Chapter 2
Dream walker Ana, cloaked in powerful slumber magic that made her invisible to everyone but other dream walkers, moved along the sidewalk in a subdivision outside the human city of Baton Rouge.
She slowed her stride as she saw the dreams in one home, coming to a stop in front of the cozy ranch.
Good dreams appeared in the air like golden, glittering swooshes. Bad dreams were dark brown and black.
Nightmares?
Those oozed purple and looked rotten.
Nightmares were no fun for the people having them, and they were difficult for dream walkers to defuse.
Most dream walkers used their slumber magic to combat nightmares, which differed from bad dreams in tone and intensity.
They’d use good dreams as a shield to keep the nightmares at bay, which messed with Nightmare, the god of nightmares, and his dark dream walkers and their magical replenishment.
Dream walkers – good and evil – replenished their magic through the emotions of the dreams they cast. Good magic was replenished with peace and joy and contentment. Evil by fear and torment.
Her slumber magic was different, though. It was more akin to Sandman’s, the most powerful of the good dream walkers. She didn’t just shield people from nightmares and bad dreams; she eradicated them and essentially stole power from Nightmare and his evil followers.
She was the only one in her family with a different kind of slumber magic than the norm.
Lifting her hands, she drew her slumber magic outward and pushed it toward the sleepers in the home – two young children and an older woman.
As their peace and joy flowed back to her in the form of magical replenishment, she continued on to the next home.
A chill crept over her, and she shivered despite the muggy Louisiana night. Her gaze moved down the street, and she watched as the good dreams she’d cast for the humans slowly morphed into nightmares.
She felt him before she saw him.
Nightmare.
He stepped out of the shadows of his dread magic like a thought she’d unintentionally summoned.
Tall, flawless, and dressed all in black, with a face full of sharp angles and high cheekbones.
Deep violet eyes matched the rotted purple of his magic.
He looked like the kind of temptation a girl might indulge after a few drinks and encouragement from her girl squad, but he felt like the sort of mistake made only one time because it led to utter ruin.
She crossed her arms. Why were the good-looking ones always psychotic?
“Hello, Ana,” he said, a seductive drawl to his voice.
Her gaze flicked to the street behind him and to her night’s work of good dreams, destroyed in an instant. Damn, he was powerful.
“What do you want?” she asked, full of ire and wishing she had a taser or some bear mace. Or pointy boots she could kick him with before making a quick getaway.
“I’ve come with an offer.”
“I don’t think so.”
“You haven’t even heard it,” he said, his lips curling at the corner in a slow smirk.
“Not interested.” She prepared to open a portal to get the heck away from him, but where could she go that he couldn’t follow? How did you flee someone who could simply open a portal and follow you?
He hummed. “Let me tell you a story.”
“If the story ends with you asking me on a date, forget it. Not only are you evil, but I’m waiting for my truemate, and fate is not so fickle as to give me the sort of forever guy who haunts people’s good dreams for fun.”
His purple gaze narrowed. He lifted a hand, and the nightmares oozing from the homes intensified, followed by the kind of screams uttered only by people trapped in a loop of terror while still asleep.
Fury rose in her like a tidal wave, and she turned her power toward the slumbering people and fought their nightmares for them, her slumber magic cutting off the terror.
She knew he could continue to send waves of nightmares, and she’d eventually run out of magic and have to flee to find another good dream walker to help replenish her magic.
“You are powerful,” Nightmare said. He eased his magic back, and she inhaled sharply as she was able to withdraw her own magic from the fight.
“What do you want?” she asked. She took a step back, thinking she could run far enough from him to open a portal to Sandman, who at least was powerful enough to battle Nightmare on his own.
But then Nightmare grabbed her arm.
His fingers were cold and she could feel them through her sleeve.
“Let me show you a future,” he whispered, sending a shiver down her spine.
Her vision went dark, then brightened suddenly, and she saw herself standing in the center of a snow-covered field. Only when she looked around did she realize she was at the North Pole with the Northern Lights overhead. But where was Northernmost?
She turned around and saw the ruins of Northernmost, the Well of Magic oozing with dark, evil corruption. She took another step back and bumped into Nightmare. Spinning with a gasp, she looked up into his face and saw him for what he truly was: evil through and through.
“What do you want with me?” she demanded.
