“It’s okay,” she said and smiled sweetly at him. “I’m not worried about it.”
Ray hesitated for a second before mounting his horse and following his sister.
The air was still warm and the light was pale yellow. Aspen took a deep breath to calm herself. Her muscles fluttered beneath Dylan’s grip, and she didn’t want to move.
“Come on, girls,” Ginny said, interrupting Aspen’s thoughts. “We might as well follow and have some fun. They’re on the hunt and it’s good to go out in numbers.”
“Aspen, you can ride with me.” Dylan turned her to face the huge white horse that he’d arrived on.
She jerked in his arms. “No way. I haven’t been on one of those before.”
He pushed her forward gently. “Don’t worry, I’ll show you what to do. Show no fear and Milky will love you.”
“Milky? Is that the beast’s name?”
“She’s not a beast, she’s the most beautiful horse in the world, aren’t you, Milky?”
The horse flapped long, sooty eyelashes at him, seeming to understand his words as she snorted loudly. Her muscles twitched and she struck the ground with her hoof.
Dylan climbed into the saddle and reached down for Aspen. She hesitated before raising her arms, holding her breath as he swung her up as easily, then shifted and tucked her into place right in front of him.
He wrapped his forearm around her waist and drew her back against his chest. The heat of his body warmed her back as he kept her from wobbling out of the seat. It felt good to touch him, and her body trembled with pleasure. A current seemed to be flowing between their bodies, and she loved being held by him. As the horse trotted along, she grabbed hold of Dylan’s thigh to steady herself. His low laugh tickled the sensitive skin of her ear, and she relaxed in his arms.
Aspen saw Ruby and her clan up ahead, and turned to make sure that Ginny and Sandy had kept up with them. The two girls had bright cheeks but didn’t complain as they moved at a brisk pace on foot. Ruby had slowed her horse down to a walk, and she eyed Aspen openly as she leaned against Dylan’s chest.
“Where are we off to?” Aspen asked Dylan.
“We’re out hunting nightmares.”
“Really? Where do you find them?”
“Chancellors make nightmares that we can actually see. We’ll see lions, bugs, monsters, and witches, for example. The Chancellors gather around an area during Lavendula and chant for the nightmares to appear.”
“What do they chant?”
“It’s a call to their maker. They get their energy from the lavender pigments in the sky that their maker channels through to them. They also get energy if the nightmare succeeds in making a child scared or from our powers when we die. That’s why they attack us.”
Aspen cringed. “That sounds gross.”
Dylan paused before changing the subject. “There are castles in different areas of our world. Each castle has a lord and a certain amount of Chancellors.”
“Where is the nearest castle to us?” she asked.
“We have one only fourteen waypoints away.”
“Waypoint? What’s a waypoint?”
Dylan chuckled and answered patiently. “Chancellors use waypoints as entry and exit points in order to travel. They are openings in the ground that allow them to reach their destination quicker. The openings are always guarded, so if they reach their next waypoint, they are generally safe from us. We can’t go after them, and we have to journey to the next waypoint in order to get to them.”
Aspen swayed back and forth in the saddle as the horse’s hooves clopped over the stony ground. She kept silent for a moment and then asked another question. “Why don’t they just stay underground and travel that way instead of above ground?”
“Their waypoints don’t meet up,” Dylan explained. “They can go down one but when they come out, they need to travel above ground to get to the next one.”
“That’s kinda stupid.” She shook her head, distracted by the way her body hummed with electricity wherever it touched him. His vest was made from leather and was smooth against her skin, but the current between them was the most wonderful feeling ever, and she wiggled closer in his grip.
“Yes, it’s stupid,” he continued. “We try to monitor the waypoints to stop them from reaching them, but there are far too many waypoints for us to know them all. They can also go a lot farther than we do using the tunnels. They use magic to propel themselves forward once they get inside.”
“Awesome!”
“You wouldn’t say that if you were chasing them. It’s so frustrating trying to follow them.”
Aspen frowned. “What do we do if we find Chancellors and nightmares?”
“They will deflect your blows by means of a force field. They’ll do whatever it takes to save the nightmare. We normally split in two. One half will attack the Chancellors, and the other half tries to attack the nightmare. Our dream catchers help us to deflect the worst hits from them and they help us to heal, so don’t lose yours,” he warned.