She didn’t want to send him away, but if there was anything she had learned while she was in the Otherworld, it was to trust her instincts. Making love to Julian had temporarily blinded her to the potential dangers that surrounded them, and she had let herself believe that she was safe now that she was back in the physical realm of Earth.

But something was wrong with that notion. She couldn’t tell Julian what it was; those instincts were still in that indecipherable language of the Otherworld. It didn’t matter. She only knew there was trouble there, and she had to get him out of the way.

Now, completely alone once again, she stood still in the middle of the room. She heard nothing. Naomi shook her head and drew in a deep breath. Maybe she had imagined it all, her mind unwilling to let go of the images that had danced before her eyes the entire time she had been gone. Being caught in that ether was like one long hallucination where nothing made sense, and she couldn’t expect herself to come away from it undamaged.

Naomi made a silent promise to herself to call for Julian later—if she could even remember how to do that—and apologize to him. For now, she needed that nap she had been unable to get earlier. Padding back across the hall, she lay down, closed her eyes, and let her mind wander. Its first instinct was to think of Otherworld. She didn’t know what the actual name for it was, only that it wasn’t the same as any place she knew and loved. She felt the light and shadow that mingled there, a palpable substance around her that felt like swimming in a murky ocean.

Mixed with these images were ones of her and Julian back on Charok. These were the visions that gave her hope. She remembered how it felt to leap off the top of the mountains and let her body fall through the hot air until it was almost too late to snap her wings open. Julian had been right at her side during that daring stunt, the tips of his emerald wings just barely touching hers. It was a habit he had of always letting her know that he was right there. She hadn’t needed him back then the way she did now. Naomi had been a young, confident dragon who—as of yet—had no reason to worry about life or what the future would bring. But still she had felt a certain sort of comfort in knowing she had such a sweet, steady love at her side. She let herself fall into the vision just as she had fallen in real life, with a wild sense of abandon.

But the back of her mind continued to fight her, and she was yanked back to consciousness. This time, she knew exactly what was going on. “I know you’re there,” she said to the air around her. The day was beginning to fade, sending long shadows across the floor, but there was another shadow in the room that she couldn’t see. “I can sense you.”

The response was there, but it wasn’t an audible one. It was more like a deep rumble in the back of her mind, almost a laugh.

“You came through the portal with me.” Her voice echoed in the empty house as she prowled down the hallway to the living room, certain she would find this other spirit soon. Its vibration was a familiar one that she had sensed in the Otherworld, but it hadn’t been given a physical body in the same way that she had. Naomi wondered how it had survived, but that was a question for another time.

Another rumble sounded and she noticed a movement out of the corner of her eye, but as soon as she turned, it was gone.

“Leave here!” she commanded. “You don’t belong. You’re not from this place.”

There was another flicker out of the corner of her eye, but this time she was careful not to look at it straight on. She followed it through the house, unsure of how to get through to this thing or even figure out exactly what it was. It moved faster as she pursued it, slipping through the pane of glass in the picture window at the front of the house and scuttling off into the growing darkness.

Giving up and tired beyond any sense of worry, Naomi went back to bed. This time, she actually fell asleep.