Page 139 of Sweet Nightmare

“So you’re funneling our nightmares away from us before we have them?” I ask, trying to understand how he does it.

He blows out a long breath. “Something like that, yeah.”

“Now that I think about it like that, that’s totally badass,” Mozart says. “I’ve actually really enjoyed my three years without nightmares, so…thanks, Jude.”

I can tell her words matter to him, can see the way his shoulders and his jaw relax just a little bit when he realizes that he’s not under attack. We’re really just trying to understand.

“When you take the nightmares, where do they go?” Ember asks, and for once she doesn’t sound pissed off at the world. Just curious.

“Forget where you put them,” Mozart interjects. “I want to know how you can do this when your powers are locked down. None of this should even be possible.”

“They can’t lock my powers down.”

“Seriously?” Ember asks, eyes all but bugging out of her head. “You have your magic?”

“And you didn’t say anything to us?” Mozart looks as surprised by that as she does by the fact that he still has his power.

“I didn’t know what to say,” he answers, exasperated. “It’s a huge deal to everyone here and it seemed like a real dick move to brag about it.”

She thinks about it for a second—everyone does—and then Simon shrugs. “To be fair, you pull a lot of dick moves, so you can understand our confusion.”

Jude rolls his eyes at that while the others laugh, and apparently, the crisis has been averted.

“While all of this is fascinating,” Izzy suddenly comments in a voice that says it’s anything but, “none of it is getting us any closer to figuring out why the tapestry is broken.”

The ghosts must be over whatever drama is happening on the beach because they’ve started to appear, milling around me, looking for attention. I try to ignore them, but it’s getting harder and harder to pretend I don’t notice them.

“Plus, none of this explains why the Jean-Jerks want the tapestry,” I say.

“Or why Clementine is suddenly seeing past, present, and future,” Luis adds.

“None of this makes any sense.” Jude sounds adamant. “The tapestry doesn’t have anything to do with that stuff. It’s just where I filter the nightmares, so they can go back into the Firmament, before slowly filtering back into the world again.”

“But there has to be something you’re missing,” Simon tells him, sounding as frustrated as Jude looks. “Talk us through the process. Maybe we can find the answer if you break it down for us.”

“It’s not that complicated,” Jude answers. “Every night, I filter the nightmares away from people and onto my skin, where I store them.”

As if to underscore what he’s saying—or maybe because they just know he’s talking about them—the nightmares around his neck begin to wriggle up past the crewneck collar of his shirt to his neck.

Jude ignores them.

“From there, you funnel them straight into the tapestry?” Remy asks, though he looks as distracted as I feel. He keeps scanning the room like he’s waiting for something, while I can’t help noticing the telltale sparkle that points to the fact that a bunch of flickers have joined the ghosts inside.

“Not exactly,” Jude answers. “Nightmares can’t go directly into the tapestry—”

“What do you mean?” Simon asks him incredulously. “What’s the point of having a dream tapestry, then?”

“Why can’t they go directly in?” Mozart asks him.

“It seems like an illogical design—” Ember starts.

“He was seven!” I say loudly enough to be heard over all of them. “When he got here. He was seven, and he had nobody to really teach him. So maybe if you have problems with the way the tapestry works, you should take it up with the person who actually designed it!”

My voice is definitely loud enough to command attention in the group, considering they all turn toward me as one—notably Mozart with raised brows and Ember with a self-satisfied little smile dancing around the corners of her lips.

Unfortunately, my raised voice has also attracted the attention of the ghosts and flickers in the room, none of whom look particularly happy about my outburst.

CHAPTER SEVENTY-FOUR

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