Page 56 of Nightmare's Dance

“Me?”

“You’re our princess. You have the power of creation in this land.”

“Why, because I’m female?” I snapped.

“No, because you’re human, with a human imagination. Dream and Nightmare are formed from human dreams. That’s why you can repair arches. If you were male or any other gender, it would be the same.”

“Oh.” I had not considered any of that. “Okay.” I squinted, imagining with all my might that we were about to come upon a large cave system similar to the one on my property, but giant and wolf-sized, that would shelter us from whatever storm had everyone in a frenzy.

We raced around a bend and the very cave system I’d just imagined waited. The wolves didn’t hesitate, heading straight into the mouth of the den I’d created for us. We ducked low to avoid knocking ourselves out.

“Ember, make sure this is safe from the storm,” Nic ordered, slipping from the back of his wolf and heading toward the entrance. He pulled shadows from our surroundings and capped the opening, plunging us into darkness.

“I imagined it would be safe from the storm,” I said hesitantly, voice quiet.

“Then it will be,” Nic assured me.

“You could imagine us some lights,” Robby suggested dryly.

I shut my eyes and thought. The first thing that came to my mind was hundreds of fireflies dancing through the air, much as they did in our forest at home.

“That’s something, at least,” Robby said.

When I opened my eyes, thousands of fireflies danced around us. The wolves eyed the tiny lights suspiciously for a moment before accepting that the glow was harmless.

I did my best to keep my imagination in check. I didn’t want to create some sort of weird firefly monster.

Geraint and Robby dismounted. Geraint took a step toward me, then glanced at Nic. The shadow prince currently had several dozen fireflies circling his head. He held up his hand as if he were going to swat them away, then dropped it and came over to my side. I wasn’t sure if he’d noticed Geraint’s hesitation or not.

I let Nic help me off Ghost, though I probably could have managed it on my own. Then I gave Ghost a big hug. “Thank you for carrying me.”

He nudged me with his muzzle, nearly knocking me over. “You are welcome, Princess.”

“Okay, what’s a nothingness storm?” My eyes were adjusting to the low light of the fireflies, and saw that fear tinged the anger that crossed Nic’s expression.

“I believe I mentioned the nothingness before. It’s like the land is being erased and the storms bring the disease that eats away Nightmare. It’s dangerous in other areas. I’ve kept you out of the worst of it, but it appears the boundary is getting hit now.”

“But we’ll be safe here?”

“Yes, because you imagined this as a haven for us,” Nic said. “Otherwise, I’m not sure how it would affect you. Those of us fully of this realm would probably have ceased to exist. They come up suddenly and unpredictably.”

I hugged myself, shuddering. “That’s awful. Has it always been like that?”

“No. It started about ten years ago,” Nic replied. He put a hand on my shoulder.

“And no one knows why?” I let him pull me into his arms, conscious of Geraint’s eyes on me.

“No. We’ve been too busy dealing with Baz, and then Dio vanished. Perhaps someone in Dream knows more.”

“How long do they last?”

“Hours. Sometimes days.” He hugged me. “You should get some rest, Ember. You’ve done a lot today.”

“Do I need to imagine up a bed?” The idea of sleeping on the hard ground was not appealing, but Nic was right. I was exhausted. Hopefully, we wouldn’t be stuck here for days, though.

“Use the essence instead of your imagination,” Nic said.

“Okay.” Making the shadows do my bidding was getting easier, and I pulled it into a soft mat, much like I’d slept on in the castle. I lay down and glanced at Geraint. He looked about ready to drop, so I held out my hand to him. We always slept together and, despite the way he smelled, I wanted him back in my arms. I probably reeked too by now, and I just didn’t care.

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