Page 140 of Somnium

A bruise, left by the hand of an angry god.

Her lungs seized.

“You?”

Elias lowered his gaze to where his hand held hers, then his head dipped in a slow nod. Cadi tugged her hand away. She didn’t want him touching her, not now, not when every inch of her skin felt like it was on fire. Her pulse pounded in her ears, smothering every other sound as she shot to her feet and crossed to the other side of the room.

“How could you not tell me this?” she asked, the crack in her voice betraying the pain she was desperately trying to hide. She pressed her palm against her sternum, against the pain growing in her chest. After everything, how was it possible that she had still been left in the dark? And not about just anything—about who he was.

The high priest.

His pained eyes met hers, their wet edges glistening in the low light as his mouth opened to speak, though no words followed. It was like no matter how hard he tried, how much he wanted to, something was stopping him from speaking.

“A divine gag order,” Seth muttered, drawing Cadi’s attention. She looked at him, her expression blank as she waited for him to elaborate.

“Despite his bravado, our brother has always been terrified of being upstaged,” he continued. “He wove perpetual anonymity into Elias’s binding, which prevented him from telling anyone who he truly was. That is, unless they already knew. A rather handy loophole that Sera discovered when she tracked him down.”

Cadi’s head snapped to where Sera still stood by the door.

“You knew?” she asked, her eyes beginning to burn as they flicked between the three gods in front of her. “You all knew, and none of you said anything?”

“Don’t be mad at them, love,” Elias said as he moved to stand beside her, letting his fingers cautiously graze the back of her arm. “I made them promise they wouldn’t.”

Cadi found it hard to believe that Elias could make a deity do anything, but his confession only deepened her hurt. She shrugged away from his touch and took a step back. “What?”

“I couldn’t stand the thought of you hearing it from anyone but me. Tonight was supposed to—Sera was going to sever my binding, and I was going to tell you everything. Please.”

The pleading look in his eyes formed a tiny fissure in her temper, and this time when he reached for her hand, she didn’t pull away. Her fingers brushed against his palm, against the fresh bandage surrounded by dozens of tiny scars she had always attributed to life as a bartender. Never once had she thought⁠—

It wasn’t okay. None of this was okay. But she couldn’t hold on to it right now. She needed him more than she needed her anger.

Everything she thought she knew about the high priest had just been turned on its head. This was Elias, he owned a bar, he wore old band t-shirts. How could he be the high priest? It didn’t make any sense.

Cadi gasped when a firm tug danced in her chest and her hand flew up to press against Oneirios’s bond. But this wasn’t his bond. It wasn’t violent or repellant, just … urgent. Like a forceful tap on the shoulder, vying for her attention, and she realized it was the tiny flutter that had been with her for months, flaring stronger than she had ever felt it.

Fighting.

Her eyes lifted to Elias, and she saw the tortured lines of his face soften as he studied the place where her hand rested. The flutter tugged again, as if trying to lead her toward something, toward him. A soft breath rushed past her lips, and she realized⁠—

Since the first moment it had stirred to life, startling her in The Crow.

Every insistent tug.

Every tiny stir.

It had always been because of him.

He stepped closer to place his hand over hers, lowering his head in a tiny nod of confirmation. “That’s us, love. Always has been.”

Her fingers curled around his, and she let her eyes drift closed when a new sensation filled her chest. The flutter of their bond shifted as it settled deep inside of her, locking into the place it was always fated to be. It had just been waiting for her to let it in.

“As touching as this is,” Kai cut in to yank her back. “We still have a big fucking problem.”

Sera sighed and stepped forward to rest her hand against his shoulder. “Come on, Kai, give them⁠—”

“No,” Elias snapped with an unexpected hardness in his voice. “He’s right. The sooner we figure out what you missed, the sooner we get Cadi out of this.”

Sera bristled as the edge of Elias’s words hit their mark. Kai stepped forward with a seething expression until Sera held out her hand. She looked at him and gave her head a sharp shake before squaring her shoulders and turning back to Elias.