Dark Consort

by Amber R. Duell

  He scoffed. “Watch.”

  Before I could stop him, Kail pressed my hand against his chest. I struggled to escape his grasp, but he cut me a bored, irritated look, and I stilled. Through the fabric of his jacket and the somewhat thicker material of whatever was beneath, I felt it. The thread. It was balled, tightly knotted, and pulsing as if it were a heart. But something about it was off. One end was untucked, dangling, frayed. “What—”

  “It’s not hard.” He shoved my hand away as if the touch had disgusted him and smoothed his clothing. “All you have to do is unknot its thread and coax it into something else.”

  “I thought the threads were predetermined.”

  “You’re the Weaver. We are whatever you want us to be. A lot about us is decided at the loom, but you can change details. Split us in two even.”

  “Split you in two? But how? Why?”

  “One step at a time, huh?” Kail lifted the cage. “Try it. Turn it blue or give it a mohawk. Something small.”

  “I’m not touching that thing,” I said incredulously.

  “Don’t be ridiculous.”

  “You just told me it bites.” I scowled, and Kail held the cage closer to my face. He wasn’t going to give up, and maybe that’s what I needed. To be pushed past my comfort zone. Nothing in this realm was okay with me, but I was here to rule. I had a choice to make: become the Lady of Nightmares or become… dead. I took a deep breath and nodded. “Okay, okay. Just—set it down.”

  Kail smiled, pleased, and did as I told him.

  I knelt and stuck a finger inside the cage. The monkey hissed at me. “Can’t we try this with something a little less…?” I motioned to the entire nightmare.

  “Where’s the challenge in that?” Kail winked, and I almost punched him. He shoved the trap door open. The stool slammed to the floor, and the rope creaked again, the shadow of the girl swaying on the wall outside. “I’m going out for a little bit. Stay in the museum while I’m gone.”

  My mouth dropped. “You can’t leave me here.”

  “If you want to leave, change it.” His expression was more serious than I’d ever seen it. “Learn to control your magic. Until then, you’re a liability.”

  He grabbed the edge of the platform and hauled himself deftly out of our hiding place. “Actually, you know what?” His masked face popped back over the opening. “On second thought, you’re right. Maybe this isn’t the best nightmare to start on. Hand me the cage.”

  My heart sang in relief, but somewhere in the back of my mind, a warning bell rang. I pulled the cage protectively toward me. “What’s with the sudden change of heart?”

  “Just give it to me,” he insisted.

  I glared at him, but he gave nothing away. No twitch of his lips, no devious gleam in his eyes. His forte, of course, but it was unnerving all the same. The monkey clawed at my fingertips where I held the cage, drawing blood. “Here.” I threw the cage up at his face. “Bring something a little less pointy back.”

  Kail caught the cage and set it next to him. “Actually, that sounds like an awful lot of work.” His voice took on a false edge, his eye sparkling for the briefest moment. “On third thought…”

  “Kail,” I warned slowly. “Whatever you’re thinking, don’t.”

  “I’m just giving you a little more incentive.”

  My eyes widened, my pulse speeding up. “What does that mean?”

  He maintained eye contact as he slid the cage to the ledge. And opened it. The monkey fell straight down, landing at my feet with a high-pitched shriek. The door slammed shut overhead.

  “Kail, you asshole!” I screamed, dancing away from the nightmare. “Get back here!”

  His laugh rumbled overhead, his footsteps receding. The monkey launched itself from wall to ceiling to floor and back up again like a furry bouncy ball. I jumped up to shove open the hatch but couldn’t quite reach. Covering my head, I darted over to the chest and kicked it to the center of the room. The monkey whizzed past and grabbed a handful of my hair. It swung around my head, strands wrapping around my mouth. I gave a muffled scream and smacked at the creature until it let go. I leapt onto the chest, heaved the door open, and bolted.

  Unfortunately, so did the nightmare.

  I shrieked and hurdled off the platform, the mob of wax figures tumbling around me.

