Admit it, you felt an urge with that woman. She was like sunshine and rainbows. Rainbows…damn. You don’t even know where she lives, so we can’t visit her in her dreams.
And that’s when it hits me. Nightmare is smitten. Not just smitten, enchanted, and is not talking about murder and revenge.
For the first time in years.
My body feels light, like how I felt before Nightmare sank its claws into me and bound itself to my body. I look down at my hand and flex it.
Wait. Focus.
I shake my head, trying to clear it. The woman in that house—my father's killer. The whole reason I'm here. And I just—I just let myself get distracted by a blonde in sparkly shoes.
We need to restart. Finish what we started.
Nightmare doesn't respond.
The target.Remember?
Silence.
Answer me.
Finally Nightmare speaks, but its voice is distracted. Disinterested.We can’t attack the house. We’ve been threatened with magic wardens. And they will sense our curse.
I scoff.I don’t care about magic wardens.
Yes, you do.
I grind my teeth together.Maybe I do. Fine. Find the target and we’ll face her.
I can’t.
What do you mean you can't?
Her scent. It's gone. Vanished from the dreamscape. Like she stepped outside the dark.
Ice shoots through my veins.That's impossible. You've been tracking her for months.
I know. But the moment that woman showed up—the one with the sparkly shoes—do you think she has them in other colors?When I don’t answer, it says,The tracking thread severed. I can't feel the target anymore. Can't sense where she's hiding.
I clench my teeth so hard I taste copper.She felt the attack. She knows I'm here.
Probably,Nightmare agrees, still sounding far too cheerful for the situation.But don't worry. We'll find her eventually. Right now, though, we need to find cookie girl.
A decade of planning. Hunting. Waiting. And now, when I'm finally close?—
You're thinking about her again, aren't you?Nightmare interrupts.
No.
Liar. You want to braid her hair as much as I do.
I drag my hands down my face. This can't be happening.We were so close.
We still are,Nightmare says.Just to a different goal now.
My body goes numb. The blonde woman’s touch. Her presence. Nightmare isn’t demanding blood. No whispers. No urging. No hunger clawing at my thoughts.
I draw a breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding.
