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I managed the smallest smile as I wandered off, lingering at various stations to watch the fascinating process of weather creation. In one section I passed, Nightmares orchestrated the pirouette movement of tornados, while in another they created the strong winds of a hurricane.
I lingered at the next station, one entirely shrouded in fog. The silvery vapor spewed from a contraption into which Nightmares poured the various liquids they’d mixed. I grazed the cool, wispy fog, pausing when I spotted Shade hovering on the edge of the fog several feet away, blinking at it with her typical wide-eyed fascination.
“Shade?”
She looked over and blinked for a moment more before beaming. “Eden! What a coincidence encountering you here. Are you a Weather Creator?”
“My uncle is. I’m here with him and my aunt.”
“How lovely. I’m here for...wait...” She frowned for a moment, considering, before brightening. “Now I remember. I’m here to gather ingredients for my sensory brews. I’m still trying to create a sense for hope, and I wondered whether adding a bit of fog to create a contrast of light and dark might do the trick.” She turned back to the fog and rested her chin on her fist with a thoughtful look. “Now I only need to figure out how to capture something so slippery. Do you have any ideas?”
I ran my fingers through the thick vapor once more, trying to grasp it, but it only slipped away. “It seems difficult to capture something so evasive.”
She seemed undeterred. “Perhaps I can ask Darius for help when he arrives; he always has the most clever ideas.”
My heart pounded, for as anxious as I was to see Darius, I felt the need to leave before I encountered him, unsure I could bear the effect he always had on me.
But it was already too late to escape, for I felt his presence the moment he stepped into the building before I even spotted him near the entrance. My heart leapt to my throat as I stared at him, basking in the pleasant sensations rippling over me at seeing him again, particularly the strong tugging of my heart towards his. What was this if not the paired connection I hoped we shared?
His head immediately swiveled in our direction, and he smiled as he walked towards us—towards Shade. The thought he’d come here to meet her sent a fresh wave of pain over me, which eclipsed my joy at seeing him again. He glanced around as he strode toward us but froze within yards of the storm creation area where Blaze and Trinity still stood. He frowned at the couple, who managed to emerge from their paired world to glower at him in return. There was definitely a history there, one I was desperate to discover.
“I have it: I’ll bottle it up.”
Darius glanced over at Shade’s cheerful exclamation to find her crouching on her heels in front of the fog, trying to lure the wispy substance into her glass vial as if she was coaxing a stubborn pet. His lips twitched and he shook his head fondly before approaching, stopping short when his gaze fell on me.
I ached to go to him, to finally bridge the distance that had sprung up between us ever since I’d pushed him away...but Shade’s presence kept me rooted to the spot. For whatever reason—undoubtedly my unforgivable offenses against him—he’d chosen to disregard our connection. He had come here to meet her, not me.
I couldn’t act on the longings filling my heart, so I shoved away all my blissful feelings at seeing him again back in their secure prison where they belonged, tightened my jaw, and stomped past him...only for him to seize my wrist to stop me. His touch sent a jolt of heat up my arm, and in that moment I realized that being with him was the only thing in this dark world that felt like home.
We stared at one another again. In his green eyes was a mixture of so many things—joy and pain, longing and wariness.
“Hello, Eden,” he murmured. I loved hearing my name pass his lips, sounding just like a caress that nearly shattered my resolve to avoid him.
But I forced myself to yank myself from his grip, an act that felt as if I’d severed a limb. I turned away, even as my heart desperately tried to pull me back towards him.
“Please, Eden. Don’t leave.”
He sounded so desperate that I lost my internal battle and turned around for one last glance. My treacherous heart betrayed me by lurching at his devastated expression, a look I’d inadvertently caused.
“I have to,” I said.
He stepped forward, closing the distance between us until there was no more space. “No, you don’t,” he pleaded. “Please.”
I glanced back towards Shade, still trying to bottle up fog with the most cheerful expression despite repeatedly failing at her quest. Despite my jealousy, I knew she was a good person. Darius deserved nothing less than someone like her.
“It’s too late,” I said, even though I ached for it not to be.
Despite my secret wish, I left him standing there, and I didn’t even bother to try and harden my heart this time, allowing myself to experience every bit of pain leaving Darius behind inflicted; I’d given up the fight.
Chapter 13
Dread pooled my stomach as I wove through the shadowy streets that twisted further away from the Nightmare Realm’s capital and deeper into the surrounding trees. While the Nightmare Realm possessed snippets of its own beauty in its dark vegetation and the glistening onyx stones that decorated the buildings, this place was stark, devoid of everything but fog and shadows.
With every step, the void created by Stardust’s absence grew as I longed for her company. Even though this excursion would have only made her suspicious, her presence would have at least provided me with a sense of security...unlike Stormy, who refused to accompany me anywhere, and was definitely not turning out to be the friend I’d hoped he’d be.
Stardust’s presence wasn’t the only one I ached for—for a moment my need for Darius swelled with me, so acute it was almost painful, before I forced myself to push it away. Longing for him would only give my conscience greater power and dissuade me from the necessary task before me.
Darkness hovered in the air, one that almost made me feel...dirty, even more than I already did the longer I remained in the Nightmare Realm. And though Mother had convinced me to come here, the choice to do so had been my own.
