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“Yeah, you too, Ember.”
“What’s this?” I gestured toward the tent.
“This is a sanctuary,” Robby explained. “Everyone we could find all tucked up inside as safe as we can make it.”
“And then we show up.” I rubbed my hands together and glanced around, expecting a nothingness storm to appear simply because we were there. We did want one, but not at the expense of the remaining people we loved.
Baz was apparently on the same page as me. He put his hand on my shoulder and squeezed gently. “Perhaps we should continue.”
“Yeah.” I curled my hands into fists.
Robby tilted his head, dog-like.
“I feel like we attract the storms. Of course, now that we’re looking for one, we can’t find anything,” I explained.
“Ahh, I see.” Then he frowned as if thinking about what I said. “Why in the realms would you want to actually find a nothingness storm?”
“We need to rescue the others. It’s the only way.”
“You’re going to go back into a storm?’ Casey hooked her arms around Robby’s and stepped closer to him. “That’s insane.”
I shrugged. “I don’t have much to lose. Nearly everyone I love is trapped in the storm. Everyone except my parents think we’re dead in the Conscious Realm. Oh, shit. Casey, they even had funerals for us.”
Casey tightened her jaw and nodded. “Yeah, okay. I’m stuck here anyway, so I guess that’s just as well.” Her eyes glistened despite her apparent calm.
I put my hand on her shoulder. “I’m so sorry.”
She glanced up at Robby, who returned her fond look with one of his own. “I’m okay, Ember. Really. I’ve got some plans once we put things to rights.”
I didn’t ask what they were. The thought of any of this working out was almost so far-fetched that I didn’t even want to plan for the future. If we all survived by some miracle, I’d ask and do everything in my power to make whatever it was happen. She may say she was okay, but I still felt terrible dragging her into this mess.
Robby glanced over our shoulders. “It appears you have your chance.”
I turned. A wall of gray loomed on the horizon.
“Shit. Robby, what do we do?”
He winked at me. “You and Prince Baz do whatever it is you set out to do. I’ll handle our little tent. It’s a traveling circus, after all.”
With those cryptic words, Robby gave me another hug, barely acknowledged Baz, and led Casey back between the tent flaps. Then the entire structure rapidly folded in on itself, as if it were being struck and vanished with a loud pop.
Baz and I stared for a moment before looking at each other. “Okay, so why couldn’t we have something like that before?”
“I suspect it’s something Casey and the jester came up with together. Having a human mate does tend to increase one’s abilities and powers.”
“Oh. Well, good, I guess. So, into the storm?”
Baz held my hand, his attention on the nothingness ahead. “Into the storm.”
Ember
“This is a terrible idea.” My palms sweated, and I rubbed my free hand on my pants.
Baz squeezed my hand.
I glanced up at him. He still stared into the storm, lips tight, eyes narrowed, as if daring it to take us.
The strong profile of his jaw, the way the light reflected off his rich brown skin, the hint of the boy I’d known showing through the face of the man who stood next to me, all of that combined to send a small thread of emotion through me. Fondness? Maybe. Desire for the friendship we used to have? Certainly. Anything more would have to wait. The tingle of emotion he inspired warred with a great deal of fear from what was most certainly our impending death.
