33. Reed

“Pandora”s dad is something else,” I mumbled, lying on my stomach toward the edge of my bed as I talked to Gumdrop. “Death literally ate a fragment of Hemlock’s soul.”

Gumdrop bubbled in response, and I chuckled softly.

“I know, that was my reaction, too!” I took a bite of the purple cotton candy next to me, and the sweet flavor melted on my tongue. “It was the first time I’d ever seen him not drunk. Of course, he was still as angry as ever.”

My tablet rang with a call, and my heart sank as my mom’s name flashed on the screen.

“It’s Mom.” I hesitated, taking another quick bite of the cotton candy, then swiped to answer. I braced myself for whatever she was going to say.

“Reed, oh, Fates, they”ve caught me!” she sobbed, words tumbling out in a frantic spiel. “I thought...I thought I could bring him back, but it’s ruined!”

My stomach twisted into knots. “Mom, you”re not making sense. You need help—I”ll come home.”

“No!” she cried out, but her words were clear. She wasn’t drunk right now; she was hysterical. “You can”t—they”re watching. Just…talk to Charlotte. She knows.”

Confusion rammed into me, and I closed the bag of my cotton candy and clipped it. “Charlotte? But why?—”

The call ended abruptly, leaving me staring at the blank screen.

Charlotte, my best friend that I met online and have never seen in person other than my dreamscape, was linked to this craziness? I had never even introduced the two of them. Mom didn’t know about Charlotte, to my knowledge. So, then, why?

I tapped out a message with shaking fingers, my heart pounding wildly in my chest.

Reed Nyx

My mom just called me and mentioned you. What”s going on? How do you know her?

Her reply came swiftly.

Charlotte Vane

We need to talk.

In your dreamscape.

ASAP!!!

It’s probably time I tell you more about me.

Frustration gnawed at me as I set the tablet aside. What did she mean by that? And how did she even get to know my mom?

Gumdrop wiggled his head almost as if he were shaking it.

“I know. I’ve got a bad feeling about this, too,” I muttered, my gaze locking with his. “But what choice do I have? If I ignore it, then I won’t ever know. Mom hasn’t called me in years before I came to the academy, Gumdrop. Something is really wrong.”

He let out a few more bubbles and dropped his head.

With dread in my gut, I got under the covers and pulled up my blanket, letting magic tingle over my skin as the haze of my dreamscape enveloped me.

I was surrounded by purple clouds and blue-leafed trees in no time. I allowed Charlotte in, and it was no surprise to me that she was already waiting.

She materialized, her usual warmth noticeably absent. Her green eyes were serious, probing. “Tell me, have you talked to Death’s daughter lately?”

Something in my gut twisted. “Not much,” I admitted, voice strained. “Why are you asking?”

Her glossed lips twitched in satisfaction. “Oh, no reason.”

“Can you tell me about my mom, now?” I crossed my arms, feeling totally unsettled with her here.

She nodded, smiling brightly. “I reached out to your mom to help her with her mental health. I mean, I could tell you were worried about her last time we talked.”

“Explain, please.” I stepped back. “My mom hasn’t spoken more than a few words to anyone since Dad died. But she’s talking to you?”

Her smile faded just a bit. “Um, yeah. I mean, you and I clicked right away. Remember? Same thing with your mom. We’re like best friends now, too. Isn’t that cool?”

I swallowed a lump in my throat, keeping distance between us. “What did you mean by texting me it’s time you tell me more about you?”

“I haven’t been completely honest with you,” she admitted, crossing one leg behind the other. “My dad really did die when I was young, but it wasn’t an accident like I said. He actually sacrificed himself to dark magic for the good of demonkind.”

Static filled my brain at her admission, and my breath caught.

Dark magic? What the hell was she talking about? Alarm bells rang out annoyingly loud, but just how stupid had I been?

I trusted Charlotte with my life before now…

“My mom is following in his footsteps soon.” She smiled sweetly, but it sent a vicious chill down my spine. “We’re going to carry out Dark Veil’s plans.”

“W—what?” I openly gaped at her, the woman who had once been my best freaking friend. Betrayal burned deep in my veins, coursing through me.

“It’s an honor, Reed!” She tilted her head, red curls bouncing with the movement. “My mother will be one with dark magic soon, and I plan to do the same, obviously. It’s how evolution works. The more demons exposed to dark magic, the faster demons will be able to wield it without dying.”

“I don’t think that’s how it works, Charlotte.” I frowned, and a gnarled purple branch moved between us.

Even my dreamscape was keeping her away from me.

