Page 128 of Sweet Nightmare

It’s Luis. And he’s okay. Roughed up, but okay.

For the first time since I washed up on the beach, fear gives way to relief, because Luis is alive. He made it through the portal and the ocean, and he’s right here, in front of me.

He runs straight toward me, shifting and wrapping me in a hug. I try my hardest to keep my tail exactly where it is so I don’t hurt Luis more than he already is.

“How did you get out of the water?” he asks when he finally lets me go.

“Jude found me.” I do my best to keep from blushing. “How about you?”

He lifts a brow. “I’m a wolf, baby. I doggy paddled my ass back to the beach.”

“That’s got to be one hell of a doggy paddle,” I tell him with a huge grin.

“We should probably hurry this reunion up,” a British accent calls as Remy and Izzy come into view. Looks like Remy has recovered from his brush with Izzy’s control issues.

She points to the beach where the leopard Mozart dropped in the ocean has emerged looking like a drowned rat. And he looks pissed.

But right behind him is past, present, and future Simon. He’s got legs, but water is streaming off him in sparkly waves, and his eyes are glowing a deep, rich gold. It’s mesmerizing.

The leopard by Jude’s feet stirs as his waterlogged counterpart realizes fresh meat is right behind him.

“Go!” Simon yells at us as he locks the leopard in his hypnotic gaze.

“The dorm,” Jude declares, and everyone takes off running against the buffeting winds.

It takes longer than it should—running in a hurricane when you’re flat-out exhausted sucks—but eventually we stumble into the middle of the dorm’s common room. Or at least, what I think is the dorm’s common room. Because, from what I’m looking at, it looks like at one point this place was decked out in ornate plaster starfish and glass sea urchins. While in the future, it’s become an arcade, complete with air hockey tables and very high-tech game machines.

One by one, everyone comes bursting in through the doors, drenched and panting for breath. Even Simon, who has miraculously caught up with us. He skids to a stop and slams the doors closed with the force of his whole body.

Everyone has shifted back to their human form, which leaves me the only one not to have done it. It’s not that I don’t want to transform. I just don’t know how. I’m petrified to end up unmeshed all over again.

Ember figures out what the problem is before anyone else, because all three versions of her pull me aside.

“You’re overthinking it. You just need to imagine being in your human form and it’ll work.”

“That’s it?” I ask, highly skeptical.

She snorts. “Well, don’t imagine you’re Zendaya and expect it to happen. But if you picture yourself, it should be a pretty easy transformation.”

I’m not sure I buy it, but I figure what’s one more near-death experience for the day?

“Don’t think about what happened earlier,” Ember advises as I start to close my eyes. “Just picture your human form and will it to happen.”

I do exactly what Ember tells me. I close my eyes, picture myself in my human form, and try to manifest it.

Except…nothing happens.

Ember rolls her eyes and barks, “Concentrate. You have to really believe it’s going to happen or it won’t.”

I spend several seconds thinking specifically about my dark-brown hair, which I’m pretty sure looks like a rat’s nest at this point, courtesy of the monster attack, rain, and seawater.

Then I move on to thinking about my blue eyes and their surprisingly long lashes. And the freckles on my nose. And the small dimple in my chin—

All of a sudden, a bunch of sparks start to go off inside my body. They start at my feet and work their way all the way up to my chest and neck and head. Moments later, I’m back to regular human Clementine.

“See? Told ya it was easy.” Ember looks me over from head to toe, then holds out her hand. “Give me your hand.” She nods to the one the leopard tried to gnaw off.

“What?” I ask, mystified.

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