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“What are we going to do?” I said to break the silence.
“What can we do but wait?” Nic shrugged.
“Dio came right back.” I glanced at my primal prince.
He also shrugged. “Perhaps there is something else the enemy did to him that we’re unaware of. Perhaps we need to destroy this pretend Baz to bring our brother back.”
“Yeah, not-Baz needs to get what’s coming to him.” I gritted my teeth.
“Dio has a valid point,” Nic said. “Perhaps this should be our next course of action.”
Someone knocked softly on the door. Ash went to open it. Geraint, my knight, my lover, my best friend, stood on the other side.
“Geraint! How are you?” I left Baz’s side and threw myself into my knight’s arms.
“Better now, spark,” he murmured, his familiar Irish accent filling me with contentment. His stormy gray eyes shone with his love for me when I met them. I brushed his sandy blond hair out of his face. “You need a haircut, Knight.” I ran my hand across his cheeks, too. “And you need to decide if you’re keeping this or shaving.”
He chuckled. “I’ll tidy it up some as soon as I have a chance.”
I leaned into him, resting my head on his chest while we stood there.
“The king and queen wish to see you as soon as you feel up to it,” he said.
“Should I be worried?”
“No, luv,” Nic answered. “They simply want to meet you.”
“I can sit with Baz,” Ash offered.
Nic rose to his feet, vanished into shadow, and stepped out again near the door instead of walking like the rest of us. I supposed if I was that comfortable in the shadow realm, I might take that kind of shortcut, too.
“Thanks, Ash.” I stayed curled up in Geraint’s arms as much as walking allowed while I followed Nic back into the hallway. Dio walked on my other side. Neither man acted bothered that I’d chosen to plaster myself to Geraint, but truthfully, I needed the familiarity of his arms right now. Despite what Nic said, I was nervous to meet the king and queen.
Geraint led us out of the section of the palace dedicated to Nightmare and into the brighter, rainbow-hued section. Once outside the realm of nightmares, Geraint released me and stepped ahead of us. I dropped back and walked between the princes.
We entered an area I hadn’t seen yet, full of plush carpet runners and armed guards wearing the royal tabard that looked to have been inspired by the yin and yang. The guards themselves ranged from male to female to indeterminate, and they spanned every race in the conscious realm, and some that were purely imaginary.
Imaginary guards flanked the entrance to what I assumed was the throne room. Two massive, wooden doors stood slightly ajar, guarded by equally massive lizard-people. They wore long tabards, held weapons that looked like spears but had axe heads—a halberd if I remembered correctly, but I was no expert—and they looked at us with golden eyes, framed by blueish green scales. Thick tails swished heavily across the floor behind them in slow movements.
I took a breath and reminded myself that I was a dream princess, and that they wouldn’t hurt me. They weren’t the scariest creatures I’d seen since entering the dream realms, but they were certainly intimidating.
Geraint nodded to the guards, who returned the gesture, and then we entered the throne room.
“Wow, someone really likes purple,” I blurted out. Fortunately, quietly.
Nic chuckled, and Dio shot me an amused grin. Geraint, ahead of us, didn’t react, and may not have heard.
“The décor changes with the mood of the dreamers, luv,” Nic reminded me. “Purple has long been associated with royalty and it’s a popular color at the moment.”
“I like purple,” I murmured, still scanning the room. “But this is…” I shook my head. “A lot.” Almost everything was one shade of purple or another, and I did mean everything, from the floor to the thrones, as well as the wall tapestries and paintings on the ceiling.
Dio leaned over, his breath tickling my ear. “It drives her majesty nuts. His majesty is endlessly amused, and the princesses prefer it to the insane pink of the public areas in their section of the palace.”
“Pink?”
“They like pink, just not that much,” Dio continued with another laugh. “Perceptions of the dreamers. In this case, possibly young children dreaming of pretty pink princesses.”
“At least we can decorate our private spaces,” Nic added.
