Page 54 of Somnium

He pulled back, smiling when Cadi fell forward against his chest like she was barely able to let go of his kiss. Shifting his body, he lifted his arm again so she could rest against his side, then let his fingers resume their lazy circles over her skin. He wondered if she could hear the way his heart was pounding, if she had any idea how precious she already was to him.

Whatever happened, he had to keep her safe.

Even from himself.

16

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

CADI

Before Cadi even realized it, a whole month had slipped by. Each night, their kisses became more frenzied, often ending with her back pinned against her door. Elias’s touch drove her to near madness with every goodbye, and her frustration was only amplified by his infuriating insistence that they take things slow.

She couldn’t remember ever feeling so safe in a relationship, so wanted even with her clothes still on, but she knew she was still holding back. Not physically—gods no. Elias was lucky she hadn’t destroyed his wardrobe the first time he kissed her, but there was something deep that refused to let go. Something that stood at the ready, waiting for the joy she felt with him to unravel.

Cadi leaned against the metal pole in the middle of the train car and scrolled through her phone to find the perfect soundtrack for her hour-long ride home. A smile crept onto her face when the heavy notes of a mid-track breakdown filled her ears, the harsh vocals and minor chords instantly setting to work on her stress. There was something about grown men screaming lyrics about pain and yearning that she found oddly soothing.

The train entered a sharp bend, forcing her to brace against the shift in gravity. She felt the changing force as they slowed, and her stomach dropped when the LED sign at the end of the car flashed the name of the next stop in bright, menacing orange.

Temple Station.

Her body tensed, and she quickly scanned the riders around her for any sign of blonde hair or irritatingly coifed brown waves. She had completely forgotten that it was a Thursday night, so the chances of Zoe, Celine, or Damon being somewhere in the station were significantly higher than she preferred.

The doors slid open to release the flow of passengers, and Cadi watched the crowd, her pulse nearly tearing through her skin when she spotted her former friend among the throng moving toward the passage. A quick scan told her Zoe was alone, with no sign of Damon or Celine in tow.

Thank the gods for small miracles, she supposed.

She stepped to the side, peering around the metal pole as if the three-inch diameter fixture would do anything to obscure her frame if Zoe happened to look back, but it still made her feel a little better.

Ever since firmly requesting a transfer to a different floor at work, it had been surprisingly easy to avoid running into Zoe, despite the nymph’s repeated attempts to text her as if everything was business as usual. Now, she was going on several weeks of careful avoidance, and Cadi was not interested in breaking that streak. With each passing week it got easier to ignore the stop at this particular platform, but every so often the memory of their last conversation, and the events that had led to it, barged into her mind uninvited. Today just so happened to be one of those days.

Keeping her eyes fixed on the worshippers moving into the passageway, Cadi counted down the seconds until the doors would close and she could finally breathe again. As she watched, the crowd began to shift, people and mythics stepping aside with disgruntled looks as they parted for someone forcing their way against the tide and back into the station. Someone whose delicate braids glinted in the harsh light of the platform as she frantically shouldered a path toward the waiting train.

A tightness gripped Cadi’s throat when she saw the panic on Sera’s face, the way she kept shooting nervous glances over her shoulder, like she was checking to make sure she wasn’t being followed.

Cadi pulled out an earbud, her eyes darting over the platform in search of anyone who could mean her friend harm, but all she found were confused faces.

Panic shot through her when a warning tone sounded through the car, letting everyone in the station know that the doors were about to close. Sera’s eyes went wide, her pace turning desperate. Cadi tried to move, to stop the doors from closing and buy Sera more time, but the surge of last-minute commuters that pushed their way through had her pinned, unable to move. Unable to help.

A loud hiss cut the air, the yellow warning light above the doors beginning to flash as they started to slide closed. Sera surged ahead, elbowing, shoving, pushing, and with a final press, she darted across the threshold. Bent forward, her back heaved with the effort to breathe, and it was only then that Cadi realized she had been holding her own breath.

Sera straightened, muttering apologies to the riders she had collided with in her desperate attempt to board while clutching a small, blue notebook to her chest as she slipped away to the far end of the car.

Cadi did her best to weave through the crowd, though she nearly fell into several laps from the way the train kept rocking beneath her feet. She hadn’t seen anything obvious on the platform that would explain Sera’s behavior, but it was clear that something had her spooked. That alone was enough to make Cadi’s blood run cold.

She kept a close eye on the back of Sera’s head while she made her way to a mostly empty corner to press herself against the wall, eyes darting around like a trapped animal. Then, she opened the small notebook still clutched against her chest and began to study its contents. Her eyes flew over the pages, her lips moving with silent words.

Cadi pressed forward until she was right in front of her, but Sera didn’t even look up, her attention completely consumed by whatever was written in the notebook. Reaching out slowly, Cadi touched her fingers to Sera’s wrist.

Sera jumped so violently Cadi might have thought her hand had suddenly transformed into a cattle prod. The notebook tumbled from her fingers, falling open against the floor as her head snapped up, frantic eyes locking on Cadi.

“Cadi!” she said, her hand flying to her chest. “Holy fuck, you scared the shit out of me.”

“Sorry,” Cadi said, holding up her palms. “Is everything okay?”

“Yeah, of course. I’m just running late for something.” Sera shifted, running a hand against her arm in a move that told Cadi she was very much not interested in having this conversation. Cadi’s eyes fell to the notebook still lying open on the floor between them. She could see that something was written on the pages, columns of symbols that weren’t part of any alphabet she recognized, yet something about them felt oddly familiar.

She crouched down to retrieve it when Sera’s hand shot out to snatch the notebook and pull it out of reach. Cadi stood, brows pinched as she watched Sera scramble to shove the item into her satchel.