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Trinity picked an olive-green jar up and carefully examined it, even though I knew that to her the jar appeared empty. “I’ve always enjoyed learning about the nightmares other Weavers create; improving one’s craft means studying a style different than your own. What’s this one about?”
The last thing I wanted was to help Trinity improve her weaving craft, but surely any lack of cooperation would get back to Mother, and our relationship was tense enough as it was.
I sighed and reached for the jar. She handed it to me and I lifted it up to my eye to peer inside. “A tornado.” One he had woven for his other Mortal. I handed it back to her. She replaced it carefully before picking up another.
“And this one?”
I took it and once again looked inside, wincing as I did so. “His infamous spider nightmare.”
“And what about this one?”
“Darkness coming alive to consume his Mortal.”
“And this?”
This time I didn’t take the jar she held out to me. Instead, I narrowed my eyes and studied her warily. I wished I possessed her unique ability to read her heart so I could decipher whether her questions were mere curiosity or if there was a ulterior motive behind them.
“Why do you want to know?”
She shrugged and replaced the jar whose contents I hadn’t disclosed back with the others. “Just...curious. I not only want to improve my craft, but I also want to get to know you better, and your abilities seem like a good place to start.”
I frowned. “Is that why you’re here?”
“Not the only reason.”
She settled on the edge of my bed looking very much at home, as if these visits were frequent occurrences rather than this being the only time she’d ever ventured inside my room. I exchanged a long glance with Stardust, even though her expression was lost to me due to the small form of her current disguise. Too bad her return was a secret, else she could have morphed into whatever means she could to eject Trinity from my room by force.
Stardust’s mosquito form flew towards my ear, tickling it with her whisper. “Whatever she wants, I’ll be listening to every word and recording it down to the minutest detail.”
I bit my lip to mask my smirk. How I loved my loyal, mischievous cloud. Despite the nerves twisting my stomach at Trinity’s unexpected visit, Stardust’s presence helped calm my pounding heart as the silence stretched between us. When its torturous presence only continued, my patience for Trinity’s intrusion ran thin.
“What do you want?”
She gave me her usual tight smile. “Just to talk, like friends do.”
“I wasn’t under the impression that we were friends.” Not to mention we were doing very little talking.
Her eyes widened as if I’d wounded her. “Of course we are. Why else would I have helped you meet Nightmare Darius that day back at Pins and Needles? Though I have to admit that we’re notgoodfriends, at least notyet. But how else are we to get closer unless we have these sorts of talks?”
She scooted closer on the bed, eager to begin our talk and this elusive fake friendship of ours. Darius’s warning against Blaze and Trinity filled my mind and I recoiled from her. She pretended not to notice.
Her eyes shone with sympathy. “I heard that you and your mother got into a fight and things are rather tense between you two.”
My jaw tightened. “Why does that matter to you?”
She tilted her head to study me closely, and once again I experienced that creepy and invasive slithering feeling from her power, poking and prodding my heart for her inspection. “I want to see if you’re alright.”
There was little point in confiding in her when she’d just snoop inside my heart without my permission to find the answers she sought. Iwasn’talright, and I hadn’t been from the moment I’d lost everything and been forced to endure this never-ending prison sentence, and no amount of sharing these feelings with this fake friend would change that.
“I’m not,” I finally said, knowing it was pointless to lie when she’d just read the truth in my heart anyway.
“Why?”
Wasn’t it obvious? I was trapped in a place I hated in a situation I despised even more, all while surrounded by people who should make me feel safe but instead terrified me. Because Mother was forcing me to become whoshewanted me to be, as if me being the person she desired would justify her keeping me at all. And despite my earlier resolution to change, once more I was giving in, forcing myself to please her, so desperate to belong that I was losing myself completely in the process...if I hadn’t already done so.
I said none of this out loud, of course, but it didn’t matter. Trinity smirked in that sickly sweet way of hers, as if all my thoughts I’d been battling had been laid before her. Perhaps they had. My heart was too raw and weak to hide what I was feeling, and by the triumphant gleam in Trinity’s eyes, I realized these had been what she’d really come for, likely not of her own volition but at Mother’s command. The fact Mother would use Trinity to invade my privacy when I’d refused to confide in her stung.
Trinity’s leer widened as she read this new realization within me, but she didn’t seem bothered by my discovery of her sinister motives. In fact, she seemed rather pleased. “I know you hate it here and what we’re doing, but in the end you always cooperate. You’d do anything to belong—even in a place you despise—no matter the sacrifice.”
