AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Stardust’s hair-clip form wriggled close to my ear. “Are you going to eat that?”
I pushed it towards her. “Take it.”
Stardust promptly morphed herself into a spoon and dipped herself into the ice cream, which slowly began to shrink in size as she gorged herself.
I nibbled one of my newly painted nails to remove some of the polish and glanced absently around the ice cream parlor when the door suddenly opened and a Nightmare walked in. My heart jolted.Him. I gasped and seized one of the menus to hide behind.
Conversation paused as my companions frowned at me before their gazes settled on the Nightmare who’d entered the parlor. Mother smirked. “If it isn’t the betrayer himself.”
Even though Darius thoroughly deserved the title, my heart still ached to hear it applied to him. “I don’t want to see him.”
Trinity’s eyes narrowed as she detected this second lie. Thankfully, Mother possessed no such discerning powers. She stroked my hair. “Of course you don’t, dear. We’ll let you know when he leaves.”
She returned to her interrupted conversation with Blaze and Trinity. I waited a breathless moment before risking a peek over the rim of the menu. My breath immediately caught.
I wasn’t sure what I’d expected to feel when seeing Darius outside of the dark shadows of Maci’s bedroom, but I wasn’t prepared for the cartwheels my treacherous heart would perform or the longing that would swell. I watched as he settled at a table and perused his menu, hungrily taking in his spiderweb-coated features, ones as familiar as my own.
Stardust morphed back into a hair clip and settled herself near my ear. “You should talk to him. I don’t think he betrayed you.”
“Yet he’s made no move to defend himself.”
“Regardless, you miss him.”
“I donot.” As much as I desperately tried to believe them, deep down I knew the words were a lie.
If Stardust had been morphed into a bigger form I was certain I’d have seen her roll her eyes. “Yes, you do. You haven’t looked away from him since the moment he entered, which means—where are you going?”
I nearly upended my chair as I hastily stood, determinedly keeping my back to Darius. “I want to go home,” I told Mother.
Her gaze flickered towards Darius before she returned it to me, her expression almost...sympathetic. “Of course, dear. Encountering your enemy so unexpectedly must be quite trying.”
Myenemy? I internally recoiled at her words but didn’t pause to analyze why.
Mother shooed me away. “See you at home, Eden.”
At her use of my name, I sensed Darius’s gaze snap towards me and felt the heat of his eyes boring into my back. It would have been a strange sensation to sense him so strongly even without seeing him if the connection weren’t so familiar, a connection that had turned out to be nothing more than a lie.
“He’s looking at you,” Stardust whispered. “And he’s frowning. I think he knows you’re running from away him.”
My heart prickled with guilt before I hastily shoved it away. “Let him.” I strode towards the door, secretly hoping he’d follow me. He didn’t. Once outside, I lingered near the door. “Is he following?”
Stardust, now morphed into a bug, peered through the window. “No, but he’s staring after you. He seems...torn. I think he wants to follow you but for some reason is hesitating. You should talk with him and finally settle this silly squabble of yours in a mature way.”
I rigidly shook my head even as my body leaned towards the door, towards Darius. But I refused to allow my heart to win this battle. I locked away every unsettling emotion that had stirred within me at seeing him again and hurried down the street.
I sharply turned the corner and careened into a Nightmare. We both stumbled to the ground; I was only spared a painful landing by Stardust hastily morphing into a pillow to cushion my fall.
“Oh my goodness, I can’t believe I ran into you.”
The Nightmare had already righted herself to her feet and stood blinking down at me with large, bright green eyes. She brushed away the wisps of her moss-green hair that had escaped her messy bun and offered her hand.
I stared first at her hand, then up at her. When I didn’t accept it, she tilted her head and stared at me, her eyes naturally wide. “Would you prefer to stay on the ground?”
I shook my head as I clambered to my feet, assisted by Stardust’s gentle nudge from behind. I brushed off my new dress and peeked warily down at the Nightmare, at least a head shorter than me, with eyes far too big for her face. She wore a slim olive-green dress with dozens of pockets sewn in a pattern to resemble scales. A painted snake coiled her wrist while another twisted around her neck.
She blinked up at me, as if waiting for me to be the first to bridge the awkward silence. Her blinking was much more rapid and frequent than a normal Weaver, as if she permanently had something stuck in her eyes. Shifting nervously, I severed my gaze and frowned at one of her pockets, which was steaming.
“I think your pocket is on fire.”
