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“Then find out,” I hissed through gritted teeth. “Do what you do best and investigate the matter.”
Stardust promptly morphed into a mosquito. “I’m on it. Uncovering Spiderweb’s mischief is my favorite kind of investigation.”
She flew away, leaving me to torture myself by watching the couple. With the way they leaned towards one another, they were undoubtedly enjoying an engaging conversation. Darius laughed and the warm sound I loved seemed to burn as it washed over me. I hadn’t laughed since coming to the Nightmare Realm; there was nothing worth laughing about. The facthewas laughing only showed he wasn’t as broken about our separation as I was.
Darius took a bite from his last chocolate-covered bat wing before Shade snagged it and finished it off. Sharing food? I almost gagged. And it only got worse. My hand tightened around my knife as I continued to watch them, my heart feeling as if it were being diced into pieces with each exchange—sharing fond smiles, drinking from the same cup of tea, Shade giggling at something Darius said while twirling her finger through her hair. Comets, was sheflirting? It seemed to be working, for Darius smiled, almost indulgently, and I regretted never having attempted to flirt with him during our weaving partnership.
I nearly lurched from my seat when Darius used his thumb to wipe a smudge of chocolate off Shade’s chin. That action more than any of the others was what finally shattered my defenses, causing all the lies concerning my true feelings about Darius to crumble around me, leaving my heart raw and wounded.
When would I learn to stop trusting my heart to him, especially when he continuously returned it to me bruised and broken? Even if he’d miraculously felt even a glimmer of the feelings I’d felt towards him, he’d certainly gotten over them quickly; he and Shade shared an intimacy far greater than what we’d developed in our time knowing one another. Could it be because Shade was his...Pair? I couldn’t even fathom such a horrible possibility, not when a secret part of me buried beneath the pain of his betrayal still harbored the now delusional hope thatIwas his Pair.
Blaze and Trinity finally tore their attention away from each other to notice me. Blaze frowned at the knife still clutched in my death grip. “You look ready to commit murder. I must warn you: magical beings are quite difficult to kill, but depending on who it is, I’ll gladly assist.”
I tried to loosen my grip on my knife but it proved impossible. “Nothing’s wrong.” The lie burned on my tongue.
Trinity narrowed her eyes and her familiar invasive searching slithered through my heart. “Mm, someone’s a bit jealous. Of whom, I wonder.” Her gaze flickered towards Darius’s table, the one I’d refused to tear my gaze from for the past several minutes, even when I wanted nothing more than to look away. Her gaze narrowed further. “Indeed. Such poor taste, Eden dear.”
“I’mnotjealous.”
Trinity rolled her eyes. “When are you going to realize it’s impossible to hide anything from me? You’re most certainly jealous. Frankly, I’m surprised. After that Nightmare’s betrayal, the only feelings you should be harboring towards him are hatred and revenge.”
I felt those emotions, too. They rippled over my entire being, growing more intense the longer I sat skewering the traitor with my glare. I sighed in relief when they finally left, Darius being a ridiculous gentleman by holding the door open for Shade. I didn’t sever my gaze until the moment they were blissfully out of sight. I slumped against my seat, weary from the tension of being in the same room as Darius again.
After the happy couple had departed, Stardust finally returned with her report. “Well?” I demanded as she morphed from a mosquito back into cockroach. She hesitated—definitely not the best of signs—until my glare finally compelled her to spill.
“They exchanged...tender words.”
My heart jolted. “What kind of tender words?”
Stardust nibbled her lip and avoided my eyes. “Shade told him she loved him and he said he loved her, too.”
Devastation washed over me as if I’d been doused in ice water. He loved her? Actuallylovedher? As far as our relationship had progressed—and in my mind, a kiss was quite far indeed—we’d never gotten to the point of expressing such endearments. I doubted he’d ever loved me at all, not in the way I’d deluded myself into believing I felt about him. He’d toyed with my feelings as a means to get what he’d really wanted: my banishment from the Dream Realm, a place where even now, no matter how much I pretended otherwise, I still ached to belong.
Anger, hot and festering, swirled through me, boiling and desperate for release.Revenge. Darius deserved to experience all the pain he’d caused me to feel and more.
I turned to Blaze. “I need Sparks for tonight’s Weaving.”
He glanced warily at my hardened expression. “Another futile attempt to steal a dream? Will you actually follow through this time?”
I glared in the direction Darius had gone as searing hatred flowed through my veins like poison. “I assure you I will.”
* * *
I arrivedat Maci’s cottage long before the Weaving started. I hovered outside the window, waiting, even as my scorching envy boiled through my bloodstream and my heart pounded in my ears, deafening me. My previous state of numbness had been eclipsed by a hot, burning need:revenge.
Hearrived at the Weaving first, appearing in his usual trademark fashion of sizzling onto the scene. He glanced around Maci’s room for his partner before heaving an impatient sigh and crossing his legs to lean back and wait.
Several eternal minutes later, the dragonfly-styled Dreamer appeared in the distance. I shrank into the shadows as she flew past me.
“You’re late again,” Darius snapped. “You’re always late. I have better things to do than wait around for a Dreamer who doesn’t take her Weavings seriously.”
She scowled. “Considering how much I hate this assignment, you should just be grateful I show up at all.”
He gritted his teeth as he yanked his supplies from his bag in handfuls. “At leastshetook her assignment seriously.”
Normally, my traitorous heart would have responded to his acknowledgement that he hadn’t forgotten about me completely, but tonight my jealousy acted as a shield;nothingcould pierce my hardened heart.
The Dreamer smirked. “Not seriously enough; she lost not only her weaving position but her place in the Dream Realm.”