She waved me off, knocking the branch away as she took another step toward me. “Dark magic is unlimited in what you want to do. The void that dark magic can fill is immense. You can be a part of it, too.”

I took a couple of more steps backward. I didn’t recognize the person in front of me. “What does that have to do with my mom?”

“Oh! Your mother,” Charlotte continued, her smile widening as she clapped her hands together. “I will always look after my best friend’s mom. Dark Veil agreed to initiate her so she could bring your father, her fated mate, back to life.”

“She’s human,” I choked out, brows furrowing. “That’s insane.”

“Yeah,” she giggled, pushing her hair out of her face. “It obviously wouldn’t work for her, so she offered you up to host the dark magic in her place. She understands our mission.”

Betrayal, pain, and anger exploded in my soul. I stumbled back from her further.

“No. I won’t be associated with dark magic!” With a forceful wave of my hand, I expelled Charlotte from my dreamscape for what would be the last time, her image dissipating like smoke.

Panic constricted my chest and clawed at my throat as I gasped a ragged breath. My mother, my own flesh and blood, complicit in a dark magic cult? Dad wouldn’t want this.

My vision blurred as I struggled to breathe, and my dreamscape spun out of control.

Subconsciously, I must’ve reached out for Pandora. She appeared before me with her wide red eyes in shock. Her red lips parted before spreading into a brilliant smile. Her long black hair was pulled back into a slick ponytail. She was stunning, and it stopped my panic in its tracks.

“Hi,” I murmured, drinking in the sight of her.

Her smile faltered as she looked at me. “Reed, what’s wrong?”

“I…”

The words tumbled out of my mouth completely unfiltered. I told Pandora about Charlotte and how I met her—how I trusted her because she was my best friend, my only friend for so long. I told her about my mom’s call and everything that Charlotte had just told me. I felt stupid. Completely stupid.

“You’re not stupid.” Her words were sharp. “It sounds like your friend is in deep with a dark magic cult, and there was no way you could’ve known about it. What did you say it was called?”

“She called it Dark Veil.”

“I’ve heard that name before somewhere,” she mumbled before shaking her head. “I’m going to tell my dad this so he knows that you and your mom are in danger, okay?”

I nodded numbly. “Thank you. I just…I can’t believe she offered me up to a cult.” My voice broke, and I ran my hands through my hair and tugged.

“I’m sorry,” she rasped, moving closer, and her caramel scent calmed my nerves. “If solidarity helps at all, I know what it’s like to have a terrible mom.”

“Yeah, you do, don’t you?” I glanced down at her. She’d mentioned that she had eaten her mother’s soul the first day we’d met, and I knew then that her mom must’ve been terrible. But she never really elaborated on why.

“I told you how I found Nebula and that he’d been killed by shadow magic, right?” She wrapped her arms around herself and looked down.

“You did.” I let my arms fall to my sides as I listened.

“Nebula found me when I was in the cellar, and I tried to hide him…but he was a kitten, so he didn’t know to hide from her. When she came down, she saw him. Her shadow tendril sliced his head off.” Tears slid down her cheeks and dropped onto the clouds at her feet. “I still remember the way his blood felt spraying onto my face. He was in my arms.” She sniffled and looked up, tears spilling from her eyes. “I didn’t even get to wash the blood off.”

My stomach rolled, and I reached out and…patted her head.

This wasn’t smooth. This was awful. Abort, abort.

I pulled my hand back and stretched my arm up to scratch the back of my neck. “Ah, um. I’m so sorry. I was trying to comfort you, but that really didn’t feel that way. Felt more condescending than anything, which was definitely not the goal there.”

She let out a harsh breath of a chuckle and shook her head. “No. I liked it. You’re fine.”

“I’m most sorry about what happened to you,” I told her. “You didn’t deserve it, and neither did Nebula.”

“I know,” she replied quietly. “That wasn”t even the worst of it.”

My heart twisted painfully in my chest. How wasn’t that the worst of it?

“Did your dad know?” I swallowed what felt like shards.

“No.” She shook her head with a sad smile. “Daryl didn’t even know I existed until a few months ago.”

My brows shot up. “Wow. I didn’t realize that.”

We stood together in silence, but my magic sparked around us in shimmering specks. I loved having her here. My heart felt like it was going to fly out of my chest and into hers, and I almost wanted it to.

“You know, I’ve thought about what Ashenfell said, and I”d like it if we were...fated mates,” I found myself saying, and my heart thumped erratically in my chest.

What compelled me to say it out loud?

Pandora”s cheeks flushed a pretty rose color, and my breath caught at the sight.

“I would, too,” she rasped, curling her hand around her throat as she stared at me in awe.

