My horror escalated. I wasn’t a Nightmare; I couldn’t be. Nightmares were dark and evil creatures, and that didn’t describe me.
But even as every part of me yearned to deny it, memories of my past Nightmarish behavior pierced my mind with doubts: the moments of sick pleasure whenever I instilled fear into the villagers’ hearts, the times I’d considered covering my mistakes with lies in order to stay in the Dream World, doing the impossible by creating a nightmare flower in Dream Realm soil, my frequent thefts that robbed Dreamers of their dream dust, how each of my attempts to help the Dream World had ended in disaster…even my own powers were out of the ordinary, defying the natural laws of magic. Could they really be dark magic?
“Test complete.” Investigator Bay handed my dream jar to Galaxy with a respectful bow. “This magic belongs to Dreamer Angel.”
“Ah, the Dreamer you’ve lived with all this time?” Galaxy stroked his chin. “She’s just recently reported another large dream dust theft and insists we take action against her weaving partner, Nightmare Blaze, but it appears he was nothing more than a red herring. You’re the dream dust thief.”
I ached with every fiber of my being to deny it, but I couldn’t contradict the horrible, haunting truth.
“I can see the truth in your eyes, Dreamer Eden—or should I say Nightmare Eden.”
I shuddered at the address, one that both felt cold and uncomfortable, and yet…also a part of me. “I swear it was an accident, I didn’t mean—”
Galaxy held up his hand and I fell silent; after all, I was guilty, never mind my innocent intentions. “Stealing requires deliberate action, and Nightmares are deliberate in everything. There’s nothing accidental about it.”
My eyes burned with tears as Galaxy continued listing the accusations against me like he was reciting passages from the dictionary. I wanted to continue to fight, but my throat had sealed, as if my spirit had finally given up.
Galaxy returned to the condemning notebook. “Nightmare Darius records that you learned to cultivate from your mother, Ebony, whose training would give you the necessary skills to plant nightmare flowers in the Cultivating Fields, which you had ample opportunity to enter as a supposed Dreamer. Because you have the ability to steal any magic you need, you’ve likely lost Weavings on purpose so your Mortal would be saturated with nightmares, giving your true world, the Nightmare Realm, more power. You’re undoubtedly also connected to that strange magical fire that erupted in that Mortal village several months ago that we originally attributed to your mother, and there’s already proof that you had a hand in the threat at the flying colors as well—”
“No, you’re wrong.” Tears streaked my cheeks, but they did nothing to soften the Council’s unrelenting and unjust attack.
“Don’t waste your breath on feigned innocence; our case against you is irrefutable.”
Galaxy’s narrowed grey gaze flashed mercilessly; it was hard to believe now that in the past his gaze had ever been filled with kindness and pity towards me.
“When you first arrived in the Dream World, we offered you an opportunity to prove yourself, but that generous chance has now proven to be our undoing. You and your magic are too dangerous to remain any longer. You are hereby suspended.”
No! The Dream World was my home, the only place I’d ever belonged, the only place I had friends, where I could be myself and develop my powers…and he was taking all of it away from me.
“You can’t!” I shouted, no longer able to tolerate remaining silent and submissive. “I haven’t done anything wrong.”
Galaxy scoffed. “Weren’t you listening to all the evidence against you? You’ve done nothing but wrong, and I will not permit you to remain in the Dream World to tip the balance any further. It’s too precarious to grant you another chance after your continued interference; we cannot risk discovery of our world.”
“Just because my magic is different doesn’t make it bad,” I said. “I didn’t do any of this on purpose. I don’t belong on Earth; I belong in the Dream World, for I’m a Dreamer.”
Galaxy shook his head. “As we’ve indisputably proven, you’re a Nightmare, born to the Nightmare Ebony, and like your mother, your powers are too dangerous to condone your presence any longer.”
“Give me another chance. Please.”
But he was heartless to my pleas. With three echoing clicks of his staff, my dream dust spilled from my locket. I tried to grasp it, but it slipped through my fingers and flew into the glass orb at the end of Galaxy’s staff. The effect was immediate, as the strength from my dream dust which I’d grown accustomed to vanished; it was as if he’d stolen my air after I’d finally learned to breathe. The world swayed and I slumped to the ground.
“Suspended?” Stardust gasped. “On what grounds?”
We hovered above the burnt remains of my old home. Despite Stardust’s repeated demands for an explanation, I couldn’t bear to repeat the Council’s accusations, or worse, their conclusions about what they believed me to be. My broken heart stung, raw from the Dream World’s betrayal and the Nightmare I’d foolishly given it to. But worse was the accusation that I wasn’t the Dreamer I’d believed myself to be.
I wasn’t really a Nightmare, was I?
I clenched my fists. “They robbed me of my powers. They were frightened by the idea that a stranger to their world possessed powers beyond their own.”
How dare they eject me from my true home? Their actions hurt as much as the unjust way they’d come about. They’d piled charge after charge against me without even offering me the chance to defend myself. But what argument could have possibly been strong enough to overturn their horrible assumptions?
Bitterness seeped into my heart like poison, hardening it past feeling. I’d only wanted to belong, but everything had been stolen from me. As my thoughts swirled with the injustice
