It is not. Perhaps he will choose to keep you to himself while we visit the women in the rest of your pathetic

realm, Empousa.”

Mikki caught a blurred movement from the edge of her darkening vision and then Asterius burst out of the

fog. His roar of rage was deafening. Hatred whirled to face him. As the Dream Stealer moved, his body

rippled and reformed until he was, as Mikki had accused, not a man, but a creature, and one that should exist

only in the realm of nightmares. His skin was scaled, and his snakelike eyes bulged from a head shaped like a

cobra’s flared hood. His body had remained humanoid, but he crouched on all fours, hissing black froth from

his open mouth like an evil reptile. Asterius’s hand whipped out as he charged past the creature, slicing a

bloody trail across Hatred’s chest.

Mikki heard angry hisses from the creatures who were holding her and then she was suddenly free as Fear,

Envy, and Selfishness hurried to stand beside their leader. They were truly a horrifying group. Each had

retained something of his man form, but with monstrous mutations. Fear was a rotting corpse, with long, filthy

claws and misshapen features. Envy’s all-too-human body was covered with a sickening plant whose spikes

burst through his skin like deadly thorns. He crouched, hissing, reminding Mikki of a poisonous swamp

creature. Selfishness’s body had elongated, and he had grown several sets of snakelike tentacles. He gnashed

gruesome teeth while his arms writhed independently of one another.

They all faced Asterius as the Guardian charged them. Fear went down first, disemboweled neatly by the

great beast’s claws. The Dream Stealer’s body crumbled and then dissolved, turning into scarlet smoke that

hovered in an oily cloud over the rose beds.

Mikki scrambled to her feet.

“Aeras! Come to me!” she cried.

Moments later the wide-eyed Wind Elemental rushed up to her Empousa.

“Oh, Goddess! Save us from—”

“Hecate’s not here. We have to save ourselves. Aeras, I command your element present. Blow in a mighty

wind from the north and rid us ofrieсЂ† the smoke of Fear. Now, Aeras!”

White-faced, Aeras flung her arms wide. When she lifted them, a blast of cold wind hurled past them,

carrying the morning fog as well as the red smoke over the rose wall and into the forest.

A scream of agony wrenched Mikki’s eyes from the dissipating cloud and back to the battle. Asterius’s dark

eyes flashed, and he roared his fury as he dealt blow after powerful blow against the evil creatures. Each

movement he made was controlled by a grace that was as beautiful as it was deadly.

She thought Asterius was the most magnificent thing she had ever seen.

He lunged and struck, and Selfishness was writhing on the ground, sliced tentacles spurting dark blood in a

scarlet arch across the roses. Envy clinging to his back, Asterius lowered his head. With one blindingly swift

movement, he impaled the fallen Dream Stealer, and at the same moment he reached around, plunging his

claws into the base of Envy’s spine. Both creatures’ bodies shivered and then they, too, disappeared into

clouds of blood-colored smoke.

“Again, Aeras!” Mikki commanded.

Aeras called the north wind, which banished Envy and Selfishness far into the ancient forest.

“You interfering bitch!” Hatred shrieked at Aeras.

Like a viper, he struck at the Wind Elemental, but Mikki was quicker, shoving Aeras out of the way. The

Dream Stealer collided with the Empousa instead of her handmaiden. Mikki felt a searing line of pain explode

across her shoulder and arm as she went down beneath him.

Then Hatred screamed. His body bowed as Asterius clawed his back to scarlet ribbons. With a terrible snarl,

the Dream Stealer wrenched Mikki from under him. He spun around, holding the Empousa before him like a

shield.