The man scowled, but before he could say anything more, the woman laid her hand on his arm. “Let’s not be rude, Blaze. After all, we’re guests in this realm.” She smiled at me, almost pleasantly. “Please forgive us for startling you. We’re here on a professional visit.”
Something about her melodious voice seemed familiar. “A professional visit?”
“We’re studying for our next Weaving,” Blaze said.
I gaped at the book he held up: Basic Sensory Details for Vivid Dreams. “But that’s a dream weaving guide. Aren’t you Nightmares?”
“We’re experimenting with a new technique,” the woman said. “The closer a nightmare is to a dream, the more frightening it becomes. Nothing disturbs a Mortal more than creating something that almost feels like a dream, and then twisting it into a nightmare. The Mortal’s shock yields a deliciously large quantity of dream dust.”
I shivered, but I couldn’t deny the idea was mildly appealing; I almost wanted to view one of those dreams, just to experience it. “What a unique approach.” Considering Blaze was Angel’s weaving partner, it was a technique I’d have to be sure to warn Angel about so she’d be prepared to counter it.
The woman flicked her hair over her shoulder. “Naturally. Weaving is our passion. We’d do anything for a victory.” She extended her hand. “My name’s Trinity.”
I hesitated before taking it. It was surprisingly soft and almost gentle. “I’m Eden.”
Trinity raised a single eyebrow, and Blaze, who’d slumped against a bookcase with his arms crossed, straightened. “Did you say Eden?”
Trinity again laid her hand on his arm with a brief, urgent look, like a warning. “You’re being rude again, Blaze.” Her expression became more open and almost friendly. “Your name is really pretty, Eden. It sounds like a Cultivator’s name. Were either of your parents Cultivators?”
“My Mother was.”
“How delightful,” Trinity said. “I’m a Cultivator, too. Perhaps I know her?”
I doubted Nightmare and Dreamer Cultivators were acquainted with one another. “Her name’s Ebony.”
I regretted the admission almost immediately, still wary of speaking about her when I still didn’t know the entire story of her banishment. A lump formed in my throat, while simultaneously a burning anger trickled over me over her disappearance, two such conflicting emotions vying for my attention.
“Yes, I knew Ebony. I met her while we studied Cultivating at the Academy together.”
My stomach jolted in shock. “You knew my mother?”
Trinity merely smirked as she watched me with a strangely knowing expression. “It was cruel how she hid so many secrets from you, and then disappeared when you needed her most.”
My breath hooked. “How did you—”
“I can feel both the anger and the worry filling your heart,” she said. “With these feelings, I sense that you want to find her, although not quite as much as you desire to belong to the Dream World. You seem to be having a difficult time with both.”
Was she a mind reader? Blaze surveyed my perplexed expression. “Trinity searches hearts,” he explained. “Not thoughts or memories, but feelings.”
Trinity’s smile widened. “Not to worry, it’s completely harmless.” To demonstrate, she concentrated on me once again. The same searching feeling rippled over me, as if all my secrets and innermost feelings were being extracted to be prodded and snooped.
She slowly smiled again, this one sly and conniving, full of whatever secret knowledge she’d gathered. “Are you sure you’re a Dreamer?”
I flinched. “Of course I am.”
Trinity tilted her head. “But are you sure?” Her penetrating look was back, peeling away the layers hiding my secrets one by one. Foreboding knotted my stomach before I forced it away.
I lifted my chin. “Definitely.”
A knowing look glistened in her eyes, like the flames lining her outfit. “As long as you think so, you must be right.”
Goosebumps prickled my arms. What was that supposed to mean? What exactly had she seen inside my heart?
I didn’t want to linger here a moment longer. I knelt down and hastily gathered my books strewn all over the cloud floor. Blaze bent down and picked up Never Lose Another Weaving, toppled upside down closest to him, and held it out to me.
“Yours?”
My face burned. I snatched it away and hastily tucked it under my arm.
Trinity eyed my stack of books. “You appear to be having a difficult time weaving. Have you won any? All of these books are all so advanced. You need someone with more experience to help you decipher these.”
My nerves prickled. Surely she didn’t mean her, did she?
A book floated by. Blaze plucked it from the air, frowned at the title as if checking whether or not it would help me, and released it before he offered a cold, lopsided grin. “It couldn’t hurt since you’re already losing; you can’t get any worse.”
I frowned at his sinister smile and Trinity’s eager expression. These two were definitely up to something. “Why would you help a Dreamer beat one of your own kind?”
Trinity laughed airily. “Oh Eden, just because we’re Nightmares doesn’t mean we don’t care about Dreamers. In fact, we’d be doing your partner a favor. Most Nightmares want to win on merit, not because the competition is skewed in their favor.” She lightly touched my arm, her look sympathetic. “We heard your partner requested to switch from his Mortal in order to crush you. Egotistical snob.”
Apprehension prickled my skin. “You’re acquainted with Darius?”
“Everyone knows of the Head Nightmare’s son who runs around doing her dirty work,” Trinity said. “He could use some humbling.”
My heart thumped wildly. This was wrong. I stepped away, severing our contact. “I appreciate the gesture, but I have to decline.”
For a brief moment Trinity’s eyes flashed and Blaze’s jaw tightened, but both looks cleared in an instant, so quickly I wasn’t sure they’d been there at all.
Trinity shrugged. “Suit yourself. If you ever change your mind and realize how much you need our help, the offer still stands.”
The Nightmares walked away, Blaze slipping his hand into Trinity’s before they disappeared around the corner.
Chapter 18
“You met who?”
We sat crammed
