“Make me,” I snapped back, bending over the balustrade.
Uh-oh. Mistake. I knew this because he scowled at me for approximately half a second then his lips curled into a supremely sexy, supremely scary, definitely wicked smile.
And, honest to God, dream or no, I felt that smile all over.
Yowza!
Then he straightened in his saddle like he was going to dismount his glossy, muscled black beast but he stopped when the white hatted guy said in a low voice, “Tor.”
Mm. That was better. Noctorno was not a good name. But I could work with Tor.
At this point, two things happened.
Aggie flitted up into my line of sight and chirped loudly at me, “Cora!”
And the second was the door was flung open in the room behind me and the blonde woman came rushing into the room, shouting excitedly, “Is that Dash?”
See! Totally told you that you could shorten his name to Dash and it would be cool.
“No!” I heard a male shout from below and I looked down in confusion to see the men wheeling their horses around with what appeared to be sudden urgency. “Don’t let her see me, Cora!” It was the white hatted man; I knew when he continued talking.
“Don’t!” Aggie chirped, flying around my body in agitation. “Don’t let her see him!”
“Dash!” the blonde woman yelled from inside the room, she was run-dancing to the door.
“Holy crap, what’s going –?” I started.
“Hee-yah!” Noctorno barked, slapping his hand hard on the white horse’s rump, so hard, the sound of the crack of it hurt my behind and the white horse took off running.
“Gods! Don’t let her –!” This was the voice of the gray hatted man but it came the second the blonde woman reached the balcony and shouted, “Dash! My love!”
“No!” the white hatted man’s horse had started galloping away but he swung it around, shouting deep and imperative and started galloping back but I was only paying scant attention.
That was because the minute the blonde hit the balcony and shouted her words, everything changed.
Just like that.
Snap.
One second, the flowers were bright, the sun was shining, the day was beautiful.
The very next second, the skies were dark; a pall was cast on the house, the flowers, the mountain-hill, the forest and the river. All that was once vibrant and breathtaking was now shrouded in darkness and gray.
And what made matters worse was that in the very instant the darkness fell, thunder rent the air so loud and eerie I, who had never in my life been frightened of thunder, was instantly terrified (the immediate change of my surroundings helped). Lightning cracked through the sky, multiple flashes coming so fast it was like a strobe.
“Holy crap,” I whispered. “What on earth?”
“Cora,” the blonde whispered, “what on earth?”
Trust me to have a cool dream turn to complete shit.
“Tor, Orlando… go!” I heard and looked down as the blonde’s arms wrapped around me and the wind came up, whipping our hair and our nightgowns so violently, the material of our gowns snapped and cracked, biting into my skin where it hit.
Yes, biting.
And that was kind of painful too.
What… on… earth?