  There was no telling how long I avoided the ping-ponging nightmare as it followed me from set to set, but the whole debacle ended with us in the foyer, gasping for breath. Bits and pieces of the crystal chandelier were scattered across the floor, and the chandelier itself hung precariously overhead. Each one of the rooms endured different levels of destruction—some more than once after they reset themselves. I was bruised and covered in scrapes from a dozen different props.

  And the stupid monkey. It wasn’t as funny when it threw waste at me as it was when it peed on Kail. At least it had bad aim, though the mother in front of the fireplace wasn’t so lucky. I hadn’t gotten close enough to get bitten, but I couldn’t complain. Who knew what nasty germs it was carting around? I’d probably end up with some deadly nightmare virus.

  “Are you done now?” I rasped and brushed the hair from my sweaty face.

  The monkey scowled at me from its place on the overturned banquet table.

  “Look, let’s just get this over with.” I used my softest voice and leaned up onto my knees, but it still stiffened, ready to run. Not again. I threw myself forward. It tried to dodge, but its movements were slowed by fatigue, and I caught it by the scruff of its neck. “Just hold still,” I urged.

  It narrowed its eyes at me and tried to squirm away. After a minute, it sagged, defeated. I hesitated. What should I change? It really did seem fine as it was, but I had to do something. Without a handle on the door, there was no way out unless Kail opened it.

  The door.

  Kail wanted me to change a nightmare to leave? Fine. I grinned at the monkey. “Want to get out of here?” It perked up, and I set it carefully on the floor. When it didn’t try to bolt, I released my hold. “Be good.”

  I set my palm against the door and closed my eyes, feeling, searching, prodding. The ball of thread writhed at the intrusion, but I held firm. There was no visible end like with Kail’s. I didn’t know how to pinpoint the door inside the massive knot that made up not only the entire building, but everything inside. I poked at it with my mind, pushed at it, but nothing happened. I clenched my jaw. This was stupid. There was no changing it.

  But the grin surfaced, burning bright behind my eyes. One side lifted, smug, and the scent of sulfur hit my nose.

  The monkey chirped behind me, and my eyes flew open. Pride swelled at the sight of a round knob in the middle of the door. “I did it,” I said breathlessly. “I did it!”

  But how? I stared down at my hand in wonder. It just seemed to happen. I didn’t really do anything. To be honest, it didn’t feel like I did anything with the dog either. The grin showed up and ta-da. Maybe that was all it took? To embrace the darkness and let it know what I wanted? That seemed like a slippery slope.

  I gripped the warm metal knob and turned it. Gears clicked and whirred inside until the door popped outward. “Out you go,” I said to the monkey. It bolted away without another word. I watched it go, scurrying across the lawn, and took a deep, satisfied breath.

  Kail appeared, walking between flashing neon signs, slow-clapping, until he stood in front of me. “I was beginning to wonder if you’d ever figure it out or if you were going to chase that thing around all night. Love what you’ve done with the place, by the way,” he added, pointedly looking around me to the knob.

  Don’t kill him. Don’t kill him. “Screw you,” I seethed.

  He patted my head, and the walls behind me cracked. “Time to leave.”

  The foundation shook, and I braced myself in the doorframe. “What’s happening?”

  “Changing a nightmare isn’t exactly a painless process,” Kail said, eying the new knob. “It’s probably a little piss
ed.”

  “What is? The building?”

  “Building or not, it’s still a nightmare. You had to feel that it was alive while you were messing around in there.”

  Dust burst from the ceiling, coating me, and I darted outside just as rubble fell into the doorway, sealing the exit.

  “So dramatic.” Kail straightened his jacket. “Let’s go.”

  “Go where?” I asked, my mouth dry, heart racing. Was that supposed to happen? “Do you have another hidey-hole for us to crawl into?”

  “Task number three awaits.”

  “What?” I shrieked. After hours inside with a deranged nightmare, he wanted me to do something else?

  Kail smiled sarcastically and sauntered up to the chain link fence. The realization of what he did settled over me. That bastard set me up! If I got myself out, cool, but if I didn’t… How long would he have left me in there? I stomped across the lawn after him.

  Do.

  Not.

