Dreamer (The Dream World Chronicles Book 1) Camille Peters (books to improve english txt) 📖

of it, a dark feeling emerged from where it’d been hidden deep inside me. The feeling grew, nourished as I relived every pain, every wrong, until I felt it consume me, a dark and heavy poison pounding through my bloodstream, one that cried for revenge.

My hands tightened into fists as my hatred flared, searing through me like molten lava. “They. Will. Pay.”

Stardust eyed me warily. “But how did they find out about your ability to see dreams in the first place?”

I gritted my teeth. “That Nightmare betrayed me.” I couldn’t bear to say his name, not now. “He handed over all the information the Council needed to suspend me, even after he promised otherwise.” This pain, more than the others, was most unbearable.

As if my anger was a summons, Darius appeared with a sizzling crack. At the sight of him, the conflicting urge to both hug him and throttle him warred within me.

“There you are,” he said, his voice weak with relief. “I’ve been looking everywhere for you.”

My eyes narrowed. He had some nerve acting like nothing was wrong after he’d single-handedly pounded the final nail in my coffin.

False concern lined his eyes. “Are you alright?”

Stardust morphed into a fence and protectively surrounded me. “Don’t come any closer.”

Darius reached around her jagged bars to stroke my hair. I flinched away. “Don’t touch me.”

“Ah, my lady finally speaks.” He tried to smile but the edges of his mouth barely curved upwards. “What are you doing here? It’s not a good idea to be on Earth now, not until I finish clearing things up with the Council.”

“Clearing things up?” I hissed. ”Is that what you call it? How dare you.”

A frown replaced his attempted good humor as his gaze lowered to my locket. “What happened to your dream dust?”

“I was suspended, you Nightmare.”

He staggered back. “You were what? By what evidence?”

“Plenty. Most provided by you, such as my ability to enter and capture dreams, as well as my relationship with my infamous mother. None of this is a shock for you, so you can stop pretending to be surprised.“

“But I’m not pretending,” Darius said. “I swear I had nothing to do with it. I wouldn’t turn you in, not after everything. I’ve been trying to help you.” He tried to take my hand but I yanked away from his grip.

“You call turning in your notebook of suspicions helping? It was all the Council needed to banish me like you’ve always wanted.”

Darius’s face darkened. “What notebook?”

I could barely think straight through my hurricane of emotion. “Stop toying with me; its spiderweb style was as good as your signature.”

His eyes hardened. “I didn’t turn that notebook in, not when I promised I wouldn’t. But since my word evidently means nothing, I’ll prove it.” He looked through his bag, and after a moment of rummaging, he started searching frantically. “Where is it?”

“Oh, how convenient you’ve suddenly lost it,” Stardust said dryly. “This just proves you handed it over to the Council. It’s as good as a signed confession.”

Her commentary would only make this already trying confrontation more difficult. I turned to her. “Can you give us a moment alone?”

She frowned in clear reluctance before slowly floating away, far enough to give us some privacy, but close enough to watch Darius through narrowed, suspicious eyes. He seemed unfazed by her scrutiny as he stepped closer, his gaze imploring.

“I didn’t give the Council my notebook. Even if they got hold of it somehow, there’s no way they could have read it without me opening it.”

I glared at him. “Exactly.”

“But I swear I didn’t, I—”

“Just stop it.” Didn’t he realize how deeply his pretending hurt me? “This has all been a twisted game to you. All you care about is yourself.”

“That’s not true,” he said desperately. “I care about you. I could never hurt you considering how I feel towards you.”

My heart ached to open itself up to his words, but I’d stopped trusting him, the wounds from his betrayal too deep, and the feelings I’d previously yearned to hear from him now felt poisonous. The Darius I’d grown to care for hadn’t been real, and I’d been a fool allowing myself to become caught in his carefully spun web.

“Eden.”

He stepped closer and cupped my chin. I shivered at his touch but couldn’t pull away, despite the pain his proximity brought me. Tears burned my eyelids and he gently wiped them away with his thumb. The sweetness of the gesture stabbed my already fragile heart.

“I’ll go to the Council, explain that my findings were inconclusive and that I lied about everything, whatever it takes. I don’t know how they got my notebook, but I swear to you I’ll find out.”

I ached to believe him, that the sincerity filling his eyes was real. “Why?” I whispered. “Why would you care what happens to me?”

He caressed my cheek. “Because I can’t reside in that world without you.”

A strange warmth surged through me that almost extinguished the hot fury and intense pain raging inside of me.

“Don’t you sense it?” he whispered. “Can’t you feel the connection between us, drawing us together? Don’t you think of me as often as I think of you? You never leave my thoughts. The only explanation I can think of—the one I’m hoping to be true…” His cheeks darkened and he looked away.

My heart beat like a supernova in my chest. His implication was one I’d often pondered, even if I’d never put my secret wish into words lest it shatter any possibility of it being true…that we were Paired.

But it was too late now. He’d squashed whatever emotion had begun between us while it was still a fragile bud, and now whatever sweet feelings may have existed could never blossom. I lowered my gaze, unable to look at him.

Carefully, as if afraid I’d shatter, Darius wrapped his arms around me and held me close. I stiffened. But while the hardened part of me wanted nothing more than to push him away, the tiny portion of