When she looked back, there was nothing around her. Only a landscape of grey, from the bare ground to the empty sky above. Like an empty canvas.

The Dark Lady was gone.

Selene hunched over, gasping for air, feeling like she was going to retch. Her hands trembled across the floor. Moments later, she leaned down and touched her forehead to the ground. “Thank you,” she whispered.

She knelt there, taking in the silence and solitude. She was still alive and still on her own path, one in contrast to her family. She had faced the Dark Lady and stood her ground.

There would be another confrontation, the Dark Lady hinted of it. But for now, this was enough.

Then a sense of unease swept across her spirit.

Selene lifted her head, spreading out with her senses. Danger. But not toward her. Toward someone else. In another dreamscape.

Her eyes went wide, and her whole body went rigid.

Damien.

41

Selene struggled to her feet. She stumbled forward, still exhausted from her confrontation with the Dark Lady. Then she began to run across the empty dreamscape, her thoughts on Damien. The dream barrier appeared overhead. With her eyes on the thin line that divided her dreamscape from the real world and other dreams, she burst into her raven form. Up she went in a flurry of feathers and hurled herself forward, her mind completely on Damien so she would reach his dream world.

Seconds later, she broke through the barrier and dove into the next dreamscape.

White sand, gentle waves, and a bright blue sky appeared. Sweet cool wind caught her wings and lifted her up. She knew this place. She’d crossed over into Damien’s dreams.

Selene soared across the sandy beach of his dreamscape, pumping her wings as hard as she could. The sense of danger was even stronger, hitting her like a gale with its intensity. She should have known Mother would send someone after Damien once he left the protection of his water barriers. She should have been watching for an infiltrator. She should never have left him.

I just need to get to his soulsphere and wake him up.

As she crested over the last sand dune, a figure came into view, slowly making its way to Damien’s radiant soul. Fear gripped Selene like never before, threatening to paralyze her wings and send her plummeting to the sandy dunes.

Mother.

I will not let her take him. She clicked her beak and pushed harder.

Wait. The figure wasn’t Mother. And why was the walker in human form, and not in raven form? Details came into focus as she drew closer. The dreamwalker was smaller, with short, curly hair. Almost like . . .

Amara.

Selene dove for the space between Amara and Damien’s soul. Just when she reached the gap, she swept her wings back and touched down in her human form. She drew in a deep breath and brought her arms out in front of her, her dual swords appearing in her hands. “Amara.”