  Kill.

  Him.

  “What’s task number three?” I asked skeptically.

  “Don’t worry. It’s nothing you haven’t faced before.” He pried the fence away from a pole. “After you.”

  17

  Nora

  I stood beside Kail at the edge of a garden full of rotten vegetables, a single step away from cracked, parched ground. My heart fluttered wildly in my chest. At its center stood the rock the firefly had left me at when I first returned to save the Sandman, back before I was the Weaver. Not that he needed it, or that the human-me could’ve done much. But I remembered all too well what it felt like to be similar to that rock: utterly and completely alone. What it felt like to have my friends and family turn their backs on me. To have the Sandman walk away. Every step I took across the Barren killed me a little more inside.

  “You have to face your fear to overcome it,” Kail explained when I remained silent and still. He waved his hands in front of us. “Behold! The thing that ensnared you last time.”

  I didn’t want to think about how many things frightened me during my first solo trip to the Nightmare Realm, but this was by far the worst of them. “You’re insane if you think I’m going out there,” I said, my voice unsteady.

  “Your fear is holding you back.”

  I crossed my arms. “I’m not doing it.”

  He huffed. “Have I steered you wrong yet?”

  “You trapped me in a museum with an angry, poop-flinging mammal,” I countered. “That’s about as wrong as you can get.”

  “He flung poop at you?” he asked, too hopeful.

  I glared at him. “Be glad he missed.”

  Kail’s laugh was the first genuine one I’d heard. It was warmer than I expected, and even though it was at my expense, I was glad for it. It meant he wasn’t cold through-and-through. The relief only lasted until he opened his mouth again.

  “Go out there, survive, and meet me back here for a surprise,” he said, clapping me roughly on the back.

  “Everything you do is a surprise, Kail, and it’s never a good one.”

  “You can’t say I don’t excel at my job.” He watched me playfully. “You’ll like this one, I swear.”

  “Bull.”

  He held up two fingers and put on a fake smile. “Scout’s honor.”

  “It’s three fingers,” I said in a flat voice.

  He put his ring finger up to join the other two. “Better?”

  “I’m not doing it.” I turned to walk away, but he was in front of me in the blink of an eye. “I’m not—”

  He lifted me over his shoulder and stepped into the Barren. The shock of his actions didn’t wear off until we were about two feet into the soul-sucking landscape. I shoved away from him and twisted until he finally dropped me on my feet. The effects of the landscape were immediate, sucking away the little joy I had left. The loneliness, the worthlessness… I launched myself at Kail with a roar. Unfortunately, my movements were sluggish here, weighed down by desolation—by my fear of it—and he sidestepped me easily. Soon, I would be a useless heap. Crushed by the solitude of this landscape. Just as I was when Kail and Rowan dragged me out of the Barren so they could use me to kill the Weaver.

  “See you on the other side,” Kail said with a wave.

  Then he turned and walked away. The sight of his retreating back twisted my stomach.

  “You can’t leave me here!” I screamed, but he had another opinion on that, so I made to follow him. Only, my feet felt frozen to the ground. The hollowness of the Barren inched up my body, and I struggled to shove down the rising panic. Last time I was here, I gave up. If Rowan and Kail hadn’t saved me, I would’ve languished forever. But things were different now. Kail would’ve preferred me dead last time. Maybe not so different, then. Could I die though? The Barren would make for a horrible replacement as Weaver which alone should give him pause.

  Ha! Who was I kidding? Kail would let me die without a second thought. He hated me.

  No. I shook my head. This wasn’t right. Kail was helping me. This place just wanted me to think he wasn’t.

  Maybe he really wasn’t. I needed to know what his ulterior motives were. My nails dug into my palms. Keep it together. I owned the Barren; the Barren didn’t own me. Besides, I was only a few feet into… I spun, searching for something other than the desolate landscape. Nothing. Just the Barren in every direction. Even the mountain I saw the last time was missing. But how? I was barely five steps into this place.

