Good.
“A multi-whip,” the one with hair like Lorien’s says, stepping forward. “Who are you, queen?”
I point at Lorien. “It doesn’t matter. I’m just here for him.”
“I am Artena,” she says. “And I will challenge you for this warrior.” Her chin raises haughtily, and she reaches behind her, pulling out a huge, coiled whip. She flicks it out expertly so it uncoils in front of her. She lets it drag on the ground, making little sparks as she comes to face me. “Why do you want him? Are you a nightmare?”
“Tess! No! Run!” Lorien shouts from above. But Artena raises a hand, and a gag appears over his mouth.
“Stop being unruly!” she yells up at him. “This is for your own good.” She cracks her whip again, and blue sparks fly everywhere. “Anyone claiming him as dream mate should have to pass a test.”
“I’m not his…” I trail off because it’s almost a habit to deny being… whatever these magical beings think I am. But looking at the whip in my hand, feeling my love surge for Lorien, I don’t really care what they call it. “Fine. He’s my dream mate.” I crack my whip, letting the tendrils fly through the air ominously. “He’s mine. Let’s fight.”
Artena circles me, her whip draggling lightly, and I do the same. I don’t look up at Lorien. I can’t afford to lose focus right now.
As weird as this should seem, it feels as natural as breathing. I lunge forward, letting my whip crack at Artena, and she dodges, then flings her whip forward in an attack of her own.
I dodge, though our whips clash in a sparkling flash.
As we both dodge back, her eyes are glinting, almost triumphant, though I don’t know why.
“Who are you?” she asks, flicking her whip back into place beside her as I do the same. “With that kind of strength and determination, perhaps you are his dream mate.”
I point my whip handle at Lorien. “I’m not fighting to claim him or prove anything really. I’m just here to make sure he gets to make this choice on his own. Let him fight.”
“Ha,” Artena says. “A warrior fighting for his independence. A novel idea. However, we all know Lorien is strong. It’s his ability to contain it that we worry about.”
“That’s ridiculous,” I say. “Lorien is the most trustworthy man I know. He helped me when I needed it. He never gave up. He was always a perfect gentleman, and he’d never submit someone else to the kind of shame you’re currently making him endure!” I take a step toward her. “And anyone who underestimates him deserves what’s coming to her!”
Artena looks taken aback and oddly like Lorien in that moment, but I don’t have time to think about it because I just want my dream mate back safe.
So I send my whip out, lightning fast, and catch hold of her whip arm, her whip, and her leg all at once.
Then summoning every bit of strength I have in me, I throw her up and over me in the direction of the other woman, as hard as I can.
She disappears with a twinkle and presumably falls somewhere in the crowd.
“She defeated Artena,” one queen whispers. “His sister.”
“No one else can challenge such love,” another queen says.
I blink. What? Lorien’s sister? I glance in the direction I threw her. Oh God. But then again…
I look up at Lorien, who is still plastered to the front of the crystal, looking desperately down.
I hope my whip can reach him. I pull it back, then send it upward, trying to pull him and his cage down. I don’t know if it will even work, but in my heart, I just want him close to me again.
Where I can keep him safe. Where we can defend each other.
So that he knows I love him and I never meant to let him go.
My whip wraps around the crystal, and I hear a cracking noise as it shatters, releasing Lorien.
His wings shoot out, carrying him gently to the ground, and we both run to meet each other, locking our arms around each other in a tight hug.
His head buries into my shoulder. “I’m so sorry you had to do all of this. See me like this.”
I just hug him. “This place is weird, but I’d go anywhere to find you.” I pull back, brushing his hair off his face. “Just like you went anywhere to find me, didn’t you?”
He nods, then steps back, taking a look at me. “You’re so dirty. How did you get here?”
“I may have had to fight a few scarlaths,” I say. “Though, I don’t have neat scars like you.”
He sighs in relief, pulling me in again. “I’m just glad you’re fine.”
We hold each other like that, and I don’t care if we’re in the fae world or the human world. I just need him and his love. As long as I have that, everything else is fine.
Everyone is murmuring in the courtyard, but it suddenly goes silent as Artena walks out of the crowd, her wings almost identical to Lorien’s.
She folds her arms. “So this is how you introduce yourself to your future sister-in-law?”
I gulp, staring at her face, which is beautiful but harder than Lorien’s. Then her lips turn up in a smile.
“Welcome to the family, you fierce queen.” She walks over to us and puts an arm around both me and Lorien. “See? It all turned out fine. I told you I wouldn’t let anyone take you who didn’t love you.”
Lorien pushes away from her, holding me tight as he gives her a glare. “You put me up for auction.”
Artena scratches the back of her neck. “I mean, sort of. But you did go rogue and prove to everyone I was wrong to let you rule and do your own thing for so long. I had to teach you a lesson.” She cocks her head. “Besides, look, it made your dream mate show up. I guess she always existed after all.”
Lorien still merely glares at her. “We can talk later over how you’ve been wrong and done wrong. Right now, I’m taking my mate back to my castle.”
“Boo!” the other queens shout, including the purple-haired one that I tossed. I look for her and see her in the crowd, only a bit bruised where my whip made contact.
