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Stardust was being strangely cooperative for my upcoming weaving assignment. She volunteered to take me not only to the Nightmare cultivating fields to gather my details for tonight’s nightmare, but also to the Weaving itself. I suspected she was motivated solely by her relief I was obtaining magic via legal means, choosing to overlook the unfortunate detail that it came at the cost of frightening a newborn Mortal.
“Remember: this weaving assignment is only temporary before you return to the Dream Realm and resume your proper role as Maci’s Dream Weaver,” Stardust rambled during our flight to the fields, her shifty gaze taking in every Nightmare we passed as if analyzing them as potential suspects in future crimes.
“Considering I’m a Nightmare now permanently living in this realm, I’ll have this assignment indefinitely...unless Darius chooses to turn me in for stealing from him.” A huge part of me still hoped he would.
Stardust skidded to a stop, causing me to tumble off her into a thorny bush growing alongside the path. “You mean you actuallydid it?”
“Keep your voice down.” I slowly sat up with a wince and began pulling out the many thorns now embedded in my skin, gritting my teeth against the biting pain.
Her rainbow-colored body slowly reddened as her emotions overtook her. “I can’t believe my best friend has turned into a criminal maniac. I forgave you for your thefts before because they were unintentional, but now that you’re knowingly stealing from others...I have no choice but to turn you in myself.”
“Don’t be hasty; you wouldn’t want to risk your detective reputation by being linked to a criminal, would you?”
I watched her internal battle war across her expression before she slumped with a defeated sigh. “I don’t understand why you’d steal, even from Spiderweb, when you’re a Dreamer.”
“Ihadto steal from him; you saw him in the tea shop.” Jealousy seared at the memory. I clenched my jaw. Thatbetrayer.
Stardust rolled her eyes. “I can’t believe you resorted to such drastic action simply because you learned he’s paired with Shade. You shouldn’t be surprised you’re not his Pair; for the hundredth time, since you’renota Nightmare and Spiderwebis, it would be impossible for you two to share a magical connection.”
I blinked back the sudden rush of tears that months of numbness had previously prevented. “But Iama Nightmare, and he still didn’t chose me.” The pain of this rejection stung far more than the thorns I was currently still ripping from my skin.
“Pairs aren’t a choice one makes,” Stardust said with a patience like she was lecturing a toddler. “It’s a magical connection. It’s not his fault if he doesn’t share one with you.”
The sharp pain encasing my heart only escalated. “But then why doIfeel like I have one withhim?”
Stardust tilted her head thoughtfully. “Does that mean you no longer believe he betrayed you?”
It wasn’t until she’d voiced the thought that I realized that while I hadn’t completely dismissed the possibility, I finally had more reasons to hope that he hadn’t. “I don’t know what to believe. All I know is if he feels what I feel for him, then his betrayal is all the more devastating.” It was a struggle to speak around the tears clogging my throat.
“If he felt such a connection with you then he’d never betray you, nor would he force a relationship with Shade, which makes me believe you two are likelynot—”
“I don’t want to talk about this anymore.” I couldn’t bear to hear her voice my fear out loud that my tender feelings were likely unrequited.
I yanked the last thorn from my arm and scrambled back onto Stardust. She was blessedly silent the remainder of the flight to the nightmare fields...but by the time we spotted them in the distance, she could no longer contain whatever argument was just bursting to escape.
“Isn’t your deliberately stealing magic from Spiderweb in and of itself an act of betrayal? If you truly believe you two are paired, how could you do such a thing, only to continue being mad at him for thinkinghebetrayedyou,even without definite proof?”
Her words pierced my conscience, unleashing the sharp guilt I’d refused to allow myself to feel. “Then perhaps you’re correct in believing his Pair is Shade rather than me.” She opened her mouth to retort, but I hastily talked over her. “Please, let’s not talk about him anymore.”
Stardust frowned, her expression concerned as she caught a glimpse of the pain I failed to mask, but thankfully she heeded my request to drop the subject as she soared into the nightmare fields.
It was as if we’d entered a foreign land, one entirely different from the dream fields which had become so familiar to me. I’d spent hours wandering the rows acquiring details for my dreams or spending time with Iris as she cultivated. Whereas the dream fields were awash in a rainbow of color, the nightmare fields were an endless stream of grey and black with a few splotches of muted colors, nothing more than rows of murky shadows.
Stardust wrinkled her nose in disgust, as if the drab fields were rancid. “What a creepy place.”
I ignored her commentary as I dismounted and pulled out my list of details needed for tonight’s nightmare, compiled from Darius’s notes, before wandering the foreign rows, speckled with several Nightmares preparing for their own Weavings. Stardust reluctantly followed, floating several feet off the ground as if afraid that getting any closer to the weedy flowers would contaminate her.
Shrouds of fog hovered over the flowers growing in jagged shapes from the black earth, mist that blended into the already foggy auras, making it nearly impossible to locate the details I needed. I wandered up and down the rows for nearly an hour—during which Stardust’s bored whining gradually escalated—before I finally located the tactile flowers my pattern required, details which were nearly entirely picked over due to their popularity. It took several minutes more to find the other sensory details I needed and tug them from the soil; they hissed and snapped at my touch and seemed quite reluctant to go into my bag.
When I gathered my last detail, I was more than ready to leave and Stardust was happy to oblige. Despite how long our excursion had taken, we still arrived at the Weaving early. My new Mortal, Easton, lived in a tiny cottage in my old village, a place I hadn’t returned to since my suspension.
I adjusted Bolt’s concealment bracelet before carefully picking my way across the slated roof to peer through the window into the bedroom. My stomach jolted. Sitting in a rocking chair by the fire, her newborn son in her arms, sat Sophia’s mother, one of the Mortals who’d accused me of being a witch back when I’d lived on Earth.
Hatred and anger—always so close to the surface—festered within me as she rocked Easton to sleep.
“Why are you glaring?” Stardust asked. “Are the windowpanes offensive?”
“I’ve been assigned to weave for one of the Mortals who made my life miserable on Earth. Of all the newborns I could have been assigned, for it to turn out to be—” I paused as a deliciously wicked thought suddenly filled my mind.
