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He gave my arm a gentle tug. As I followed, I took in the other Dreamers filling the café, nearly all of which looked to be coupled…and I was here with Darius. A girlish smile tugged on my lips as we wove through the tables towards a secluded alcove, where he pulled out a chair to help me sit. I settled in the silk-cushioned seat and turned to him the moment he finished ordering for us and sat down across from me.

“Did you enjoy your time at the Academy?”

His nod was enthusiastic. “Learning is one of my greatest passions. There are just so many aspects of magic and not enough years to study them all. I’d have extended my time there if I could.” He proceeded to tell me of his classes in detail—from dream construction, to the history of our worlds, and then to the layers of magic that made up our powers and our world.

As he spoke of his classes and experiences, I felt a twinge of regret, and for a moment I wished I’d disregarded my fears and chosen to attend the Academy after all. But then I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to have Darius as my weaving partner now.

He paused when he noticed my frown. “Are you alright? Am I boring you?” He seemed rather nervous at the prospect.

I sighed. “I’m just wondering if I should have attended the Academy.”

“You would have learned a lot, but with your current skill level, you can do much on your own.” Darius leaned closer. “Why did you decide not to attend?”

I nibbled my lip and looked out the window we sat beside, which overlooked a lovely garden of blossoms, a beauty lost on me as my ever-present anxieties returned to knot my stomach. “I was afraid—”

I swallowed my words, unsure whether I was ready to share my vulnerabilities with Darius. But when I lifted my gaze to meet his, which was somber on my behalf, I felt my heart opening beyond my control.

“My background on Earth already makes me an anomaly, so to attend the Academy with others who’ve lived here their entire lives…what if I didn’t fit in?”

The discomfort from the Dreamers’ stares today was undoubtedly nothing to what I’d have felt when I failed to fit in with the other Academy students. I couldn’t bear the thought of not receiving approval from those residing in the one place I was desperate to belong.

Darius rested his hand beside mine on the table, close enough that I could reach out with my pinky and caress it should I want to. “You’re afraid of not fitting in?”

“It’s not a fear so much as my reality.” Even now I was different, choosing to explore the connection I felt with this Nightmare rather than follow the dictates expected of me as a Dreamer. But I simply couldn’t hate Darius, not when he made me feel so alive…and accepted.

“You fit in with me.”

He bridged the short distance between our hands to caress the back of mine with his fingertip before withdrawing his touch with a blush and a nervous glance towards the watching Dreamers, as if only just remembering he had a reputation to uphold. After making a loud comment for the benefit of the eavesdroppers about how he had some things to discuss with me, he then lowered his voice to return to our real conversation.

“I would have enjoyed attending the Academy with you. If only we could have done so.” The corner of his mouth lifted in a crooked smile. “But I’ll help you until your not attending the Academy no longer matters. After my assistance, your knowledge will rival those who studied there.”

He reached into his bag and pulled out a small stack of books. My eyebrows rose. He flashed an unrepentant grin.

“I paid a visit to the library before meeting you.” He arranged the books in a teetering stack on the edge of the table.

I picked up the first one and read the title written in glistening silver cursive,Basic Charms and Spells. “Isn’t this a beginner’s book?”

“Every dream relies on the basics,” he said. “You’d be surprised by how much your dreams improve with a mastery of even the most rudimentary skills. The more you understand the basics, the better you can use them.”

I so desperately wanted to learn more advanced magic, but I was still a stranger to this world, unfamiliar with the magic I’d been born with but which I still didn’t understand. What I’d seen of Darius’s own skills left me no doubt of his talent.

I took a deep breath and nodded. “Alright,” I whispered. “I trust you.”

His responding smile lit up his eyes. He took the book from the top of the stack and eased it open, but before he could begin, our food arrived, forcing us to delay our studies.

Darius had ordered a delicious spread of evergreen salad comprised of foreign juicy berries, cups of petal tea whose buttercup-scented steam tickled my nose with each sip, and a plate of pastries filled with dreamberry—a lilac fruit I’d never tasted before, but which I found to be sweet, tantalizing, and delicious; it oozed all over my fingers with each sticky bite.

I nibbled at the end of another frosted pastry, watching in awe as the cream and sugar added itself to the tea. Darius observed me with a soft look. “It’s such a pleasure seeing you discover your world.”

“I still feel as if I’m living a dream. I never could have imagined such a wondrous place existed.”

“It’s hard to imagine how a magical being such as yourself ended up on Earth.”

Despite the innocence of his observation, I instinctively stiffened.Does he suspect my connection to Mother? There was still so much I didn’t know about her, but if my suspicions were correct and she was the missing Weaver…I didn’t want anyone to know, least of all Darius.

Concern lined his brow. “Is something wrong?”

I forced a smile. “I’m fine.”