Nemesis

“Morpheus.”

“I have been lenient with you in the past, Iris, and I will continue to be lenient with you. I just want to know how much you care about this boy.”

“You’ve been wanting my Divine Favor since forever,” Iris growled.

“And what better time to ask for it?”

A pause.

“Promise you’ll punish Apollo,” she said.

“I’ll think of something, I promise,” he replied. "Boy's been getting on my nerves lately."

A frown flashed across her face that vanished as quickly as it came.

“Then it’s yours,” she said.

Iris clearly did not want to part with her Divine Favor, but she hadn’t hesitated to give it up for me. Who was she, and why was she putting so much on the line for someone she had just met? Yes, I had agreed to help her find her prisoner, but was that prisoner worth whatever she was giving up for me?

“I don’t need to remind you that even you only get one of those,” Morpheus said.

“I know, Morpheus!” Iris snapped. "You don't need to rub it in!"

Morpheus looked surprised at Iris’s sudden outburst. Then he chuckled. There was not a hint of fear in his voice. That told me he was not afraid of angering a two-winged Seraph.

"Feel free to give the boy whatever he needs," he said. "As for Lady Brightchild, she may not need our assistance after all. It seems she has Apollo on the ropes begging for his life.”

“Apollo isn’t exactly much of a match for Hilda’s daughter,” Iris said. “Still, ensure nothing happens to her.”

“As you wish."

It was good to hear that Priscilla had gained the upper hand in the fight I had left behind. It also sounded like Apollo was another one of them, a Host, one who clearly didn’t like Priscilla or me.

Why?

I hadn’t the foggiest clue.

I was beginning to see how the nightmare functioned, how the Hosts were free to attack the dreamers without the dreamers being able to do much back. Was this the world Hilda wanted? Was this taste of power why Iris did not want to leave the nightmare behind?

“You’ll be at the banquet tonight?” Morpheus asked.

“Probably. Now get out of here.”

Morpheus ignored her and walked over to me until he was standing directly in front of my face. He examined me as if I was some sort of caged animal at a circus. Then he raised his sunglasses, revealing a pair of cold brown eyes. He smiled smugly, as if he had heard a joke no one else knew.

"A Divine Favor is worth a hundred times more than your sorry life,” he said.

When I didn’t respond, he leaned in closer and spoke in a low voice.

“Then again, your quick thinking did save you back on the bridge,” he said.

The bridge, I thought.

That could only mean that the man standing before me was the assassin that had nearly killed me back at the Dawn Sanctuary, the one who poisoned Priscilla. I tried to throw a punch at the man before I realized that I was still frozen in place.

Iris, I thought. Please unfreeze me so I can wring this wretch’s neck.

If Iris heard me, she pretended not to notice.

“There is one person I’ve known who could manipulate time as you did,” he said. “But I lost contact with her years ago, maybe decades. Could it be-?”

My heart skipped a beat.

“-that you're Courdine’s little boy?”

This man knew who my mother was.

My desire to kill him was quickly replaced with an urgent need to ask him everything he knew about my mom, who had kept so much of her actual life a secret from me and everyone else at the Dawn. I knew she did covert operations for the Dawn that would not have been allowed under normal guild rules, but beyond that, I did not even know where she had acquired such training. I needed to know who this man was, what his connection to my mother was.

Iris, please, I thought. Just let me talk to him! I need to ask him something about my mom.

After, she replied curtly.

I won’t hurt him. I swear.

Not now. I’ll explain later. I promise.

“Morpheus,” Iris said firmly.

“Just a final word, then I’ll be gone,” he promised.

He leaned in even closer, forcing me to look him dead in the eyes. His eyes were a dark, chestnut brown.

“Truth be told, I’d kill you right now,” he said. “A Densus Knight is simply too dangerous to leave alive."

My mother had been a Densus Knight. Had she wronged this man in the past?

“But killing you would upset Iris, and my boss, Hilda, told me not to make her upset.”

Morpheus smiled, relishing the fact that I could do nothing but listen to his speech.

“I'll give you credit, kid,” he said. “Not many would have the guts to jump straight into the abyss just for a chance to save his lord.”

A chill went down my spine as Morpheus gave me a firm pat on my shoulder. I could feel his strength. It was the strength of a man familiar with breaking things.

“But, did you really think you could get away from me by jumping into the abyss, a man sent to kill a Seraph?”

I would have screamed if I could’ve because I realized that my gamble to get Priscilla away from this assassin had been for naught since the assassin did seem to have a means of reaching the bottom of the abyss safely. That meant that even if Priscilla and I managed to escape the nightmare, we would have to deal with an assassin of his caliber once we woke up.

Morpheus slowly replaced his sunglasses before turning away from me. He wanted me to remember his face, he wanted me to be frightened, and frankly, it was working quite well. I wasn’t sure what to feel, but I knew I was a lot more worried about our prospects of escaping the dream alive than before.

“Lady Iris has bought you some time,” he said as he marched straight for the dark door. “Make the most of it.”

The moment Morpheus stepped through the dark door and vanished from sight, I was able to move again.

I took several deep breaths to make up for about a minute not being able to breathe properly.

Iris ran over to my side, her golden wings trailing behind like golden kites. Her long black hair had been tied back into a neat bun pinned in place by a long, pearl-encrusted hairpin. She looked apologetic, though I felt that I should be the one to apologize to her.

“Who the hell was that?” I blurted out.

“The Warden of the Dream,” Iris said. “He’s a Host like me.”

“He’s a freaking psychopath!” I said. “He’s nothing like you.”

Iris smiled uneasily.

“Oh, Titus, this is all my fault,” she said. “I should have checked your curse card ahead of time.”

She hesitantly held out a red laminated card for me to take-my curse card. The card pulsated with an ominous red light.

“Why is it red?” I asked. "Why is it glowing?"

“Why else?"

I took the card from her uneasily.

It read:

Unauthorized Object-Purge Immediately

Curse: Level One

Curse: Marked

Curse: Mortal

“Three,” I said. "Three curses?"

“Yep, the worst three possible.”