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He stepped closer but froze when Stardust darted protectively in front of me. “Don’t even think about it, Nightmare.” She returned to my side and slowly raked her glare over Darius’s spiderweb surface, not bothering to mask her disgust. “Eden warned me about your gross spider obsession, but she failed to mention you looked as if you’d been struck by lightning. Just look at that hair.” She made no effort to keep her biting assessment quiet.

I expected him to be offended, but he simply looked amused. “I’m pleased Eden has such a loyal cloud.”

Stardust promptly morphed into a hammer. “I’m warning you, Spiderweb: don’t you give Eden any trouble.” To reiterate her point, she cycled through several potentially harmful shapes and finished by transforming into a tree trunk. “There’s more where that came from.”

Darius chuckled. “Ah, you’re a morpher. There’s no need for any of your morphing tricks, though admittedly you do look rather frightening as a tree trunk.”

My jaw tightened at his mocking, whereas Stardust stuck her tongue out at him before turning back to me. “I don’t like him; he’s creepy.”

He chuckled again, seeming strangely entertained by their exchange, before returning his attention to me and advancing a step. I scrambled backwards, in my haste nearly tripping over a smoldering pile of wood. I was only spared from falling by Stardust darting behind me in time to catch me.

Darius leapt forward. “Are you alright?“

“Stay away from me,” I said shakily, and he immediately froze.

I eyed him warily a moment to make sure he maintained his distance before I brushed away the soot now clinging to my gown and wiped away the hair sticking to my damp brow. I couldn’t explain my need to clean up my appearance for him, only that it only escalated my temper.

“What do you want? I warn you: if you’re here to intimidate me, it won’t work.”

Rather than answer, he simply stared at me. Before I could demand why, Stardust’s fluffy body squished against my ear. “You have soot on your face,” she whispered.

I sighed. My second confrontation with the Nightmare had barely begun and it was already a disaster. Darius’s lips curved up as his gaze traced over the ash streaking my cheeks.

“Would you like me to look away while you—”

“I don’t care what you think of me,” I snapped, embarrassed, and his smile immediately faltered. For a moment he stared at me almost…longingly.

A thought suddenly occurred to me: could he possibly be as drawn to me as I was to him? But if that were true, it hadn’t stopped him from testifying against me in front of the Council, so obviously whatever bewildering connection he may have felt meant nothing to him. Even though his opinion of me shouldn’t matter, I couldn’t help but feel hurt all the same, which only strengthened my resolve to dislike him in return.

He blinked rapidly and tore his gaze away with a sigh to frown at the burnt remains smoking around us. “What happened here?”

I swallowed against the tears clogging my throat; I wouldn’t cry in front of him. “Surely you already know the answer—this is the consequence of the villagers discovering my magic and the reason I can’t stay on Earth. Yet I might have little choice with my position in the Dream World so precarious, a positionyoutried to sabotage.”

He flinched, looking guilty. But he didn’t speak until Stardust was out of earshot investigating something else. He leaned closer and lowered his voice. “My deepest apologies. Though I can’t explain, trust me when I tell you that the way I treated you in front of the Council was necessary.”

I snorted. “I’m certain it was. As was sneaking into my bedroom and spilling all my secrets to the Council after you told me I could trust you.”

He frowned. “I’m trying to help you—”

I rolled my eyes. “You call your accusationshelpful? Then why did you feel the need to bring up all my secrets, including your suspicions that I saw your nightmare?”

The corner of his mouth lifted, never mind nothing about this trying interrogation was at all humorous. “That wasn’t for the Council; I had a theory to prove. I knew you wouldn’t be able to see it. Please, you’ll just have to trust me.”

“You keep asking for my trust without showing me why you deserve it.”

He sighed wearily. “I did what I had to; if the Council learns of our friendship, I won’t be able to help you.”

I raised my eyebrows. “Friendship?Are we friends?”

The corner of his mouth lifted. “As unacceptable as it may be for someone in my position to befriend someone like you…yes, I’d like us to be.”

I didn’t need a friendship bestowed in pity, especially from someone who’d given me every reason to distrust him. Even so, the same yearning filled my heart, urging me to accept his invitation, before sense forced me to push the irrational feeling away. And yet…

I should trust him.

The thought entered my mind so suddenly that I startled. “What—”

“I’m sorry,” Darius said hastily. “I’m so sorry, I shouldn’t have—” He stopped speaking at my glare.