Borderlands (The Dreams of Reality Book 5)

by Gareth Otton

Lizzie looked infinitely better than she had last night. Colour had returned to her cheeks, the nurses had cleaned her up, and now she looked like a healthy young woman asleep in the bed. Curled up in the chair beside the bed, Jen was also fast asleep, soft snores breaking the silence.

  Tad took a moment to watch her sleep, a proud smile forming on his face as he remembered watching her work. In his head he always thought of Jen as a little girl who needed to be protected at all costs, but last night she did things that left a room of adults speechless. She looked tiny in the chair so he could still see the child he remembered, but he saw a young woman as well, one who would change the world one day.

  “What are you grinning at?” a familiar voice asked from behind him, and he turned to find Stella had arrived with Leon and Miles one step behind her.

  Before Tad had chance to answer, Miles rushed past and hurried to the side of the bed, falling into the remaining unoccupied chair and reaching for Lizzie’s hand as tears ran down his cheeks. Tad was surprised by the technician’s actions until his tired mind put the clues together. Turning to Stella, he saw by her lack of surprise that she had come to the same conclusion long before him.

  “Since when were those two a thing?” he asked.

  “Since before you dealt with Kuruk the first time.”

  “What?” Tad’s surprise made his voice a touch louder than expected. Stella smiled and shook her head.

  “You really are blind to what’s right in front of you sometimes,” she said. She would have said more, but a groan from the bed made all of them look up just in time to see Lizzie’s eyes blink open.

  Those eyes bounced around the room, looking but not seeing as she put together the clues of where she was. A crease formed on her brow as she didn’t recognise her surroundings, but as she recognised the people her eyes snapped open and she struggled to sit up, her hands, trying to feel for the injuries on her stomach even as Miles tried to hold her back.

  “Liz, it’s okay,” Miles soothed. “You’re in the hospital, but you’re alright?”

  “Hospital?” she asked, though Tad doubted she was actually looking for information. It was more like a signal of her brain going through the motions. She probed at her stomach, wincing at first, but then pressing harder when she realised there was no pain. “I was stabbed,” she whispered. “He, stabbed me… he…”

  Her voice trembled as the memory overtook her and tears formed. Recognising what was happening, Miles climbed onto the bed and pulled her into a hug. He was just in time to catch her sobs. Lizzie clung to him like a drowning woman clings to driftwood, and she buried her face in his chest, shoulders shaking as she let out the pain of the memories that were no doubt impossible to endure.

  For a moment Tad just watched, unable to move. It killed him to see his friend this way. Lizzie was one of the strongest people he knew and to see her so overcome with emotion was unbearable. Suddenly he wanted nothing more than to find whoever did this and make them pay.

  “Tad, come on.”

  Stella’s gentle words drew his attention, and when she nodded at the door, he realised she was right to want to give them some space. He glanced at Jen, but she was still out cold. Considering just how much she had exhausted herself, he didn’t see that changing soon. Therefore, Tad left her behind as he followed Stella and Leon into the hall.

  Twenty minutes was as long as Tad could bring himself to wait before returning. He knocked cautiously before entering and poked his head inside to check the coast was clear. Seeing that the atmosphere in the room had changed, he stepped inside, a little confused at what he found.

  Jen was still asleep, but she was no longer on the chair beside the bed. Instead she was lying beside Lizzie and wrapped up in a tight embrace. Lizzie was wide awake and contrary to how she had looked when Tad left, her bright green eyes sparkled with mirth at the confused expression on his face.

  “Apparently saving my life took it out of her,” Lizzie said with genuine warmth. “After Miles told me what she did, I had to wake her up to thank her. I think I managed a hug and a few words before she was unconscious again.”

  “Here, let me take her,” Tad said, coming around the bed.

  “No, let her sleep. She’s earned it.”

  “She’s not bothering you? You’re still in recovery you know.”

