Nightmare laughed. “My sister can be so dramatic.”
“I told you never to come here again,” a woman dressed in a sleek, black leotard said, peering over the edge of the low-hanging cloud. Her eyes landed on me. “What is she doing here? I’m going to tell The Oracle what you’ve done.”
“Shut up,” Nightmare said, slicking his wet hair back. “Remy, this is my annoying little sister, The Bringer of Storms.”
“Titles and all. She must be important,” The Bringer of Storms said, raising a brow.
Nightmare held out his hand. “Any chance you can stop this while we chat?”
“I could,” she said, smirking slyly.
“Will you?”
The Bringer of Storms puffed out her bottom lip. “Fine.”
The rain stopped instantly but remained just overhead. She sat on the edge, swinging her legs over the side and crossing them.
“To what do I owe the pleasure?” she asked, looking at her nails before flicking them on her chest as if to polish them. “It’s been years, dear brother, and I can’t quite say it’s been too long just yet.”
“Darkness is missing,” Nightmare said, crossing his arms.
“He doesn’t go missing. Darkness just doesn’t want you to find him,” Storm said with a haughty laugh.
Nightmare clenched his teeth. “This is serious. The Oracle—”
“You bothered The Oracle about this?” The Bringer of Storms said, straightening her spine. “What is wrong with you?”
“Storm, this is serious. I know you’ve disengaged from us after… after she left, but we need to work together now more than ever,” Nightmare said, the tendons in his neck tensing.
“She didn’t leave,” Storm said as her eyebrows squeezed together. “She was killed. Murdered by those stupid things. And my brother,” she said the word as if it were coated in mud, “did nothing to help her.”
Nightmare shook his head as he ran his fingers through his hair. “It wasn’t like that, and you know it. This is important, Storm.”
“And she wasn’t important?” Storm asked, grimacing.
“Of course she was! But if we don’t do something to find Darkness, the same thing is going to happen to all of us,” Nightmare said, clenching his hands into tight fists.
Storm’s shoulders dropped. “What do you want from me?”
“The Oracle mentioned Darkness was being held in a specific location, but she couldn’t see what it was—”
“And you think I know?” Storm asked, slapping her hand on her thigh as she released a laugh that made the cloud she was perched upon flicker.
Nightmare blinked several times before filling his lungs with a deep inhale. “She gave me a description, and if there is one person that might know the location, it is you.”
“I’m intrigued,” Storm said, crossing her arms.
“The Oracle told us that Darkness was being held in a place with thick, rolling black clouds and a blood-red sky,” Nightmare said, observing her reaction to each word.
“And constant flickering and flashing from endless lightning,” I said, pressing my lips together when they both turned to me. I shrugged. “It’s what she said.”
Storm’s eyes narrowed briefly before a slow grin turned her cheeks apple pink. “Hmm, yes.”
“Do you know the place?” Nightmare asked, his eyes widening.
Storm licked her lips seductively. “What’s in it for me?”
Chapter
Eight
Nightmare sneered like an angry raccoon. “You’ll get the joy of saving your brother’s life.”
“That doesn’t sound like much fun,” she said, rolling her eyes like an annoyed teenager.
“DO you know the place or not?” I asked.
“Why are you here again?” she asked, looking down her nose at me.
Nightmare’s chest rose and fell rapidly with each frustrated breath. “She’s the one.”
“The one what?” Storm asked, playfully biting her lip.
“The one that is going to help us find Darkness,” he said, grabbing my arm with the medallion and raising it to her.
Storm perked up. “How curious!” She jumped off the cloud and landed gracefully beside me. She was at least three inches taller, and I found her both annoying and intimidating. “Okay, I’ll show you the place I think The Oracle is describing.”
“Oh, no.” I glued my feet to the ground and shook my head. “Not the portal again.”
