Page 31 of Somnium

Elias chewed his cheek, clearly battling the urge to bust out laughing. “Should we chalk that up to the head injury?” he teased.

“I would appreciate that,” Cadi replied as she set her mug down. A sudden wave of exhaustion rushed over her, and she held a hand in front of her mouth to cover the embarrassingly wide yawn that forced its way out.

“You should get some rest,” Elias urged.

She couldn’t agree more. Her body and mind felt like they had been sent through the wringer, and she was fairly confident she could sleep through an earthquake at this point. She dragged herself to her bedroom, but stopped to swipe an extra pillow and blanket from her closet to take back out to Elias.

“You’re good with the couch, right?”

He leaned back against the pillow, nestling himself deeper into the cushion. “Absolutely. This is definitely one of the top five couches I’ve crashed on.”

Cadi tutted a laugh as she turned back toward her bedroom. She’d bought that couch for fifty bucks from someone she found online. It was comfortable enough, but top five was a pretty obvious stretch.

“Okay, well, I’ll let you know if I die.”

“I’d prefer if you came and got me before you reached that point.”

She smiled, easing the door halfway shut. “I guess I can do that.”

The door latched with a soft click, and Cadi’s thumb gently pressed the small lock on the handle, careful not to make it too obvious that she was locking herself in. Even though it terrified her and went against her natural inclination to carry everything on her own, she’d made the decision to let him into her apartment, to trust him. But he was still practically a stranger, and she didn’t see the point in pressing her luck.

Baby steps.

Stripping out of her clothes, she shrugged on her favorite oversized night shirt and crawled into bed, burrowing deep into the plush comforter and surrendering to sleep the instant her head touched the pillow.

The next morning when she woke, Elias was gone. The blanket folded neatly atop his pillow and the empty mug resting on her coffee table were the only pieces of evidence he had even been there.

That, and the note.

A tiny rush gathered in her chest as she padded across the wooden floor, sinking down onto the sofa to unfold the small piece of paper.

Thank you for trusting me. - E

10

CHAPTER TEN

CADI

Cadi’s nails tapped against the keyboard, their satisfying clack echoing through the empty charting room as she rushed to add the finishing touches to her note while also trying to ignore the dull throbbing in her skull.

Since Friday night, the pain in her head had improved, but stubbornly refused to fully subside, which meant she had spent the entirety of her weekend curled up on the couch binging her favorite shows and doing her best to avoid any reminders that the world outside of her apartment still existed. Including the seven text messages from Zoe, each one more insistent with her demands to know where Cadi had gone after Club Ambrosia.

Cadi still didn’t even know what to say. How was she supposed to tell her what happened that night, what Damon had tried to do? Zoe should know the truth, but it was all still so fresh and raw that it made her stomach hurt just thinking about it.

The door to the charting room swung open, pulling Cadi’s focus away from her task to find Zoe standing at the threshold. One hand propped on her hip, and the nymph had a single eyebrow raised in a look of admonishment that reminded Cadi of every time her mother had caught her in the middle of doing something she definitely should not have been doing.

“Well at least now I know you’re alive,” Zoe chastised as she crossed the room and heaved her massive water bottle onto the desk before slipping into the seat next to Cadi. “You could have at least sent a thumbs-up or something so I knew you weren’t dead in an alley somewhere.”

She spun around, but whatever she had planned to say next died on her lips when her eyes froze on the spot right above Cadi’s eye. Cadi had spent the morning layering concealer over her bruise and working to blend it with the color of the bandage as best she could, but from this distance there was no hiding the evidence of what had happened that night.

For a brief, terrifying moment, Cadi thought Zoe might ask about it. As much as she wanted to tell the nymph what had happened, the hospital charting room didn’t seem like the best setting for that conversation.

“Sorry,” Cadi said, hopeful that she could steer them in a different direction. “I was pretty much dead to the world for the rest of the weekend.”

Zoe’s gaze shifted away from Cadi’s eyebrow as her look of concern shifted into a sly smile. “I would imagine so. Where did you end up Friday?”

Cadi shrugged. “Just home. I got a headache.”