Page 102 of Somnium

“How about we go home and you can thank me there? Fewer health code violations.”

Elias leaned in to press his lips to the skin beneath her ear. “If you insist.”

He guided her off the desk before pulling her face to his for one last, barely restrained kiss. Cadi sucked in a breath, tightness already burning through her core at the clear message of what waited for her in the privacy of his apartment.

Her entire body was electric as they walked together from his office to her car, and the feeling only grew stronger with each yellow light she sped through on her way to his place, refusing to be pacified until his hands were on her skin again.

30

CHAPTER THIRTY

ELIAS

Warmth settled around Elias’s heart when Cadi smiled at him from across the table. Her smile always did that. No matter how stressed or tired or broken he felt, her smile brought him back. New colors seemed to dance across his vision to the sound of her laughter filling the small café, shifting through the sun that poured from the windows as he traced his thumb against the back of her hand.

He could spend the rest of his life just staring at her, committing every piece of her to memory. The pale blue of her eyes, the curve of her jaw, the way she tugged her bottom lip between her teeth when she caught him looking. He felt himself laugh, but he couldn’t remember why. She hadn’t said anything, in fact, he realized he didn’t even know what they were talking about.

“Aw, she’s cute when she does that, isn’t she?”

Elias stiffened, the familiar, cold voice echoing close. Too close. Its inky tendrils twisted inside his mind, and when he blinked, the café was empty. Cadi was gone, the sound of conversation and laughter snuffed out in an instant, replaced by an ominous silence. A shiver crept down his spine when the sun flickered, cold moonlight cutting a path through the darkness in its place.

A knot gripped his stomach as he twisted in his chair. Where was Cadi? Where was he? How had he gotten here? He pressed his hands against the table, trying to ground himself to a time or place that made sense, but nothing pressed back. Looking down, he could see his hands resting against the polished wood, but he couldn’t feel it. Understanding sank through him, hollow and cold as solid images of his last memories before the café flashed through his mind: Cadi asleep next to him, the cool fabric of his pillowcase, the heaviness of his limbs as he drifted off with her in his arms.

A dream. This was a dream.

Silken laughter drifted from the shadows. “You always were my smartest disciple, Elias.”

His head snapped to the corner of the room, to the lone figure that sat half obscured in shadow. Manicured fingers drummed against the table, the sound too loud for the delicate movement as it echoed across his dreamscape, making ice settle in his veins.

“Oneirios …” Elias hissed.

In a fluid motion, the god stood, a satisfied smirk curving his bow-shaped lips as he stepped from the shadows and into the ethereal light. His black suit contrasted with the pale beam, and the moonlight caught in his blond waves to cast an angelic glow around his head. The irony of it was enough to make Elias sick. Oneirios was about the farthest thing from an angel that one could get.

Oneirios sucked his teeth. “Weren’t you ever taught that it’s rude to talk about someone as if they aren’t there, Elias?”

In a flash of biting panic, Elias realized his mistake. With practiced focus, he clicked shut a mental door, one crafted over years of practice with Sera for one reason and one reason only. To quietly conceal any trace of their plan, or Elias’s role in it, from the god that stood in front of him.

“It’s been a while,” Oneirios crooned. “Tell me, have you missed my little visits to your mind, old friend?”

“I am not your friend,” Elias bit out. He knew Oneirios was baiting him, pushing him, hoping he would snap. And he hated that it was working.

Oneirios clutched at his chest in feigned hurt. “You wound me,” he mocked, “but nothing hurts quite as much as the sting of your most recent betrayal.”

The gentle lines of his face drew sharp with a fury that simmered beneath his flawless skin. The god stared him down, and Elias’s pulse ticked up as he strained to keep a lock on his thoughts—not only of the gods, but of Cadi as well.

Oneirios prowled forward, stalking toward him through the tables with smooth, languid steps. “I thought you would have learned your lesson from what happened after your little public fit, but it would appear I was wrong. You know how much I hate to be wrong.”

Oneirios shook his head, his tone dripping with condescension and disappointment. Almost as if he were lecturing a disobedient child. Elias kept his expression locked, obscuring any reaction that might give him away. Oneirios could be talking about anything, or nothing. And Elias couldn’t show his hand.

“One of my newest acolytes tells me that your little girlfriend was poking around in my office this evening,” he continued, “I don’t yet know why, but I’m very, very disappointed, Elias. My patience with you is running thin.”

Fuck. A hollow pit opened in Elias’s stomach. The office Cadi found had been Oneirios’s, and he’d let her walk right into his web. He was supposed to be the one to protect her, to keep her safe. But he might as well have handed her to Oneirios personally. He’d failed her.

The god’s lips twitched, barely able to contain his delight as he watched Elias’s slow realization of the role he had played in their destruction. Taking another step forward, Oneirios ran a finger seductively over the table beside him.

“She’s actually quite clever, your Arcadia,” he said Cadi’s name slowly, like he was tasting it as it slid across his viper tongue. Elias’s hands tightened into fists. “Maybe I’ll just … take her for myself. See what has you so enthralled.”

The tether on his rage snapped, and Elias lunged, launching himself from the chair at Oneirios’s mocking form, only for his fist to pass through him like smoke. His body crashed into the table on the other side, the jarring sting of his impact painfully real now that Oneirios wanted it to be.