Page 134 of Somnium

“Hey!” a voice hissed when Cadi toppled over, clinging to the person’s robe to steady herself. She braced for another shove, but it never came. Apparently, the fun was over.

“Sorry,” Cadi muttered, barely even glancing at the person she’d nearly taken down with her. She spun around, trying to figure out where she was, but everywhere she looked, her view was blocked. Pushing up onto her toes, she finally managed to see over the masses, and her mouth went dry when she realized just how far the havoc had taken her.

While Sera was still at the back of the hall, trying desperately to shove her way through the press, Cadi now stood nearly in the center of the sanctuary. She leaned to the side, trying to find a path back to Sera, apologizing again when her shoulder bumped against the person next to her. The woman just glared back and didn’t even bother to acknowledge her as she straightened the hood of her cream-colored robe.

Cadi froze, turning to take in the gathering of people that surrounded her. Horror started to claw through her when she saw that the woman beside her wasn’t the only one wearing that specific designation. They were all adorned in the color reserved for dedicants. And she had been deposited right into the center of them.

The drums stopped. Ice settled at the base of Cadi’s spine when a melodic voice filled the silence, its sound wrapping around her like barbed wire.

“Whose blood is shed here?”

“Ours, for Oneirios.”

Cadi spun around to face the dais, and the feeling of a thousand insects crawling over her skin took hold when her eyes locked with the sapphire blue of Oneirios’s stare. Fear cut through her at the small twitch at the corner of his lips, his satisfied smile telling her everything she didn’t want to believe was true.

She didn’t know how … but this was him. All of it. He had her exactly where he wanted her.

And she’d walked right into his web.

She had to get out. She had to get back to Sera.

Cadi turned and rushed forward, only to collide with something solid that nearly knocked her backward until someone caught her arm with a force strong enough to hurt.

“Hey there, Newbie. Thought I might find you here.”

Terror surged hot beneath Cadi’s skin at the sound of his voice. A voice that slammed her back to an empty street, her body trapped against her car. Her breaths came in short, panicked bursts as she looked up into Damon’s cruel eyes, a vicious smirk twisting his mouth as he stared down at her.

She raged against his hold, her pulse spiking at the sound of blades being unsheathed.

“Let me go!” she demanded, slamming her fist against him and twisting her arm in an anguished bid to free herself. Damon’s expression shifted to mock concern as he tugged her close and leaned in until his breath coated her skin. She angled her head away, fighting the urge to gag.

“What’s wrong?” he crooned. “Nervous? Here. Let me give you a hand.”

Something flashed at the edge of her vision, then, burning pain erupted in her palm. Cadi cried out, yanking her hand free when Damon at last released his hold on her.

Her eyes went wide, and panic detonated in her veins as she looked down at her hand, at the crimson liquid that pooled from a gash left by the blade still clutched tight in Damon’s fist.

Cadi held her injured hand to her shirt, the fabric already blooming with red where her blood seeped into the fibers. She had to get to Sera, had to get out before any of it reached the temple floor.

Damon’s cruel chuckle sliced through her as she surged forward and slammed herself into the wall of bodies, but no one would move.

“Please, you have to move, I have to⁠—”

Her desperate plea cut off when she looked up into the unconcerned stare of the man in front of her. It was almost like he hadn’t even noticed her violent attempts to shove past him. She saw the same look of disinterest on the woman standing to her right, and a cold fist closed around her throat as she started to understand.

Their binding. Oneirios had them.

“Fuck,” she hissed, slamming her shoulder between them.

Stone crashed against stone somewhere behind her, followed by a cacophony of shocked gasps filling the hall. Cadi whipped around and sucked in a broken breath at the mayhem unfolding on the dais.

Where the high priest had Oneirios pinned to the ground.

Smoking coals scattered around them from where they had collided with the stone brazier, and she watched as a team of white-robed acolytes sprinted up the steps and began trying to pull the high priest off their god.

Cadi felt the crowd shift, and the Order members who had been blocking her path stepped forward to get a better look as clarity returned to their features. Oneirios’s hold had been broken in the attack, and she couldn’t waste the opportunity.

She launched herself at the small gap that had been left and immediately began to squeeze through the crowd toward Sera.