  “I’m fine,” Lizzie argued. “It just feels like bad bruises, there’s no serious pain, thanks to her.”

  As if Jen knew she was being talked about, she snorted in her sleep which made Lizzie laugh and Tad smile. At the sound of laughter, Stella and Leon stepped back into the room and Lizzie looked up, her smile widening at the sight of Leon.

  “Ah, the other hero I need to thank. I’d hug you too, but I’m afraid I’m a little tied up right now,” she said. Leon blushed and waved her off, clearly uncomfortable. Though not as uncomfortable as he was about to be. “As grateful as I am for what you did, Leon, I think you know the question I have to ask, right?”

  “How was Leon there to help you?”

  It was Stella who answered when Leon cringed and looked away, having second thoughts about being in this room.

  “Of course you’d get it,” Lizzie said, trying for sassy but unable to muster the normal vitriol she would put into the words. Contrary to how she had been when she woke, she was like a new woman filled with life and energy. ”You had him following me, didn’t you.”

  “I did,” Stella agreed, not denying it for a second. Lizzie wasn’t shocked in the slightest, unlike Tad. The obvious surprise on his face made Lizzie laugh.

  “You’re still an idiot sometimes, Tad,” she said, somehow making the insult sound like a compliment. “Let me guess, he’s been following me because you know what I’ve been working on.”

  “It wasn’t hard to figure out,” Stella agreed. “It’s you we’re talking about after all.”

  Again Lizzie laughed and even Stella grinned, something that was starting to freak Tad out. He was used to these two fighting and to see them so friendly was unnatural.

  “So what were you working on?” Miles asked, joining Tad as the only other person in the room who didn’t know what the hell was happening.

  “I was looking into the Eidolon,” Lizzie said. “After what happened last month and everything Stella and Leon told me, I wanted to know more about these people.”

  “Really? After you already know how dangerous they are?” Tad asked at the same time that Miles also spoke.

  “Eidolon?”

  “Remember my story about how dreamwalkers weren’t the only supernatural things in the world?” Lizzie answered Miles. “Well, these two are and their people are what I was talking about,” she said, nodding to Stella and Leon.

  She continued telling him a fantastical tale about how the Greek Gods weren’t myths, but people who could do incredible things because they were powered by the belief people had in them. It said a lot for how much the world had changed since the Merging that it looked like Miles took Lizzie’s word at face value and questioned little. After all, if dreams could come true, then this wasn’t much different, right?

  “So if you already know this, what were you trying to find out?” Miles asked, glancing at Leon and Stella like they were aliens.

  “Please, you think she’d ever tell me anything and not hold back the juiciest part of the story?” Lizzie asked, nodding at Stella. “Besides, if I want to go public with it I need proof.”

  “Go public?” Leon asked. “You can’t do that. They’ll come after you… hell, they already did.”

  “No, I think they were after Jalen,” Lizzie disagreed. “There was no way they could have tracked me out there as I was using my dreamcatcher to get around.”

  “That wasn’t why I insisted you get that,” Tad pointed out. But this new Lizzie, who seemed full of life, just poked her tongue out at him instead of arguing her point.

  “We’re serious, Lizzie. You can’t—” Leon started, but Stella cut him off.

  “What h
ave you found out?”

  Lizzie glanced at Stella and hesitated for the first time, trying to decide just how much to share.

  “A lot, and not enough. I know you told me the truth, and I also know that it was just the tip of the iceberg. I’ve found a lot of rumours about what these guys are involved in, but until now I didn’t have any proof.”

  “Until now?” Stella asked.

  “That’s why I was in New Zealand. I was chasing down a lead on this guy who’s work crew was killed in an accident that should never have happened. Jalen thought they were killed to cover up a secret. He only spoke about stolen art or something like that, but I think he stumbled on something bigger. I think he found where these guys are based. He said it was called New Olympus, and he was about to tell me more when…”

  Her words trailed off as for the first time since they came back into the room her smile faltered. A haunted look entered her eyes that lingered until Lizzie visibly pushed a hard memory aside and got control of herself.

