“I know it sounds mad,” she admitted, brushing crumbs from her skirt, “but you should have seen the cottage, Tunia. I took a closer look after that Rowanwood idiot left last night. Everything is perfectly preserved, all the Dreamland documentation and blueprints arranged on a bookshelf, as though waiting all these years for someone to return. And the contract wouldn’t have activated unless this was meant to happen.”
Petunia snorted. “Magical contracts activate because of specific conditions being met, not because of cosmic destiny. You cut your hand, bled on the door, and made an oath. That’s not fate—that’s unfortunate timing.”
“Perhaps,” Mariselle conceded, leaning forward to grasp her cousin’s hand, “but now I have the chance to turn unfortunate timing into a magnificent opportunity. Don’t you remember how we always spoke about returning Dreamland to its former glory?”
Her mind drifted back to those sun-drenched afternoons in the library tower at Foxleigh Hall, during the summers their families had spent there together. She and Petunia had created their own sanctuary, far from the judgmental eyes of their overbearing mamas, lined with pillows and forbidden books. With lemonade in hand and bare feet tucked beneath them, they had spun stories about the legendary Dreamland that neither had ever seen but both had imagined in vivid detail.
“No,” Petunia said flatly, interrupting Mariselle’s brief reverie. “I remember usimaginingwhat it might have been like, but I certainly don’t remember any fanciful notions to restore it.”
“Well, fine. Perhaps it was only me. But that’s beside the point! This is our chance, Tunia!”
“Ourchance?” Petunia repeated. “I’m certainly not participating in this madness.”
“Oh, but I need you, Tunia!” Mariselle said in earnest. “I need your magic.Dreamlandneeds your magic.”
“I highly doubt that.”
“I mean it,” Mariselle insisted. “To be fully operational, Dreamland requires the type of magic that allows visitors to cross from waking reality into dream space while remaining conscious. Otherwise they would simply fall asleep, and then it’s almost impossible to wake them on the other side. Didn’t you ever pay attention to Grandmother’s stories?”
“No,” Petunia said, without a shred of remorse.
“Petunia Dawndale!” Mariselle smacked her cousin’s knee, but she was laughing now. “Don’t tell me you’ve bought into your parents’ nonsense that threshold magic is of no use to anyone.”
“You must admit,” Petunia replied with an arched brow, “that until this precise moment, when Dreamland has suddenly become a possibility again, there was precious little practical application for dream threshold magic. Who wants to remain conscious within someone else’s dream? How terribly awkward.”
“Well, I suppose that’s true. Dream sharing is far more enjoyable.”
“Mariselle!”
“So I’ve heard!” Mariselle hastened to clarify. “Naturally I’ve never experienced such a thing myself.”
“I should certainly hope not.” Petunia’s normally composed features betrayed her as a flush of pink swept across her cheeks.
“As I was saying,” Mariselle continued, redirecting the conversation, “if Dreamland is to function as it once did, your threshold magic is absolutely essential. My magic, of course, will take care of everything else relating to the dream space, and that insufferable Rowanwood I’ve now bound myself to will handle the lumyrite networks that stabilize and power everything. When one considers it properly, the arrangement is rather perfect.”
Petunia heaved a long-suffering sigh. “Perfect isnotthe word I would use when contemplating becoming entangled with the Rowanwoods.”
“Rowanwood,” Mariselle corrected with a theatrical shudder. “Just one, thankfully. And only temporarily.”
“Did you tell him what you can do? The true nature of your manifestation?”
“No. He doesn’t need to know that, and I see no reason to share morethan necessary. His contribution is limited to the lumyrite networks. Let him focus on that while I manage everything else. He’ll find out eventually, along with everyone else.”
“You realize you could simplytellyour family what magic you actually possess instead of going through this elaborate ruse andthenrevealing it?”
“And surrender my future to their designs?” Mariselle shook her head firmly. “If I confessed my abilities now, my magic would become merely another Brightcrest resource to be directed as Father sees fit. He remains convinced that I lack the capacity to manage anything important without supervision. But if I present Dreamland as a completed achievement rather than a mere possibility, then he shall be forced to recognize my worth on my own terms, not as a pawn to be maneuvered but as an equal deserving of respect.”
Petunia slowly consumed another bite of cake, her hazel eyes never leaving Mariselle’s face. “I don’t understand,” she said eventually, “why you’re still so insistent on earning their approval after all these years. You realize both our families are awful, don’t you?”
“They’re not that bad,” Mariselle protested automatically. “They are merely … misunderstood. Our family’s dream magic empire is truly remarkable, yet we’re continually overshadowed by the Rowanwoods, constantly at a disadvantage in society, so often left on the periphery of circles we rightfully deserve to?—”
“Oh, come now,” Petunia interrupted with a snort. “That’s hardly an excuse for their behavior. The truth remains, Mari. They’re simply dreadful people.”
The blunt assessment hung in the air between them, and Mariselle found she couldn’t quite summon a convincing argument against it. If she was being honest, most members of her family weren’t particularly nice, but it was circumstances beyond their control that had forced them to be that way.
And they weren’talldreadful. Mariselle had been close to her grandmother once, when she was a child. But Lady Nirella had withdrawn to one of the more modest Brightcrest properties on the outskirts of Bloomhaven years ago and had grown more distant with each passing Season.
As for Mariselle’s brother Alaryn, he’d effectively escaped the worst of their family’s dynamics by managing a separate branch of the dream magic business far from the main estate after his marriage several years ago.
