Night Terrors by Helen Harper Read Free Book Online Page B

certain what that something is. Marvelling at how she manages to stay on the branch, I pick my way through the rough bracken and reach out to wake her.
    ‘Don’t touch me, dreamweaver,’ she says, with her eyes still closed.  Along with Dante, Bron, Esme and Ashley, she’s the only one who’s aware of what I really am.  It doesn’t make her any more affable towards me.  She sniffs. ‘I’m resting.’
    It hadn’t occurred to me that Lilith would require sleep. She’s as much of a permanent fixture in the Dreamlands as the mares. Still, I suppose there are slim pickings to be had when most people are awake, so she has to while away the daytime doing something.
    ‘I’m sorry for interrupting,’ I say, although I’m not really. ‘Have the Department people come through here yet? To the forest, I mean?’
    Lilith still doesn’t stir although she does deign to respond. ‘What do they look like?’ she murmurs.
    Er… ‘Like,’ I pause awkwardly, ‘like people.’ Unless they sport forked tails and pointy horns. Probably not. Even the Mayor appeared benign on the surface.
    She sighs dramatically. ‘Zoe from the quiet lands, you are very tiresome. No one has been here apart from the boy.’
    Boy? Which boy? ‘Who do you mean, Lilith?’
    ‘Please. Go away and leave me in peace.’
    I frown. She’s not normally so abrupt. ‘Are you okay?’ I ask.
    She lifts up her head and her hair falls down her back in a cascade of ebony silk that I’ll always be jealous of. I take an involuntary step backwards. Lilith is normally stunningly beautiful but right now, with her eyes open and her face turned towards me, she looks gaunt. In fact, she looks skeletal.
    ‘What’s wrong?’ I ask, alarmed.
    She gives me a tired look. ‘I am hungry.’
    ‘So eat!’
    ‘I have tried. Many times. Usually it is easy to find men to do my bidding. Lately, however…’ Her voice trails off as she lifts up a shoulder in a gesture that looks remarkably like defeat.
    I can’t help but think all this is connected to the problems I’ve been experiencing, in both Archie’s dream and the ski one. I blow air out through my mouth. ‘Lilith, are people not having normal dreams?’
    She falls back down against the bough, closing her eyes once more. ‘They are not. The Badlands are coming.’
    A shiver races down my bones. ‘What does that mean?’
    She doesn’t answer. I reach out again to shake her out of her stupor but she pushes me away. Even in her apparently weakened condition, she has more strength than is natural. I fly backwards, slamming into a tree. Pain judders through me while the physical contact with the icy bark only serves to increase my shivers.
    ‘Leave me.’ Lilith’s words are distinct and her tone brooks no argument. ‘Like the mares, I am from the Badlands. Although I choose to make my home here, there is a limit to what I can say. I am bound by oaths far older than you.’ She looks at me. ‘Leave.’
    Troubled, and struggling to move properly with the pain down my spine from my collision with the tree, I drag myself away. Now I’m certain I’ve not been imagining things. Something is definitely wrong and it’s affecting more than me, Archie the taxi driver and Lady Zumba. I can only surmise that in some way this is the Department’s doing. The trouble is, I don’t understand how or why.
    More determined than ever to find out what the Department is up to, I reach behind awkwardly and try to massage my back as I stride towards the town. It goes some way towards alleviating the pain. I might be walking stiffly like an army recruit out on his first parade, but at least I am walking. I have a feeling I’m going to pay for my dogged need to keep going when I wake up.
    As per usual, the moment I step out from the forest I’m blinded by the sunshine. I blink rapidly and move behind the nearest thatched cottage until my eyes adapt. I flick a glance upwards. In the past, I’ve crossed the whole town by