“You really are my dream girl.” Gently, I reached out, focusing really hard on not patting her head this time. Instead, my fingertips brushed her cheek softly.

She blushed deeper. “That’s the sweetest thing anyone’s ever said to me.”

I let my hand drop as she smiled. “So, um, how is everything going?”

“I admit that I’m in over my head with my newly dubbed enemies.” She pouted, staring up at the galaxy. “Hemlock is cruel, as you know, and I accidentally met his brother, which made him mad. He hunted me down after and found me in the library when his chaos magic was out of control. We got into an argument then.”

I clenched my jaw and nodded, listening to how terrible those guys had been.

“Then Skel and Dex tried to mess with me in Demonic Feeding when I was in the closet trying to practice. My magic went crazy, though, and I passed out.” She looked at me, and I saw the tears welling in her eyes.

“That’s why I didn’t meet you after class that day, and I’m sorry for that.”

“Hey, hey, no.” I held my arms out, and she walked into my chest. “You don’t have to apologize for that.” I wrapped my arms around her, and her caramel scent was everywhere.

“They took me to Sunstone Revive to wake me up. It worked, though, so that’s good,” she said, wrapping her arms around me tightly. “Oh, and I got high with Skel after a horrible nightmare about Dex slicing into me with his shadow magic. There was a drude orchestrating the entire thing. I’d know her if I saw her, but I didn’t recognize her.”

A drude? Could it be that Charlotte did it? I mean, she was clearly worse than I’d ever thought she could be. Plus, she had asked about Pandora today, which was odd.

She clung to me, her tears wet against my shirt. It broke my heart. “Then I was dumb enough to go with my roommate to Odyssey Bluff. I knew she was bad because of the ring that Daryl gave me. It turns black if someone wants to cause me harm, and it was black.”

I tensed as anger raged through me. “What happened?”

“They ganged up on me and threw Nebula into the lake. I can’t swim but went in anyway. One of the shadow demons cut my arm open, and my magic went off. I almost ate their souls, so they ran, and then Nightwind actually saved Nebula for me. Then Skel and Hemlock saw us walking back and ran Nightwind off, and took me to Sunstone Revive to heal me!” A sob broke her as she trembled in my arms.

I held her tighter, wondering how long she’d held all of this in. Had she been talking to Darkmore or Nebula about this stuff? I wasn’t sure, but I did know I would be there for her if she needed it. And she did need it.

With a soft kiss on her forehead, I whispered, ”You”re safe here.”

She stilled, her sobs pausing for a moment before starting again. “Nobody’s ever kissed me before.”

“I’ve never kissed anyone before,” I mumbled against her head. “Come on, now, dream girl. Get some real rest.”

I guided her into a serene dream, slipping from my dreams to hers so I could build her a sanctuary from the darkness. I watched over her as she slipped into a peaceful slumber. Then, anger funneled through me as I thought about everything she’d told me.

Vengeance wasn’t my jurisdiction, but being a dream demon meant I could at least make them pay a little for Pandora”s pain.

With shaky hands and a heart thundering against my ribs, I entered Dex’s dreams before I could think too much about it. I stood above the dream canvas on a purple cloud and started to dig through memories and weave together a nightmare to torture his soul.

I plunged him into his own shadows and had his own magic turn on him. His shadow tendrils ripped him apart piece by piece as he screamed in terror.

My magic reserves filled as I oscillated into Skel’s dream, pushing past the fae magic from his high. I’d never heard of any dream demon or drude being able to force past fae magic before, but I was more motivated than ever before. He needed to pay for what he did to Pandora. I gave him a nightmare of him dying by his own fear magic losing control. He made the wrong demons mad in a village as he leaked magic, and they went after him. He got cut down the middle of his body, separating the two halves by a scorching shadow tendril.

I jumped out of that nightmare quickly and entered Hemlock’s last, trying to save the magical energy I had left to terrorize him. I was the most angry at him for harassing Pandora. I bestowed him a nightmare of being beaten by his father and told over and over again that he’ll never amount to anything. It was from his memories.

When I started to feel bad about what I was doing to them, I thought of Pandora”s tears, and that steeled my resolve.

I couldn’t muster the energy to visit Dreadful, but it didn’t matter because I started to shake with fear at what I had just done.

The realization that I had been in other demons’ dreams whipped at me, but I tried to push the fear down.

I had gotten my revenge on them.

I slipped out of my dreamscape and woke up at the same time as Hemlock. His wide eyes met mine across the room, and he snarled.

“Mind your own fucking business, Nyx,” he snarled.

“Planned on it,” I mumbled sleepily before turning over in the bed and falling asleep.