“Turned to ash,” I said for the fifth time.
I was in a tent that the military had erected beside the lake. Trillium Lake in Oregon, where we were currently housing the last of the Galadria race. They’d wanted to just start blowing shit up first and ask questions later, but my declaration had stopped them. They’d seen the video too, although they claimed it could have been CGI.
“I don’t expect you to believe me. I can show you if you like. It was acid raining there a moment ago and still could be, so we would need proper suits.”
Her eyes flew wide. “Just like that, you’ll open a ‘portal’ and take my team in?”
I nodded, trying not to laugh at the fact that she was still using air quotes. “We can find some grunts. I haven’t tried throwing them through yet, but I assume they will burn up too. This is how we’re going to end the Dream Wars.”
I saw the very moment I gave her hope. Her eyebrows drew together and she swallowed hard.
“So, if the grunts burn up too… you could do this on a larger scale?” The wheels were turning.
I nodded. “My associate is going to make a plan. I’m assuming we lure them with some type of device or firepower if we need to. I open it and we shove them through. Watch those motherfuckers burn.”
My associate was Jeremy.
Now she was grinning. “Let me speak to my Captain.”
I wasn’t in handcuffs. They’d asked me pretty calmly to come speak to them. They’d seen my video. If the Galadrias weren’t here, I think it would have gone much more smoothly, but the sight of all the colored beasts floating in the lake had spooked them a bit.
She left and I waited. And waited. And waited.
“Just let me check on her!” I heard Ronnie scream outside the tent after a while.
“This is a classified situation, ma’am. No civilians.”
“Oh, fuck off, we’re all ex-army, you prick.” Maxine’s Texan drawl lashed out at the poor guy.
“Hey!” he shouted, and Ronnie slipped inside the tent.
Her eyes washed over me. “Damien is freaking out. I told him I’d check on you. You okay?”
A guard burst in a moment later and grabbed Ronnie by the armpit.
Bad idea.
With a battle cry, she thrust her weight forward and flipped the dude over her back until he was flat on the floor, gasping for air, the wind knocked out of him.
The woman who’d been interrogating me before, Mrs. Tight bun, popped her head in and looked at her fallen man.
“Kit Steele isn’t a prisoner. Her friends can come and go,” she informed him.
He took in a huge breath of air and shot Ronnie a glare. “It’s classified.”
Tight bun rolled her eyes. “They were just in there with her. They know everything we know and more. Get out.”
I grinned as he sulked his way out of the tent.
Ronnie held out her hand. “Dr. Ronnie Soto, trauma surgeon.”
The woman shook it and nodded. “I know who you are. I have a file on your entire team.”
Shit.
I didn’t like the sound of that, and neither did Ronnie from the look of her glare.
“My Captain has okayed the experiment,” the lady told me. “I’ll just need you to sign a waiver admitting that you could be injured or killed in this process and you won’t hold the US government liable.”
Ronnie and I shared a look, then bust out laughing.
The woman glared.
“Sorry. It’s just ... I do this for a living. I used to protect the president,” I informed her.
The woman nodded. “I know. Mrs. Buckley told me. She’s on her way. I still need you to sign the form.”
She told her? She was on her way?
Whoa. This had reached top brass. Now I was nervous.
I knew the president had sort of been in on the new world order, or whatever that shit was where they’d aligned with the ghouls in order to kill off most of the population and not come to harm themselves, but that had all gone to shit now that the new ships had shown up, and from what I’d heard, Buckley had been blackmailed into participating. They used her kid as a pawn. Maybe I could trust her… I had once before.
I waved my hand. “Yeah, I’ll sign whatever.”
Ronnie growled. “I need to treat my patient if she’s going back in there. We all just got acid-rained on. I’m still analyzing what it was they dropped on us. She has second degree chemical burns.”
The woman put up her hands. “Like I said, she isn’t a prisoner. Treat your patient, but we move out in sixty minutes. If she can prove what she says is true… well, we will talk about that then.”
Ronnie raised an eyebrow. “If you’re questioning her ability to open windows into their world, then how did the Galadrias get here?”
The woman just stared at my bestie for a full minute before leaving. She didn’t have an answer for that.
“So, what the hell is going on? You’re taking them in?” Ronnie’s eyes went wide as she set down her medical bag and started to dress my wounds. There were too many blisters on my arms to wrap them all, so she just focused on the more serious-looking ones.
“I think it’s the only way to end things. We need to work together. Humanity needs to work as one.”
Ronnie gave me a look. “How very political of you.” She winked.
I reached out and grabbed her arm. “I’m serious, Ronnie. What if we could really end this? What if you can fall asleep next to Brisk for the rest of your life and just… dream. We could have kids. Our children’s children would never know of this war except in books and history classes.”
She stilled. My normally robotic bestie met my gaze and I saw a tear travel down her cheek.
“Brisk wants to get married, have kids and all that.
