The notes of a harp brightened the darkness. The door into Derrick’s mind was wide open.
My eyelashes fluttered down as I followed each vibration of the magical harp strings like they were each a small tether. The vibrations wrapped around me and pulled me into Derrick’s mind.
I opened my eyes to rolling fluffy clouds as far as the eye could see. Over my shoulder was a tall castle made of ink and paper with bright red turrets and blue banners, like it had been lifted straight out of a faerie book.
The drawbridge over the inky moat lowered into the clouds. Derrick was on the other side, standing in front of the massive castle doors.
That castle was not mere decoration. Whatever was past those doors had to be the inner workings of Derrick’s mind.
I had to get inside to issue my command to free Fraleigh.
I crossed the bridge—it wrinkled like paper with every step—until I stood in front of Derrick on the castle stairs.
Well, not Derrick, but Derrick’s inner self. He wore simple black from collar to toe, his curls were loose, and flecks of stardust glittered on his cheeks and forehead.
He was not Alastar XII, he was…
“Hello, Midnight.” I glanced at the sweeping iron chains fortifying the castle doors.
He crossed his arms. “No! I have to keep the monster in.”
The monster?
Suddenly he grabbed my face. “Your radiant light is so rare and devine, what shall I do if the stars never align?”
I searched his face for an answer as he squished my cheeks. What was he talking about?
His eyes shone with urgency. “A midnight sky is bleak, but your light can shine, though what if our two stars never align?’
He was little more than a faerie speaking in riddles, one who lived in his own world.
But…Derrick’s mindwashis own world.
This was the type of reality Brietta could bend with her poetry, or Annalisa with her paint. I only thrived in a reality that was logical and tangible, with a grip on the fabric of simple truths.
Although…maybe I did not need a paintbrush or a pen to work magic here.
I pinched the air and pulled down—a beautiful silver needle appeared between my fingers. With a wave of my hand, a glowing white thread appeared in the eye. The thread trailed into the tumbling fluff of the clouds farther than I could see. It never ended.
A crackling noise shook the air. Midnight jumped and turned toward the castle. A crack zig-zagged out of the doors and crepttoward us like a bolt of lighting, cutting through the clouds as if they were stone.
“Oh no!” he cried. “The monster is coming!”
The crack raced for me and I dropped to my knees out of instinct. I gripped the cloud beneath me like a sponge and drove my needle through right as the crack reached my hand. The damage stopped.
I quickly stitched the cloud back together, weaving the thread of infinity until the foundation of the castle was completely repaired.
My fingers released the needle and it disappeared. Midnight helped me to my feet with a smile. “I wish I could let you in—all the way in.” He glanced toward the chained doors. “I just have to keep you safe from the monster.”
I pinched my magical silver needle. I could slay any monster if I got access to Derrick’s mind, but frightened Midnight would have to open the doors.
Maybe I could somehow make Midnight less frightened of the monster.
What if I healed a fresh wound in his mind?
I wrapped the tail of the thread around my finger until it formed a loose coil. Then another, and another, until I crafted a head of curls bleached by thousands of sunrises. I sent the thread soaring through the air, weaving a dress that smelled of lavender and powder, then clear eyes that saw a bright future, and finally hands that had planted the seed of a new world.
The luminescent outline of Freya Hyton stood on top of the mended fracture in the clouds. She opened her arms to her son. “I love you too, Midnight.”