  “Kail,” I screamed. But he couldn’t hear me—or he didn’t care. I didn’t even know where he was at this point. With a steadying breath, I swallowed my rage. The emptiness surfaced in its place. Nope. Anger was better. I let it bubble back to the surface. New plan: Escape. Beat Kail. The grin twitched, amused.

  “Okay,” I whispered to myself. “I am the Weaver. I am the Lady of Nightmares.” I inhaled and exhaled slowly through my mouth. “Got that, Barren? You don’t sca—”

  A harsh metallic clang sounded right behind me. I spun on my heel, and my heart exploded. Before me stood a woman in a suit of silver armor molded tightly to her body. Intricate chain mail covered both arms, and a heavy leather hood reached up from beneath her collar to hide her hair. The most haunting feature was easily the flat metal mask covering her entire face. Other than the narrow slits that served as eye holes, the only marking was the Roman numeral three stretching from forehead to chin.

  I struggled to move my feet, to keep myself from letting the Barren swallow me. Escape. I had to run. Run.

  But before I could act, a fist full of metal plates slammed into my nose. Stars exploded behind my eyelids. Hot blood and tears flowed down my face before I even hit the ground. I gasped for breath, only to choke. I forced my eyes open, the lids already swelling, to find the nightmare crouched over me. She reared back for another blow. My mind reeled at the thought of the pain those plates could inflict a second time, and my training took over.

  My body moved without having to think. I scrambled back, flipped to my stomach, climbed to my feet, and ran in one seamless move. The Barren made it feel as if I were carrying a small elephant on my back, but I couldn’t just lay there, getting pummeled, let alone by a nightmare. A thing I was supposed to control. I scanned the horizon until I found the rock again. The clink of metal told me the nightmare was right on my heels. Then my head snapped back, my feet flying out in front of me, and a scream escaped my throat. The armored nightmare twisted my hair so hard, I was sure I would be bald afterward.

  She leaned in until the cool metal of her cheek brushed against mine. “You let Mare back in,” she whispered in a light voice that somehow also vowed to end me on the spot. Then she slammed me face-first into the dry ground.

  The world spun around me. Dizziness erased all coherent thought. There was another blast of pain as my head slammed into the ground again. The grin surfaced, its teeth bared in pure rage, and darkness burst outward, forcing my hands down to splay on the dirt. The knotted thread of the Barren
echoed the feeling of despair through my bones.

  Sulfur broke through the mind-numbing pain, and my stomach heaved. The pressure on the back of my head disappeared, and the grin gnashed its teeth. Get up, it seemed to say. I listened, trusting the darkness, and dragged my feet up from under me. My head swam. My vision was spotty, and my brain tried desperately to shut off, but I had to get to safety. To the Sandman.

  No. Not the Sandman. I couldn’t run back to his promised safety without at least trying to find it on my own. If it was the Sandman or die, I would turn to him. Otherwise, I needed to turn to myself.

  I stumbled to the side and searched for my attacker before she could strike again. Instead, I found a wide circle of saturated dirt. The nightmare was waist deep in the center of it, clawing her way to the edge, but the more she moved, the more it tugged her down. She said something, but I didn’t hear the words. Didn’t care to hear them, either. All I knew was that, at the edge of the Barren, I could collapse. I left her there with mud inching up her breastplate.

  The weight of the landscape rolled off me like rain on a window. I smiled at that. Maybe. My mouth was too numb to be sure. But I did know I conquered this place. At least, in a way. There were worse things out there than being alone. I was alone just now and look at what I accomplished. My magic worked perfectly under duress, though all I wanted was some pain medication, an ice pack, and sleep. Lots of sleep. Unless the magic could do that, I would pat my own back later.

  It felt like a lifetime before I stepped back into the spoiled vegetable garden where Kail said he would wait. My eyes were practically swollen shut, and I saw everything through a curtain of eyelashes. There was every chance this wasn’t the right place, though the air had the same tang of decay. I fell to my knees, not caring if Kail was nearby, and carefully lowered my aching body into a fetal position. Soggy cabbage was like a pillow beneath my head. Soft. I nuzzled into it, letting it cradle me. A quick catnap, then I would find help.