Page 142 of Somnium

“I don’t understand,” she said, her voice beginning to shake. “What does that mean?”

Sera turned to face her. “It means,” she began, pulling in an unsteady breath. “That until we can get ahold of that ring, everything we do is completely pointless. As long as Oneirios has it …”

Her eyes drifted to the others, and she shook her head in a small motion of resignation.

“No one can move against him.”

43

CHAPTER FORTY-THREE

CADI

When Elias pushed the door open, the familiar sight of his apartment greeted Cadi as it always had. She stepped into the entry, but paused as the quiet of the room settled around her. It had remained unchanged, frozen in time despite the thousands of lives she had lived and died over the past few hours.

Everything was the same: the furniture, the walls, the smells, the bowl she had left in the sink that morning. It didn’t seem right that nothing here had been touched by the events of the evening, while Cadi felt them over every inch of her skin, in her bones, nestled deep behind her ribs. No. The only thing that had changed was that this was no longer just Elias’s apartment.

It was the home of the high priest.

A soft click sounded behind her, then a steady warmth pressed against her back as Elias guided her toward the bathroom. The sound of rushing water filled the small space, echoing off the tile to cut through the haze of Cadi’s thoughts. She watched as Elias readied the shower, only taking his eyes from her when he had to, like he was waiting for any sign that she may dissolve again.

Her hands shook as she reached down to gather up the sodden fabric of her t-shirt, and a hiss slid past her lips at the pain that lanced up her arm; she’d forgotten about the fresh cut that marred her palm.

Elias stiffened and stepped closer to reach for her injured hand, cradling it with a familiar tenderness.

“Are you okay?” he asked, his voice tight.

She nodded. Pain she could deal with, but she knew from seeing countless patients that things got significantly more difficult with even a single hand out of commission, and she really wasn’t emotionally stable enough to face that added challenge. “I think I need help, though.”

Elias gave her a small smile, then released her hand to begin peeling away the sticky fabric of her shirt. Bile threatened to crest her throat when he eased the shirt over her head and the metallic smell of copper assaulted her as it slid past her face. Cadi shivered when she caught sight of herself in the mirror. The thick layer of dark red that stained her skin reminded her of something out of a horror movie.

Elias carefully undid the buttons of her pants and slid them off her hips before lifting her feet to help her step out. His fingertips brushed against her body, but there was no fire in his touch, no hunger, only a gentle concern and the unfettered desire to care for her.

She studied the serious lines of his face as he stripped out of his own clothes, trying to reconcile the man in front of her with the man on the dais. The man whose dreams had been haunted by reminders of what fate had given him, and what had always been kept just out of reach.

Her.

But no matter how hard she tried, she only saw Elias. The man who had loved her, strengthened her, changed her. Maybe that was all he needed to be.

He guided her over the threshold of the shower and turned her to face him so the spray was at her back before he lifted her injured hand to rest it safely against the bare skin of his shoulder. Cadi pulled in a deep breath and rolled her neck as the hot water slowly began to unravel the tightness that still clung to her muscles.

Elias leaned in to reach behind her for her loofah. With his body pressed close like that, the familiarity of his presence eased something inside of her. Without even thinking, she angled her head to rest the side of her face against his neck. He stilled, and after a moment she felt his lips brush against her shoulder before he straightened.

Pink suds slid over her skin as he washed her, and the calming smell of her vanilla body wash gradually replaced the acrid tang of her blood. Pain sparked in her chest, and she tried to hide the way the sudden sensation made her breath hitch, but the brief pause of Elias’s hand told her he’d noticed it anyway.

“Why does it still hurt?” she asked, unable to stand the silence for a moment longer. He didn’t answer right away, instead carefully shifting her arm back onto his shoulder from where it had started to slip.

“Because he wants it to,” he replied, his voice barely audible above the rush of water. He lifted his gaze to hers. “He wants me to see you bound to him, in pain … it’s why he let me go.”

Cadi swallowed past the lump that was quickly forming in her throat. Not only had Oneirios taken her, now he was using her, turning her into a tool to hurt the man she loved.

Again.

Something hard and fiery began to bleed into the pain that dominated her chest. “Can Sera really break the bindings?”

The muscles around Elias’s eyes tightened, and he gave her a shallow nod. “At full strength, yes.”

He turned away and busied himself with something over her shoulder. Cadi lifted her good hand to his cheek, forcing him to look at her again.