***
Our gear and all of us wouldn’t fit in one vehicle, so Robby drove Casey and our gear in one of the school vans, and Ash drove me, Nic, and Geraint in her SUV.
“How are we going to get the gem?” I asked again.
“We don’t know, Spark,” Geraint replied from the passenger seat.
“I’ll have to see how it goes when we get there,” Nic said. “We didn’t have time to study the situation before, and returning would not have been wise.”
“But we need a plan.”
“Ember.” Nic put his hand over mine and wrapped tendrils of shadow around me. My heart sped, and not from fear, as I remembered last night when he’d had me tangled up in his shadows. The way they’d caressed my body, their coolness contrasting with my heat and the warmth from Nic’s hands. I remembered how good it felt when he slipped those tentacles of shadow up inside me, curling them around, expertly hitting all the best spots. Heat gathered between my legs, and I almost had an orgasm from the memory.
“Luv,” Nic continued. “It’ll be okay. You and Geraint, Robby and Ash, have a plan. I don’t have to worry about getting captured by mortal authorities. I just have to get the essence out.”
“So, yeah, actually you do, because they might have camera footage of us together when we were there last. If they do, then they could connect all of us, and I’m not ready to abandon the conscious realm completely.” The camera thing hadn’t occurred to me until now.
Nic pursed his lips and didn’t reply for a few minutes. “I won’t be seen or caught,” he eventually promised.
“Sure. Fine. I’ll stop. So, what are we going to do about Casey?”
Nic shrugged. “Robby assures me he has his love life under control.”
I snorted.
“Let’s try to keep her out of danger,” Geraint suggested. “Otherwise, I think she’s on her own with Robby. He’s not an asshole, at least.”
Thinking back to my chocolate-covered expresso beans, I grumbled. “I beg to differ.”
Nic ran his hand up my leg, tendrils of shadow tightening around my ankles. I bit my lower lip and tried not to react.
Ash glanced at us in the rearview mirror, arching an eyebrow. “Do you two need to get a room?”
Geraint glanced back at us, chuckling in amusement.
“No,” Nic replied.
“Maybe yes?” I protested.
Ash laughed.
Despite Nic’s denial, the tentacles of shadow continued to crawl up my legs, squeezing gently but firmly, slipping between my legs, and teasing me.
“You’re no good at poker faces, Ember,” Ash said.
“Hey, it’s not my fault Nic is feeling handsy,” I muttered, cheeks heating.
Nic held up his hands, as if trying to prove his innocence, though he had an amused smirk on his face.
“I know your tricks, shadow boy,” Ash stated.
“She looked bored,” the prince said. The shadows slowly withdrew, leaving aching desire in their absence.
I pouted. “Damn it.”
“Nic, there are three princes of Nightmare and three princesses of Dream?” Ash asked.
“Yes. Currently. There are always three and three, but they are not always composed of three princes and three princesses. It is simply even this time. Our Queen was once a Nightmare princess, and our King was of Dream. Though even this ruling structure has mutated over time as humans change the way they view things. It’s possible next time the energies cycle through to recreate the caretakers of Dream, we will have a different system.”