Precipitous tightened his grip on Luminous’ hips, and she shifted herself to rub against him in a way that didn’t help him concentrate on what, exactly, was happening here.

“You mean I’m not real.”

“Oh, Preci,” huffed Effluent with a roll of her eyes. “You were never going to be happy as a mortal. You’d have been bored out of your skull within a week, then spent the rest of your sorry life in search of the true love you’d lost.”

He could say nothing to counter that. Not to a woman whose soothsaying abilities rivaled those of legend.

“In search of true love, eh?” murmured Luminous, who kept driving him to distraction with her subtle shifts against his body. Her pinprick nails pierced through his skin as she slowly scratched down his chest. He gripped her tighter to keep her still as he tried to convey everything he felt for her in a look. Words seemed inadequate, but he tried those, too.

“I love you, Luminous.”

She lit up at that, glowing brighter than a moonbeam. Her diaphanous wings fluttered in dark-tinged rainbow hues behind her, and the shimmer of her skin made her dark pink nipples all too evident beneath her almost-sheer dress.

“Well that’s good because I already shouted to the whole damn Dual Realms how much I love you. Sang it, really. And I absolutely got the words right.”

Her smile turned positively mischievous, and Precipitous couldn’t take his eyes off those glistening lips.

“That’s our cue to go, I think,” said the king. He addressed Effie and Fester, ignoring the couple on the bed at the center of his throne room as he led the others away and shut the large door behind them. His voice trailed off down the outer corridor. “I’d love to show you two what my Fabricators have been working on. It should take at least two hours for you to get the whole picture. They’ve been having a lively competition between the classic and modern Nightmare divisions, trying to come up with the most unique yet terrifying scenario…”

As the room fell to silence, Precipitous watched Luminous begin to hum softly. Low, slightly off-key words fell from her smiling lips as she rocked her hips against his increasingly alert cock.

“We built this city…” she sang.

“Lumi…”

His horns curled out from his head, the sharp tips hardening as the sensitive surfaces pulsed with glowing veins of crimson energy.

She gave him a wicked grin as she reached up to grab one tightly with one hand and hummed the next few bars.

“Mm mm mmmm”

“You’re not seriously going to…,” he began.

She reached her other hand between them to shift his cock so she might slide her slippery wet pussy against him.

Precipitous couldn’t resist her. He’d never been able to resist her. In truth, he didn’t even want to attempt resistance.

Instead, he tugged on her hips, entering her in a single deft thrust as she tried to concentrate enough to finish her song. Luminous tossed her head back, riding her Nightmare as she struggled to sing the next words.

The world shifted on its axis, and Precipitous thought that there was nothing more Real than this, right here, right now. An eternal future rolled out before them.

And as his most marvelous Dream sang the last line of the chorus, Precipitous joined in.

“We built this city on Sausage Rolls…”