a rush, as if she’d anxiously been awaiting the moment she could finally spill these suspicions. “Your helping her is merely a delay of your eventual betrayal. What other possible reason would you have to continue investigating her?”

  “I’m investigating her because I leave no puzzle unsolved,” he said. “Like any investigator I enjoy mysteries, and Nemesis is the most perplexing mystery I’ve encountered yet. You should understand that, Glitter Ball. But I swear, Eden” —a chill rippled down my spine as he said my name— “I would never do anything to hurt you. No one will see this notebook; I’m the only one who can unlock it. You have my word.”

  His eyes were wide and earnest, and I realized I actually believed him, as if my heart couldn’t do anything else. Curses. “If you’re really telling the truth, share what you’ve discovered about me.”

  Darius didn’t hesitate to open his notebook. “As soon as I realized you could see dreams, I researched your power extensively. There is no record of an ability like yours having ever existed before, not even in legends. However, I’ve managed to come up with a few theories of my own.”

  I twisted the sticky folds of my dress. “Like what?”

  “It’s a fact that the ability to experience dreams of any kind is exclusive to Mortals, which means you must be—”

  “Yeah, yeah, we’ve already established that Eden is Half-Mortal,” Stardust said with a pompous air, as if she'd come to the conclusion herself rather than discovered the information through Darius. “Do you have anything new, Spiderweb?”

  Darius didn’t even spare her a glance. “I’ve concluded that your ability to see others’ dreams comes from the Mortal part of you, while your Dreamer part prevents you from receiving dreams yourself. However, today you managed to do more than view others’ dreams—you’ve actually entered one. It really is amazing.”

  He shook his head, his eyes lit with wonder.

  “How were you able to explore a place that doesn’t exist beyond a story created to entertain a Mortal while they sleep? And there are more unresolved questions I can’t even begin to come up with answers for, namely: why were you able to receive the nightmare I wove for you on Earth, when dozens of Weavers before me failed?” He smiled. “You just keep becoming more and more of a riddle, my little Nemesis.”

&nbs
p; “I’m glad you’re so fascinated,” I said wryly.

  “Oh, I’m more than fascinated, I’m thoroughly—” But what he was I would never know, because at that moment his gaze lowered to my dream locket, which I’d begun absentmindedly fiddling with. In two strides he was in front of me, so close I could smell his sweet caramel apple scent. He seized my locket.

  “Don’t touch it.” I tried to tug it away, but his grip was like iron.

  “Where did you get this dream dust?” Horror filled his whisper.

  “What do you mean? I earned it,” I said hotly. “Or have you forgotten I’ve won the last four?”

  “I know you’ve won the past four Weavings,” Darius snapped. “That’s not the dust I’m referring to. After last night your dust level was here.” He demonstrated with his finger; it was about an inch below my current amount. “What I want to know is where the rest of this magic came from.”

  I finally managed to successfully tug my locket free. “I just told you: I earned it. You’re just misremembering how much dust I had.”

  But a dark look had settled over Darius’s expression, all previous traces of amusement and friendliness vanished.

  “Is this the thanks I get for defending you? I put my neck on the line to tell the Council there was no possible way you were involved in the dream dust thefts, only to discover you’ve mysteriously gained more dust between our last Weaving and now. Explain.”

  “There’s nothing to explain,” I stuttered. “I won the Weaving and came to Earth to dream-watch. I didn’t steal any dream dust.”

  “That’s right,” Stardust said. “I was with her the entire time.”

  “Except for when you were ‘inside the dream.’” He made quotation marks with his fingers. “Since they’re made up of magic, you could have easily stolen some from within the dream.”

  “You did say that next time you were inside a dream you wanted to try and take something from it,” Stardust said, already morphed in her notebook, poised to take notes. Darius’s eyebrows rose.

  “Whose side are you on?” I snapped. “It’s not like magic floats around in dreams, just waiting to be snatched.”

  “Since no one but you has ever entered dreams, all we have is your word on that matter,” Darius countered. “Perhaps I was wrong to trust you. I should have turned you in to the Council when I had the chance.”

  But despite his harsh, condemning words, I could tell he didn’t really mean them. Regret filled his expression as he stared at me desperately, as if he wanted nothing more than for his suspicions to be wrong. He took a steadying breath.

  “Eden…are you the dream dust thief?” He stiffened, as if bracing himself for my answer.

  “No,” I said. “I’m not connected in any way to the dream dust thefts or the recent Nightmare plots. I swear.”

  Of course he wouldn’t want the Nightmare Realm to get any more power. It was so Darius. He stared at me, his imploring gaze boring into mine. I shifted beneath his perusal, even as I found myself staring back. This was a far different feeling than when Trinity searched my heart—this one was warm and caused my pulse to escalate, illuminating the growing feelings for Darius I couldn’t escape, no matter how much I tried to deny them.

  He swore and severed his glare. “Comets, I actually believe you. Why do I always believe you? One moment I’m convinced you’re lying, then one look in those violet eyes of yours and I trust you again. From the moment we’ve met, you’ve only complicated my life, yet I’m in too deep.” He let his breath out through his teeth. “Fine, I think you’re telling the truth, but I know you have more dream dust than you earned last night, and I’m determined to figure out how.”

  Sweet relief flooded through me knowing he wasn’t going to bring this information up to the already suspicious Council, and I relaxed my tense posture. But despite his assurances, a strange, uneasy feeling of foreboding settled in the pit of my stomach.

