I put my hand on her shoulder and she swivels around.

“Hattie!” I say for the third time.

“Well, hello there, dear sister,” she says, smirking.

My gut drops. There’s something wrong with her.

As I take her in, her body starts shrinking. And her face melts into a new form.

“Ahh! You’re not Hattie!” I clamber backward to get away from not-Hattie. And when I look up, I am facing the most grotesque creature I have ever seen.

He’s the height of a chimpanzee, with greasy, stringy black hair and two sharp red horns sticking out of his head. His skin is the color of blood, and his steely eyes study me from underneath his thick brows. He’s wearing a small gold hoop earring in each ear, and his swollen nose protrudes from his face like a pus-filled volcano.

He sniffs the air, and his nostrils flare like those of an angry bull. “Oh, how I treasure the aroma of frightened human girl!” He leers. “What excellent room service, indeed.”

I retreat in disgust, and he chuckles menacingly. “I am very much looking forward to having a taste….” He takes a bite of the air in front of him, revealing his teeth, which look like a shark’s—sharp and deadly. The dokkaebi is definitely a creature from my worst nightmares.

“Welcome to my lair, Riley Oh.”

I hiccup. How does he know my name?

Then I remember we are inside my dream right now. I invited him in by conking out in his room. And that means he has access to my mind. Everything I know, he knows, too.

A shiver runs down my spine, but I immediately go on the offensive. “I’ve come to offer you a deal.”

He grins and a little bit of pus drips out his nose. “I assume you, too, are after the Godrealm’s last fallen star.”

I nod and try to stop my teeth from chattering. It’s not even cold in here. “I am. So name your price, dokkaebi.”

“I hope you are more fun to do business with than your mother was.” He steeples his deformed red fingers and taps them from pinky to index in contemplation. “Now let me see.” He pauses for effect, and his eyes flick from left to right as if he’s watching the highlight reel of my deepest vulnerabilities.

His eyes finally stop moving and then pinpoint back on me. “For the services rendered to summon the Godrealm’s last fallen star, I demand that which you hold dear. I demand the elemental magic that now flows through your blood.”

I freeze. Did he just say he wants my magic?

I rub my biochipped left wrist against my right and watch the gifted mark glow red. I remember how it felt to channel my inner element and spit out that little ball of fire. It wasn’t much, but it had given me a taste of my potential.