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“I don’t need to hear it to know it’s not going to work.”

“Just listen.” She morphed into her notebook form and rapidly flipped through the pages until she came to one of her complex diagrams. “I know that the last few plans I came up with didn’t exactly work very well...”

I snorted. That was an understatement.

“...but I believe I’ve worked out the kinks in this one.”

Her words didn’t exactly inspire confidence, especially considering this was Stardust. “Your preface to your newest plan is making me less inclined to hear it.”

She skewered me with a sharp glare. “Can you at least pretend to be interested? At least I’m attempting to discover a respectable solution to your current dilemma rather than resorting to criminal ones like you’re determined to do. Forgive me for refusing to accept this horrible fate that’s befallen you.”

“I’m simply no longer fighting against my true identity.”

Stardust rolled her eyes. “For the gazillionth time, you’renota Nightmare. If you’d just stop believing that, maybe we could finally get out of here.”

“We’re not going to get out of here,” I said. “This is our new home, so it’s time you finally accepted that.”

Despite my declaration, uneasiness seeped over me at the thought of being trapped in this sunless worldforever. The three months I’d already been here had felt like an eternity. How could I endure spending the rest of my life in such a place? But these doubts had no sooner begun slithering through my mind than I forced myself to push them away.

“This is not our new home,” Stardust said. “And thus we’re going to proceed with ’Stardust’s Infallible Plan Number Forty-Seven.’”

I covered my face with my hands to stifle my groan. “We’re at that obscene number already?”

“We’ve been trapped here formonths—though they’ve felt like years—leaving me plenty of time to brainstorm.” She angled her body so I could better see her diagrams as she outlined her plan’s finer points. “Now, don’t interrupt while I tell you the latest of ’Detective Stardust’s Stellar Schemes.’ I admit that morphing myself into a catapult was a bit dangerous and those disguises I designed a few weeks ago were rather sketchy, but this time I have something much better in mind.”

I bit my lip to stifle the commentary aching to emerge as Stardust spent the next half hour going into painstaking step-by-step detail with at least a dozen diagrams.

“Any questions?” she finally concluded about an eternity later.

“There’s one flaw with your entire plan,” I said, finally voicing the observation I’d noticed as early as step two. Stardust’s eyes narrowed dangerously but I plunged forward. “Your plan requires quite a bit of magic to pull off. Pray tell, where in the Universe am I going to get all that dream dust?”

Stardust swelled herself up and opened her mouth to argue, but no sound came out. Instead, she deflated with a heavy sigh. “Comets, I forgot about that annoying little detail. Why did you have to have all your magic confiscated by the Council?”

“Forgive me for falling victim to whoever framed me for the crimes they cited against me, but if you haven’t noticed, I’ve been trying to get more dream dust ever since arriving in the Nightmare Realm.”

“And it’s going very well so far, isn’t it?” But instead of frowning at my nearly empty locket, she smiled brightly. “Not that I’m complaining about the failure of your criminal methods, which you’re so stubbornly determined to continue. We’ve been in this horrible, creepy place for ages and you still haven’t captured a dream. How long before you realize you’re never going to do it?”

“I will,” I said. “And I’m taking it fromhim. He deserves it after what he did to me.”

“But Eden, I’ve been investigating that case and have repeatedly told you my conclusions: I don’t think it’s possible Spiderweb is the one who betrayed you.”

I sighed and pressed my palms to my eyes until I saw spots. “We’ve been over this several times. The Council had his notebook—one onlyhecan open—containing all the evidence against me. Where did they get it from if not from him?Andthey knew of my abilities to see and enter dreams, something only he knew about; no one else saw me enter Angel’s candy-land dream.”

My voice choked on Angel’s name, but I hastily shoved my emotions back beneath my mask of numb indifference.

Stardust sighed impatiently. “Yes, Iknowthat. But it still just doesn’t fit.”

“How can you possibly claim that?”

In response, Stardust dropped a newspaper on top of me. Hovering over a picture of Darius was the heading:Head Nightmare’s Son Loses Position on the Council.

“What!?”

“Read it,” Stardust ordered. I unfolded the article and started to, but before I could get a few sentences in, she snatched it back. “Never mind, it’ll be quicker to just summarize. Apparently, Spiderweb has spent the past several months fighting to overturn a certain verdict of a certain suspension of a certain Dreamer who was discovered to be the dream dust thief.” She gave me a knowing look and my stomach lurched.Me. “Even after repeated warnings that he’d lose his position if he continued, he still tried to overturn it. Why would he do that if he’s the one responsible for your suspension in the first place?”

Her argument was all wrong. Why was Stardust defending Darius? My mind whirled and I couldn’t even begin to come up with a valid reason to contradict her.

She continued. “You know I’m at the bottom of the list of Spiderweb’s fans, yet evenIbelieve he’s innocent. Him being the one who betrayed you just seems too obvious, the case against him a bit too perfect, like he’s being set up to take the fall much like you were for the flying colors fiasco.”