  “I don’t know where it is yet, but I will find out,” Lizzie announced, drawing a frown from Miles and Tad.

  “Getting stabbed wasn’t enough of a reason to back off this?” Miles asked.

  Lizzie shot him a glance Tad recognised all too well. It was a look that said that he was treading on dangerous ice and he should drop the topic right now.

  “Don’t look at me like that. Not when you almost got killed last night for a stupid story.”

  “Stupid story? We’ve been over this, Miles. This is what I do for a living and that won’t change. It’s who I am, so you need to get on board with that.”

  “I’m never going to get on board with you throwing your life away,” Miles snapped, and it might have sparked a much bigger argument had Stella not spoken.

  “It’s in Athens.”

  “What?” Lizzie asked.

  “New Olympus is in Athens. The Eidolon Council have their chambers at the top of the tower. The head of the Eidolon council, a man called Elias Masalis, lives on the top floor. From what my grandmother told me, his home is filled with ancient Greek art and wonders that belong in a museum. It wouldn’t surprise me if that’s what Jalen saw that got him killed.”

  Lizzie blinked and her mouth hung open before she asked. “How long have you known this?”

  “About where the tower is? A few months. Leon has always known. About the fact that Elias is the head of the council and is surrounded by wondrous works of art, maybe for a couple of weeks. After the Eidolon came for us and weren’t successful, Leon and Tad moved my grandmother to a safe location. She mentioned she had been called to a meeting there.”

  “Typical. I knew you were hiding something.”

  Bizzarely, the bitterness in Lizzie’s tone was something that told Tad that she was on the mend and things were getting back to normal.

  “I suppose you’re going to tell me not to go to this tower or to keep looking into this,” Lizzie said.

  “Actually, I want you to keep looking into this.”

  “What?” Tad, Lizzie and Miles asked together.

  Stella rolled her eyes at their surprise, but answered anyway.

  “I can’t go into it yet, but me, Tad and the Dream Team are all busy right now.”

  Lizzie’s expression turned sympathetic, and she looked at Tad.

  “The attack on your house, I heard. I’m so sorry.”

  Tad smiled to acknowledge her sympathy, but didn’t answer. With everything that happened to Lizzie, he’d pushed that to the back of his mind. Her mentioning it now made him realise it was like a black hole that would consume him if his thoughts drifted within range of its massive gravity. For now, he kept his thoughts focused on this conversation.

  “So you see, I don’t have time to investigate the Eidolon like I want,” Stella said. “We may disagree on how it gets done, but we agree on the fact that the Eidolon have existed in the shadows long enough. I hate that they think they can just kill people who go against them like they are untouchable, and the best way to fight back is to expose their organisation to the light.”

  “Won’t that just make them stronger?” Tad argued. “The more people who see them, the more people will believe in their power.”

  “It all depends on how they’re exposed,” Stella disagreed. “If we expose them in a way that casts doubt on their powers and their organisation, then it will do the opposite. Remember, it was doubt that toppled the Greek pantheon.”

  “Doubt?” Miles asked, not getting it. Lizzie said nothing, but it was clear on her face that she wasn’t getting it either.

  “The belief of others powers our people. People see me as strong, and therefore I am strong,” Leon said. “The more people who believe that, the stronger I get. But what if you were to find some really dense material, something that didn’t look heavy but was? Then if I tried to lift it and struggled, you might question just how strong I was. You would doubt I was stronger than a normal man. If this happened enough, then the belief that powered me would be gone.”

  “So if we can expose the Eidolon in the right way, prove they aren’t all powerful beings and are no better than normal humans who are hungry for power, then we can stop them,” Stella argued.

  “And you want me to do that?” Lizzie asked.

