I prickled at her sarcastic tone. “I occasionally find a dream at this hour whenever a villager fancies a late-afternoon nap.” But even if I did, I still had no idea what to do with it, considering I was still unsure how to excavate the dream’s magic.
The tightening in my chest shifted—rather than anger, a wave of helplessness pressed against me, an unrelenting burden. Stardust’s annoyance softened to concern. “Eden?”
“I just want to do something,” I murmured.
She snuggled closer. “I know you do.” She said nothing more, but she remained curled in my lap when I settled in the tree to wait, my gaze scanning the market below for any dreams, no matter how faded the memory might be.
The sun sank lower in the sky, the only measure of time. As the sky became aglow in a sheen of ruby-gold dusk, I straightened. “I see one.”
A ball of tangerine light followed a bleary-eyed toddler clinging to his mother’s skirts, still rubbing his eyes from his afternoon nap. I summoned my magic and reached for the dream, enfolding it within my powers to gently pull it towards me.
Rather than bottle it right away as I usually did, I cradled it in my hand, a warm glowing light against my palm. It immediately tried to wriggle free, as if it wanted to return to the Mortal I’d captured it from; I tightened my fingers around it so that it wouldn’t escape. I turned it over in my hand, examining every surface, occasionally capturing glimpses of the dream within—a simple one of the toddler building a stack of blocks that never seemed in danger of falling.
Holding the dream allowed me to sense the emotions he’d felt as he’d slept—the toddler-like contentment of seeing the block tower grow taller and taller. Hmm, this was new. But although I could detect the dream’s emotions, I wasn’t sure where I could access its magic. If I couldn’t find it, how would I ever be able to give it to the Dream World?
I tensed when I felt the familiar sensation of a heated gaze against the back of my neck. My skin prickled. Someone was watching me, but though Darius was the usual culprit, I’d grown familiar enough with his gaze to know it wasn’t him. No, this was someone else…someone far more sinister.
I hastily shoved the dream into a jar and sealed it, my movements frantic. Stardust’s brow furrowed in concern. “What is it, Eden?”
“Someone is—” I began, but the words died in my throat when a Nightmare stepped into view below me, a triumphant smirk toying at the corners of her mouth.
“Good afternoon, Dreamer Eden.”
Terror caused me to stiffen. Head Nightmare Ember. My heart pounded wildly. What was the Head Nightmare doing on Earth? Had she come to spy on me? Or had she been waiting for the magical burst that always resulted from my dream capturing? Such a notion seemed far too demeaning for the Head Nightmare, yet I had no other explanation for her presence.
Ember continued to watch me, her look rather coy. “Come down from that tree. I’d like to speak with you.”
I shakily obeyed, fear making my movements stiff and clumsy, causing me to scrape my palms as I dropped to the ground. I was too nervous to use my magic to heal the injury; I could barely think through the anxiety pressing against my chest.
Had she seen me capture the dream? I swallowed the lump in my throat. “Good afternoon, Head Nightmare Ember.”
She smiled it greeting, but it was tight and cold. “I didn’t expect to find you on Earth without a Weaving to attend to.”
Nor had I expected her, but I was wise enough to bite my tongue. “This is my old village,” I managed weakly. “Occasionally I like to visit…” I trailed off.
“Indeed.” Her eyes narrowed at me before flickering down to my satchel. “What do you have there?”
My breath caught. Oh no, she’d seen me hide the jar…though how suspicious she would find it when the dream it contained was invisible to her was difficult to tell, and her cold, stoic expression gave me no hints to what she could possibly be thinking.
My mind scrambled for anything to say to dissuade her suspicion, but my words trapped in my throat. Ember didn’t wait for my weak excuses. In two strides she’d reached me and yanked my bag from my shoulder, from which she plucked the jar containing my dream.
For a moment she stared at it, turning it over in her hands so that it caught the fading light. “What is this?”
I wiped my sweaty palms against my skirts. “Nothing—”
“Don’t lie,” she hissed. “I don’t know what convinced the Dream Council to give you any chance to remain in our world, but there’s something suspicious about you. Magic is pulsing in this jar, and I’m determined to figure out what it is.”
She dropped my bag unceremoniously onto the ground and pocketed the dream. I stepped forward. “Wait, you can’t—”
But in a sizzling crack she disappeared. I stared after her, my mind numb with shock over what had just happened.
“Well, that went well,” Stardust said. “Now the Head Nightmare has prime evidence needed to suspend you. I told you this quest was foolhardy.”
I barely heard her. It was impossible to think through my rising panic. My heart pounded so furiously I could feel it against my ribs.
No, this couldn’t happen. No, no, no, no…
I struggled to control my sharp breaths, even as I desperately tried to uncover a solution out of my predicament. But what could I do? If Nightmare Ember figured out that the jar contained a dream…no, that couldn’t happen.
In the midst of my panic, a single word filled my mind: Darius. The moment I thought of him, I didn’t hesitate: I created a ball of magic in my hand in the manner I’d seen Iris and Angel do whenever they sent a summons,
