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“We’ll see, dearest,” he replied, rubbing soothing circles on her back.
At least he seemed to be taking his responsibilities to Casey seriously. I shook my head. Having known Robby for years, I never would have thought he’d take to Casey the way he had. He’d always gone for the one-night stands or very short hookups. I supposed being a Dream jester explained a lot of that. Maybe they’d be able to stay together. My gaze shifted to Dio. I wondered if he’d always been this possessive or if it was a newer thing. He had always shared everything with his brothers and me, and I’d never seen him interact with anyone outside of our small group, so it was possible this was simply how he was.
“We should head out. I’m going to walk around. Find me when you’re all ready.” I pushed my chair back and stood, deliberately running my hand across Geraint’s shoulders before going over and giving Nic a quick kiss. Then I went outside, enjoying the cool breeze as it caressed my cheeks. It carried an intoxicating scent I couldn’t help but follow.
It led me to a patch of wildflowers of every imaginable color. Delighted with the variety, I kneeled, wishing I had my sketch pad with me. When things settled down, I was going to travel Dream and draw everything I could.
Leaning forward, I inhaled deeply, pulling the intoxicating scent deep into my lungs.
Dio
Memories
“Princes, why do I sense a connection between you and the conscious realm?” Our instructor, Plato, was from the dream side of Dream realm. He traveled back and forth and taught us and the Dream princesses. We met with the princesses a few times a year and saw the king and queen then, as well. They were technically our parents, but we weren’t born the same way humans were.
We all shared a confused look. We knew going to the conscious realm couldn’t form any sort of connection. Yeah, we had a friend there, but Ember was just a friend. We’d been playing with her for years.
“We don’t know what you’re talking about, Professor,” Baz said for all of us.
Plato’s frown deepened. He tucked his hands into the robes he wore and paced in front of us, thinking. The gray gravel that made up the ground crunched under his feet, and the cool breeze swirled his long robes.
I knew that expression and he wouldn’t address us again until he was good and ready. Plato told us he’d been formed based on a Greek philosopher, and he took his origins seriously, which is how he’d ended up as our teacher.
“You three will come with me. We’re going to the palace.”
We all shared another concerned look. That wasn’t good. Usually, we enjoyed going to Dream Palace, but Plato was upset and that didn’t bode well for us. What connection could he possibly be talking about?
Not having a choice in the matter, we all stood and followed Plato into Nightmare castle. He preferred to instruct us outside.
We stopped in front of the big mirror in the ballroom. All castles and palaces had to have a ballroom, or so Plato claimed. I couldn’t see why. We never used it except to travel. Shouldn’t it be called the traveling room? Well, I supposed we used it once a year. Human dreams filled it with pumpkins and bats and ghouls and skeletons. The vampires and other monsters usually made an appearance, too.
“Lady.” Plato bowed to the mirror and a ghostly woman in white flowing robes appeared. There were a lot of mirror people that helped dream creatures travel, but those from Dream typically asked The Lady in White for assistance, while we used Bloody Mary.
“Hello, Professor,” she said, her voice wispy and sad.
“Lady, could you please take us to Dream Palace?”
“Of course.” She backed away from the mirror and a lane of flowering trees with pink blooms and arching branches that touched, making a tunnel, shimmered in the mirror before us.
Plato gestured for us to go through. We all thanked the Lady as we pushed into the cool surface of the mirror and stepped into its depths. The path she created let us out into Dream Palace’s ballroom. A couple of dreams waltzed to music only they and their dreamer could hear. One pair vanished as their imaginer lost the threads of the dream. The other pair remained quite solid, though their waltz faltered, and the man bent to kiss the woman. They wouldn’t remain in the ballroom long.
I averted my gaze and followed Plato and my brothers. The nightmares about sex weren’t nearly as pleasant as the dreams were, and I’d never grown fond of watching them. Even though I knew this one would likely go the way the imaginer wanted, I didn’t want to watch in case it shifted. Dreams were fickle things.
We made our way through the opal hallways and crystalline corridors toward the throne room, where the king and queen would be waiting. I didn’t think they spent all their time there, but that’s always where we found them.
The guards opened the big double doors for us, and we entered the opulent hall. I preferred the blacks and grays and muted colors of Nightmare Castle, but the hall was impressive and beautiful. Humanity’s dreams had blended to mix fantasy with their reality and form Dream Palace. From what I knew of the conscious realm, the styles came from the best of each type of architecture and mixed with fantasy elements like what they thought elves might live in.
Plato bowed to the Queen of Loss and the King of Hope. The queen was tall, slender, and wore long black robes, and shrouded her face with a lacy black veil, very much in contrast to the king and her surroundings. The king wore purple and gold, and nearly always greeted us with an enormous smile. We were products of the dream energy that had been used to create us, after all.
“My royal highnesses,” Plato said. “I’m sensing a connection between the Nightmare princes and the conscious realm. Do you know what this is about?”
The queen stepped down from her throne and approached us. “We do not,” she replied before placing her hand on Baz’s forehead.
“It appears they have created a bond with a human. This is their mate bond.” She raised her eyebrows and studied the three of us.
It probably helped our cause that we all felt as confused as Plato was when she said those words. What human? How? The only human we interacted with was Ember.
“What do you mean?” Nic finally asked.
