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Mother had made our home in a forest of jagged trees whose limbs twisted in strange, ornate shapes, their branches adorned in jeweled pinecone-shaped brown leaves, a sight that would have been almost lovely if I didn’t loathe everything about the Nightmare Realm. I’d questioned Mother about living in such a secluded place when she first brought me here—as far as I knew, she was still banished from the whole Dream World—but all she would tell me was that the Nightmare Council was more forgiving than the Dream Council. Yet if that was true...why did we hide?
I tugged on the low-hanging branch of one of the trees to open the hidden door in the hollow trunk. After a silent goodbye to the morning sun masked by its blanket of thick clouds, I ducked into the stairwell that twisted belowground. With each step downward I felt the bars of what had become a cage rebuild one by one; entering the windowless room lit only by faint lantern light was like stepping inside a grave.
As usual Mother awaited me at the foot of the stairs, flanked by her brother Blaze and his Pair Trinity, who constantly lurked here despite having their own evil lair nearby. Mother’s thin smile of greeting faltered as her sharp gaze narrowed at my still nearly empty locket.
“Where’s your dream dust, Eden dear?” she asked, tightness filling her overly sweet tone.
I wasn’t in the mood for our usual game, not now. I collapsed onto one of the tree-trunk seats with a sigh. “I didn’t get any.”
Mother’s smile stiffened. “Why ever not?”
I cycled through my typical excuses, wondering which to use tonight. “The Dreamer lost the weaving, so there was no dream for me to capture. I couldn’t steal from a fellow Nightmare.”
“At this point I don’t care who you steal from,” Mother hissed. “It’s been three months and you’re still as powerless as when I brought you to the Nightmare Realm.”
Trinity narrowed her eyes at me and I braced myself for her invading, searching gaze, slithering and prodding the emotions hidden in my heart in pursuit of my secrets.
She smirked. “It appears Eden is hiding something. There’s more to her reasons for failing than she’s telling us.”
Hurt filled Mother’s expression. “Would you really hide something from your own mother after all I’ve done for you?”
I slouched in my seat. “What do I have to hide? I have no reason to fail on purpose.”
“Yet you continue to fail night after night.”
I couldn’t handle another scolding, not when I felt my emotions were already too close to the surface. I made to stand, but Mother firmly pushed me back down. She studied me for a moment before her expression gradually softened.
“We have plans, Eden, ones that we need you for.” She stroked my hair in her familiar motherly way and I felt the tension between us melt away. “But we can’t use you until you’ve earned enough magic to join us. Unlike the Dream Realm, we recognize how special you are. You need to regain your magic so that you can use your special talents. You have the potential for great power if you’d but capture several dreams a night.”
Unable to meet her disappointed gaze, I lowered my eyes to my lap. “I’m sorry.”
Mother sighed. “I’m surprised you haven’t at least taken fromthatNightmare after all he did to you.”
I had no answer to that considering I still didn’t know why I hadn’t stolen from Darius. Every night I set out intending to, yet I could never make myself do it.
“I’ll steal from him tomorrow.” It’s what I told her every night. By Mother’s frown, I knew she wasn’t fooled by the lie.
“I bet she can’t even capture dreams,” Blaze muttered unquietly into Trinity’s ear. She smirked.
My emotions were faltering. I couldn’t bear to continue this confrontation. “I’m tired. I’m going to bed.” Ignoring Mother’s look of disapproval, I escaped into my bedroom.
Stardust looked up from her coloring book as I slammed the door with a satisfyingbangthat shook the walls. “How did it go?” she asked cheerfully, as usual realizing the cause of my bad temper; with one glance she knew I’d once again failed to steal a dream.
I couldn’t deny my cloud’s loyalty since we’d been forced to come to this horrible place. After spending an hour explaining to me the importance of camouflage, she’d exchanged her rainbow sparkles for black ones and frequently shrank to small, nightmarish creatures to avoid detection as she snooped around the Nightmare Realm in pursuit of clearing my name. She’d even developed pauper tastes so I wouldn’t feel compelled to steal in order to get more dream dust to purchase things for her.
I’d have been more grateful if she’d stop trying to sniff out evidence to clear up this “misunderstanding,” as she called it; her doubt I belonged here made it more difficult for me to accept that I really did.
“I almost captured his nightmare; I was this close.” I used my fingers to demonstrate a distance only a sliver apart.
“But you didn’t.” Stardust was all smiles. “Your reluctance to knowingly commit a crime—even against Spiderweb—proves that you’re not really a Nightmare.”
“Not now, Stardust.” I picked my way around the messy piles scattered across my dirt floor and collapsed onto my bed to bury my face in my pillow. Despite being the only magical being who needed sleep, I wasn’t at all tired, which was a shame, as sleep would have spared me Stardust’s post-failed-dream-stealing lecture.
“So, while you were gone I came up with a new plan.”
I groaned and rolled onto my back. “Not another one.”
Stardust pouted. “You haven’t even heard it yet.”
