In Her Dreams

I want to stay with Joey, that means I won’t have this amazing man.
When we’re safe and he pulls the horse over in a grassy pasture where we can watch the sunset, he stops, dropping the reins and just holding me tightly in his arms.
“Don’t dream without me, soul bond,” he says softly. “Don’t go where I can’t protect you. Don’t tell me not to keep you safe. It’s my life. My whole reason for living.”
I reach up, brushing his hair back, feeling along his hard jaw.
Damn, I love this man.
“I want you with me,” I say softly, my heart aching. “But I have to be in my world. But if you aren’t there—”
“I will be where you are, soul bond,” he says, lowering his face so our foreheads can touch.
I can feel his hot breath.
God, I want to kiss him.
“I will stay in your world,” he says. “Or at least think about it. If you can think about mine.”
“Fair enough,” I say, though I really hope it ends up being my world.
His hand twists into my hair, and my hand knocks his hat away so his teal hair can blow back in the wind.
As we kiss and the heat between us grows hot as the night air cools around us, I guess I’m just glad we found a compromise.
Because I truly don’t know how to ever let go of this man.

13
Jen
“Is this really necessary?” I ask, watching all three dream fae talking in the corner of the room while Joey bounces next to me excitedly.
He doesn’t quite understand what the dream fae are, but we tried to explain some simple things to him. He still seems to think Reve is a superhero of some kind, and that works for now.
It was difficult to break it to him. That he isn’t fully human. That I’m not fully human.
At least for now, he seems happy to just have lessons in combat.
“I have a whip! Yay! I’m going to whip the whole neighborhood!” Joey says happily.
I send Reve a look, and he grins at me as he walks over to Joey, then takes a knee.
“Whips are only for protecting those we care about,” Reve says. “Until you’re a trained warrior, and then you can use them for punishment.”
“Like grounding?” Joey asks, cocking his head.
“Exactly,” Reve says. “But that’s for parents, right? You’re still a kid. So what you need to work on now is building up your love so you have a good whip to work with.”
“Love?” Joey wrinkles his nose.
“Right,” Jerrek says, walking over alongside Lorien.
Tess is on the couch with a cup of coffee, watching all of this with amusement. I can’t help envying her slightly, knowing things have worked out between her and Lorien.
It’s just the two of them, and together, they can decide where they want to go and when they want to go there.
I wish things were that simple for me.
Jerrek holds out his hand, and warm fire burns over it. Joey gasps at it, and I take a step forward.
But Lorien stops me with a look. “Kids often understand things easier than adults. Give him some credit.”
Joey reaches out to touch the fire, but Jerrek lets it disappear into his hand.
“The fire is our magic, which is generated by love. Then our ability to control that forms our whip.”
Joey throws his hand out, posing like he expects a whip, but when nothing happens, he looks around suspiciously. “Where’s mine?”
Reve laughs, then pulls out a long, black whip from seemingly nowhere. He hands it to Joey. “Here. Try this one.”
Joey unfurls it and waves it a bit, and Reve just chuckles before taking it back.
“Reve, that’s not your dream whip,” Lorien says.
Reve nods. “I have three levels of whip I have trained. One which has no fire whatsoever. For punishment when it needs to be a little… discreet.”
It’s the whip he used on Mark the other day.
“My other whips are used to punish fae or to fight love duels.”
“Love duels?” I ask.
“You don’t want to know,” Tess says, shaking her head. Her eyes shine with love at Lorien. “I’m glad that’s all over for us. And we’re bonded.”
He walks over to sit down next to her, putting his arm around her. His purple-blue hair is disguised to be dark and short right now, and his astonishingly beautiful face is full of almost supernatural love for his mate, as always.
It’s the same way Reve looks at me.
“Love duels are fought when two warriors claim to be a queen’s potential dream mate,” Reve says.
“There can be more than one?” I ask.
Reve shakes his head. “The Great Connector doesn’t work like that. It’s almost always a nightmare, lying about seeing their dream mate in a vision. It’s something rare. I guess they could be mistaken too. But when the whips are pulled out, the greater love is obvious by the size of the whip.”
Tess snorts, and I share a look with her. Our fairies definitely don’t lose in any size competition.
Especially in the bedroom.
“Ew. Girls are gross,” Joey says, flushing. “I don’t want to use my whip for that. I want to kill, like, dinosaurs or something.”
“Dinosaurs?” Reve asks, looking confused.
“Big lizard things. Do they have them where you’re from?” Joey asks.
“No,” Reve says. “I don’t believe so. But we have scarlaths and norgoths, which can be defeated with whips.” He kneels by Joey. “Honestly, the most dangerous creatures in any world are the nightmares. Because they look just like us, but their hearts are pure cold.”
Joey nods. “Like bullies.” He rolls up his sleeve. “I like to beat up the bullies.”
I put a hand to my face. “I can vouch for that.” We just moved to a new school district so Joey could have a fresh start.
Before that, he threw another boy down the hill for trying to kiss girls who didn’t like it.
I smile, thinking that it is a bit like Reve or the other fae.
Lorien apparently killed a group of gang rapists. Neither Tess nor I