I closed my eyes a moment, trying to picture the spell working.
“Hypno-soma.” A minuscule jet of purple light shot from my fingers. The spell was so weak it faded long before it reached Marrow, but it definitely wasn’t stopped by that invisible force field. I stared at my fingers, possibilities expanding in my mind like balloons. Was this how my mother did it? Had she simply learned to use her magic like she was in a dream all the time whenever she wanted? No wonder nobody liked her. Lots of people would kill to be able to do whatever they liked without The Will’s interference.
Marrow clapped. “Well done. Weak now, of course, but it’ll get better the more you practice.”
“Why would I want to? My mom disobeys The Will all the time, and people hate her for it. I don’t want them to hate me, too.”
Marrow came back to the desk and sat down. “Yes, I understand. And you’re right. You shouldn’t go around flaunting the ability the way Moira does. I’ve often wondered about her reasons for doing so, especially given the tragic history of your kind.”
“What tragic history?” I asked, sitting down, too.
“Haven’t you ever wondered why there are so few Nightmares around? Counting you and your mother, there is only one other living in Chickery.”
“Bethany Grey,” I murmured.
“Yes, Bethany.”
“I … I didn’t know there were only three of us. I mean, I know I’m the only Nightmare in school, but I thought that was just some kind of fluke.”
“I’m afraid not.” Marrow folded his hands in his lap, leaning back. “While there are other Nightmares in the world, their numbers are very small. They were once heavily hunted by other magickind, almost to the point of extinction. Your kind is still recovering.”
I gripped the arms of my chair. “Why?”
“Fear, mostly, and hatred. As I’ve already explained, Nightmares are very powerful because of the nature of their magic. So powerful, in fact, that a Nightmare can drain a person of all the fictus inside them, leaving them in a soulless state, neither alive nor dead but stuck forever in between. It’s a fate far worse than death. The risk of doing this to one of your dream-subjects is why there is a time limit on your sessions. Unfortunately, before The Will, Nightmares got a reputation for destroying their victims so often, it resulted in their persecution.”
I thought I might be sick. “But … are you saying Nightmares are evil?” Was I some kind of monster?
Marrow shook his head. “No. Concepts such as good and evil aren’t so definite as the stories would like you to believe. Your kind simply did what they had to do. Before the Magi came to be, the various kinds were at war, each group trying to gain dominance over the other. The naturekinds hated witchkinds for their desecration of the natural world, and both groups hated darkkinds for their parasitic magic. But all the kinds employed Nightmares for their cause, usually to work as assassins. But the Nightmares didn’t kill their targets. They drained them of fictus. They were so good at this that when the wars finally ended, the newly formed Magi determined they were too dangerous to exist in such numbers and sanctioned the hunting of Nightmares until they no longer proved so great a threat.”
My stomach clenched. The idea of an entire group of magickind being hunted like animals was horrible. But on the other hand, it might’ve been deserved. “Wait.” I paused, my confusion growing. “I thought the Magi have always been made up of representatives from all three kinds.”
Marrow smiled, a pleased glint in his eye. “I’m glad to learn you pay such good attention in my classes. Yes, all three kinds have always been involved in all Magi business.”
I blinked. “But then that means that the darkkind Magi had to agree to it, too. Only, how could they do that when Nightmares are darkkind as well?”
Marrow sighed and ran a hand over his beard. “I’m afraid that’s just another example of the argument that the good of the many outweighs the good of the few. And I doubt if it was a difficult decision for the darkkind Magi of the time. Nightmares have always been regarded as outsiders.”
I crossed my arms over my chest, shivering from something other than the cold air in Marrow’s office. This must be the reason I had such a hard time making friends at Arkwell. What if the fear and hatred of Nightmares had been handed down to my classmates from generations of magickind who still remembered what my kind had done?
Marrow leaned toward me, his voice earnest. “I didn’t tell you about these things to distress you, Dusty, but I believe it’s important you know the truth of what you are, where you come from, and more importantly, what you’re capable of. You must learn to control your abilities.”
“But why?” I knew his answer already, but I thought I would rather avoid all negative situations from here on out instead. Maybe I should become a nun.
“To protect yourself from persecution,” said Marrow. “The Will’s ineffectiveness on Nightmares isn’t common knowledge. You don’t want word to spread that you’re casting illegal spells, and the best way to do that is by learning to control your magic. That way, you don’t accidentally do something you shouldn’t.”
Like suck Eli’s soul out through his dreams? I swallowed. Yeah, the whole nun thing was looking better and better. I couldn’t possibly go full-out evil if I were a nun, could I?
“And also,” said Marrow, his expression deadly serious, “you don’t want the killer finding out that you’ve learned the trick of thwarting The Will.”