Page 16 of Precipitous Nightmare's Valentine Dream

Chapter 13

Did You Meet a Boy?!?

Luminous Dream

Lumi’s friends arrived in a flurry of wings, glitter, and dream sand.

“What are you doing?“ she shouted, pushing past as they blocked the sidewalk on her path toward Melanie’s house.

While she normally welcomed the presence of her friends, they’d interrupted her musings about the strange Nightmare she’d been spending all too much time with lately, so her reaction wasn’t as cheerful as it might have been.

“He knows,” said a shimmering woman with iridescent rainbow skin and soft feathered wings.

“You have to go home,” said a fluffy teddy bear that oozed comfort and worry.

“We can cover for you,” murmured a shining gold living statue on roller skates who was currently skating backward to stay in front of the others as they walked.

Luminous halted as they all shifted into faux-mortal forms to pull fully out of the Shadow Paths.

“What do you mean he knows?” Her question came slowly, the implications pulling her out of swirling thoughts about enjoyable activities in the Forbidden Forest, her task here in the mortal realms, and her need for another smoothie because they’d been completely out of pomegranate this morning and plain strawberry hadn’t been nearly satisfying enough.

“What, exactly, does he know?”

Her friends looked confused, and she realized they hadn’t considered she might have more than one secret.

“Your task with the mortals,” said Shimmering Dream, whose rainbow motif had shifted to multicolored makeup and clothing instead of her entire being. Her gaze narrowed. “What else are you hiding, Lumi?”

“Nothing,” she blurted, but now all eyes were on her and she grew nervous under the scrutiny. “Just need to check in on Melanie and Gary. They’re doing great and I imagine they’ll be fully in love and committed by next week. He’s already asked her to the Valentine’s Day charity ball, and her brother’s grand opening that morning looks like it will go off without a hitch, so they’ll be high on success and fall right into bed. If I can just avoid the boss until then, I can make their dream reality and…”

“Lumi,” warned Comforting Dream, whose teddy bear guise now presented itself as tight brown curls and a fuzzy jacket. “You’re prevaricating.”

Something must have shown in her expression, because Golden Dream, whose long blonde hair swung in the wind as she leaned forward in her hip-hugging metallic booty shorts and skintight golden tank top, lowered her voice to a conspiratorial whisper.

“Did you meet a boy?!?”

Luminous tried to brush them off, but now that Golden had mentioned the possibility, the others latched onto the idea.

“Who is he?”

“Is he cute?”

“Is he a mortal or a Dream?”

“Where did you meet? Was it super romantic?”

“He must be handsome for you to get distracted.”

“He must be talented, you mean. “

Luminous felt the blush spread up her face, down her neck, pretty much everywhere.

“He’s got horns,” she muttered, then flushed even harder as she realized she’d said it aloud. Why, oh, why had that been the first thing she’d said about him?

Precipitous embodied so much more than his horns.

She thought of his earnestly curious questions about the nature of love. Clever observations of humanity. A hunt through a dread forest. Gentle teasing that made her smile.

“Horns?” Golden looked confused. “Mortals don’t have horns.”

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