Page 117 of Somnium

“Are you done?” Sera asked, her voice sharp with annoyance.

He pressed his lips into a tight line and nodded, but couldn’t stop his shoulders from quaking with suppressed laughter.

“Good. I’m going to prick your finger, then you just have to bleed onto the ring. Think you can handle that?”

Elias screwed up his face into a look of faux confusion and tapped a finger against his chin. “I don’t know, this seems complicated. Could you rep—OW!”

Pain sparked at his fingertip, cutting him off. He hissed through his teeth as Sera squeezed the tender flesh to coax a droplet of blood from the tiny wound.

“Baby,” she teased, a smug grin tugging at her mouth.

Grumbling a promise of payback, he touched his finger to the freshly engraved surface of the signet ring and watched his blood sink into the delicate lines.

Sera took the ring and raised it to her face, cupping a hand in front of it to block it from view. Her lips began to move in a practiced rhythm, and her eyes shifted out of focus as she recited an incantation that she clearly knew by heart. Elias had known her for years, but it still managed to send a shiver down his spine when she made the shift between Sera and Hecate. When she did, every atom of energy in the room seemed to bow to her will, even in her weakened state.

Elias felt himself lean closer, straining to hear what she was saying, but the language she spoke was foreign to him. A language known only to the gods. As he watched, a faint glow began behind Sera’s hands, illuminating the perfect lines of her face. Curiosity tugged at him, and he moved to the side for a better view, where just past the ends of her fingertips he could see his ring. With wide eyes, he watched as the gold band began to pulse brighter with a warm light while the dark red of his blood was absorbed into the metal.

When the last trace of crimson had vanished, Sera fell quiet as she checked the shimmering band one last time before she handed it back to him. He slipped it over his knuckles, and the warm metal emitted a pleasant hum against his skin from the quiet echoes of the power it now contained.

Turning back to Cadi, he gave her a confident smile as he held up his hand and twiddled his fingers. “There ya go,” he said, “nothing to it.”

Cadi smirked and shook her head at him as she pushed off the workbench. “Oh, don’t you worry, I’m sure I’ll find a way to mess it up. I’ll bleed on Sera instead of the ring or something.”

She held Elias’s gaze as she took her place in front of Sera, a playful glint flashing in her eyes. A familiar comfort began to grow at the way she looked at him, like they were right on the edge of normal. Gods, what he wouldn’t give for that to be true.

“Worst case, I can guide your finger to the ring, babe,” Sera replied with a wink.

Cadi’s brow furrowed as she tore her gaze from him. “Doesn’t the blood have to be given willingly or something? Isn’t that one of your rules?”

A dismissive scoff drew Elias’s attention to where Kai still stood by the door, arms crossed as he scanned the storefront and the street beyond.

“Mortals,” he muttered, earning him warning scowls from everyone in the room, including Mona.

“Nah, sweetie, blood is blood,” Sera explained with a kind smile. “The magic doesn’t care how it got there, just as long as it’s involved.”

“And here I thought magic was more discerning,” Cadi said dryly as Sera took her hand and pricked her middle finger with a fresh lancet. The ritual was repeated, but while everyone else was focused on the glowing ring in Sera’s hand, Elias couldn’t stop looking at the delicate awe that softened Cadi’s face.

When the light from the spell had faded, Cadi took her ring from Sera and slipped it onto her pinkie. Sera moved to step past her, squeezing her shoulder before she circled back to the others, leaving Cadi and Elias alone in the center of the room.

Elias spun his ring, suddenly unable to move. After spending the last hour using every last bit of willpower to fight the gravity that kept trying to pull him to her, his feet chose now of all times to plant themselves firmly on the ground.

A shove between his shoulder blades sent him pitching forward, effectively unsticking his feet and nearly knocking him to the floor in the process. He looked back, only for his scowl to be met with Sera’s challenging stare. She flicked her hand toward Cadi in a clear message.

Go talk to her, idiot.

He turned, and his muscles locked when he found Cadi already watching him, a curious hesitation behind her eyes. Elias swallowed hard, unable to get a solid read on the small shifts in her expression as she studied him. Joy, sadness, skepticism, fear. All of it played across her face in flashes that flowed from one to the next but never stayed for more than an instant.

With Sera’s magic behind their sigils and their blood binding that magic to each of them, he desperately wanted to believe that there was hope, a way back to what they were and what they could be, but fear slithered through his mind, the vicious reminder of what he had done to her sinking its teeth deeper. How could he expect her to ever forgive him? After all, he didn’t know if he could ever forgive himself.

Still. He had to try.

Working hard to control the way his arm seemed to shake with the effort, he held out his hand for hers.

She didn’t move.

He didn’t breathe.

Then, she lifted her arm, pausing for only a moment before she lightly rested her fingers against his. He took a step forward and lifted her hand closer to trace his thumb over the gold band.