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His brow furrowed. “Stop what?”
“Stop making me feel this way. You’ve been doing it from the moment we met, even before we knew one another well.”
His confusion melted into a large, rather endearing grin. “I can no more stop than you can in making me feel the same way. Don’t you know what this is, Eden?”
I had a suspicion—one both beautiful and frightening at once, and one I refused to put into words, for it’d make it all the more real. “This can’t be anything. You’re a Nightmare.” And I wasn’t…at least, I waspretty sureI wasn’t.
His grin only grew. “And you’re a Dreamer. It certainly complicates things, doesn’t it?”
“We’re from different worlds,” I continued to protest. “This has never happened before.” That much I was certain about, even though I admittedly didn’t really know whatthiswas.
“It’s happened once that I’m aware of,” he said. “Back when the Dream World was first created.” He laced our fingers together, causing my heartbeat to escalate. “Don’t be afraid ofwhythis is happening, just embrace what is…but only if you want to. I could never force you.”
But his touch left me little choice; it caused me to want nothing more than him, a desire that terrified me. His thumb moved to the back of my hand, his caresses soothing.
“Don’t be afraid, Eden,” he murmured. “There’s nothing more natural in the universe.”
My mouth had gone dry. “I—” I couldn’t finish.
“You don’t have to be ready now,” he continued gently. “But I’ll be here when you are.”
My heart pulled me towards him, even as my fear kept me away. The emotions warred within me, while the lure between us grew, pulling us even closer the more I came to know him.
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 withhim, 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
Ifloated 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 apopas 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’shedoing 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 bittoohastily.
“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.
