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“Eden—”

“Leave!”

For a moment he didn’t move, a defiance in his eyes that seemed to dare me to force him to abandon me, but slowly that light flickered and died. Without another word, he disappeared with acrack, leaving me crying silently in the gloom and shadows of the burnt remains of my home, with nothing more than the wounds scarring my heart.

Yet despite my heartache, the love I felt for Darius didn’t fade. But I couldn’t live with his betrayal that had cost me everything I held dear. And although I locked all my feelings for him deep inside, I secretly hoped the pain would never completely vanish, but instead remain as a constant but welcome reminder of the connection we shared.

He’d linger in my thoughts with every sharp beat of my heart.

Stardust floated closer, snuggling against me to provide comfort, but it did little to soothe my pain. In the midst of my grief, a familiar voice I’d never expected to hear again rose from the gravesite of my home.

"I thought he’d never leave. There’s nothing worse than a betrayer.” Mother slipped out from behind the remains of her garden gate. "Hello, Eden dear.”

I stared, for a moment unsure whether she was real or a phantom who had risen from the cloudy ashes, but the spell broke the moment she held out her arms.

“Mother!” I ran into her embrace, and immediately all my previous resentment and anger towards her melted away as her arms healed the wounds she’d left behind when she’d vanished. I burrowed against her chest and inhaled her scent—soil and blossoms, exactly like Mother. She was real. “I missed you so much.”

She nestled against my head. “I missed you, too.”

“Where have you been? I thought—”

“Oh, my dear child.” Mother stroked my hair in her familiar way. “I didn’t want to leave you, but when you inadvertently created that magical fire out in the open, so close to my protective spells keeping me hidden, you left me no choice. If the Council had thoughtI’ddone that magic, they would have found me for sure, something I couldn’t allow.”

The stinging memories from her abandonment and secrets returned full force. Saving her own skin had been more important than me. I pulled out of her now burning embrace. “Why did you keep everything from me? You were always so insistent that magic doesn’t exist, giving me no opportunity to share my own powers with you.”

She pursed her lips. ”I was sure I’d be able to tell if you had magic, and if you didn’t, I didn’t want you suspicious of me.” Mother searched my face, her expression calm but her eyes anxious. “I know it seems rather unfair, dear, and I can’t explain it all to you now, but I had to do it. It would have ruined everything if I’d been discovered.”

That explanation wasn’t nearly good enough to wash away the sting of her abandonment. “But where have you been all this time?”

“I have powers unknown to the pathetic Dream Council, powers that allowed me to do the impossible and regain the magic they’d stolen from me, and which kept me and any detection of my magic hidden, while always remaining close to you.”

“No such spell exists,” Stardust said.

Mother smirked. “Under ordinary magical laws that’s true, but with my enhanced abilities to craft new forms of magic, there are no limits to the spells I can create.” She pressed a gentle but firm finger against my lips to silence my next exclamation. “I was never far,” she said, as if that excused away all my anxieties and worries. “I arranged for my brother and his Pair to assist you where I could not.”

“Who?“ But the answer suddenly seemed obvious. “You mean Blaze and Trinity?”

Mother nodded. “My poor dear, you’ve been through so much. First your weaving partner betrayed you and now the Council has rejected you and your unique gift. It grieves me you had to go through such pain to learn the truth.”

My heart quickened. “What truth?”

“The truth that the Council and the entire Dream World are corrupt, so consumed with maintaining power that they’ll limit yours to further their own ends, just as they did with me.” She scowled. “They used their ignorance and fear as an excuse to suspend me, pushing me down to raise themselves up under the guise of maintaining the balance. But the balance is a lie. The Dream Council wants all the power for themselves. The Dream Realm rejected my extraordinary flowers that influenced dreams in remarkable ways, so I turned to those who would accept my gift.”

I swallowed. “Are you really a Nightmare?” The word burned on my tongue.

Mother didn’t answer immediately, but she couldn’t mask the fire raging in her eyes, one whose flames I still felt sizzling, unquenched, inside me. She slowly nodded, confirming my worst fears.

“Sometimes in order to achieve our potential we have to break all the rules. The Nightmare Realm isn’t like the Dream Realm—they’re not afraid of unique magic. They’ll not only accept you but help you develop the full extent of your powers, as they did for me.”

My heart pounded in my ears. What was she proposing?To join the Nightmare Realm? I couldn’t do that. I was a Dreamer.

But even as I wished with all my heart for that to be true, doubt lapped at my thoughts like waves crashing against the shore. No one had exactlytoldme I was a Dreamer; I’d simply assumed I was one because I desperately wanted it to be so. Had everything I’d believed about myself been nothing more than a lie? Had what Trinity seen within me whenever she searched my heart been the Nightmare part of me I’d buried? Did I truly belong in the world Mother herself was a part of?

“The Dream Realm aims to limit you, but you deserve more than to be shackled by such restraints,” Mother said. “We have such plans, Eden, but we need your remarkable powers to accomplish them. If we combine our magic, we’ll be unstoppable.”

A warning niggled my conscience, but I ignored it and leaned closer, eager to hear more. To never have to hide my unique talent anymore, to be able to explore and capture dreams at will…I stroked my dream locket, which hung limply from my neck. I’d never have an empty locket ever again.

Stardust frowned as I fiddled with my locket. “Don’t listen to her. She’s trying to make you believe this is the only path available to you, but she’s wrong. Just because she walked it doesn’t mean you have to.”