  “Like I said, I don’t have time to look into it or I would make that my priority. But this is something that needs to happen soon because these eidolon don’t like that me and Leon are still alive. With their resources, it’s just a matter of time before they send an attack at us that I can’t avoid.”

  Tad had plenty of objections at the thought of getting Lizzie involved, but Stella’s words shut him up. He hadn’t thought of that with everything else going on, but Stella was right. With her concentrating on the war and everything happening in the Borderlands, she would be turning a blind eye to the threat of the eidolon and she would be putting herself in danger.

  However, Miles’ worries weren’t so easily pushed aside.

  “So you want Lizzie to risk her life to keep you safe,” he demanded, his tone spiteful.

  “It’s not like that, and you know it,” Stella answered. “We all know Lizzie won’t stop looking into this anyway, so there’s no point fighting her. Besides, we’re not the only ones who need to worry about this. Lizzie is on their hit list as well. They won’t have forgotten the video she put out about other supernatural people and they will want to shut her down before she can find out more.

  “But… I mean… It’s too dangerous… She could…”

  Miles sounded desperate as he tried to find the right argument to protest, and Tad felt for the man.

  “She won’t be alone, Miles. Leon is going to help her,” Stella said.

  “He is?” Lizzie asked with a frown. “Help or reign in? I don’t need him spying on me for you and trying to—”

  “Help,” Stella argued, cutting Lizzie off. “Look, I know we don’t see eye to eye on a lot of things and if I could, I would rather do this myself and bring the eidolon to justice through legal means. But I can’t do that and this is one situation where shining a light on it journalistically might be even more helpful than anything I can do. You can affect the opinions of millions of people, and it’s that sort of thing we need to do in order to control the story and create doubt. As much as it pains me to admit this, you might be better suited to this than I am.”

  A stunned silence settled over the room and it took another of Jen’s well timed snores to snap everyone out of it.

  Tad realised that he should take Jen somewhere to rest properly. His first thought was to take her home, and that slip up pulled him into the black hole and sent him down a dark mental path. Memories flashed through his mind of smoke, fire, and ruin. It had been one hell of a night where he came close to losing everything that was important to him, including one of his closest friends, who was stabbed because there was no one to protect her. A part of him was hurt that she never came to him for help with something like th
is, that he couldn’t have been there for her. It was an unreasonable thought, but he couldn’t cast it aside so easily.

  He should have expected an attack on his house. He should have been more prepared to defend his family. He should have been keeping a better eye on Lizzie. He should have been able to stop this war before it got this far… He should have been able to do so much more.

  The others were talking about new topics Tad didn’t hear as he made the mental decision to stop letting things like this happen. He needed to focus on getting stronger and to stop letting people down with his inaction. He needed to keep the people in his life safe and end the threats against them once and for all.

  But you’re only one man.

  Somehow that single logical statement slipped through his darker thoughts, and though he tried to ignore it, he couldn’t deny it was true. Doing so would let these people down again because he would inevitably fail at some point, and they would pay the price.

  He searched his brain for a way to keep these people safe, and when he found an answer, he blurted it out without thinking, interrupting the current conversation.

  “You all need dreamcatchers,” he said.

  “What?” Stella asked after a moment of surprised silence.

  “You and Lizzie need dreamcatchers. You need it so you can dreamwalk without needing to rely on Freckles. You never know when he may not be able to help, and I’ll sleep better if you can get out of any situation with a thought. It’ll also help with your motion sickness whenever we travel.”

  Before she could argue, he turned to Lizzie and said, “And you need more dreamcatchers than just the dreamwalking one. I want you to be able to defend yourself should something like this ever happen again.”

  “Don’t encourage her to fight,” Miles argued, not liking this at all.

  “I’m not encouraging anything. I’m just trying to give her options so that if she’s ever attacked again, she can fight off her attackers long enough that she can get away.”

  Liking that thought, Miles said, “Oh, that’s okay then. I agree.”

  “Don’t I get a say in this?” Lizzie asked.