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Translation: butter me up so I’d spill more secrets to his treacherous ears. Judging by her glower, Stardust was thinking the same thing. “All the moonbits in the Universe wouldn’t be enough to force me to watch the show withhim,” she muttered.
“Then why don’t you just morph into a pesky insect and go somewhere else to watch?” Darius suggested.
Stardust’s eyes narrowed, and I could almost sense her detective senses tingling with Darius’s not-so-subtle ploy to get me alone. Frowning, she morphed into a firefly, but before she left she flew against my ear.
“After his recent betrayal, this entire scenario is obviously a setup,” she whispered. “But since you insist on going along with it, at least use it as an opportunity to figure out how much he knows aboutyou-know-what.”
With an unnecessary warning glare not to fall for his tricks—barely discernible due to her small form—Stardust floated away, leaving me and the traitor alone. But the longer I sat with him, the more I wondered whether Darius’s presence truly was a setup or if my anger had caused me to jump to that conclusion too readily, especially when all my instincts still assured me I could trust him.
These worries taunted me in the time before the show started, my only distraction coming when the flying colors began. They were truly spectacular, a combination of the fireworks that lit up village celebrations and auroras I’d seen illustrated in books. They glowed with brilliant light and color, the strands bending and twisting together to orchestrated music to form unique designs with each graceful spin, a symphony of color.
The twirling patterns were strangely hypnotic, and with each transforming picture lighting up the night sky, the annoyance bubbling inside me slowly slipped away. I hugged my knees to my chest, transfixed. “Magical.”
“It’s my favorite part of the festival,” Darius murmured. I glanced at him to find him watching me rather than the flying colors, his eyes soft, and it took a moment after I’d caught him staring before he looked away.
I studied his profile. Why hadn’t he started his interrogation yet? Wasn’t it the sole reason he’d invited me? The longer he held off, the more my hope grew that my fears were unjustified. Perhaps I could trust him after all. How I wanted to.
His gaze met mine again, a single eyebrow raised in a wordless question. My vow of silence shattered, and the words I’d so fiercely suppressed tumbled out: “Why did you invite me?”
He shrugged. “I wanted to spend time with you. Besides, after our time at the Alcove of Waterfalls, I’d thought…”
The heated look that accompanied his words caused hope to lift my heart before I could quench it. That had truly been a tender turning point, one where I’d opened myself up to him and he’d promised to help me. Surely such a promise couldn’t be broken so easily.
And yet the very circumstances surrounding our relationship caused a few reservations to remain. “But you’re a Nightmare and I’m a Dreamer. Such a connection has always been forbidden. Not to mention that from the beginning you’ve found me suspicious. Why should I believe you’ve had a change of heart now?”
He frowned. “I know my behavior towards you may seem confusing, but I assure you I had a reason for it. I feel I’m walking a fine line, one as delicate as the balance of the Universe.” He grazed my hand with his fingertip. “But please be assured that I have nothing but your best interests in mind.”
The hope filling my heart swelled. Could that really be true? “Was that your sole motivation?”
He nudged my shoulder. “Well, perhaps there’s also been a bit of curiosity. I’m drawn to mysterious things, and you certainly fit that description.”
I managed a smile. “I’m surprised you and Stardust don’t get along better.”
He chuckled. “Some things will always remain a mystery.”
Another silence stretched between us, but now my urgency to give Darius the cold shoulder had been replaced by the strange desire to fill the immensity of space that felt like universes between us, to get to know him. While I wanted to rationalize my feelings with hoping to better understand him, I couldn’t deny I was curious.
“So tell me, do you have any hobby outside of looking in the mirror?” I asked.
Amusement filled his smile. “I would love to weave for multiple Mortals. I could definitely handle it—that is, if you’d ever speed up your own weaving so I had time to take additional assignments. I really enjoy coming up with nightmares.”
I shuddered. “But why nightmares? What good could possibly come from scaring Mortals?”
“If their nights are full of darkness, won’t they better appreciate the light during the day? No matter what bad things happen in their sleep, they always wake up the next morning.” He glanced sideways at me, a mischievous glint in his eyes. “Besides, scary things are more interesting.”
I gaped at him, the soft swirls of color lighting up the sky momentarily forgotten. “Do you really believe that?”
He tilted his head. “Haven’t you ever been tempted to scare someone, just for the thrill of it?”
My first response wasno, but unwillingly memories loomed to the surface of when I’d done exactly that, especially the secret thrill I always felt at the dark circles beneath the eyes of my village tormentors after a restless night’s sleep, while their juicy nightmares lurked over them like a shadow.
Darius’s expression softened. “But someone like you wouldn’t understand such a reason. You’re a Dreamer, after all.”
He wouldn’t say that if he could see the secret part of me, buried deep, that was like him—the portion of my heart thatenjoyedmaking Mortals scared. But, I reminded myself,givingnightmares was a different matter entirely.
Darius leaned closer. “To answer your earlier question, believe it or not, I have another hobby besides looking in the mirror; I also study legends.”
Though I already knew of this hobby considering I’d seen him reading his books during our Weavings, I happily listened as he proceeded to share some of his favorites—the birth of the very first Dreamers and Nightmares from falling stars, how those early Weavers discovered how to create dreams, and the rift that eventually developed between them that led to the separation of the two worlds. His words painted dancing images across my mind as vivid as the flying colors until I was paying more attention to the soothing rhythm of his voice than the colorful display lighting up the sky.
