Page 92 of Somnium

Cadi didn’t miss the way his eyes flicked to Sera, and she noted the way her shoulders hunched forward ever so slightly and the subtle hang of her head, almost as if the weight of something still pulled at her, dulling the light that Cadi adored. It made her heart ache.

“Our brother used the rules we had all agreed to as weapons for his own gain,” Seth continued, pulling Cadi’s attention back to him. “Plotting where he knew she couldn’t see, then luring her under false pretenses. Now he is keeping her suspended in a dream state, storing our powers within her form to use her like some sort of cosmic battery.”

Her eyes shot around the room as concerning connections formed between what she was learning and what Elias had told her a few nights ago. “Can’t that kill her? Holding power that isn’t hers?”

Sera and Seth exchanged glances, their expressions suggesting that her knowledge of that fact was unexpected and maybe even a little bit impressive. If she hadn’t been so focused on getting an answer to her question, Cadi might have felt proud.

“Fortunately, no,” Sera explained. “At least not in the way you might think. She isn’t using it; it’s merely bound to her, so it doesn’t carry the same risk. But we don’t know what effect that amount of power might have on her in the long term. Which is … worrying.”

Cadi blew out a long breath and crossed her arms over her stomach. The idea that if she went through with this, everyone in the room would be able to say they had seen her naked made her squirm, but so did the thought of shying away when her friends needed her. It seemed like every step she took deeper into this world, another appeared in front of her. She just hoped she had what it took to stay the course.

“If I say yes,” she began, her eyes fixed on Sera. “Is there any chance I can convince you all to wear blindfolds?”

Amused laughter sounded around the table, and Cadi felt her cheeks heat at the deities’ reactions.

“If that was possible then yes, but unfortunately magic also tends to be rather symbolic. If our vision is occluded in anyway, whether it’s by a blindfold or if we just close our eyes, we risk the vision of her location not manifesting at all, which would make the entire endeavor pointless.”

Cadi sighed. Of course. There was always a catch.

“Can I think about it?” she asked.

Her friend nodded. “Of course, it’s just …”

Cadi tipped her head back and let out another groan that was much more dramatic than she had initially intended. “What now?”

Sera chuckled and shook her head at Cadi’s impassioned reaction. “We have to do the ritual this Wednesday.”

“What?” Cadi said, her eyes going wide as she sat forward. “Why so soon?”

Sera shrugged. “The moon, babes. It’s at its peak on Wednesday night, and if we miss it we have to wait another month. The longer we wait, the stronger Oneirios’s hold becomes. On not only our power, but on everything.”

Even though she didn’t like it, at least she would have a few days to think it over. That gave her plenty of time for at least one good spiral before she made her decision.

Cadi nodded.

They walked out to the parking lot as a group, and Kai quickly locked the door behind them before slipping into a waiting town car.

Elias guided Cadi into her seat, then closed the door once she was situated. She watched him walk around to his side, noting the way his gaze kept darting to hers, like he was checking to make sure she hadn’t decided to turn tail and run.

He climbed in next to her, and silence settled over the cab when he pulled his door shut. She could tell he was trying to find his words, to come up with the right thing to say to her that might ease some of the growing strain she felt. So she let him.

“I didn’t mean to keep this from you,” he said after a stretch of quiet. “I just didn’t think she would want to move forward with it quite so fast.”

Cadi didn’t say anything at first. She needed to get her thoughts together before she asked her next question, fully aware that the chances of it leading to another fight were high. “How long have you known about this?”

Elias sighed and began to pick at a loose piece of leather on his steering wheel. “She told me about it right after I met you.”

Cadi’s mouth fell open, and his eyes widened at the look of hurt that she knew he saw on her face.

“I told her it wasn’t an option, though,” he added quickly, “but then she came to me a few weeks back and told me nothing else was working, and that this ritual might be the only thing that would help us move the dial at all. I was trying to think of a way to tell you but then everything sort of blew up all at once and I… I’m so sorry, love.”

Cadi felt herself soften at the look of regret in his eyes. She hated how much she was still in the dark on so many things, but she couldn’t blame him for being distracted with everything that had happened over the last few weeks.

“I get it,” she said after a moment, offering him a soft smile as she took his hand. His shoulders dipped slightly as the tension he had been holding since they left the conference room began to ease.

“It did suck being ambushed like that,” she added, “but I guess this isn’t really something you could have easily brought up over breakfast. ‘Hey babe, by the way, the day may come where we have to have magical sex in front of our friends to find their sister. How many pieces of bacon do you want?’”

Elias let out a full laugh, once again rousing the tiny flutter in her chest. He squeezed her hand in a silent thanks for her understanding.