“Let’s get down into the water and rinse this shit off, stop it from causing more damage!” Ronnie shouted from her place on the Galadria.
‘Everyone lower into the clear blue. It’s… water… like birthing pool.’
I mean… it wasn’t as awesome and healing as the birthing pool, but I didn’t want them to fear it.
In unison, the hundreds of colored shapes lowered from the sky and settled over the lake of what I now recognized as the Pacific Northwest. I knew that was Mount Hood in the distance from a time we did a military drill there. We were in Oregon.
As we got closer to the surface of the lake, my human team leapt off the backs of the Galadrias and into the water. The two people in kayaks I’d seen earlier sat there, oars in hand, mouths gaping open.
“They’re friendly!” is all I could think to say before diving into the water after Damien. I knew just about every citizen was armed with guns in this day and age and I didn’t want an issue. Underwater, I rubbed at my skin and hissed as I felt the blisters.
“Don’t rub! Just tap lightly,” Ronnie shouted as I broke the surface. Jeremy mercifully seemed unharmed. He must have been inside a cave and then gotten out quickly, because he was standing on the shoreline rocking back and forth with Josephine before him. I submerged my hair and face, blotting lightly to get the acid diluted, wanting to weep in relief as the welts stopped burning. By the time I broke the surface, I saw that all the Galadrias were submerged too.
‘Dawn likes clear blue,’ she told me, ‘Dawn likes Earth. Is like big Skyhome.’ She was right, Earth was like a giant Skyhome, and I swam over to inspect her wounds.
Tears rolled down my face. ‘Thank you for waiting for me.’
‘Always,’ she said into my mind, and nuzzled my chest lightly.
‘Kit…?’ Her voice suddenly sounded worried.
I knew they didn’t have any food, and I was going to work on that.
‘I’ll see if I can get you guys some kind of food—’
‘Humans are mad,’ was all she said, and I spun around to see a couple dozen campers at the edge of the lake, guns drawn.
Shit.
“Stop!” I shouted. “Don’t shoot!” Swimming like a madwoman, no matter how much it hurt, I paddled to the edge of the water where they stood.
“I’m a—” I couldn’t even get a word out when one of the men looked at me and gasped.
“It’s that freaky chick from the video! She’s friends with these monsters.”
Oh God. That freckle-faced little shit. I’d forgotten about him. Pulling myself up out of the water, I opened my palms.
“Yes. I am the one from the video. When the Dream Wars started… years ago… I obtained special… powers.”
Oh God, was I really doing this?
Master Aki popped up beside me and nodded.
I am.
They were watching me with cautious but curious gazes.
“I can speak into the minds of the Galadrias. They are gentle creatures and do not align with the ghouls.”
A man holding an assault rifle spat at my feet. “Bullshit. They’re aliens and now you’ve brought them to our world. Are you crazy?” He seemed to just now notice the blisters on my arms for the first time. His eyes roamed over them.
I pressed: “How many stories have you heard where these creatures have hurt anyone?”
Shame colored each and every one of their faces, because they knew I was right. A Galadria never hurt humans; they were always trying to help.
“One saved my aunt last year,” a camper pipped in from the back.
“I got help from one too,” a woman admitted to the far left.
Assault Rifle growled. “Doesn’t matter, they shouldn’t be here.”
I wanted to open a gateway into the Dream War and chuck him inside, but I had to tamp down my anger. “Well, they are. As my guests, so don’t you dare fucking point that gun at them.”
Okay, my anger was not tamped down.
“Or what?” The man’s face settled into a grim line.
Oh hell no. I didn’t have time for this.
“Or I’m not going to tell you a secret I just found out. A huge secret that changes everything, a secret that can end the Dream Wars.”
Okay, I was baiting him like a child, but it was all I had and the human instinct to know secrets was so big. I was hoping it overpowered his need to shoot things.
We stood there, face to face in a standoff for a good minute before he lowered his weapon.
“What secret?” he growled.
He must have seen the video. He knew I could do crazy shit. I stepped closer to him.
“The females and the sentries, they both turned to ash when I chucked them through the portal and into Earth. They can’t survive in our atmosphere.”
The gathering of people gasped and then grinned, some even breaking into laughter. But the assault rifle guy looked to be in total shock.
He grunted. “You’re sure?”
I nodded. “Did it twice. This is it. This is how we end them.”
It was a game changer.
“How can we help you?” he finally said, and the others shouted out in agreement. I hadn’t meant to start a little revolution, but I would need allies, especially when the government showed up… which they would.
“Keep an eye on social media. If the government won’t work with me, I’ll need civilian help.”
They nodded, and just as I thought it, a half dozen Apache helicopters appeared over the horizon.
Game on.
I was in pain, and to be honest a little bit scared. But today was the day we changed things. I just needed to play my cards right.
Six
A female military officer with her blond hair tied into a tight bun held firmly to her weapon. “And you expect us to just believe you? That you can make ‘portals’ into their world.” She used