She just shrugs at me, then grins. “Good game.” She turns and walks away. “Oh well, back to my harem.”
The other queens all stand there looking various degrees of disappointed. But Artena turns to them. “Do any of you think you could defeat me or Nera? If so, feel free to challenge this woman.”
The queens look at each other, then begin to disperse, and I let out a sigh of relief because I’ve fought a lot of things, and I’m fairly tired now.
But looking at Lorien, who is currently waving his hand over himself to create a robe of shimmering blue silk to cover his body, I know it was all worth it.
“Disgraceful, appearing in front of my dream mate like this.” He glares at Artena. “I’ll never forgive you for that.”
Artena laughs, wrinkling her nose. “He’s so dramatic, isn’t he?” She shakes her head. “But if he wasn’t strong, he wouldn’t have been allowed to be king. The only exception.” She pulls me into a quick hug. “I know you’ll forgive me soon, so come visit after Lorien shows you his kingdom.” Then she turns, waves, and jumps into the air, disappearing in a puff of purple smoke.
“If you ask me, you both have a flair for the dramatic,” I say, looking over at Lorien.
He laughs, putting his arm around my waist as his wings begin to move, lifting us into the air. “I have a flair for loving you, and I’m just so glad to see you, dream mate. Let me take you where we can be alone so I can show you just how much.”
Sounds good to me.
27
Lorien
“Your castle is beautiful,” Tess says, following me through the gleaming halls of the place I used to rule.
Shame is still waving through me, but I’m trying to stifle it because I’m just so glad she’s here.
That she came for me.
And based on her whip, she loves me. Then again, I always thought she did. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have tolerated me in her life for a moment.
And after what just happened, I’ve nev
er been more grateful that my mate is so fierce and tough.
“You know, had someone won me, I would have brought out my own whip and ensured I didn’t go with them,” I say, opening the door to my old chambers. It feels odd to be here after being on Earth for so long.
I can’t say it truly feels like my home.
Tess is my home now.
“I’m glad,” Tess says. “That was super messed up.”
I look at her, noting the ash and dust and scorch marks. “You want to clean up?”
She nods. “Do you have a shower?”
I laugh. “Oh, do I.” I look down at my still-oiled arms. “I could go for one as well.”
She smiles at me, green eyes twinkling. “You did look pretty sexy in that loincloth, though.” Her eyes flare in anger. “But I’m the only one who should see it.”
I chuckle. “You do have a pretty big whip. I guess to retain the ability to love in such a dangerous world, you would have to be very strong, very devoted to it.”
“To what?”
“To being able to love.”
“I suppose so,” she says. “Though, I gave up on romantic love before I met you.” She grins. “Your whip was pretty big as well.”
“Of course.” We walk into my chambers, and Tess gasps.
“This place is gorgeous.” The floor is silk embroidered carpet in sky blue, the furnishings a mix of bright fuchsia and purple and teal. The bed in the center is large and plush and covered in red satin.
It would be garish compared to most things in the human world, but as everything is gorgeous and glistening, it’s easy to admire.
Then again, I may be biased because I used a lot of magic to make it.
“Thank you.” I walk past the bed and open the door to the bathroom. “After you.”
She walks in and is stunned to silence, staring around her at the many mirrors, the glass walls around a multi-head shower, and the tub at the center of the room. “Wow.”
“Are you sure you wouldn’t rather stay here?” I ask. “It is beautiful.”
“Nah,” she says. “I came to get you and bring you back to my world. Can’t risk these queens getting frisky again.”
“They won’t,” I say, eyeing her. “They had a right to pull me back. My dream link broke because I committed murder. At least in their eyes.”
“How?”
“Those men who attacked you in the alley… My punishment went wrong.”
“How?”
I rub the back of my neck as I open a pink-glass door to start the shower. Beautifully scented water spills out. “Our strongest form of punishment is merely a form of forced empathy. Few people want to carry out an act once they know what it feels like. I guess in the case of what those men were going to do, they would rather die. So they did.”
Tess gasps, going pale, and I come forward, holding her against me. “Don’t worry about it, sweetheart. Now they can’t hurt any other queens.”
“I just… That’s so horrible.”
“The queens here might get randy or power trip once in a while, but none of them would rape a warrior. They were joking at the ceremony today, but even had I been added to a harem, I could have merely been assigned to patrol the badlands around a queen’s kingdom or work in the castle. No one here makes love if they don’t want to.”
Tess scratches the back of her head. “Then why were you in a loincloth?”
I sigh. “I didn’t say they were perfect. And yes, maybe a lot of queens have been waiting for years for me to admit I don’t have a dream mate.” I grin wide. “It was great to see them proven wrong.”
Tess sighs. “As long as I never have to see that again. You in trouble like that.”
“I wasn’t in that much trouble,” I say somewhat defensively. Then I exhale. “I was. Thank you for coming for me.”
“And?” Tess’s eyes are teasing, twinkling.
“For saving me,” I mutter. “Though, I did save you multiple times before.” I raise my hand and wave it over her, removing her clothing as I take her arm to move her into the shower.
