The figure glided toward him. His breath froze in his lungs as adrenaline washed over him. His heart crashed against his rib cage, the only thing that seemed to be moving in his entire body.

“Don’t touch him!” Selene yelled.

The figure laughed as she raised a bony hand and held out a single white finger toward his chest. “You think he can help you? Is that why you brought him here?” The figure spun around and laughed again, her voice high-pitched and cackling. “No one can help you, little raven. Certainly not some mere man. You are mine.”

Selene . . . brought him here?

“What do you mean?” Panic laced Selene’s voice.

“My dear little raven, you still do not understand the power you possess. I am not the one bringing these mortals into the dreamscape. You are. You have the ability to pull sleepers into your own dreams. I haven’t seen this power since the first dreamwalker came to be.”

Selene shook her head. “No . . .” she whispered.

So he was right. Selene’s gift was more powerful than anyone knew. More powerful than even she knew.

The figure then pointed her bony finger at Selene. “And I will have that power.”

Selene was as white as her nightgown. Damien glanced at the dark figure, then back at Selene, a fire growing inside his chest, erasing the chill across his body and spreading a deadly calm across his mind. Who was this being who was saying such things to his wife? He straightened and tightened his fists. “No, you will not.”

The figure hissed as she looked back at Damien. “You have no power in this place, Light-follower. This is my domain.”

The calmness spread across the rest of his body, slowing his heartbeat and banishing the last of the chill within his bones. “I may not have any power here, but the one I follow does.”

The figure hissed again. “She is mine. Her family has been mine for generations.” The figure vanished, then appeared next to Selene and clutched her arm. “I will not give her up.”

“She has a choice.”

“I am the one who gives her power.”

“No, her power comes from the Light. Now let go of her.”

“Never!”

Damien sunk down on one knee and bowed his head. The dark one was right. He had no power here in the dream world. But the Light did.

Light, I need your help.

There was no place, no power that could overcome the Light. He knew this more than anything else. “I bend my knee to the Light and intercede for my wife.” He clutched his hands together. He still didn’t understand Selene’s power, or know who this sinister being was, or know if his people were in danger because of the struggle going on in this dream. All he knew was that Selene needed his help. “Help us, Maker of Worlds. Please free Selene.”

A small slip of light began to burn between the dark one’s hand and where she gripped Selene. Brighter and brighter it grew, like a ball of white flame.