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At first I was transfixed before the wonder slowly faded, replaced by sickening dread that twisted my stomach. I stared at the nightmarish weed, its dark color and harsh aura a jagged contrast to the surrounding vibrant blossoms with their pleasant tinkling melodies, but I barely had a chance to process its presence before my name drifted across the fields. I shielded my eyes against the bright moonlight to see a cloud darting towards me.Stardust.

“Eden!”

She was getting closer. In a moment, she would notice the nightmare flower, her observation skills too rehearsed to overlook something so suspicious. My heart leapt to my throat, and in a swift move I yanked the nightmare flower from the soil and hastily shoved it into my bag, just as Stardust arrived.

“Don’t be angry at me for being late,” she panted. “I came as quickly as I could.” She scooped me up and zipped through the fields. “What a horrible night to lose track of time. Youneedto win tonight’s Weaving. You’ve only managed to scrape a single win, and it’s essential you solidify your skills before Spiderweb ceases going easy on—”

She skidded to a stop and I tumbled headfirst into a clump of daffodils. I hastily scrambled off the flattened blossoms, which shakily rose up, as if waking from a deep sleep. I breathed a sigh of relief—it was bad enough having a nightmare flower in my bag, but to also be found destroying dream flowers would be too much for one night—and glared at Stardust.

“Why did you—” My words were swallowed as I gaped at what she was staring at.

Three unmistakable nightmare flowers grew midst the dream blossoms I’d nearly squashed—a black rose with petals gnarled into fangs, a dark daisy crowned with a head of thorns, and a wilted lily that oozed slime, all of which I’d seen at one time or another in Darius’s pile of details during Weavings. Their morbid details swirled lazily in their shadowy auras—the gnawing sensation of hunger, the feeling of falling, and a paralyzing flower that made a Mortal incapable of moving.

Nightmare flowers.

Stardust was all business, already writing frantically in her notebook self. “More,” she muttered. “Where are they all coming from?”

My stomach lurched. I’d hoped that the first nightmare flowers that had appeared several weeks ago had been a single event. The fact that it hadn’t been…

“This is what I was investigating while you were with Iris,” she said. “At first there were only one or two nightmare flowers appearing in the Cultivating Fields, but lately they’re popping up all over the place. The Cultivators are at a loss, as nightmare flowers can only be grown by Nightmare Cultivators in Nightmare soil. The Council is in an uproar.”

My heart pounded frantically as my fingers curled around the prickly stem of the nightmare flower I’d created, burning guiltily in my bag despite my knowing the others couldn’t possibly have been my fault.

Stardust turned to a fresh page in her notebook and kept scribbling. “For three nightmare flowers to appear in the same place…whatever is happening, it’s getting bigger. No wonder the Cultivators are frightened.”

I remembered Iris’s palpable nervousness when Stardust had left to investigate. “But Iris hasn’t said—”

“All Cultivators are keeping quiet under the Council’s orders. They don’t want to start a panic about what this could potentially mean.”

A shiver curled up my spine as icy fear filled my throat. “We need to leave.”

“But I haven’t finished—” She snapped her mouth shut at my pointed glare and obediently scooped me up to take me to the Weaving.

Stardust rambled off every possible far-fetched theory about the nightmare flower investigation during our flight, but I didn’t hear a word of it. I clenched my bag strap so tightly I was certain my knuckles would break as I recalled a single phrase Stardust had said earlier:Only Nightmare Cultivators are able to create nightmare flowers.

The nightmare flower’s presence sizzled within my bag.

Chapter 23

My hands shook as I examined the nightmare flower from every angle. Goosebumps prickled my skin just from touching it, but I couldn’t pull away, as if despite my repulsion a part of me was drawn to it. I traced its inky black stem with my fingertip, along its dark petals, and around every jagged leaf, all while my heart continued to pound wildly in my chest.

The longer I examined it, the more the flower’s essence seemed to burrow within me, as if trying to excavate something buried deep, a foreign yet familiar part of me I didn’t want to find. I ached to share this burden with someone, but it was impossible. If this hidden part of myself was what I feared…I’d lose all the friendships I’d formed.

You’re a Dreamer, I reminded myself over and over against the darkness my fear caused to overshadow me.You’re not a Nightmare.

But if I was a Dreamer, how had I created a nightmare flower?

Suddenly I couldn’t bear to hold it a moment longer. I hastily shoved it in my bag, but even without touching it I could still feel its shadow on my hand. I tried to wipe the feeling away but it lingered, coldness pinpricking my skin.

I wearily leaned back against the silver-leafed tree I sat beneath in a secluded section of the park where I’d taken refuge nearly every day in the week since I’d inadvertently created the nightmare flower. I’d been here for hours, yet the beauty and solace of my surroundings had done little to quell the fear cinching my chest, the dark feelings filling my heart, and the negative thoughts invading my mind. I squeezed my eyes shut as if the gesture could block it all out, but my apprehension remained, relentless in its taunts.

I’m not a Nightmare, I repeated firmly.I’m a Dreamer. Ihaveto be. But no matter how many times I tried to reassure myself, my unease lingered, haunting my thoughts without relief.

“Eden?”

I snapped my eyes open with a sharp gasp and I discovered Darius crouching in front of me, his green eyes lined with worry. I hastily straightened. “Darius? What are you doing in the Dream Realm?”

His concern remained, but the corner of his mouth lifted slightly in my favorite crooked grin. “Looking for you. Our Weaving started two hours ago.”