“Hey!” Then she grins. “Oh, that works. Will I have magic like that soon?”
“I don’t know,” I say honestly. “Your blood is at least part human, and it takes many years of training to do what I have done. To be able to perform so much dematerialization and arrangement of matter.”
She moves into the shower, letting the pink liquid stream over her, washing the dirt and ash from her gorgeous hair. Liquid streams between her gorgeous breasts, and I feel myself hardening.
Not the time, Lorien.
She looks up at me as she lathers her hair in the water. “So what, you’re saying poofing things is difficult?”
I nod. “Josh probably wouldn’t be able to lift a pizza with telekinesis. He’s so out of shape. That’s if he ever was useful.” My glare darkens. If I ever see that fae again…
“He helped me,” Tess calls out from the shower. “Now get in here.”
I turn on another showerhead and get under purple water that smells like exotic flowers. “He did?”
It feels so good to rinse my hair off.
“Yeah,” she says. “He got me here and taught me how to fight in the badlands.” She shakes the water off her now-clean hair. “Scarlaths are no joke.”
“Did you meet any nightmares?”
“No,” she says. “Luckily. I only had my whip. I don’t know if I could have beaten them.”
“I imagine you could,” I say, smiling. “You’re strong. I’ve loved that about you from the moment I met you in person.”
She grins, then looks down at her hands. “I can’t believe I’m in another world right now. This whole world actually existed the whole time. My castle always felt real when I went there, but then it turned into the burned landscape. I thought it was just a childish dream.”
“Sometimes childish dreams are the best dreams,” I say, reaching over to touch her shoulder just to feel that she’s really there.
Warm. Solid. With me.
It’s everything I’ve ever dreamed of.
“Well, then I guess I’m getting everything that child me dreamed of. Because I always wanted a prince,” she says.
I grin. “I always wanted a queen. And you came for me.”
“I did,” she says, her eyes growing pensive as she studies me.
Oblivious, I put my head under the shower again to wash the rest of the oils and perfumes out of my hair.
I just want to feel like myself again. And distract myself from my intense attraction to Tess, which makes me want to take her right now.
I finish rinsing and open my eyes to see Tess standing in front of me with folded arms, beautifully naked and wet. Her eyes move over me slowly.
“What is it?” I ask, seeing a question in her eyes.
“Well, you know…” She cocks a hip, looking so gorgeous I can hardly think straight. “Usually, when a prince saves a princess, he gets a kiss or something. Some action.” She grins, and she has never looked more gorgeous. “I did save your ass.”
I laugh, holding my stomach as I double forward. “It would be my honor, princess. Well, queen once we rehab your kingdom.”
“Can it be rehabbed?” she asks as I pass her to open the shower and snap my fingers, producing two towels.
I wrap one around her first and then the second around my waist and then walk ahead of her, leading her into the bedroom.
“It can,” I say, getting onto the huge plush bed and sinking into it as I grab her hand and pull her onto it with me.
All we have is towels between us, and the air is really heating up now.
“How?”
“You have to start dreaming again. Loving again. Having hope.”
She nods. “I think I can. I think I already am with you by my side.”
“And we have to bring back your unicorn,” I say, brushing her damp hair back, studying the beautiful gold color of the strands.
Tess flushes at me. “My
unicorn?”
I grin. “I showed you my scars, remember? I explored a lot of badlands trying to find you, and I did find your dreamscape. Though, back then, it wasn’t as bad as it is now. But your unicorn was dying, so I saved him. It was audacious, I know. But I couldn’t let every part of your dream realm die.”
Tess cocks her head. “What is my unicorn?”
“Just a childish dream,” I say. “It’s not that you couldn’t live without it. It’s simply that it couldn’t be brought back if it had died. We can heal the grounds and the castle. But the unicorn is there for you to bond with and to watch over your world when you aren’t there. Or to ride into battle since they’re very powerful.”
Tess pushes herself up. “I want to see it. My unicorn.”
“Of course.” I start to get off the bed, but she grabs my towel, yanking me back down with her. Heat snaps between us as she looks deeply into my eyes.
“Not yet, warrior,” she says, looking every bit the queen she is. “Right now, I just want you.” She brushes my hair back. “My brave man who didn’t give up on me. Who worked so hard to make sure I didn’t lose out on love. Who came for me from another dimension.”
“Easy,” I say, looking up into her eyes.
“Before you, there were only nightmares,” she says.
“From here on out, you’ll have only sweet dreams.”
She smiles, and her lips cover mine. “Give me one more dream. Make love to me.”
I grab her shoulders and switch our position so she’s beneath me on the bed as I lift her legs over my shoulders.
“Your wish is my command, my queen.”
28
Tess
My legs are trapped over Lorien’s shoulders, and as his aurora-colored eyes meet mine, swirling in blue and purple and green, his tongue touches down on my sex, swiping slowly up to my clit.
And as I jerk in pure pleasure and my towel falls away, I no longer care that I’m in another dimension.
Whether we’re here or on Earth, we’re just Tess and Lorien.
Just two people in love. And love is universal everywhere.
Sweet Dreams Page 21
