Naomi could see the exhaustion on their faces. “You should go and rest. I know you’re all as tired as I am, at least.” She had slipped back into her human form as soon as she realized she was back on Earth, glad to finally shed the mantle of her dragon physique. Most shifters preferred to be their scaled selves, but for the moment, it seemed easier to be a human. That form didn’t require as much energy to sustain.

“I’m worried about leaving you,” Autumn said as she leaned over the bed. “You’ve been away for so long, and we’ve never done these spells before.” She had explained briefly what they had done to get her back to Earth, talking of drums and shamans and other things Naomi didn’t have the presence of mind to even try to understand.

“The Otherworld,” Naomi whispered. It was what she had come to call the place where she had gone after she died. Humans had concepts of heaven and hell and places like that, but Naomi knew this was definitely not either one of those.

“Tell us about it,” Summer said gently. “If you feel up to it, anyway. We’ve been so worried about you.”

“It was difficult,” Naomi admitted. “There were good beings there, ones made entirely of light. They were warm and kind in their own way, but they couldn’t always talk to me. And there were other creatures there, too. Dark ones. I did my best to keep away from them, but I could tell they were very strong.”

“Did they want to hurt you?”

How could she explain something that took place in a completely different realm? Even the thoughts inside Naomi’s head had been different, as though the language of her mind had been changed. “I don’t really know. It was a very lonely place, I can tell you that. No matter how many other spirits were around, none of them were ones that I knew. There were a lot of them around when you pulled me back, though. I think the other beings there could sense the rift you created, and they wanted to see what was happening.”

“Can’t blame them there,” Autumn remarked. “It sounds like it might be a holding place of sorts, for spirits who don’t belong anywhere else. Like purgatory, if you will.”

Naomi nodded, but the action hurt her head. “That would make sense. I’m glad to be back, but my body is so heavy. I’m not sure it was a good idea.” It wasn’t just her body that made her feel that way. It was something else, something her befuddled mind couldn’t quite grasp.

“You’re just not used to it yet.” Leah smiled down at her. “You’ve been nothing but a spirit for several years now. You don’t even know what gravity is anymore.”

“I felt it.” Naomi was only growing more and more tired, but it had been so long since she’d truly been able to talk to her friends. “When you would reach out to me, it was like a tiny hole had erupted in front of my face. It pulled at me, like Earth was calling me back, but I could never do anything about it. I put my energy into that window, but it didn’t always seem to help.”

“I’m sorry. That must have been very frustrating for you.” Summer gently rubbed her arm.

“No, it’s okay. It was good to know that you were still thinking of me, at the very least. I had no way of knowing how long I’d been there, because there was no such thing as time, but it felt like an eternity.” There were no nights or days, just endless drifting. As heavy as her new body was, weighed down from the soil it had been formed from, she didn’t miss the Otherworld.

“Listen, you really need to get some sleep. We all do.” Autumn’s eyes drooped a little at the corners. “We’re all going to go home and give you some peace and quiet so you can get some good rest. We’ll come back later this evening and have some dinner. Does that sound good?”

Naomi nodded. The others had offered her food shortly after she had come back, but her stomach was still churning from her transition. “Yes. It’s been so long since I’ve actually slept. I’m not sure I even remember what it’s like.”

“Trust me. You’ll enjoy it.” They said their goodbyes and left the room, closing the door behind them.

Naomi could hear them chattering with each other as they made their way through the house and out the door. She stared up at the timber frame ceiling, trying to wrap her mind around the fact that she was back on Earth. It had been forever. As nice as it was to be back again, she wondered what it would have been like if the women could have brought her back to Charok. Was Julian still there? Did he still think of her? He had occupied her thoughts a lot since she had awoken, but she hadn’t bothered to say anything about him to her friends. It’s not as though they would know anything about him, and no matter how powerful their magic was, they couldn’t reunite her with her true love on a distant planet.

Eventually, her eyes began to close. Light leaked in through the curtains, but she didn’t care that it was still daytime. Just the fact that she was away from all the confusion of the Otherworld made her feel more comfortable than she had in a long time. She wondered if she would dream.

Just as she was about to doze off, she heard a noise. Her eyes flipped open and her hands reached out at her sides, but she had no weapons at hand. Maybe time had passed more quickly than she had realized, and Autumn and the others had already returned. But the slow and careful footsteps were made by only one person; that much she was sure of.

Her heart pounding in her chest, she slipped out of bed. Autumn had lent her an old t-shirt and a pair of shorts, and they didn’t seem like enough to protect her from whatever was coming. She realized that if she stayed where she was, she would be trapped like an animal. Naomi wasn’t strong enough to climb out through a window, and her best chance was to make it to another door before the intruder found her.

Peeking out the bedroom door, she saw nothing. Naomi dashed across the hall and through an open door. She found herself in another bedroom—one that seemed to have been used for storage, judging by the stack of boxes in the corner—but there still weren’t any outside doors there. With little option, she crawled under the bed and scooted all the way to the back near the legs of the headboard.

The footsteps had turned down the hallway and paused. Naomi held her breath, willing the stranger to give up and go away. But the bedroom door creaked open. She could easily see his feet as he stood in the doorway, probably surveying the room, trying to figure out where she was.

She held back a scream as he slowly stepped toward the bed. There was no other place to go. Whoever this was, he would get to her before she ever made it out of the room. Her friends had done so much work to bring her back, and now she would be gone again.

The interloper crossed the hardwood floor and stopped again at the edge of the bed. He knelt down, and when he peeked underneath the bed skirt, she could no longer hold back her scream.

“Naomi?”