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I dipped my pinky into my apron pocket to touch the rosy dream dust I’d acquired yesterday, which, after much more tedious questioning, Stardust had finally returned to me. As before, it immediately lent strength to my magic so I could push it towards the closest dream—an orange orb that resembled a lantern flame against the faint morning light. The magic cradled it before capturing a snippet, causing the rest to flicker away.
My excitement swelled as I pressed it inside the jar and lifted it to peer inside. A cheerful, color-changing hearth flickered within, each cheerful pop of the embers emanating a trill of music. So lovely, and the perfect respite after last night’s eerie nightmare. With a cheerful hum, I carefully tucked it safely away into my pocket and climbed down from the tree in preparation to return home, where I hoped Stardust would be waiting.
“What were you doing up there?”
I startled at the deep voice and spun around to come face to face with the young man who’d invaded my room last night, the one whose memory haunted me as much as the spider nightmare he’d tormented me with. I stumbled back and pressed myself against the trunk. “You!”
He frowned. “So you can see me after all. I admit I wasn’t entirely convinced it was possible.”
And apparently he hadn’t been a horrible figment of my own imagination. What did he want from me?
For a tense moment we stared at one another, continuing where we’d left off the evening before, as if an entire night and morning hadn’t interrupted us. The sunlight illuminated the spiderweb tattoos branding his skin; spiderwebs snaked each wrist and two crawled across his face—one twisting away from his right eye, another stretching across the left side of his neck to curl behind it and out of sight. Silver spiderwebs also patterned his dark clothes, resembling the cobwebs that had draped my nightmare.
But it was his eyes that held me captive: emerald green, the same that had been watching me from the forest. A strange feeling passed between us, tugging me closer to him even though I didn’t move an inch. For the first time in my life I felt as if I belonged somewhere, as if everything up until now had led to this meeting.
Despite his unsettling style, he was still quite handsome, but his looks weren’t the reason for the pull that existed between us, tempting me closer…a sensation that frightened me. I needed to leave. Now. But I found I couldn’t move.
His breath hooked and his mesmerizing eyes slowly widened. “No…it can’t be you.”
He continued to stare before groaning and burrowing his fingers in his upright olive-green hair, which stood on end as if he’d been struck by lightning. “No, it’s not possible.”
He turned away as if looking at me was physically painful, before suddenly swiveling back around to resume his staring, as if some greater force made it impossible for him to look away. Confusion puckered his brow even as his gaze raked over me almost hungrily. Slowly his expression brightened.
“Itisyou. I can’t believe it.”
The feeling between us intensified—a strange sense of familiarity, even though I was quite certain we’d never met before. My brow furrowed. “Do you know me?”
The corners of his lips lifted. “In a manner of speaking.”
My confusion only deepened. “What do you mean?”
Instead of answering, he eagerly stepped forward. I pressed myself further against the trunk so that its rough bark embedded into my back.
“Don’t come any closer.”
He immediately froze. “Am I making you uncomfortable?”
He’d been doing so from the moment I’d caught him watching me from the trees yesterday, though admittedlyuncomfortablewas not the precise word to describe how he was making me feel. But because I had no other, I managed a breathless nod. He hastily backed several steps away, relieving me from some of his rather overwhelming presence. I released a breath of relief.
But even after he’d stepped away he didn’t stop staring at me, looking at me as if he’d finally found what he’d spent a lifetime searching for. I couldn’t fathom why he’d give me such a look when, for all I knew, we were strangers.
I wriggled beneath his perusal. “Please stop.”
He obediently lowered his eyes, but only for a moment before peeking up at me again, his green gaze filled with an emotion that took me a moment to decipher…recognition.
I frowned. “You’re looking at me as if you know me, but I don’t see how that can be; we’ve never met.” Yet somehow, in a strange way, it almost felt as if wehad. I stared back, hoping doing so would help me solve the mystery behind this strange connection we shared. “Who are you?”
He tilted his head, his gaze penetrating. “That is the very question I was about to ask you, one of many. You’re rather intriguing with all the mysteries that surround you—you appear to reside on Earth, and yet you can see me, which means you also possess magic. It’s…fascinating.”
I quirked my brow. “I assure you that my seeing you, both now and in my bedroom last night, is a far more pressing concern.”
This time his lips fully lifted in a rather adorable crooked half-smile, one I felt a strange ownership of, as if every one he’d given had and always would belong to me. “Even so, seeing you now has been the most unexpected surprise, for it’s placed both of us on a path that will forever change everything.”
I ached to ask him what he meant, but the last thing I wanted to do was extend our encounter…even though at the same time I never wanted it to end, a rather confusing paradox.
The Nightmare was still watching me, looking as if he anticipated whatever I had to say. I narrowed my eyes. “You didn’t answer my question. Whatever surprise you’re feeling is nothing compared to the one I experienced when I awoke last night to discover an intruder in my room. Do you have an explanation?”
He lowered his eyes in clear remorse. “Forgive me, I didn’t mean to frighten you. I only…“
