Dreamer (The Dream World Chronicles Book 1) by Camille Peters (thriller books to read .txt) 📕

in gold threat that matched the surrounding columns. I peeked through the slit. “What is this place?”

“The Velvet Sky Theatre,” Stardust said. “It shows performances of this year’s most acclaimed dreams.”

“I thought Dreamers couldn’t see dreams.”

“These are only recreations made from submitted blueprints of the dreams that yielded the most dream dust. I’m sure they’re nothing like real dreams, but other than weaving mirrors, they’re the closest Dreamers ever get to seeing real ones.” She nudged the back of my legs. “Watch a few and tell me how accurate they are.”

“I’m sure they’ll only make me feel inadequate, and I already get plenty of that from Mr. Ego.” But I couldn’t quite quench my curiosity, so I drew back the velvet curtain to slip inside…only to freeze when I once more spotted Darius, who’d just entered the museum.

I stiffened, even as I marveled at how easily we were drawn to one another despite being somewhere as crowded as the festival. Once again I was torn between wanting to see him and not wanting to be hurt by him if he couldn’t be trusted.

In the end I still couldn’t face him, so I ducked into the theatre to avoid being spotted. There, dozens of dreams and nightmares, all masterpieces, lit the stage.

They were obviously not real dreams, but were like a play with magic as its actors, more elaborate than any performance I’d seen in my home village. Some were distinct stories told entirely in a single sense, while others inspired famous Mortal inventions and legends, glistening ideas planted in the night that blossomed into a life of their own on Earth. One dream stretched four and a half months for a comatose Mortal, and a single continuous nightmare had crept into a Mortal’s daily delusions and was in its thirteenth year.

I squirmed in my seat. “Do you think I could ever weave so well?”

“Maybe if you practiced more,” Stardust said wryly.

I rolled my eyes and turned back in time to see that the next nightmare had been submitted by Darius. I lurched forward. “They’re showing one of Darius’s Nightmares.”

“What?”

An incredible nightmare entirely in sound resonated through the theatre. Even without any other senses, each carefully selected resonance suggested an array of details to taunt the imagination. At its conclusion, curly scrawl stated it’d been created as part of Darius’s final exam at the Academy a few years previous.

“That creep got featured for one of his practice nightmares?” Stardust scoffed. “I’d hate to see his abilities in several more years.”

Great, my partner was skilled enough to be featured in the weaving highlights, selected from a pool of millions of dreams every year. This didn’t bode well for my future hopes of winning. My feelings of inadequacy and anger deepened with each passing moment Darius’s nightmare filled the auditorium.

There had to be a way to increase my skills. Perhaps the answer truly did lie in Blaze and Trinity’s suggestion: if I’d been granted such unique powers, shouldn’t I use them? The more I considered the solution, the more determined my desires became: the next time I went dream watching, I was going to try to explore the dream.

Chapter 27

Night had fallen while we’d been inside the theatre. Bubbles of flickering fireflies lit the trees lining the paths like miniature suns floating in the settling darkness. I used the glow from one of the nearby trees to scan the festival schedule. “The flying colors show is in an hour. We should go and find a good spot.”

Stardust stopped suddenly. “Oh no, look who’s here.”

Up ahead, Darius leaned against the souvenir stall selling snow globes, leisurely tossing and catching one in the air as if it was no concern to him whether or not such a pricey treasure broke.

Stardust tugged me in the opposite direction. “Let’s go this way before he notices us.”

Too late. He spotted us and waved me over with a lopsided grin. An unexpected jolt tickled my stomach, the opposite reaction I wanted when all my anger from having discovered his betrayal boiled anew. I deliberately made eye contact before storming off the other way.

“Wait, Eden!”

I ignored him and kept walking, trying to outrun him even while the urgings of my heart compelled me to linger. It treacherously lifted when he caught up a moment later and jogged beside me. “I’ve been looking for you. I thought we were going to spend the festival together.”

I glanced sideways at Stardust for her reaction to this revelation and was unsurprised to find her glaring at me. “I changed my mind,” I said curtly.

He blinked at me, looking first surprised by my hostility, then quite hurt, and for a moment I felt a pinprick of doubt in my suspicion towards him.

I quickened my pace but he kept up easily, tossing his snow globe as we walked, oblivious to the burning emotions spreading through me like molten lava.

It seemed to take great effort for him to clear his expression and force a smile. “What do you think of your first festival? Isn’t it amazing? Although I prefer it when the Nightmare Realm hosts due to their decorations not being quite so sparkly, I must admit the Dream Realm puts on a fantastic display.”

I took a sharp turn and darted through a large crowd of startled Dreamers, hoping to shake him off, but Darius followed with ease.

“Did you get a chance to see the hall of mirrors showcasing famous scenes from history? I thought that might be something you’d enjoy. Or how about the gallery of moving paintings?”

If I just ignored him maybe he’d go away, but like a bad dream he lingered, chatting easily about the various festival highlights without a hint anything was wrong. Whether his indifference was due to ignorance or was on purpose, it only fueled the fire simmering within me. How could he act so nonchalant after spilling my greatest secret to his Nightmare cronies?

At my continued silence, Darius’s brows finally furrowed and he stopped tossing his snow globe.