Page 159 of Sweet Nightmare

“The fuck?” she asks.

“There’s a party going on right now, and it’s getting a little rambunctious.”

Ember makes a face. “We have to figure out how to fix this shit soon, because it’s really freaking me out.”

“One problem at a time,” Luis tells her. “And I say the monsters are a little more important right now.”

“That’s because you can’t hear a bunch of people talking about their favorite song.”

“Actually, I can,” he tells her. “I’ve just been ignoring it—and the horrible swing music—for the last hour.”

“That’s not swing music,” Izzy comments, rolling over onto her side. “That’s 1950s rock and roll.”

Luis gives her a look. “I don’t know what kind of rock and roll you listen to, girl, but Elvis is definitely not in this building.”

I’m particularly fascinated by their argument because I’m hearing the Beatles. To be fair, what else would be playing while kissing Jude?

“Is that what happened upstairs?” Jude asks, looking fascinated. “You heard all this?”

“No. I mean, yes, but it’s been here all along. I saw something else, and it gave me an idea to fix the tapestry so we can trap the monsters.”

“Oh, yeah?” Remy asks. “How?”

Suddenly everyone looks a lot more interested than freaked out as they wait for my answer. “We’ve got to unravel the tapestry.”

“I’m sorry, what?” Simon asks. “You want to unravel the only thing we have that can actually stop the monsters?”

“I do. Because it’s the only way to fix it.”

And just like that, the enthusiasm is gone.

“That’s a pretty big move,” Mozart tells me. “If you’re wrong, we’re completely fucked.”

“To be fair, we’re completely fucked already,” Izzy says. “In case you haven’t noticed…”

She’s right. We are. The wind is rattling the windows continuously, and lightning flashes across the sky every couple of seconds. All of which means it’s only a matter of time before buildings start getting damaged. The only thing I want less right now than to be out in the elements is to be out there with a bunch of nightmare monsters.

“If we unravel the tapestry and we can’t put it back together, I’ll never be able to channel another nightmare again,” Jude tells me. “I’ll have nowhere to put them and no way to upload them back into the ether.”

“You can’t channel them now anyway, not with the tapestry broken.” I put my hand on his arm and watch as the nightmares start spinning around from the contact. “But that tapestry is made of nightmares, right?”

“Yeah, of course.”

“And you can control nightmares, right?”

“Yes…”

“Then you can unravel the tapestry.”

He looks completely horrified. “Why would I do that?”

“If each thread is a different nightmare, once it’s unraveled, then you’ll have all the different threads separated and can weave them back together any way you want.”

I can see the second my plan starts making sense to Jude, because, instinctively, he starts to back away. “I can’t do that. There’s no way I can control that many nightmares at the same time. What if I lose one?”

“What if you don’t?” I shoot back.

“Seriously?” he demands. “After everything that just happened?”

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