  This wasn’t over yet. And I wasn’t prepared to see where this development would go.

  Chapter 32

  Darius’s words haunted me the entire flight back to the Dream World. I fiddled with my dream locket, heavier than it had ever been. Darius was right: I did have more dream dust since our Weaving, and not just a little bit, but considerably more than I’d ever earned from a dream. Where had it come from? The only thing I’d done since the Weaving was enter Alice’s dream and—

  The realization hit me with such force I nearly toppled off Stardust. She froze mid-flight at my gasp. “What’s wrong?”

  Sickening dread slithered through my bloodstream like venom. The outline of my locket dug into my palm as I clutched it, my mind frantically trying to sort through the multitude of memories now vying for my attention.

  This wasn’t the first time I’d discovered unaccounted-for dream dust in my possession. The morning I first captured a portion of a dream, I’d been sure I’d used all of Mother’s dust, but when Stardust searched me later, she’d found my previously empty handkerchief filled with it.

  And despite having gradually spent my unreplenished supply of magic every Weaving of Maci’s first few months, I’d always somehow managed to have enough. But as I thought about it now, never replenishing my losses should have eventually diminished my supply, rather than my amount staying more or less the same. The only obvious explanation was that I must have been receiving a consistent supply of magic in such small amounts I hadn’t noticed.

  The remaining pieces fell into place: Darius’s conclusion that the magic being stolen was the same the victim had earned during their previous Weaving; the fact that the thefts always occurred at the same time I dream-watched; my preference for viewing dreams over nightmares and the fact that only Dreamers were being stolen from…by capturing dreams, I wasn’t just bottling them, but also the substance they were made of.

  I was the dream dust thief.

  Nauseating horror filled my heart so that I couldn’t breathe. I longed for my conclusions to be a mistake, but no matter how much I willed it otherwise, my horrible realization fit together too perfectly.

  In my attempts to understand my powers and help the world I now called home, I’d done the opposite—I’d been stealing others’ magic, including from one of my only friends. No matter how much I tried to be good, catastrophe seemed to follow me like an ever-present shadow. If anyone found out…fear cinched my heart.

  I needed to make this situation right by turning myself in. If I explained this had all been an accident and promise to never do it again, perhaps—

  They won’t give you a chance to explain, a voice inside me whispered. They’re looking for any excuse to get rid of you. They’ll undoubtedly assume you’re responsible for the other nightmare events that are tipping the balance. You’ll be suspended for sure, and then where will you go?

  No! The thought of leaving the Dream World was even more unbearable than the fact that I was an unintentional thief. No matter what happened, I had to stay here; I’d do anything to stay here.

  No matter what happened, nobody couldn’t find out, not even Stardust.

  “Eden? Eden?” Stardust's voice sounded far away. “What’s wrong?”

  I couldn’t speak, lost in my stunned trance. Eyes wide with panic, Stardust zipped through the clouds back home.

  We heard the yelling even before we flew through the window into Angel’s and Iris’s home. The source of the disturbance greeted us in the parlor.

  “That Nightmare is going down.” Angel’s crimson face was stained with tears and her eyes were wild. “I don't care that there isn't conclusive proof. I won’t rest until the Council banishes him forever.”

  Caspian stroked her hair. “Sweetheart, we don’t know whether or not Blaze is the thief. The Council can’t suspend him on suspicion alone; they need more evidence.”

  Angel twisted out of his grip with a sharp glare. “Evidence? My dream dust is missing. What more evidence do they need? How many times do I have to be stolen from before the incompetent Co
uncil does anything about it? I’m the only Dreamer who interacts with Blaze on a regular basis, and I’m the Dreamer robbed from most frequently. Why is the Council too foolish to make the connection that Blaze is the dream dust thief?”

  “The Investigations Team has their hands full with the increasing number of Nightmare events occurring,” Caspian explained soothingly. “But they’ll catch the thief, especially if there’s a link between the crimes like they’re beginning to suspect.”

  My heart hammered wildly. I’d known the Council suspected the thief was a Nightmare, but their suspicions took on a whole new horrific meaning now that I realized I was the thief. But…I couldn’t be a Nightmare. After all, Nightmares were devious beings who plotted their crimes and delighted in wickedness and mayhem, and that certainly didn’t describe me.

  And yet the doubts which had been present ever since I’d inadvertently created the nightmare plant lingered, sharp and poisonous. No one had ever told me I was a Dreamer. What if I was wrong, and the Dream Realm wasn’t where I belonged after all?

  Angel wiped away her angry tears. “I won’t stand by and do nothing. I want justice.”

  “Which you’ll receive when the culprit is caught.” Caspian tried to caress her again but she swatted his hands away.

  “Stop trying to console me,” she snapped. “This is the worst theft yet. Last night’s dream was spectacular, the best I’ve ever created. It took me hours to plan it and weeks to gather the flowers, but the effort was worth it when the dream yielded me more magic than I’ve ever earned. Blaze was extra furious for losing, and shortly afterwards my winnings disappeared. Other than Blaze, I saw no one between the Weaving and the theft. There’s no one else it could have possibly been.”

  I nervously reached into my bag and stroked the jar containing Angel’s magnum opus before pulling it out to stare at the golden dream swirling inside. Angel’s dreams had always been my favorite to bottle for my expanding dream jar collection, which explained why she’d suffered the most from my unintentional crime. The thought only deepened my horror, as did the thought that my attempts to do something to help had turned into a disaster, one that had caused me to unintentionally hurt so many.