“Me too, and if we can, I think we should try to send one of the giants through as well,” Ronnie said as a mew came from her hoodie.
I’d forgotten about the damn kitten. Lucy.
“What if the giant gets through and wreaks havoc on Earth?”
I was trying to keep this experiment low key. A giant running around Earth would definitely make it on the nightly news.
Ronnie shrugged. “The military can handle it better on that side anyway. They’ve got all their tankers and B2’s.”
That was true… but letting something that destructive into our safe haven on Earth did not sit well with me. “Let’s see if the sentries and grunts die and then we can think about the giants.”
Jeremy lurched forward, eyes wide and fingers moving in a rapid tapping he did when he was thinking of a brilliant idea.
“Kit,” he said, without looking at me.
Damien stepped closer to his brother. “What’s up, buddy? You got an idea?”
Jeremy was rocking on his heels now. “Kit,” he mumbled again.
Damien cast a worried look my way. Jeremy didn’t function typically on a normal day on Earth; he was quirky in all his usual ways. But in the Dream War that was multiplied tenfold.
“What’s up, Jer?” I stepped right up to him. Normally I wouldn’t get all up in his personal space, but he’d said my name twice so I was thinking that was sign he wanted me and me only.
Jeremy leaned forward and put his lips to my ear. “You and me can end the Dream Wars,” he said, and chills broke out on my arms. Before I could press him further, he spoke again: “You will make a huge opening into Earth and I will find a frequency that the breeders communicate on. You will take over the ghouls’ minds and force them to cross onto Earth where they will die. My frequency will broadcast for a while before calling them all to the same place, so they are all together. Once breeders die, the Dream Wars will cease to exist.”
My eyes were wide as saucers, and from the looks of my team around me, I must have been making a pretty scary face. He must have been up for hours thinking about this. In theory, Jeremy’s plan sounded awesome, but in reality I didn’t think I was capable of taking over the breeders’ hive mind and forcing them to their death. I could barely communicate with a sentry that one time. Still, if Jeremy thought he could make a device that would call them all to one spot and I could open a hole, we could force them through with weapons and maybe it could work.
I looked up at him and nodded. “Can you make a synthetic for the green stuff?” I asked him. “I’d like to invite the Galadrias to live on Earth.”
He nodded. “I’ve already done experiments on that. It should be easy to replicate.”
What the hell? This kid was way too smart.
I nodded. “Okay, Jer. You work on the device and I’ll work on my part.”
He met my eyes then and graced me with the most beautiful smile. “I dreamed last night. I like dreaming. Also, you still owe me a lizard. Don’t forget.”
A grin pulled at my lips. “Okay, buddy. I won’t forget.”
Shit, I’d totally forgotten.
“Someone want to clue us in here?” Maxine drawled.
I looked at Master Aki. “We’ve got a solid idea to end the Dream Wars, but I’m gonna need a lot of help.”
It was time to put in the work on this plan.
After we’d awoken the boys and told them our ghoul experiment plans, they were all too eager to help. Master Aki, Josephine, Mr. Hansen, and Jeremy stayed behind with Lucy and worked on supporting Jeremy in anything he’d need. They’d brought some of his lab supplies on the chopper but not much.
We’d flown the helicopter down to the surface to go hunting. I’d given Dawn and the other Galadrias strict instructions not to help. I didn’t want them getting hurt. The last thing we needed was for one of them to get taken and for a breeder to control their hive mind again.
“What if they don’t die when we send them through?” Ronnie asked as we walked the surface looking for ghouls. “The sentries and grunts?”
I shrugged. “Then we’ll make another plan. We can still kill all the breeders this way, and since they control this world, that in itself will do a lot of damage.”
She nodded.
“We’ve been at this an hour, Brisk grumbled. “How it is that when we drop in at night there are ghoulies coming out of the woodwork, and now that we want one, there’s nothing?”
“Because that’s how things work. When you want something to happ—” My gripe was cut off by gunfire.
We’d been walking the Dream War for an hour and had somewhat let our guard down. But the sound of bullets snapping near my feet brought me to full alert. A quick glance over my shoulder, I paled. A freaking group of about five sentries and two breeders were coming up behind us.
Fast.
“Open the thing!” Nox yelled. We still hadn’t given a name to my gift. Opening? Portal? Thing worked too.
We’d all started to run, shooting at the advancing horde over our shoulders.
“Should I get the chopper?” the pilot asked, looking fearfully at the group.
“No, don’t split up!” I told him. They’d pick him off easily if he were to do that.
Taking a deep breath, I started to feel for that thin space between our two worlds. It was harder to do while running, but I could sense it, and opening the portals, or whatever they were called, was getting easier and easier. Until a headache slammed into me with the force of a truck.
Fucking breeder.
I must have cried out. Damien grabbed me under the armpit. “What’s wrong?”
“Breeder is trying to stop me.”
“Kick her out of your head!” Ronnie shouted.
Yeah, easier said than done.
We stopped
