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I flushed happily at his praise.
If we were alone when we got to the gym, I’d show Nic my new skills, but it might have to wait until later. Chances were my parents would be there, and I wasn’t comfortable showing them any sort of powers. They weren’t completely happy with my relationship with Nic, but he continued to low-key try to win them over.
Geraint reached out and caressed my cheek. “Ready, my spark?” Geraint toweled his hair dry, gray eyes shining with excitement.
“As ready as I can be,” I answered.
My knight dropped his towel and came over to stand in front of me. He put his hands on my shoulders and kissed my forehead. “Spark, you will be perfect, and I’ll never drop you. Nic will be there to catch us if anything strange happens.”
I took a breath and nodded. “I know, Geraint. It’s just hard. I never minded jumping from heights into water, but falling has never been my favorite, and not-Baz made it that much worse.”
He pulled me into his arms, and I couldn’t help a slightly provocative wiggle against his bare body.
Geraint chuckled. “It’ll be all right, Ember. And if at any point you need to stop, we’ll just change the routine and build back up to this one.”
“It’s already one of our older performances.”
“It’s a free charity event. We’ll do our absolute best for them, of course, but we don’t have to push ourselves.”
I nodded. “You’re right. Let’s go.”
“Mind if I pull on some pants first? We’re not putting on that kind of show.”
Laughing, I pulled away and snatched his towel off the ground to hang it properly. “Put some pants on. Learn to clean up after yourself.”
He ruffled my hair as he passed, as he had done when we were kids. I snapped his ass with the towel and giggled when he yelped and hurried to the bedroom.
“Maybe I won’t give you that treat I got for you then,” he said from the other room.
“What?” I hung the towel and joined him.
Geraint pulled a package out of his gym bag and tossed it at me. I caught it and my eyes lit up at the enticing crinkle of plastic.
“Oh, my god, I haven’t had chocolate-covered expresso beans since Robby took my last ones away.” Eagerly, I opened the package and shoved one in my mouth. “Mmmm, milk chocolate. The best.”
“He’ll probably steal those, too, so don’t let him see you with them. I think he secretly likes them.”
“Robby, aerial manager, Dream court jester, expresso bean lover. Who knew?” I popped another one in my mouth before stashing the package in a drawer in my dresser. “I probably needed to cut back a little, but he didn’t have to steal all of them.”
Geraint squeezed my shoulder. “Okay, let’s go.”
Feeling like I was heading off to an actual performance complete with jitters, I followed Geraint out of our room and through the house. Heavenly aromas drifted from the kitchen. A small part of me wanted to wander that way instead and investigate what had to be some sort of savory dinner combined with a sweet dessert. That was the part of me that still trembled when I dreamed of falling during not-Baz’s cruel game. The rest of me was determined to fully conquer this fresh fear. I didn’t want him to have any hold over me when it finally came time to confront not-Baz.
I glanced in the mirror over the fireplace as we passed through the den, hoping for a glimpse of a nightmare visage looking back at me, but it remained blank. None of us knew what had happened to Bloody Mary after she’d helped Nic escape, but we all feared the worse. Where once in my life I’d avoided looking in mirrors after dark, now I actively sought her out. Nothing yet, but I intended to find out what had happened to her. Somehow.
There were a lot of things I intended to do at some point as the Nightmare princess, but I had no idea how I would do them and I put off thinking about it. Far better to focus on this performance with Geraint and learning my cool shadowy powers. We had to find Dio before we could do anything else, anyway. Or so I told myself.
We hurried through the warm afternoon and into the cool gym.
Geraint sighed. I glanced around his shoulder and clenched my jaw, not sure how to feel. My parents had apparently told the campers to come watch. They all sat in the bleachers, and my parents stood on the stage as if they were going to coach us. I hadn’t planned on using the stage. I hadn’t planned on an audience. I wasn’t upset that my parents were there, however. It was always good to have someone watch us now and again.
I sensed Nic lurking in the shadows backstage, probably uncomfortable with everyone being there.
“I guess it’s good practice,” Geraint said with a sigh.
“To be fair, we’ve never minded before.”
He took my hand and squeezed it before tucking my arm under his and walking with me up to the stage.
