Stardust stared, her mouth agape. “You mean you became a part of the dream rather than a mere observer?”
“It was amazing.” Humming, I put the captured dream in my bag and took out another jar. “Next, I want to see if I can take something from a dream.”
“You can’t do that,” Stardust said. “This is all untested magic with potentially dangerous consequences. You shouldn’t enter or influence any more dreams until I, Detective Stardust, can research this further.”
She sounded like the Council. “I’m only entering dreams that have already happened, so they can’t possibly affect the Mortal. Alice couldn’t even see me. What’s the harm?”
Stardust frowned, unconvinced. “What happens if the Council finds out about this? I doubt they’ll dismiss it simply because you don’t see any harm.”
She didn’t understand; I wasn’t doing this for myself, but to help the Dream World. I ignored her disapproving frown and peered through the branches to choose another dream, but before I could find one, I felt the familiar sensation of my neck prickling. I searched the surrounding trees, my heart pounding.
“What is it?” Stardust asked.
“Someone’s watching me.” And I had no doubt who it was.
“Is it the Council?” Before I could answer, Stardust morphed into a bird and soared around to investigate. I quickly shoved my empty jar into my bag and scrambled down from the tree.
“Aha!” Stardust exclaimed. “I knew I smelled a Nightmare.” Sure enough, camouflaged within the dark branches of a nearby tree was the shadowy figure of a young man, emerald gaze narrowed at me. My stomach tightened. He was worse than the Council.
I’d spent all our Weavings since the flying colors in an internal battle between wanting to speak with Darius and pretending he didn’t exist, which had been rather easy considering he made no attempt to talk to me either.
Judging by his hardened expression, this encounter would undoubtedly be another one of cool indifference, one with which I’d have no choice but to play along. “What are you doing here?” I snapped, struggling to ignore the twittery feeling in my stomach at the sight of him.
Darius leapt gracefully from the tree and shook loose leaves from his upright hair, causing Bolt hidden within to emit a muffled peep of protest. “I should be asking you the same thing. I can’t believe you’d come to Earth while still on probation. Do I need to remind you of your precarious position with the Council, Nemesis?”
My heart prickled at his use of my nickname, and I hoped that his hostility was solely for Stardust’s sake rather than his own feelings for me fading. But it was more than that—his expression and his tone were different than whenever he performed his usual ruse of indifference; this time he seemed genuinely upset with me.
I swallowed the tears already clogging my throat and defiantly lifted my chin. “If it’s so forbidden, then what’s your excuse?”
“To babysit you, of course.” He pulled a leftover twig from his hair and began to mechanically break it into tiny pieces. “I suspected you were up to something suspicious; you were unusually fidgety during our Weaving.”
I opened my mouth to reply, but before I could come up with an excuse, Darius held up his hand, silencing my words.
“Before you try to justify why you’re being so careless despite my risking everything to help you—or more likely, choose to deny everything—it’s only fair to tell you there’s no use trying to hide anything anymore. I know all of your secrets, and have for quite a while, so you might as well save us both time. Spill.”
“As if we’d fall for the most obvious ploy in a villains’ bag of tricks,” Stardust said wryly. “I doubt you know anything.”
“No?” Darius cocked an eyebrow. “You’re probably right. I don’t know anything about her unusual ability to see dreams, nor did I just witness her disappearing into one.”
It was as if all the air had been sucked from my lungs. “How did you—”
“Did you honestly think I bought your ridiculous reason for knowing the details of the nightmare I gave Maci several weeks ago? Please. After all this time of our knowing one another, I can’t believe you still insist on underestimating me. As soon as you so conveniently supplied the details of a nightmare you couldn’t possibly know anything about, I realized all the strange trances I’d witnessed during our partnership must have been you spying on my other masterpieces.”
I balled my hands into fists. “You Nightmare.”
He rolled his eyes. “Thank you for the compliment. Now, let’s cut the theatrics. Care to explain, my little Nemesis?” Despite his taunting me with having discovered my biggest secret, his tone and look remained friendly, trusting…but it was undoubtedly nothing more than another act.
I gritted my teeth. “As if I’d explain anything to you.”
“Still uncooperative? I suppose we’ll have to do this the hard way.” He pulled out a notebook, black and covered in silver spiderweb designs. My heart sank. I recognized that notebook.
“You’ve been keeping a list?” Stardust sputtered.
“Don’t tell me you’re surprised,” he said. “As an investigator yourself, you know how valuable keeping a record of your findings can be. Eden’s ability is beyond any magic I could have ever imagined. I needed more information to piece together all her strange mysteries.”
“So that’s the only reason you invited me to the flying colors, so I could ‘fill you in’?” I shouldn’t have been surprised, but part of me had still hoped…
He looked rather hurt before the look cleared. “Believe it or not, I genuinely wanted to go with you.”
“Why should I believe that?”
His eyes flicked to Stardust before he cleared his throat. “Whether you believe me or not is of no concern to me, but it’s the truth.”
Stardust rolled her eyes with
