Page 135 of Sweet Nightmare

I head toward the hallway that leads to the outer door to investigate, but I barely make it across the room before Ms. Aguilar, Danson, and—I’m guessing—what’s left of the student body pour into the room.

There are only sixty or so students in total, which makes me a little sick when I think about how many students were still on the beach when the portal broke. Just about the entire senior class—which is well over a hundred students—and there are juniors here, too, so who knows how many of them were caught in the portal and spat back out when it broke. Not to mention a handful of teachers.

Maybe some of them, like my mom, got sucked through the portal to the other side and are currently warm and dry and not the least bit concerned about hurricanes or nightmares or any of the things I’m currently freaking out about.

But I know that has to account for only a small number of the missing. The rest drowned in the waves or died in the nightmare attack or, worse, at the hands of their peers once we all got our powers back.

It’s a terrible thought, one that has tears welling in my eyes and sorrow clogging my throat.

I force myself to breathe through the pain and the horror.

There’s time later to deal with everything that’s happened. Right now, we just have to make it through the next twenty-four hours or so, until the storm hopefully dissipates.

“Oh, Clementine!” Ms. Aguilar trills as she catches sight of me.

I’m glad to see she’s okay. I’ve been worried about her since I pulled her out of the surf on the beach—but she’s definitely looking a little worse for wear. The rain has washed away a lot of the blood from her head injury, revealing the gaping cut on her forehead. Plus, her normally sparkly clothes are ripped and covered with mud, and one of her brightly colored wings is half torn off her back.

“There you are, Calder!” Danson growls as he barrels into the room. He’s looking better than she is, but barely. The minotaur doesn’t have any visible wounds, but one of his horns is hanging by a thread next to his cheek, and somewhere along the way he lost his shirt. “We could have used your help out there.”

“To be fair, I could have used yours, sir. I ended up in a fight for my life with a bunch of leopards.”

As if on cue, one of those leopards—now in human form—lets out a loud growl.

“Cut it out,” Danson snaps. “We’re not doing this territorial shit anymore, got it?”

The leopard doesn’t answer, so I take it as a yes.

So does Danson, who says, “Good,” then proceeds to bark out orders like he’s a captain in the Minotaur Court guard.

He sends me to raid the store closet for more clothes to hand out to everyone as Ms. Aguilar checks them in on a bunch of loose-leaf paper my very strict mother would never approve of.

Once that’s done, he puts Luis and me on snack distribution duty while Jude and the others are put in charge of towel and blanket distribution. Thankfully the kitchen witches had conjured up a lot of snacks back when we were running around trying to secure the school from the storm.

Not that our efforts seem to be doing much good right now as I’ve never felt more insecure. Especially since Luis and I are currently walking around the common room handing out pretzels and Cheez-Its to a bunch of paranormals who look like they want to kill us.

And by us, I mean me.

Which I understand. They’re looking for someone to blame for the mess, and I’m the only one in the room with Calder in their name.

If I was them, I’d blame me, too.

I’m seeing most of them in triplicate, so their extra heap of enmity doesn’t make the job easier. Something needs to give with that damn tapestry of Jude’s, because I really can’t keep doing this.

I yelp as a flicker appears right in front of me, and I walk through it before I can stop myself. I jump back as soon as it registers, but not before burning pain explodes through me.

For a second, it’s like I can feel every single individual molecule inside me and they’re all slamming against each other and against the inside of my skin all at the same time. It hurts even worse than I remember.

My eyes meet the flicker’s, and I gasp, because for once I recognize this flicker. Not just because I’ve seen him before, but because it’s Luis, only now there’s a huge, gaping wound right in the center of his chest.

CHAPTER SEVENTY-ONE

LET’S NOT DO THE

TIME WARP AGAIN

“Clementine—” he gasps as he reaches for me.

I’m so shocked, so shattered, that I don’t even jump back to avoid the contact. Instead, I move forward, tears I’m barely aware of crying pouring down my face as I reach for him, too.

---