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Despite my distraction, I not only managed to finish, but unexpectedly won the Weaving. As my dream dust gathered in a cloud and seeped into my locket, I finally lifted my gaze to meet Darius’s intense, smoldering stare. “I won?” I asked weakly.
He shrugged. “It appears so.” His grin was a bit mischievous, and I suddenly realized that for the first time he’dletme win. My heart pounded wildly. What did that mean?
You know what it means. The thought caused me to smile…a smile that faltered the moment Stardust noticed it.
“It’s time to go, Eden,” she said stiffly, as if she were my mother rather than my pet.
“I’ll see you later, Nemesis.” The heat of Darius’s breath caressed my ear as he leaned closer. “Eden.”
I smiled shyly, pleased I wouldn’t have to wait hours until our next Weaving to see him again; we’d find one another at the Dream Festival and attend together, almost as if we were…courting.
But that moment couldn’t come until I’d endured a lecture from my grumpy cloud.
I expected her to launch in the moment Darius left, but to my surprise she remained silent our entire flight home. But I sensed her angry energy, which was certain to be a storm when it finally burst.
The moment we arrived back at Angel and Iris’s flat, Stardust flew me to Angel’s bedroom, where we found her painting her nails bubblegum pink. In any other circumstance Angel’s playful, vibrant bedroom would be rather inviting—splashes of color covered the walls as if she’d thrown paint on them while in a temper, transparent snowflakes hung in streamers from the ceiling, and half-finished sculptures crowded the floor. Her furniture was constructed from a variety of candy—cupcake seats with fluffy cotton candy pillows, licorice shelves laden with more nail polish than books, and a gingerbread desk stacked with towering cans of paint.
The rest of the room was in various stages of packing as Angel prepared to move into her own place with Caspian after their upcoming Pair Ceremony, which would make their union official according to the laws of the Council.
I nervously slid off Stardust and perched on the edge of one of Angel’s frosted seats. She eyed my anxious expression before her gaze darted towards Stardust’s glower. “Is everything all right?”
Stardust swelled herself up. “Something is going on between Eden and her Nightmare partner.”
Angel stilled, horror overtaking her previous cheerful expression, while Iris poked her head from the adjoining room, her own eyes wide. “Eden is involved withwho?”
“It’s not like that,” I hastily said, but the words felt like a lie. After tonight I could no longer deny that things were becoming very muchlike that.
Iris crossed the threshold to the opposite seat. The moment she settled, Stardust eagerly shared her suspicions with her attentive audience.
“Eden was unusually late for her Weaving, but no matter how much I searched, I couldn’t find her anywhere…until I entered the park, where I found Eden emerging from the Alcove of Waterfalls withhim.”
Iris gasped while Angel’s eyebrows rose. “You were at the Alcove of Waterfalls withNightmare Darius?”
“Why is that bad?” I stammered, despite already suspecting the answer to such a question.
“Because that’s a popular destination forPairs. So for you to go there with a Nightmare…” Her lip curled in disgust.
“A place forPairs?” My heartbeat escalated that Darius had taken me to a romantic location to help alleviate my fears. Could that possibly mean thatwewere paired? A girlish smile threatened to emerge at that tender thought, but I fought to suppress it. A trying interrogation was not the time to dwell on such pleasant notions.
Iris frowned. “Surely you’re not suggesting that Eden and Nightmare Darius are…” She gave a rigid shake of her head to dispel the thought. “Pairs occur between a couple who share a magical connection. Surely a Dreamer and a Nightmare’s magic is far too different to match in any way.”
Connection…my heart flared in hope. From the moment I’d learned about them, I’d always wondered whether I’d also have a Pair, something part of me doubted considering I was likely Half-Mortal. The thought had saddened me, for I’d always secretly yearned for romance. But I’d never allowed myself to want it too much, not when I’d spent a lifetime being the least popular candidate for boys to court back home.
But if something existed between me and Darius… “What sort of connection?” I asked. “Love at first sight?”
Angel pursed her lips. “Not quite. More like…aconnectionat first sight. Even a paired relationship takes time to develop. The difference is it’s the most natural relationship in the Universe, a connection of two souls that puts them on a path whose only destination is for them to be together, even if their actual love for one another develops over time.”
My heart only pounded more wildly. “And does one recognize their Pair right away?”
“Usually, but not always. Sometimes it takes a while to sense the magical connection, but there are always signs, because beings who share a connection have unique magical peculiarities between them that don’t exist between anyone else.”
My hope blossomed further. “Have Dreamers and Nightmares ever been paired?”
Her eyes narrowed. “What’s the purpose behind these questions? You’re not truly suggesting…”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” I said hastily, but these words also felt like a lie. Her description had perfectly captured both the yearning and the beautiful feelings I’d been experiencing towards Darius from the moment we’d met—the connection, the need to trust him, the longing to be near him, the warm, tender way he made me feel…and while I didn’t yet love him, I felt I was falling towards that destination with no way to stop it.
But how could these feelings exist between us if Pairs only occurred between two beings who shared amagicalconnection, one that was surely impossible between a Dreamer and Nightmare? Did that mean…could I be a Nightmare after all?
