Page 139 of Somnium

“Fuck,” Sera cursed, threading her fingers behind her head as she started to pace. Cadi’s eyes flicked between them, the fragmented pieces of what they were saying refusing to fit together in her mind.

“What do you mean? Who took your phone?” she asked.

Elias shifted to face her, opening his mouth to speak, but his reply was cut off when the edge of panicked voices drifted from the hall, pulling their attention to the door just as Kai and Seth barged into the room.

Cadi stared at them in shock as she took in the torn fabric of their tactical clothing, the red and brown caked to their boots. Kai slumped against the wall, his head tilted back as he gasped for air as if they had run there from the hangar.

“Where are the others?” Sera demanded, her eyes wide as she stepped forward to push the door closed behind them.

“Dropped us down the block and took off,” Seth panted. “We thought it best for them to lay low after that disaster.”

“What do you mean? What happened?” Sera asked.

Seth shook his head. “I wish I knew. Everything was perfect, but when we finished the rite to release our powers and free Ananke … nothing happened. She didn’t move, and our powers were still locked down tight. It was like we hadn’t done anything at all.”

His dark eyes darted across the room, taking in the blood and bandages that still littered the floor. He went still when he caught sight of Cadi sitting on the couch.

“What happened here?” he asked, his voice strained.

Sera folded her arms across her middle, stepping in closer to Seth and turning her back to the room.

“He took her,” she said. Her voice was low, but the words still carried through the space, scraping against Cadi’s heart like razor blades.

Seth’s mouth hung open. “But—the wards, the sigil, how did⁠—”

“Someone lured her there with a text. From my phone,” Elias said, his fingers flexing against Cadi’s shoulder before he stood to join them. Her throat closed, and she squeezed her eyes shut as silent tears continued to slip free. It hadn’t been Elias. It had all been a trick. And it had worked.

“How did he get her blood for the binding?” Kai asked once he had finally recovered from his sprint.

“Damon,” Elias said, running a hand through his hair. “Oneirios must have planted him.”

Cadi shivered at the reminder of Damon looming over her, grabbing her, dragging the blade across her skin. It slithered through her mind like a parasite. He’d been waiting for her. Waiting because a text from Elias’s phone would be the perfect way to draw her out.

She froze.

Elias’s phone. Someone close to Oneirios had to have had access to Elias’s phone in order to send that text. But Elias had been at the hangar⁠—

Her blood ran cold as she replayed every second from the moment Elias found her broken in the chair until now. Every word, every sob against his chest. She hadn’t said Damon’s name.

Not once.

“How did you know that?” she whispered.

The clamor died instantly as every set of eyes in the room turned to look at her. Elias lowered himself back down onto the couch.

“What’s that, love?” he asked, brushing her hair back with a gentle touch.

“About Damon. I never told you that.”

Elias went still, his hand still hovering against her shoulder. The muscles in his jaw tensed, and a pained expression twisted his features.

The air in the room grew thick as an eerie silence descended over them. Cadi looked to the gods, her mouth going dry at their somber expressions. None of them would meet her gaze. Elias’s fingers wrapped around hers, pulling her attention back to find him studying her with a look of deep sadness.

“I wanted to tell you,” he said, his voice trembling, “since the day we met, but I—Oneirios he—love, I couldn’t. I can’t.”

Cadi shook her head, her brows stitched together as she struggled to make sense of what he was trying to tell her. “What? I don’t⁠—”

Her gaze snagged on the skin beside his eye. Skin that now boasted the barest hint of purple, growing deeper by the minute.