Page 123 of Sweet Nightmare

But he looks as grim-faced as Ember does. “She can’t swim,” he tells me.

“What? How—”

I break off as Ember grabs onto Jude’s hand. “She was with me when the portal broke, but I lost her when we fell. I couldn’t hold on to her. I couldn’t—” She breaks off on a sob. “You have to find her, Jude!”

But he’s already gone, running straight into the ocean after Simon.

Terror clutches me, and I think about running after him. But I know if I do, he’ll just have to save me again. I’m better off helping here.

I wrap an arm around Ember and move her out of the reach of the waves that keep coming farther and farther up the beach.

Once I get her settled out of range, she brushes me off to go help the others.

Please let Luis be okay.

Please let Jude be okay.

Please let Mozart be okay.

The words are a desperate mantra in my head as I run to the first person I see—a banshee I had P.E. with our freshman year. I don’t remember much about her, except she was really great at dodgeball.

But right now, present her is lying face down in the sand, while past version wrings her hands just beyond the reach of the waves.

“Alina!” I call her name as I drop to my knees beside her, but she doesn’t respond.

I roll her over and try again. “Alina!”

Still nothing.

The rain is coming down in sheets, the wind whipping along the beach, making it impossible to see if she’s unconscious or—

I don’t even let myself think it—any more than I let myself think about there not being a future version of her hovering around—as I press a hand to her chest to see if she’s breathing. Several seconds pass and nothing happens, and horror fills me.

I call Alina’s name as I lean down and try to hear if there are any breath sounds at all coming from her, but the storm is too loud. Even if she was breathing, I wouldn’t be able to hear her.

My brain is telling me she’s dead, but I can’t leave her without at least trying to save her, so I start CPR as I desperately try to remember the health class I had to take sophomore year.

I recall the teacher saying we’re not supposed to do mouth-to-mouth anymore, just chest compressions—so I start with those. But I remember the textbook explaining that there were a few exceptions, and though I can’t swear by it, I’m pretty sure drowning was one of those exceptions.

But I don’t remember for sure, and I really don’t want to mess this up.

I look around for help, but there’s no one to ask. Everyone I see is either unconscious, dead, or trying to crawl their way up the beach. I really am on my own here.

Fuck it. I bend down and blow two breaths into her mouth. Maybe I can save her, maybe I can’t. But right now, she’s already gone. At least this gives her a chance.

I do a series of chest compressions, followed by two more breaths and more chest compressions. This time, water spews out of her mouth, which I take as a good sign and keep going.

Seconds later, Alina’s eyes fly open, and she comes up swinging, even as loud, hard coughs rack her slight form.

I fall back onto my butt just in time to dodge a fist. “It’s okay!” I shout at her as a particularly virulent gust of wind howls by us. “You’re okay.”

She freezes mid-punch, her eyes wide as she registers that I was actually helping her. Then she rolls onto her knees and starts bringing up a ton of water.

And just like that, a future version of her appears in front of me.

That more than anything else convinces me that she’s okay, so I don’t stick around. Instead, I stumble to my feet and move onto the next person—a male wolf I haven’t met before. He’s relatively new to the school, and he looks like an asshole, so I’ve always given him a wide berth.

But since he’s currently crawling up the beach and puking water everywhere, I race over to see if he’s okay. His subsequent growl—which is echoed by his past and future selves—has me backing up just as quickly. Apparently, he’s just fine.

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