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My heart lurched when I noticed a Nightmare emerge from the gnarled grove of trees to stroll the path that twisted the circumference of the pond I sat beside.
Darius.
It was as if my thoughts had summoned him. Other than seeing him in the ice cream parlor and the tea shop, this was the first time I’d seen him away from the night and shadow of Maci’s room. My heart lurched as his gaze fell on me and he froze.
For a moment he only stared, his wide eyes scouring my face as if trying to commit it to memory. I searched his own hungrily, feeling as if he was both my first meal after a famine and my last meal before an indefinite fast.
He looked much the same—the same spiderweb tattoos stretching and twisting across his skin; the same artistic silver spiderweb designs lining his black outfit; the same upright olive-colored hair; the same bright green eyes—but there was something different about his manner: his usual confidence had vanished. Instead, uncertainty filled his eyes as they frantically searched my own, as if looking for something precious he’d lost.
I shivered. I didn’t like this foreign Darius. He didn’t match my memories of him, which filled my head like dreams and kept me up during my dreamless nights tossing and turning. Since coming to the Nightmare Realm, I’d had enough foreign things to last me a lifetime.
My heart hammered frantically in anticipation of our inevitable confrontation. After a moment of gawking he slowly approached until he stood directly in front of me, his expression hard. “So you’ve become part of the Nightmare Realm.”
It was unnerving having him tower over me. I hastened to my feet and slowly released the breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding. After months of not seeing one another and after the intensity of our last conversation—the one where I’d pushed him away forever—was this all he had to say?
“Did you expect any other outcome after what you did to me?” I doubted my own accusation even as I spoke it.
He frowned, his entire manner sad. “You truly believe I’m responsible?”
Yes...no? Unable to answer, I fidgeted, looking everywhere but at him. He sighed wearily, and when I peeked into his face I discovered a new expression, one that didn’t fit the arrogant but friendly Darius who filled my memories—this one was cold,angry.
“You’ve embraced your new home in one horrible way in particular. I initially didn’t believe what was happening and even tried to convince myself I was mistaken. My heart was desperate for me to be. But despite wishing otherwise, I know I’m not.”
The weight of the stolen magic filling my dream locket pressed against my chest. “What do you mean?”
In response, Darius yanked his own dream dust locket out from beneath his collar. It swung like a pendulum between us—only half full. Shame immediately pierced through the cracks of my current numbness. In all my time knowing him, his spiderweb pendant had always been bursting at the seams with his olive-green magical power, but now empty spaces filled his locket such as those only weaving amateurs possessed, and Darius was no amateur.
He waited for me to say something, but I couldn’t speak around the lump lodging my throat. He let his locket drop limply to his chest, but he didn’t tuck it away so that all of those empty spots I’d caused taunted me. I looked away, unable to bear the sharp heat of his glare, the accusations filling his eyes, or the tension swirling between us. His accusatory silence was unbearable.
In two strides he stood directly in front of me and I was once more immersed in his sweet, intoxicating caramel apple scent that caused my head to spin. I’d forgotten that smell. How could I have forgotten? I ached to lean closer and burrow my nose against his neck.
But before I could act on my tempting impulse, Darius gently pulled out my dream locket and cradled my full hourglass pendant in his palm. He breathed heavily as he stared at it, his anger a storm around us, but still he didn’t say anything. His silence spoke volumes.
He slowly raised his gaze to mine and midst his hardened, blazing look was betrayal. Reflected in his eyes I saw all the pain I’d experienced from the crime I believed he’d committed against me, only this pain was what I’d causedhim. I looked away from his cold, searching stare, unable to bear seeing his hurt a moment longer.
My breath caught as his fingers hooked beneath my chin and firmly yet still gently tipped my face towards his. “Is it true?” he whispered.
I tried to pull away but his hold was firm, forcing me to give my confession directly to those wounded eyes of his. “It is.”
I knew I should have included an apology, although I doubted he would have accepted it. No mere words could smooth over my deliberately capturing over a dozen of his nightmares. They’d been excellent ones; a glimpse within their jarred prison was enough to confirm that his effort to hold back that he’d exhibited during our partnership was gone. He’d constructed some true masterpieces that had undoubtedly triggered intense fear from Maci, fear that had given his nightmares their power and yielded him power in return.
And I’d deliberately stolen it all.
At my confession he hastily released me, as if my touch suddenly burned him. “I knew it was you.” His tone was full of venom, spite, and all the bitter feelings that I’d drowned in until I’d chosen not to feel anything at all. “From the moment my dust first went missing. But even as my mind knew the truth, my heart couldn’t accept it. Even now I don’t want to believe it.”
I remained silent. Darius’s anger slipped away, revealing the foreign, vulnerable Darius that prickled my heart.
“Why?”
It was a question I’d asked myself repeatedly, one I had no answer for. My initial motives behind the thefts now seemed so inconsequential when facing my wounded victim.
“Eden...”
My heart jolted at his use of my name, at the softness that miraculously lined it, even after everything.
“Eden, please.”
His gaze was tracing my face again as gently as a caress, his eyes full of questions demanding answers I didn’t have. But just being in his warm presence again caused all my feelings for him to pull the truth from my heart that I didn’t want to admit, even to myself.