“I want you to forsake your good magic and join forces with me. You have a magic I can use to help vanquish my enemies. I can give you anything you desire.” He touched her jaw lightly, and she shook her head.
“Imagine all the power in the world at your fingertips. I can make it happen. Just take my hand and pledge yourself to me. Stand by my side, and I will give you everything you ever wanted and more.”
She caught the lecherous tone and knew he wanted more than her power. But to what end? Her magic eradicated his. If she turned evil, would her magic take away the good magic from others?
“Yes,” he whispered, as if he knew her train of thought and was agreeing with the outcome.
“I won’t join with you,” she said.
“If you won’t join me, then you’ll watch me destroy everyone you love.”
Something snapped inside her, and she reached deep into her magic, drawing the most power she could summon. With a shove forward, she pushed her magic at him and shouted “No!” at the top of her lungs.
The vision shattered like glass around her as he grunted from the force of the blow. She opened a portal to Sandman and leaped through, closing it before Nightmare could follow. He could still find her if he wanted, but at least she was where she needed to be.
“Ana?” Sandman asked.
“He’s coming for me,” she said, rising to her feet and brushing off the dirt from where she’d landed after tumbling through the portal in her haste.
“Who?” He looked around, stepping in front of her protectively.
“Nightmare.” She grimaced, thinking of the ruin of Northernmost. “I think he’s working with Jack Frost.”
Sandman covered them both in his powerful slumber magic and opened a portal, taking them away from his post, where he’d been casting good dreams for those in his territory.
Morning light made her blink, and she realized he’d brought them to a place where people weren’t asleep, so Nightmare wouldn’t readily be able to harm those they helped.
It didn’t mean he wouldn’t find them, though.
Sandman gestured to a bench. “Tell me everything, Ana.”
They sat in a park near a small lake, and Ana sighed deeply, her shoulders drooping as she shared what had happened when Nightmare appeared, including the vision of Northernmost in ruins and the Well of Magic corrupted by darkness.
Sandman was opposite Nightmare in every way, from his blond hair to his gold eyes with blue striations. He wore light clothes – linen blends in white and tan – where Nightmare always wore dark clothes.
Sandman rubbed his chin. “It does seem like he’s teaming up with Frost, but to what end?”
“Turning the magic of the world to evil?” she suggested. After all, it was Jack Frost’s sole purpose in life. That and killing his brother.
“Yes, but why Nightmare? Frost tried that with Grim, probably with the intention of utilizing his army of reapers, but Nightmare is an odd choice.”
“But he can kill people in their sleep,” she pointed out.
“Nightmares can be so bad that they cause people to die of fright. And he has his own army. Plus,” she said, thinking out loud, “he can get to the people of Northernmost. The magical perimeter that keeps out evil magic users isn’t designed to stop dreams – good or bad.
That’s why we have dream walkers who take shifts working good magic up North. ”
Sandman straightened, his gold eyes blazing.
“I think you might have figured something out. At least why Frost and Nightmare are teaming up.” He rose to his feet and pulled out his cell.
She stared up at him. “Who are you calling? You know Nightmare threatened my family if I didn’t join up with him, so I need to warn them.”
“I’ll send word to them. Hold on. Yes,” he said into his phone. “I need you to let me and Ana come into Northernmost immediately. Your brother is up to something, and it involves the nightmares we were discussing.”
There was a brief pause and then Sandman said, “Good, see you in a moment.”
Putting his phone into the pocket of his tan jacket, he said, “Let’s go, Ana.”
“To Northernmost?”
She stood, and he nodded, first using his slumber magic to obscure them from everyone but dream walkers, then opening a portal to Northernmost. The moment the portal opened, she could see Santa’s home base, the Well of Magic glowing gold with goodness.
The sky was dark and dotted with stars, and the Northern Lights waved above them.
She hadn’t been to Northernmost since she’d come into her dream walker powers as a teen. Before that, she’d had to visit annually to replenish her magic at the Well. Once she came into her power, she essentially replenished it herself through the emotions of good dreams.
She stepped onto the frozen ground with Sandman. The portal closed with a whoosh, sealing them inside Northernmost.
At that exact moment, something came alive inside her.
A tether to this place that hadn’t been there before.
Holy crap, her truemate was here. In Northernmost.
But who was it?