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“I love you,” Nic mouthed at me before grabbing Geraint and racing away.
Geraint had a second to fight the prince before I gestured for him to leave. Nic wrapped my knight in shadows and dragged him away. Robby, Casey, and Ash took off after them.
Dio looked up at the sky, then put his hands on the window. I mirrored him on the other side of the glass. I could see what Ash had been pointing at. The air raid sirens continued their howl, and several bombs fell toward our location, dream logic providing me with a detailed view I wouldn’t have in the conscious realm.
“Ember,” he mouthed. “Try to ride the shadows.”
I shut my eyes and focused. We were still in Dream, not Nightmare, as far as I could tell. In dreams, there were always ways to save the day. I wasn’t sure why Dio had stayed and Nic had left. He’d had to force Geraint to leave me. They had to have had a good reason, and I was glad they were gone. It was going to be hard enough to save me and Dio.
Gritting my teeth, I grabbed for the meager amounts of dream essence still present in this collapsing, forgotten fantasy of a lost age. There wasn’t much, but I got it to respond. I shoved the essence at the window, burrowing through the middle, making a hole.
“Ember, go!” Dio shouted at me when he saw what I was doing.
Ignoring him, I put my hands in the slowly widening hole in the glass and pulled. Dio gave me an exasperated look, then shoved his hands in next to mine, claws out, and tore at the glass.
This time, we made progress. Not fast enough for me to get out, but it was enough to break the containment the crazy dreambound lady had put on the room. I grabbed Dio’s hands just as the bombs touched down.
Shutting my eyes against the impossibly bright explosion, I mentally claimed Dio as my own and yanked him into the shadows with me. I didn’t have time to think of a destination, clinging to the thought of ending up at the same place the rest of the people I had claimed in this crazy realm.
My body dissolved into shadow, dragging Dio along as the explosion washed through where we’d stood, obliterating the crumbling dream as we escaped into nothing. The thin thread connecting me to Dio was strong as we were touching, and I found the threads pulling me toward my friends and lovers. There was another weak tendril of connection, and I latched onto it instead of returning to those I knew. I wasn’t sure what made me do it, but it felt right.
Our location shifted drastically, and we seemed to land right as I lost my hold on the shadows. My body spasmed as it reformed, and I went sprawling across cold tile. Bile rose in my throat, but I kept from vomiting all over the place.
Someone groaned, and I forced my eyes open. Dio lay not far from me, hands now fully human again. He heaved, but also kept whatever he’d last eaten from coming up.
“Please never do that again,” he moaned.
“Save your life?” I struggled to my knees, staring at the floor as the room spun around me.
“Yank me through the shadows,” Dio clarified.
“Right, next time you’re about to get nuked, I’ll leave you to it.” I leaned forward and pressed my forehead to the cool tile, willing the world to stop. Hopefully, we weren’t about to be attacked by anything.
“We couldn’t all leave you,” Dio said. “And I am the weakest link right now. I knew you’d get out if someone gave you the right idea. I didn’t think you’d be able to take me with you.”
“Don’t complain, then,” I grumbled.
“I’ll stop complaining when the world stops spinning.” Dio clutched his head.
I snorted.
“I didn’t even think that was possible. Nic has never been able to do it.”
“Yeah, well, don’t get too excited. I have no idea where we’re at.”
My equilibrium settled, and I sat up. I could no longer sense that weak thread of connection I had followed to get here, and I wasn’t about to go back into the shadows to find it. We could look around the old-fashioned way.
“We have to be in Nightmare.” I shivered as I took in the flickering lighting overhead, more of the long florescent bulbs burned out than worked. The buzz of the working lights was loud and irritating now that I was paying attention. The walls were concrete blocks, once painted some sort of pastel green, but now mostly chipped off or discolored with mildew. Random stainless-steel trays glittered dully in the weird lighting, and debris littered the floor.
“Hospital?” I guessed.
Dio made it to his knees and looked around. “Looks like it. Horror movie version anyway. We’re definitely in Nightmare.”
“Is it strange that I’m kind of glad to be back here?”
Dio chuckled. “I feel the same way, though I do like Dream. Very pretty and all.”
“The others made it out of the decaying forgotten dream, right?” I could still feel my connection to Nic, so I assumed that meant he had, but I had to ask.
