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“We’re experimenting with a new technique,” the woman said. “The closer a nightmare is to a dream, the more frightening it becomes. Nothing disturbs a Mortal more than creating something thatalmostfeels like a dream, and then twisting it into a nightmare. The Mortal’s shock yields a deliciously large quantity of dream dust.”
I shivered, but I couldn’t deny the idea was mildly appealing; I almost wanted to view one of those dreams, just to experience it. “What a unique approach.” Considering Blaze was Angel’s weaving partner, it was a technique I’d have to be sure to warn Angel about so she’d be prepared to counter it.
The woman flicked her hair over her shoulder. “Naturally. Weaving is our passion. We’d doanythingfor a victory.” She extended her hand. “My name’s Trinity.”
I hesitated before taking it. It was surprisingly soft and almost gentle. “I’m Eden.”
Trinity raised a single eyebrow, and Blaze, who’d slumped against a bookcase with his arms crossed, straightened. “Did you say Eden?”
Trinity again laid her hand on his arm with a brief, urgent look, like a warning. “You’re being rude again, Blaze.” Her expression became more open and almost friendly. “Your name is really pretty, Eden. It sounds like a Cultivator’s name. Were either of your parents Cultivators?”
“My Mother was.”
“How delightful,” Trinity said. “I’m a Cultivator, too. Perhaps I know her?”
I doubted Nightmare and Dreamer Cultivators were acquainted with one another. “Her name’s Ebony.”
I regretted the admission almost immediately, still wary of speaking about her when I still didn’t know the entire story of her banishment. A lump formed in my throat, while simultaneously a burning anger trickled over me over her disappearance, two such conflicting emotions vying for my attention.
“Yes, I knew Ebony. I met her while we studied Cultivating at the Academy together.”
My stomach jolted in shock. “You knew my mother?”
Trinity merely smirked as she watched me with a strangely knowing expression. “It was cruel how she hid so many secrets from you, and then disappeared when you needed her most.”
My breath hooked. “How did you—”
“I can feel both the anger and the worry filling your heart,” she said. “With these feelings, I sense that you want to find her, although not quite as much as you desire to belong to the Dream World. You seem to be having a difficult time with both.”
Was she a mind reader? Blaze surveyed my perplexed expression. “Trinity searches hearts,” he explained. “Not thoughts or memories, but feelings.”
Trinity’s smile widened. “Not to worry, it’s completely harmless.” To demonstrate, she concentrated on me once again. The same searching feeling rippled over me, as if all my secrets and innermost feelings were being extracted to be prodded and snooped.
She slowly smiled again, this one sly and conniving, full of whatever secret knowledge she’d gathered. “Are you sure you’re a Dreamer?”
I flinched. “Of course I am.”
Trinity tilted her head. “But are yousure?” Her penetrating look was back, peeling away the layers hiding my secrets one by one. Foreboding knotted my stomach before I forced it away.
I lifted my chin. “Definitely.”
A knowing look glistened in her eyes, like the flames lining her outfit. “As long as youthinkso, you must be right.”
Goosebumps prickled my arms. What wasthatsupposed to mean? What exactly had she seen inside my heart?
I didn’t want to linger here a moment longer. I knelt down and hastily gathered my books strewn all over the cloud floor. Blaze bent down and picked upNever Lose Another Weaving, toppled upside down closest to him, and held it out to me.
“Yours?”
My face burned. I snatched it away and hastily tucked it under my arm.
Trinity eyed my stack of books. “You appear to be having a difficult time weaving. Have you wonany? All of these books are all so advanced. You need someone with more experience to help you decipher these.”
My nerves prickled. Surely she didn’t meanher, did she?
A book floated by. Blaze plucked it from the air, frowned at the title as if checking whether or not it would help me, and released it before he offered a cold, lopsided grin. “It couldn’t hurt since you’re already losing; you can’t get any worse.”
I frowned at his sinister smile and Trinity’s eager expression. These two were definitely up to something. “Why would you help a Dreamer beat one of your own kind?”
