Page 91 of Somnium

Sera held up her hand, cutting off his snarky response. “That’s what we need to find out,” she said, shooting him a warning look. It would seem Kai was in a bit of a mood today. “Remember when we said the only chance we had right now of stopping Oneirios is to find out where he is storing our power?”

Cadi nodded, the memory of that particular conversation permanently etched into her mind.

“Well, Ananke is where he’s storing it. But he has her stashed somewhere … which is why we need you.”

A strange hum washed over Cadi’s skin. “Me? But I haven’t even had a chance to check out the room I found in the temple yet. Why do you need me?”

Sera’s eyes widened slightly before shooting to Elias. “I take it you haven’t talked about this yet?”

Cadi’s chest compressed as she snapped her head to look at him. She had just barely started to get used to the whole “the Order is stealing power from gods who are also our new friends” thing. She didn’t love the idea that there was still more she had yet to learn about.

Elias’s head dipped low, his shoulders rising with a deep sigh before he lifted his gaze to Sera. “If I had known that’s what this meeting was about, we would have.”

He looked at Cadi, the deep regret reflected in his eyes making her mouth go dry. She wasn’t at all confident that she was going to like the way the rest of this conversation went.

“Okay, well I did try to tell you but you sort of rushed me off the phone,” Sera said, pulling her back. For a moment, Cadi felt a twinge of regret for the way she had distracted Elias when Sera had called him a few nights ago, but that feeling didn’t last long. That night had turned into some of the best sex they had ever had, which was saying something. Whatever surprise awaited her, it was worth it.

“I guess we should start at the beginning, then,” Sera continued. She exchanged a look with Áine, and the moon goddess gave her a small nod. Sera then fixed her eyes on Cadi and offered her a gentle smile that did nothing to ease her apprehension.

“We’ve tried the low magic tricks to find her. Things like scrying, pendulums, reading cards, stuff that doesn’t need a lot of power, but Oneirios has wards keeping us out. They aren’t as powerful as my personal wards, but still, any rite with a chance of breaking through them calls for more power than most of us have left, which is where the two of you come in.”

A steady buzz began to grow in Cadi’s skull. She definitely didn’t like where this was going. “I don’t understand,” she said, glancing at Elias. “If it takes more power than even you have, how does our involvement help?”

“Your bond is already one of the strongest I’ve seen,” Áine added. “The power your intimacy provides would be more than enough to get us through.”

Cadi stared at her, that single word settling over her like a storm cloud. Her eyes darted between the others, and the knot in her gut twisted at the smirk playing on Kai’s face. She looked at Elias and found him watching her closely, as if at the ready in case she freaked out. That wasn’t a good sign. His wariness was confirmation enough about what she already feared, but she needed to hear it.

Turning back to the group, she lifted her hand as if it would help sort through the racing thoughts in her head. “Are you telling me that you all need us to fuck to find your missing sister?”

Sera’s lips formed a tight line as her shoulders lifted into a shrug. “Basically, yeah.”

Cadi’s mouth fell open, her attempts to speak only coming out as small squeaks until she shook her head and finally managed to force out actual words. “And why is that, exactly?”

Sera leaned forward. “Think of it as an amplifier. In magic, sex is already extremely powerful, but when the people involved share a bond as strong as what the two of you have, it increases that boost tenfold. We need it to strengthen our remaining power in order to break through our brother’s wards.”

Cadi’s eyes went wide. “So you all will … be there?”

Sera tipped her head to the side in confirmation. “We will. This isn’t something you can just do at home. It needs to be in a ritual space with us there to provide the power that will be channeled. That’s the only way this will work.”

Cadi leaned forward, resting her head against her palms to keep the room from swimming. “Holy shit …”

Elias’s hand drifted across her shoulders in slow, soothing circles. She pulled in a breath through her nose, allowing his steadiness and warmth to keep her focus in the room.

“Dating you is really weird,” she muttered into her hands. He chuckled beside her, his fingers lightly squeezing the back of her neck.

She could feel the stares of everyone at the table searing into her skin, waiting for her to respond. There had to be something else they could do, something that didn’t involve her stripping naked in front of a bunch of deities and sitting on Elias’s⁠—

She sucked in a breath. There had to be something.

“Can’t you just, I don’t know, flip the sigils or something? Reverse the siphon that way without finding her first?”

Sera gave her a kind look, the type Cadi would expect to see before someone patted her on the head and gave her a gold star for effort.

“We tried. But without knowing what wards he used to hide her, it just bounced back. I nearly lost my eyebrows. We’d need to be there in person, past the protection of the wards to try breaking his hold on her again, which means⁠—”

“You have to find her,” Cadi finished. She groaned, sitting back in her chair and chewing on the inside of her cheek. “How did he even manage to get the drop on the goddess of fate, anyway? Isn’t she sort of like an early warning system?”

“He did it the same way he got everything he needed to pull this off,” Seth answered, his expression turning grave. “Through deception and betrayal.”