Page 99 of Sweet Nightmare

“Exactly like Ember, only not. I could see right away—” My voice breaks, but I clear my throat. Force myself to keep talking. “I could see right away that it wasn’t the same.”

“Because she was really burning,” he supplies.

“Yes. I swear, I tried to put the fire out. I used everything I had to try to—” I’m shouting to be heard above the continuous roll of thunder above us, and my voice breaks again. “I tried to put her out, but I couldn’t. Nothing I did worked. No matter what I did, I couldn’t save her.”

“It’s not your fault,” Jude tells me, face grim.

“It feels like my fault,” I answer. “I tried to call for help in the middle of it all, but Michaels didn’t answer and then…then it was too late. It just happened so fast.”

“Michaels didn’t answer?” He looks surprised, and I get it. Michaels is the dorm director, and he always answers.

“No one did. I don’t know if the storm…” I trail off, suddenly too exhausted to say any more.

“We need to call him again,” Jude says, pulling me over to the front porch of one of the other cottages to get us out of the rain. “And we should probably call your mom, too.”

“I know. I was about to—” I break off as my cottage shudders violently before starting to collapse in on itself. Flames lick along the caving-in roof, but it’s only a matter of a couple minutes before the downpour takes care of it, extinguishing the flames just as the roof falls in completely.

“Eva’s in there,” I whisper, my whole body shaky as I stare at the rubble that was once my home.

“We’ll get her out,” Jude promises as he wraps his arms around my waist from behind so I can lean back against his chest for support. “But there’s nothing that can hurt her in there anymore.”

Knowing that doesn’t make it any easier to just leave what’s left of Eva there. Alone. In the dark and the storm.

But Jude’s right. There are things that need to be done right now. “I’ll call my mom. You call Michaels.”

He nods as he pulls out his phone and starts dialing while I do the same.

But the moment I hit the green phone icon, the call drops.

I try again, but it happens a second time. And a third time. And a fourth time.

“I’m not getting through,” Jude says, shoving a hand through his hair in obvious frustration.

“It’s got to be the storm, right?” I tell him. “It’s blocking out the cell signal.”

“Gotta be,” he agrees. “We’re going to have to go to Michaels’s place.”

“I know.” I glance back at the cottage, at Eva. I don’t know why, but leaving her alone seems so wrong.

Jude sees the look. “I can go by myself. You can stay here.” The with Eva part goes unsaid but not unmeant.

“No. I need to tell him what happened. He’s going to have to try to get in touch with her family.” I’m not sure her parents will care, but they deserve to know what happened to their daughter. Not that I actually know the answer to that. I just know what I saw.

Jude nods, and we head toward the main dorm. Since it houses the underclassmen, the dorm supervisor’s apartment is always on the first floor.

“It’s strange that Danson and Aguilar haven’t come,” I tell him. “I thought they were patrolling all night.”

“Me, too,” he answers, sounding more concerned than confused.

I start to ask what he’s thinking, but before I can get the words out, an explosion rocks the air around us and sends us flying off our feet.

CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO

HARD-CORE

COTTAGE GORE

I go sailing through the ragged, bleached-out railing of the cottage we’re in front of—Caspian’s cottage—and land, face-first, on his bright-red Calder Academy welcome mat. Seconds later, Jude lands half on me and half in a hole he created in the porch.

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