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The gem heated in my hand as I got closer to Baz. I looked down at his sleeping face and more of my reservations fell away. This was not the being that had tortured me. This was the adult version of the kid I’d played with for years. The boy who loved leaping from high places and dragging me along with him.
I pressed the gem against his chest. I didn’t even have to do anything this time. It simply melted into his body, and moments later, Baz’s chest rose and his eyes fluttered open.
The door slammed open, and Robby, the princesses, and Casey rushed in.
They stopped and stared at me, then Baz.
“Right, well that’s good then. We have to leave, now. Nothingness storm,” Robby said.
“Fuck,” Ash blurted.
“The mirror! I fixed the mirror realm!”
“Excellent job, princess. Call Mary and get us someplace that isn’t about to be destroyed.”
I actually wasn’t sure I’d fixed the mirror realm, upon reflection—pun intended. But we were about to find out.
The mirror reflected only what was in the room when I peered into its depths. One of the princesses and Ash were helping Baz to his feet. He looked confused but wasn’t objecting.
I called to Bloody Mary and for a wonder, she came.
“Princess?”
“Can you make an arch for us? Dream Palace is about to be wiped out.”
“I can. Where do you wish to go?”
“Someplace safer than here?” I had no idea.
“Are the enclaves still stable?” Robby came to my side, Baz leaning on his shoulder.
“As stable as anything right now,” Bloody Mary replied.
“Good enough for now.”
Bloody Mary bowed and stepped back, a stone archway appearing behind her. This one was in much better shape than the last one I’d traveled through. Maybe I really had fixed the mirrors.
Robby and Baz went through first, followed by Casey. Ash and the princesses went next, and I followed, pressing my hands against the cool glass. They sank in, and I continued to press until I was inside the mirror and stepping into the stone arch.
“Thank you, Bloody Mary,” I said.
“My pleasure, princess.”
I glanced once at her friendly nightmare visage before heading through the arch and belatedly wondering what the enclaves were.
***
The building on the other side brought to mind 80’s horror movies even more than Nightmare Castle did. The huge blocks of gray stone were draped with red velvet, wall sconces were everywhere, and thick carpet runners padded our feet as we stepped out of a gilt-framed mirror. It was like freaking Dracula’s castle or something.
“Guests usually knock first,” a quiet voice said behind me.
I spun. Robby turned more slowly.
The guy standing there did nothing to dispel the “Dracula’s Castle” image. He was tall, well built, wearing a tux with a bowtie. When he smiled, I swear he flashed fang.
Okay maybe we were actually in Dracula’s castle. This was Dream, after all.
Ash made a sound in the back of her throat that I couldn’t quite interpret, but the princesses tittered.
